In the rapidly changing world of GIS technology, it is important to pause occasionally and look at how far it has come–where we have been–in order to better appreciate where we are. In my previous series post about my career path, I mentioned that my first job out of college was with Markhurd Aerial Surveys doing manual cartography for a large defense mapping project. Ten months into my time there, a layoff left me and several others jobless. In a chance meeting, I ran into one of my former co-workers who told me about a job opportunity in Waukesha, Wisconsin, if I was willing to relocate from the Twin Cities. He said the company, Intelligraphics, (formerly Donohue Intelligraphics), was hiring people with Geography degrees to learn CADD mapping for large utility projects.
Sample land base plot generated using CalComp electrostatic plotter
I saw the opportunity to get some valuable computer mapping experience, so I promptly relocated to Waukesha and began working for them in September 1986. After training for a week in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, I was assigned a third-shift CADD position at Advanced Computer Graphics Incorporated (ACGI), in Milwaukee. My employer, Intelligraphics, was still constructing their CADD production area in Waukesha, and was leasing space and computing power from ACGI, to complete work on land base mapping for their biggest phone utility customer, Southern Bell and Telephone (SBT).
Land Base by Landwehr
This land base mapping involved capturing road centerlines, water features, railway lines, and municipal and distribution network boundaries. Centerlines were copied parallel to create road rights-of-way, and text was placed for road, water, railroad, and feature place names. Creating Right-of-Way Cul-de-sacs required a command called “Fillet and modify” where computer-generated curves were calculated, fit, and magically smoothed and made to look professional. Once the land base was completed, the Facilities production team added utility information like poles, lines, repeaters, transformers, etc., to Plant Location Records (PLRs). These features had linkages to the Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) which is where the true value is found in an Automated Mapping/Facilities Management (AM/FM) system. (We do love our acronyms in GIS!)
All this work was done on Intergraph equipment. Each CADD station was equipped with a large 44” x 60” digitizing board, dual black and white monitors, an Interactive Graphics Design Software (IGDS) menu, a keyboard, and a digitizing puck. The screens were mounted on an automatic lift system which could be raised or lowered to match user preference. The digitizing menus were customized using “User Commands” and creative use of Function Keys coded by the Intelligraphics programming staff. These customized menus enabled efficient data input and QC. (On a side note, to remind you how far we’ve come, smoking was even allowed at the CADD workstations. Ha!)
Bill Lee, an Intelligraphics colleague at an Intergraph Workstation circa 1989. (Permission obtained.)
Ever-Present Upgrades
Intergraph InterAct Workstation complete with cigarettes and ashtray
Eventually, Intergraph came out with newer products with variations on their dual-screen behemoths. These improvements included the InterAct, a sleek, plastic-molded, smaller workstation with a dual-screen color display! The color made level and symbology assignments much easier and their increased resolution was easier on the eyes. The Intergraph lineup also included a single-screen InterPro, which required clicking an icon to see the second screen. Each of these products made improvements to the patented Intergraph Clipper Chip technology. Eventually, workstations came equipped with their own hard drive so work could be saved to floppy disks to take some of the load off the mainframe VAX 11/780 that I talked about in my previous post.
GIS Marketshare Competition Mounts
As GIS began its move to the mainstream in the early ‘90s, Intergraph began feeling pressure from companies like Esri, Smallworld, and Genamap. Data conversion to and from these formats became essential to remain a player in the GIS data collection market space. It was my exposure to Genamap product that led to another career move which I’ll talk about in the next installment of this series.