Laser-Scan Ltd.

Software Product Specification

CONVERT package

For LAMPS V5.0
Copyright (C) $$year Laser-Scan Ltd
Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge, England CB4 4FY  tel: +44 (0) 1223 420414
Document "CONVERT SPS"    Category "SALES - Spec"
Document Issue 1.0 Tony J Ibbs/ R J Hulme 19-Mar-1987
 ...
Document Issue 1.7 R J Hulme  28-Oct-1988
Document Issue 2.0 Paul Hardy  04-Jan-1989
Document Issue 2.1 Jon Barber  02-Aug-1989
Document Issue 2.2 Andrew Trigg  17-Oct-1989
Document Issue 2.3 R J Hulme  08-Nov-1989
Document Issue 2.4 J Barber  13-Nov-1989
Document Issue 2.5 J Cadogan  02-Jan-1990
Document Issue 2.6 J Cadogan  08-Feb-1990
Document Issue 2.7 R.W. Russell  22-Mar-1990
Document Issue 2.8 A.T. Timms  19-Jul-1990
Document Issue 2.9 V L Gilham  28-Nov-1990
Document Issue 3.0 S Townrow  12-Mar-1991
Document Issue 3.1 S Townrow  28-Jan-1992
Document Issue 3.2 S Townrow  30-Apr-1992
Document Issue 3.3 S Townrow  02-Oct-1992
Document Issue 3.4 S Townrow  16-Jun-1993
Document Issue 3.5 Paul Hardy  25-Feb-1994
Document Issue 3.6 S Townrow  14-Oct-1994
Document Issue 3.7 S Townrow  21-Feb-1995
Document Issue 3.8 Matt Wenham  06-Dec-1996

CONVERT PACKAGE SOFTWARE PRODUCT SPECIFICATION

DESCRIPTION

CONVERT is the Laser-Scan map data translation package. It contains modules to convert data from IFF to other formats, and/or from those formats into IFF.

IFF stands for *Internal *Feature *Format and is the Laser-Scan vector file format generated by LASERAID and other Laser-Scan digitising systems and used as the data structure throughout the Laser-Scan LAMPS system. The CONVERT package allows the user to translate data captured with LAMPS (*Laser-Scan *Automated *Map *Production *System) into another form for output, or to convert data from other systems into IFF for manipulation within LAMPS.

The CONVERT package operates on Digital Equipment VAX and Alpha AXP series computers running the VMS operating system. See below for hardware and software prerequisites.

This document briefly describes the utilities available in all of the modules in the CONVERT package. In most circumstances, however, a customer will only have purchased some of the modules within the package - those for which that site has an actual requirement. Thus the presence of a module description in this document does not mean that the module is available at a particular site.

All the utilities have common command syntax which is decoded using the Command Line Interpreter as used by the VMS utilities. CONVERT utilities all generate VMS format messages and set VMS DCL symbol $STATUS on image exit. In command files the success of a preceding CONVERT utility may be tested using $STATUS before proceeding. All CONVERT modules and utilities are comprehensively documented in the CONVERT User Guide and the documentation includes an explanation of messages output by the modules together with suggested user action.

FACILITIES

The facilities offered by the CONVERT modules are described below in alphabetical order of module. Note that customers purchase particular modules as required, so that the presence of a module within this list does not mean that a customer will automatically receive that module.

PREREQUISITES

COMPUTER HARDWARE PREREQUISITES

The following computer hardware requirements are needed to run CONVERT.

SOFTWARE PREREQUISITES

CONVERT utilities run under OpenVMS VAX Version 5.5-2, or OpenVMS AXP V1.5 (or higher, assuming upwards compatibility by DEC) concurrently with other interactive and batch processes.

Laser-Scan provides the IFF and FRT interface libraries as part of the prerequisite MAPPING support package. The IMP map processing package is usually used for preliminary map processing associated with the CONVERT package. Laser-Scan's LITES2 interactive digitising and editing software running on the same host computer is recommended for digitising vector input data. LASERAID or VTRAK automated digitising is recommended for large numbers of input documents.

It is recommended that the reader becomes familiar with the LAMPS Environment Guide which outlines in greater detail the hardware and software environment required by the LAMPS software suite as a whole (of which the CONVERT package is one part).

GROWTH CONSIDERATIONS

The minimum hardware and software requirements for any future version of this product may be different from the minimum hardware and software requirements for the current version.

SUPPORT LEVEL

All modules of the CONVERT package are fully supported Laser-Scan standard software products.