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We are considering using ESRI's ArcGIS Engine to write an application with some GIS features. The GIS toolkit features that we are primarily concerned with are:

  • 3D visualization: Blend elevation data with raster or vector data.
  • Embed GIS functionality within a custom UI / application (QT4 preferred)
  • Function without an internet connection (local data caching or geodatabase)
  • Create new features (point, line, polygon) and store them in a geodatabase.
  • Overlay images over map data and update them frequently.
  • Good interoperability with C++
  • Cross-platform: Windows, Mac, and Linux

The initial goals for this project are relatively limited, but will likely be expanded in the future -- doing some image processing that incorporates geospatial data, for example.

In addition to ESRI's ArcGIS Engine, we're also looking at using:

  • NASA World Wind
  • GRASS GIS

It appears that Intergraph has a large number of GIS software products, but it's not yet clear whether they sell an equivalent to the ArcGIS Engine toolkit.

Are there other options worth considering? Insights or opinions on the options already mentioned?

Jonathan Leffler
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Dan Homerick
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    You could check out these questions on open source GIS [one](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/324976/what-open-source-gis-tools-do-you-use-recommend) [two](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3201079/choosing-open-source-software-for-building-gis-application) – MarkJ Jan 19 '11 at 12:25
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    you might also consider posting the question to: http://gis.stackexchange.com (it's a near-dupe, but I think some of your items might make it a unique question). – Jay Cummins Jan 19 '11 at 19:45
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    you mention `geodatabase` and you have Esri tags--is it safe to assume you want to use esri-geodatabase? – Jay Cummins Jan 19 '11 at 19:51
  • @Jay I meant the term generically, I didn't realize that geodatabase was specific to ESRI. I think that we'll eventually want to interface with ESRI products, though. – Dan Homerick Jan 20 '11 at 21:27
  • they aren't, but I always ask for clarification just in case because often people assume Esri when they say geodatabase. Check out the answers/comments here for more discussion: http://meta.gis.stackexchange.com/questions/206/should-we-treat-spatial-database-and-geodatabase-as-synonyms – Jay Cummins Jan 21 '11 at 00:37

3 Answers3

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In addition to GRASS

MarkJ
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If you can drop the cross-platform requirement for Windows-only, then Manifold System would be a good choice. Very affordable and easy to use with modern development tools on Windows.

mdsumner
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DotSpatial doesn't tick all of your boxes, but I know there have been some Mono+DotSpatial discussions. It might be worth checking on the state of that work.

Also checkout spatialite for a local cache.

Jay Cummins
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