Category Archives: Spatial IT/GIS

Using QGIS in the Cloud with Amazon Web Services (AWS)

It’s easy to run a popular open-source geospatial suite on this hosted cloud platform: AWS. QGIS is a great piece of software, and I would really recommend you try it out if you are currently working with ArcGIS, MapInfo or any other piece of GIS software. However, if you don’t have admin rights on your...

Just Say No

This article appeared in xyHt‘s e-newsletter, Field Notes. We email it once a month, and it covers a variety of land surveying topics in a conversational tone. You’re welcome to subscribe to the e-newsletter here. (You’ll also receive the Pangaea newsletter with your subscription.) As I have aged and learned, I have worked diligently to improve myself, whether through...

The Early Days of 3D Scanning

When I first came across Cyra Technologies Inc., a start-up that was developing 3D laser scanning, I was working at Trimble Navigation in Sunnyvale, California, in the heart of the San Francisco Bay area’s “Silicon Valley.” I consider myself lucky. I had the good fortune to be deeply involved in the very beginning of 3D...

What is ETL…

and How Can it Turn You into a Geospatial Rock Star? Imagine a world where there was only one data type for 3D, 2D and point clouds. Wouldn’t it be bliss? I have to confess that about 30 percent of my time, when I work in GIS, is spent working between different data formats…a DWG...

BIM It Up and Fly Them In, Mactan-Cebu Airport!

Designed using building information modeling, Mactan-Cebu International Airport is a tribute not only to technology but also team collaboration and creativity. Featured image: Photomontage (by Marcel Lam) shows the BIM model combined with an actual photo of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport’s roof.  Everything about the design of the newly built Terminal 2 at the Mactan-Cebu...

Build a Survey Tracker Map

We all have a little more time on our hands at the moment and it seems like the perfect time to do a little tidy of some of our data and do a little organization. In fact, I’m going to walk you through setting up something that clients have asked me to build for them...