Technical Support - Manifold System

The Installation page of this section provides an on-line reprint of the installation instructions shipped with Manifold as well as some notes on installation troubleshooting. Check the obvious first: do you have a Microsoft browser installed?  See the Requirements page to make sure your system can run Manifold.  If installing on NT, do you have Administrator privileges?  Make sure to exist all other applications and background processes. Some "virus protectors" do such a great job of protecting the system they end up interfering with installations.  If all else fails, check the online support FAQ and online documentation.   General questions?  Read the online support FAQ

New Feature: Conversations with Technical Support - Although most Tech Support conversations are one-liner references to the right Help topic, a few end up being elaborate essays.  We've added this page to reprint those exchanges we think will be interesting to many other users.

New Feature:  Step-by-step instructions from Technical Support's case files.  From time to time Technical Support creates a sequence of screen shots to send to a customer to resolve a question.  We've begun adding some of the more comprehensive examples to the web site:

• UTM Projection Notes
• Converting a DEM for use in 3D View Studio
• Entering a Formula and Exporting the Table to Access
• Find all Regions visible from the top of a 100 foot Tower
• Perform "Polygon in Polygon" Operations
• Compute Road Densities in a Grid
• Import a Projected ESRI .shp File
• Print Floating Point Labels as Rounded Values

If you have any questions regarding Manifold System, your first and most comprehensive guide to correct operation is the Help system: this contains hundreds of pages of on-line documentation that is available to you whenever you run Manifold.  Use the topic organization, index, and find command in the help system to locate topics of interest.  The Manifold help system includes numerous examples and tutorial commentary in addition to a simple listing of commands.

Free Support Upgrades: Service Packs and Hot Fixes

From time to time, manifold.net releases Service Packs (SPs) for Manifold System.  Service Packs fix bugs and add new features and other improvements in between major releases.  Service Packs are free to download, but they require Manifold System.   Whenever a new SP is issued, it will be cumulative in that it incorporates all fixes released in previous SPs.  SP4 Beta 1 is the current and proposed final service pack for Release 4.50.  If you are running previous SPs,  please download the latest SP and install it.   Install a service pack by unzipping it in the installation directory used to install Manifold (by default, C:\Program Files\Manifold System).

Occasionally we find a problem that affects a limited number of customers or otherwise does not merit a new Service Pack.  To provide those customers a bug-free Manifold experience until the next SP is issued, we will provide a Hot Fix that may be installed.  Hot Fixes always require the installation of any prior Service Pack, and should not be installed on their own.  Hot Fixes typically deal with one, very limited problem.  There is one hot fix currently outstanding: this must be applied after installing Service Pack 4 beta 1.

Hot Fix 1 to Service Pack 4

Hot Fix 1 must be applied after installing Service Pack 4.  It corrects improper operation of the within SQL predicate from inside Manifold solver scripts in some circumstances.  If you are not using the Within predicate form SQL in solver scripts or from the SQL Toolbar it is not necessary to install this Hot Fix.   Download Hot Fix 1 to Service Pack 4.

Service Pack 4

SP4 Beta 1 fixes three bugs discovered since the last service pack,  and also provides some significant new features and enhancements to Manifold Release 4.50.  SP4 is currently titled "Beta 1" because it is a candidate for the last SP to be issued in 4.50 and may be changed slightly in future weeks to include minor additional bug fixes or upgrades.  Changes within SP4 from SP3 have all been fully tested.  Read the Release Notes for SP4  to see what is covered by SP4. There are numerous enhancements to Release 4.50 in SP4, including TIGER/Line 1998 import, NOAA GLOBE DEM import and other improvements.   Detail (right): World View with elevation texture and "transparent" rectangle showing current Map View extent.

In addition to bug fixes, general improvements provided by SP4 include:

• Removes 32k limitation on VB script length (Windows NT only). ... Write BIG scripts! 

• DXF converter works considerably faster. 

• Adds support for NOAA GLOBE data sets in DEM Converter. 

• Adds support for TIGER/Line 98 data sets. 

• SQL toolbar equipped with button switching between case-sensitive and case-insensitive versions of string verbs. 

• Tools - Save Image To File command can now save to JPG. 

• WorldView has an option to use textures.

• SQL toolbar controls equipped with tooltips 

• Export to MIF omits Pen, Brush and Symbol attributes in favor of using MapInfo's active settings. 

• SQL query constructed with SQL toolbar is now output to Results History.

• High speed, ultra high accuracy projection routines

• .e00 "double precision" uncompressed (ASCII) file support

• quadrupled speed of SDTS import.

• extended major/minor codes for DLG-O import.

Download Service Pack 4

Note: Service Pack 4 also incorporates all fixes and changes that were made in the previous service packs.  These include:

• Important Fix in Publish for MapPoint - SP1 repaired a data publication bug in the Publish for MapPoint wizard.   If you using Manifold Release 4.50 to publish data for Microsoft MapPoint 2000, you must download and install SP1.

• Upgrades and fixes in Printing - SP2 included improved printing routines that include workarounds to bugs (not our bugs!) found in some popular manufacturer-supplied printer drivers. 

• Upgrades and fixes in DXF, DLG and SDTS importers - Error corrections, a new DXF importer, and improvements in converter efficiency.

A note on improved projections accuracy:  SP4 will install improved, high precision projection routines for Release 4.50.  These are the same high precision projection routines that will be incorporated into our next edition, Release 5.00 (planned for release early next year).  The original Release 4.50 routines were limited in accuracy when used with certain projections, especially when a custom, high resolution setting of Manifold's Units2Degree parameter was in use.  The new routines installed by SP4 provide perfect accuracy in all circumstances, for all projections, all ellipsoids and no matter how fine a resolution is selected.  In particular, they provide a perfect match to all significant digits to the USGS/Snyder sample projection numbers used as a reference in precision cartography.  

Bug Fix in Import/Export Utility Solvers

A new expimp_util.mxz solver package has been issued to correct a minor error when using the import/export .mdb utility solver with .mdb format files to interchange geometric data.  This is a rarely-used solver since .mdb format is normally used for saving data attributes.  Please download the expimp_util.mxz solver package and install it if using this method.  The new bonus pack collection of free solver packages also includes this bug-fix solver package.

Updated World.mfd Basemap

Manifold.net has issued a new, medium resolution world basemap that is designed to replace the World.mfd basemap provided on the Manifold Release 4.50 CD. 

The original basemap on the CD was derived from more complex maps, such as the DCW. It was computed using algorithms that skewed coordinates slightly so that borders do not align exactly with high resolution data sets such as Manifold World. The new World.mfd map has been recomputed using improved algorithms to provide higher precision. The new boundaries align quite well with DCW, VMAP, and Manifold World.  Download the new World.mfd/mdb manifold basemap.

Questions for Technical Support?