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October 27, 2000
Dear Sir:
We use ESRI products ArcInfo, ArcView and ArcPress. When we produce
'simple' plots any of the ESRI products can do a decent job. But we
frequently produce large format (E size and larger, up to murals)
color plots containing a wide variety of information:
- full color images like aerial and satellite photographs
- vector information, such as rivers, roads, etc.
- labels, tables, logos, etc.
Our experience is that ESRI products do not
handle plotting well:
- There is no visual feedback as to color balance and saturation
of different parts of the image, so the only possibility is trial
and error.
- The only way to test the results is to send the plot, at a large
cost in time and materials.
- The plotter driver and/or RIP engine in the ESRI products
frequently misinterprets the Postscript code.
- It is impossible to structure a large format job for a smaller
printer (plot mosaics).
- There is no way to separately affect vector and raster info
within a large plot. The only solution is to go back to the
application and adjust the problems there, another large cost in
time.
- All of the above requires the time of a highly trained plotter
operator, given the lack of an easy to understand interface.
Many of the plots that used to be produced by
my staff can now be produced by our GIS users with the much richer
interface of HyperXpress. HyperXpress has allowed us to separate our
users into two types:
- Experienced plotter users who control the scanner/plotter
hardware, doing any combination of scanning/RIP*ping/plotting
work. HyperXpress greatly increases the operator's productivity as
compared to ESRI.
- Users at their own computers using ESRI software, who want to
send a print job to the plotter, to be picked up later. This
is a more complex situation, in that the
software/RIP/network/plotter combination has to work together to do
the job. With HyperXpress, it does.
Main advantages:
- Due to the lack of visual feedback from ESRI products, most of
the jobs for users had to be produced with more specialized
personnel. Expensive! HyperXpress has allowed us to increase the
number of user-produced plots, with fewer test plots.
- ESRI software does not support Unix as consistently as
HyperXpress does.
- ESRI tech support has been less than satisfactory. We have had
little need of support from Pinebush, and when needed, the access to
the software engineers has been fundamental.
Sincerely,
Ricardo López-Torrijos
GIS Program Development Coordinator
Water GIS - University at Albany GIS Lab |
