Introductions (27 in attendance).

The main topic of the meeting was GEOCODING. John Schlosser of SGSI did a fine job covering the topic - definitions, what software products are available and strengths and weaknesses of each, and recommendations based on the types of projects one encounters.

The entire presentation is available at sgsi.com for downloading, and it is recommended you do that if you have an interest in the topic, as it's thorough but concise. This report will try to cover the highlights.

Of the 27 attending, there were 5-6 who use geocoding as a major part of the work they do with MapInfo. There were about that many who use the feature as to be unfamiliar with it, the rest using it occasionally.

MapInfo broke new ground in 1987 when it included geocoding as part of MapInfo for DOS. There hasn't been a lot of refinement in the last few years with the native geocoding tool because MapInfo has switched their development to a more focused geocoding tool called MapMarker. For
everybody but the power users, the built-in product probably has the functionality to get the job done. It's quite straightforward to use, and accuracy can go up if you take the time to look at and possibly edit the MAPINFOW.ABB file which contains the various abbreviations for 'Street' and
so forth which MapInfo uses to make accurate hits. A suggestion was that a person familiar with the area being geocoded should do the final sorting, especially of those records which defy the geocoder. When a street name or location is known it's easy to tell the geocoder how to make a match,
though there may always be a few that just aren't matchable. But you need a geocode-able street layer, and MapInfo will sell you StreetInfo for that purpose. A good source may well be your county GIS department, probably located in the planning department or public works. Often their street
centerline layers are more up-to-date, and often available at no cost.
There is a data structure required, however - John Schlosser suggested calling SGSI for the data structure as it may require moving columns into a certain order. He said SGSI also has many Washington counties' street centerline files already set up for use with MapInfo, and they can help you
obtain Canadian data.

Some suggestions for using the native MapInfo geocoder include making and using a COPY of your original data source, then bring it in to Access or Excel and use search and replace to do your own data cleaning. Do look at the MAPINFOW.ABB file to note any glaring omissions. Know that most data
products are based on US Census Dept. TIGER datasets, which haven't added new street segments since the late 1980's. County data might be more accurate and up-to-date, but might not register with other data, such as census blocks, unless the county has rubber-sheeted that data to their
parcel database and street centerline databases (some have).

If you have a lot of rural addresses, PO box numbers and rural route numbers can be a real problem. Sometimes the only thing to do is geocode those addresses to the ZIP5 code, then use DISPERSE.MBX to have them not all land atop one another. But, you may end up unintentionally dispersing
those points across another postal boundary, creating an inaccuracy. <sigh>

MapMarker is MapInfo's geocoding powertool, and is priced accordingly. A variety of pricing options are available, but it's all bundled as MapMarker with data. An advantage to MapMarker over the native MapInfo geocoder is MapMarker is a one-step geocoder. It can also use ZIP+4 to pretty
accurately locate an address if a street match isn't possible. MapMarker also has an address-cleaning routine built-in (which goes in first and standardizes notation - MapInfo doesn't do this). MapMarker is also faster, which could make a real difference if you're doing high-volume work.

ESRI doesn't have an in-house geocoding product for ArcView, but markets third-party products.

Is your data source up-to-date? Is it accurate? Is it complete? 

Is your geocoding program easy to use? Are the algorithms accurate? Is it user-modifiable? Can you output to other formats?

Overall an excellent presentation. Thanks, John!

DXF translation discussion - straightforward under TABLE/IMPORT but you need to know the datum. MapInfo v4.5 supports AutoCAD 10, 11, 12, 13 but not necessarily newest version 14.

Label discussion - a meeting topic all by itself. Be sure to save your workspace after packing, as labels are saved with the workspace. Best to use AUTOLABL.MBX or LABELER.MBX and save your labels in a separate table.
Organizationally it may work well to have a directory for each and every project you do, with a label table, workspace table, annotation table and legend table (for non-thematic automated legend creation there are some third-party legend MBX's out there, perhaps to be examined at a future
meeting). That will keep everything tidy, and provide a record of the work you've done through the year should that be necessary.

The MapWorld International conference will be held in Seattle at the Westin Hotel on April 26-30, 1998. This is the first time it's been held west of the Mississippi. There has been a training bent to the last several conferences, and that is expected to continue for this one. The conference
is not without cost, and there were some ideas put forth to "work for admission": volunteer to be available as a local resource for attendees to contact, probably by e-mail, about what many and wonderful things there are to do in the  greater Seattle area; work in the registration booth; win the
MapInfo business solution contest being held now until the middle of February (details on the MapInfo website). Contact Jennifer Ullman (jennu@sgsi.com) for more information.

As one of the three most active MapInfo User Groups in the nation, we wondered if we might have a booth ourselves, but when SGSI offered to have
a handout about us, that sounded more realistic.

Possibilities for the next meeting topic included something on using scanned (raster) map images, 3D analysis, an update on new MapBasic
utilities out in the world, project overview from a local banking user on site analysis for lending, using Adobe Illustrator or MapPublisher to
output higher-quality maps, and enterprise-wide map dissemination (intranet or internet), and issues with labeling. It was brought up that even though
the group may have already covered a topic at a previous meeting, new and updated software products make it logical to revisit those topics. 

As usual, lots of networking and interesting discussions, along with an A-1presentation, made this a good meeting.

Next meeting will be March 4th (first Wednesday of the month) from 2pm to 4pm at the same location (Dept. of Health). Topic will be Scanned Map Images.

NEW STUFF:
John Schlosser suggested an interim release of MapInfo by year's end.

UTILITY OF THE QUARTER:
Tom Curley of the Suquamish Tribe described WorldReg v.3 which now will translate GeoTIFF and .KAP (NOAA nautical chart) formats. He described how the Suquamish Tribe uses WorldReg to very quickly and easily bring in geo-rectified nautical charts as background raster imagery for geoduck (clam) surveys, and how useful that is. He brought some printed examples of recent maps using the scanned charts.

TECHNICAL QUESTION AND ANSWER:
There were some comments about how fragile workspaces are - that if one table can't be found, the whole workspace won't open. John Schlosser suggested a workaround that involves using a text editor and making sure the workspace is interactive (which allows substitute tables to be used), then creating several blank tables named BLANK1.TAB, BLANK2.TAB etc., in their own easy to locate directory. Then, when the workspace can't locate a table, simply direct it to use one of the BLANKx.TAB files, and by so doing the workspace can be persuaded to open. Be sure to remove the BLANKx.TAB files after it's open, try to locate the original missing tables and load them then save the workspace. A discussion about bringing in AutoCAD files into MapInfo, and how to eliminate slivers and other irregularities. A quick suggestion, depending on the size of the project, is to locate an ARC user and run a "clean and build" on the data, though there are certainly problems with that. John Schlosser suggested the user contact him to discuss the options.

MAIN TOPIC:
Refer to the handout MapInfo + Graphics for a more detailed discussion. There are some problems moving MapInfo output to other programs such as Word, and moving output images across the Web. Various formats were discussed, and it was generally concluded that a good way to move such images is with Adobe Acrobat, which preserves vector integrity and generates a fairly small compressed file which can be viewed at no cost by downloading Acrobat Reader. However, the sender must use Acrobat which does cost $295.

NEXT MEETING:
Users voted to have meetings every two months rather than quarterly, and to begin at 2pm rather than 3pm. Next meeting date is November 5, 1997 at the Dept. of Health.

Submitted by Tom Curley * - * - * - * - * curley@silverlink.net