TopoL for Windows

TopoL is a general Land/Geographic Information System software which can be adjusted for applications in many areas. It allows the creation, maintenance, analyses and presentation and analysis of geographical data. This original Czech product was first developed for the purpose of providing desktop-mapping and querying capabilities in forest-management applications. Now TopoL can meet many needs for GIS and remote-sensing image-analysis software. Available for ten years, TopoL has about 1.600 installations in governmental bodies, commercial industry, forestry and agriculture in the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Germany, Italy, Spain, Russia, Hungary, Poland, Latvia and Estonia.

TopoL can process both vector and raster data equally well and provide wide scale of vector and raster data manipulation and analysis methods. This functionality includes vector data overlays, database analyses as well as image processing and classification. Extensive care was focused on topology and support for topographic structures of vector data. Digitising capabilities of TopoL are easy to use and the system is able to solve topologic relations in real-time while data are digitised. TopoL can import and export data in many industry-standard formats. TopoL is especially strong in its ability to create composite black-and-white or colour raster-and-vector output - for example, property boundary outlines superimposed on a scanned aerial photograph. TopoL is running on a standard PC computers in MS Windows environment. Czech, English, German, Italian, Hungarian, Spanish and Russian language mutations of the system are available.

TopoL for Windows functional variants

TopoL Viewer

• allows to display both vector and raster data and analyse them
• descriptive information attached in databases

TopoL Reduced

• special version for agricultural applications
• allows to manipulate with vector data, display raster data and process descriptive information attached in databases

TopoL Basic

• basic version for LIS applications

TopoL Remote Sensing

• provides full functionality for remote sensing: image processing, spectral analysis, image classifications

TopoL DMT

• provides support for transformation in parts for the elimination of height difference distortions and includes functions for digital raster terrain model processing

TopoL functionality

Data organisation

vector data capabilities:

• fully-fledged implementation of basic spatial topographic data structures (points, lines, curves, and areas)
• object-oriented organisation of primitive data into object classes and topographic blocks (well-arranged heterogeneous layers)
• extensive care for topology and full support for topographic structures of vector data
• display, informative and functional adjustment of the system through internal programming language and various properties defined for each class of objects separately
• external control of the whole system from other applications through DDE communication channel

attribute data capabilities:

• full database kernel based on XBase (DBF) format or SQL version using ODBC for access to other database systems
• class attribute (local database structure) definition for every class of vector objects separately in each block
• fully functional link to external databases (file and SQL-based) with powerful support for one-to-many relations
• standard databases and existing information systems linked through user-defined database model without any change of existing data

raster data capabilities:

• handling of binary, grey-scale and colour raster images including huge files (up to hundreds of MB)
• colour transfer look up table and palette definition and adjustment
• digital raster terrain model processing (created from points or isolines)
• full support for different raster formats (internal - RAS,RAK, standard - TIFF, BMP)

Data handling and display

data input:

• vector data digitizing of existing maps on digitiser or raster images displayed on screen
• tools for easier manual digitizing of data (various methods of snap, adjustable grid and local zoom)
• vector data import from ARC/INFO, ArcView, as well as in DXF, DBF files and user-defined text file formats
• raster data import in TIFF, BMP, PCX, CIT (CCITT Group 4), HRF and raw binary formats as well as from ARC/INFO system
• on-line input and off-line import of GPS data
• attribute import from text files and existing databases

data display:

• creation composite black-and-white or colour raster-and-vector combined images
• attribute value and text object annotations in various user-defined styles - cartographic diagrams and user-defined attribute forms
• specification of display attributes (colour, point symbol, line and fill styles) based on attributes, object classes as well as for each vector object separately
• user-defined point, line and fill symbols, special symbol editor

data output:

• output to all printer and plotter devices supported in MS Windows as well as to other applications through clipboard
• vector data export to ARC/INFO, ArcView, MapInfo, as well as in DXF and text file formats
• raster data export in TIFF, BMP, PCX, CIT (CCITT Group 4) formats as well as to ARC/INFO system
• attribute export in user-defined text file format

Data manipulation

geometric transformations:

• full-featured geometric transformations (similarity, affinity, colinearity) of vector data
• full-featured geometric transformations (similarity, affinity, colinearity, polynomial quadratic and cubic) of raster data
• support for transformation in parts for the elimination of local distortions in raster and vector data
• raster rotation, resampling, cutting, masking, and full-featured combination into mosaics

raster processing:

• raster editor
• image processing tools: arithmetical and logical operations, local pre-processing (averaging, median, rotating window, sharpening and post-classification filters), edge operators (Sobel and Prewitt operators, manual thresholding, binary thinning, smoothing and boundary detection) and texture processing
• raster compression
• conversion of vector data into raster form and in a certain extent also from raster to vector data
• conversion between various forms of digital terrain model

attribute processing:

• usual edit, display and query functions for attributes stored in both local and external databases
• automatic handling of important topographic attributes (position, length, area of objects)
• attribute value computations through user-defined expressions
• fully functional expression evaluation on external databases including powerful processing of one-to-many relations

geodetic and cartographic tools:

• various standard co-ordinate systems
• display and query on map sheet layouts
• geodetic tasks: mark out, orthogonal and polar methods, distance intersection and dimensioning (distance marking)
• area division, adjusting and balancing, area reports for special needs of land management and modification projects

Data analyses

vector data analyses:

• various object and layer combinations
• block overlapping
• attribute transfer between objects and blocks
• conversion of line and area objects into points
• buffers around objects
• set operators (union, intersection and subtraction) for area objects

attribute value analyses:

• database browser, easy-to-use query tool, attribute computations
• creation of thematic views and special maps through colour and style symbol definition based on attribute values
• vector data selection through attribute values
• user-defined forms for quick data retrieval and analyses within whole information system
• cartographic diagrams for visual presentation of analysis results

raster data analyses:

• spectral analysis: multispectral edge detection, neural networks compression, linear combinations and colour composition
• image classifications: non-supervised cluster analysis (k-Means clustering) as well as supervised methods (k-NN, parallelpiped and k-Means classifications)
• statistical analysis tools: histograms, correlation, entropy and dependence factors