MapWindow 6.0

Interested in DotSpatial but not sure you want to spend the time finding out what it's about? Take a test drive with MapWindow6. The ClickOnce download on this site provides an all encompassed working example GIS project complete with map, legend, toobox, print layout and other features. The download is built using the .Net 4.0 x86 version of DotSpatial, and will be tweaked over time as new features become available, and (if I did the ClickOnce setup correctly) automatic updates should keep you up to date with the latest and greatest demo for the project.

The Open Source MapWindow GIS project team also manages a widely used desktop GIS application, MapWindow 4.x which is hosted at www.MapWindow.org. The MapWindow project includes an end user desktop application that is extensible through the writing of plugins written in .NET, as well as an ActiveX control project called MapWinGIS.ocx. This project has been highly successful and continues to grow through adoption and contributions by individuals, companies, agencies, etc.

Recently, the MapWindow team has made significant efforts on the development of a fully .NET (no ActiveX or COM) version of MapWindow. That project was hosted here on the MapWindow6.CodePlex.com site. However, as this project has progressed, we have recognized the value of reaching out to other .NET GIS programmers and projects to develop a lower level core framework that can be shared across applications and that uses the best capabilities and source code from this broader community.

For this reason, the source code has moved to DotSpatial, even though we host a download example release that will be the straight forward getting started implementation called MapWindow6.

Thanks for staying interested and involved with these exciting efforts!

- Dan Ames
MapWindow Project Manager
- Statement Updated by Ted Dunsford 11/29/2010

Why MapWindow 6?

This is asked frequently and so I thought I would add some bullet points right to the home page on this topic.

• Advantages over MapWindow 4.x
  • Fully .Net (no COM registration or dll hell)
  • Works on Mac or Linux (using Mono)
  • Vastly extended symbology set
    • Stacks of Symbols
    • Schemes based on attributes
    • Point decorations
    • Symbols from scalable system fonts
  • Object Oriented Code
    • Perform overlays, intersections, directly with features.
    • FeatureSet.DataTable is a System.Data.DataTable.
    • OGC Geometries
  • Comprehensive Plug-in Model
    • Plug-in interfaces have events like normal objects
    • Interfaces are complete, so if you can do it with a class, you can do it with an interface.
    • Control virtually everything directly through the plug-in interface
  • Components
    • All components provided through the MapWindow.dll
    • Custom GIS can be built from components in the designer (No code necessary)
    • Even the Plug-in capability is in the ApplicationManager

• About the same
  • Drawing performance
  • Loading performance

• Disadvantages
  • Can't be used in Microsoft Access, VB6.0 or other pre-.Net systems. (Yet)
    • (requires a COM wrapper to be created, which we can do later.)
  • OGR/FDO not supported (Yet)
    • (requires a data provider plugin to be written to translate)
  • Big rasters/grids (> 8000x8000) fail to load or use unconventional native formats
    • (requires finishing img(HFA) support for native, pyramidal img files)
  • Rudimentary feature editing
    • (requires some extra editing tools to be added to the shape editor)
  • Still in beta (MW4 is probably more stable and fixed and with fewer bugs)

High Speed Video Demos

Standard Architecture Demo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAJKSEzjmO4
Double Map Layout http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrl8e66sEXE

This site is specifically for the MapWindow 6 C# core programming effort. If you have any questions on how to use MapWindow 6 either as a developer or as an end user, please go to http://www.mapwindow.org.