Trace: GvSIG

GvSIG

From GISWiki

gvSIG is an Open Source GIS software. Its name is a spanish abrievation that stands for 'Generalidad Valencia Sistéma de Información Geográfica'. Momentaly, gvSIG is still under development, the actual version is 0.5.

gvSIG is a tool oriented to manage geographic information. It is characterized by a user-friendly interface, with a quick access to the most usual raster and vector formats. In the same view it includes local as well as remote data through a WMS or WFS source.

It is aimed at users of geographic information, whether professionals or civil servants (city councils, councils, regional councils or ministries) from any part of the world ( at the moment its interface is in Spanish, Valencian, English, Basque, Czech , French, German, Italian and Portuguese), in addition to being freeware.

Given its freeware nature (open source) it is highly interesting for the international community of developers and, in particular, for university settings due to its R&D&I component. Special emphasis has been placed on the expansion of the project so that potential developers can easily expand the functions of the application, as well as develop completely new applications from the libraries used in gvSIG (as long as they comply with the GPL license).

gvSIG has carried (not completely) the DGNLib library to native Java to visualize .dgn files (version 7.0, MicroStation 95).

1 History
2 Characteristic
3 Future Developments
4 Weblinks

History

In the year 2003, the Regional Council for Infrastructures and Transportation (CIT) called for tender for the development of a software for the management of geographic information. The private enterprise Iver won the tender and is now developing the software together with the Valencian Government and the university Jaume I of Castellón. The software is being actualized and published regularly, the latest version is gvSIG 0.5.

Characteristic

gvSIG is developed with Java and is working under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Basically, it is working as a heavy client or desktop GIS.

Portability: The software is compatible with different working systems, initially Linux and Windows.
Modularity: gvSIG will be extensible in the future development. New functions may be integrated easily.
Open Source: The source code of the software is free available.
Without licenses: the product is free of charge, without any quantity limits.
Interoperable: The programm must be able to read and write data formats of the leading proprietary software, like ArcView, Microstation or AutoCAD. During the work process, the format doesn't need to be changed. In its version 0.5, it is supporting various raster and vector data formats:
- Vector formats: shapefile, dxf, dgn, ecw, MrSID
- Raster formats: jpeg, jp2, tiff, geoTIFF, png, gif
Subject to standards: It follows the most important standards and guidelines of the branch, e.g. the ones of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) or the European Commission.

Following the future tendencies of the OGC, gvSIG is able to read remote data, as they are Web Map Service, Web Coverage Service and Web Feature Service.