GIS SOFTWARE-2: MANIFOLD

Manifold is low cost software which provides most of the functionalities required in GIS. It is very user friendly software and runs on MS Windows. This software is not very popular but users are growing day-by-day and it still has very little market share in comparison to ArcGIS.

Manifold contains all basic GIS tools and functionalities like- digitization, geocoding, georeferencing, attribute table management, spatial analysis, map navigation, layout preparation, basic image processing etc. Some of the notable features are:

It can import vector data, raster data and satellite images from almost all format of data used in GIS.

Its extraordinary selection capabilities provide it an edge over many other software. Features selected in one layer can be used to select features in other layers. For example- We can use a selected boundary polygon to select same geographical area in a satellite image through transfer selection tool.

It contains tools for surface analysis and terrain modeling. Streams and watersheds can be created through digital elevation models.

Projection Transformations in Manifold are excellent. One can easily change projection of layers from one to another without much pain. However it may take longer time for raster data.

Google Earth lovers will definitely enjoy this software as it provides a variety of GE related tools.

Transform toolbar is another good and easy-to-use feature. It has a number of options for vector and raster data analysis.

Manifold contains in-built internet map server (IMS) for publishing GIS maps on web.

The main concern with this software is its format i.e. *.map. It can not be imported in any software directly, user has to export its vector or raster layers in standard GIS format using Manifold itself. Suppose If somebody gives me GIS data in Manifold’s *.map format and if I have ArcGIS (but not Manifold) than I can’t do anything with it as it can not be imported (unlike shape files or MapInfo files which can be imported/opened in most of the GIS software).

But still it is good software and provides GIS facilities much more than one can expect in small price. Detailed information about this software can be seen on its website.

Please see INDEX for complete list of topics.