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Welcome to AgWare News! The concept of this newsletter is to update our customers of upcoming training seminars, new releases, quick program fixes, program enhancements, and other general information. We hope that you will enjoy receiving this valuable information and that you will be interactive with your thoughts and comments. Please also check out our website at www.uaar.net.
We are pleased to announce our Annual User’s Meeting will be Wednesday, October 5, 2005 in Austin Texas. We are holding our meeting in conjunction with the ASFMRA Annual Meeting. Attached is an information form for the meeting along with a registration form. For those who will not be able to attend, please email us any ideas or enhancements for the UAAR program. We would love to hear all of your comments to make UAAR better.
We will be having our Free Maintenance Member Training Seminar on Thursday, October 6, 2005 at the Austin Hilton. This will be in conjunction with the ASFMRA National Convention. The class is a free class for Maintenance Members and a Fee of $150 for Non-members. The class will run from 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Space will be limited for this seminar. Please fill out the attached registration form or contact us at 605-787-7871 or email us at agware@uaar.net for more information.
Orthophotograph:
By Bob Nielsen, Certified Professional Soil Scientist
What is an orthophotograph? The growth of image-processing technology has spawned the emergence of digital aerial photographs that are rectified to provide images of ground features in their true map positions.
A digital orthophoto is simply a computerized version of a conventional aerial photograph that shows ground features and is rectified to be geographically correct. Through the rectification process, aerial photographs or orthophotographs show ground features in their true map coordinates and are true to scale, measure, and position on the earth’s surface.
These rectified aerial photographs are raster images that are composed of a series of small pixels or squares that form the image. In black and white photos, each pixel has a color of black, white, or shade of gray. When a photograph is viewed on a computer system, users can zoom into an area until the pixels become visible. In this example, rows and columns of small squares of various shades are visible and the ground feature is no longer identifiable.
Pixel size affects the orthophoto’s resolution or sharpness. A smaller pixel size produces dense, sharp images while large pixels produce images that are not as sharp or clear. The tradeoff is that photo pixel size is inversely related to the size of its computer file. i.e. The smaller the photo’s pixels the larger the files.
Generally, the pixel size or resolution of aerial orthophotographs available from public providers is about 1 meter and each pixel represents an area on the ground that is 1 meter square. Greater resolution can be obtained from half or sub-meter resolution but cost and computer storage capacity maybe an issue.
Aerial orthophotos come in various formats but the most common are GEOTIFF, GEOJPG, and MrSID. GEOTIFF and GEOJPG are tiff and jpg raster files that have an accompanying geo-referencing file allowing these files to work within a GIS (Geographical Information System). They can also be viewed by most graphic or photographic computer software that will read tiff or jpg files. As such, they can be included as pictures or graphic illustrations in appraisal reports and presentations. http://mcmcweb.er.usgs.gov/sdts/geotiff.html
The MrSID file format stands for Multiresolution Seamless Image Database and has a file extension of SID. MrSID technology is patented and developed by LizardTech, Inc. of Seattle. http://www.lizardtech.com
The MrSID format is a compressed form of an orthophotograph. Depending on the ortho-image resolution, the MrSID file compress can reduce orthophotgraphic file size by 10 to 15 times thus saving large amounts of storage space and Internet download times. Because of this savings the MrSID format is becoming more popular and is commonly used to deliver mosaic orthophotographic imagery that covers larger areas such as counties or other geopolitical subdivisions. Note: Mosaic imagery is the process where smaller images (generally quadrangle size) are tiled together into one large seamless image with little or no degradation in quality or resolution.
The MrSID format is supported by most GIS software and there is also a viewer available from Lizsrdtech, that is an Internet browser add-on.
Question: Since updating to version 2.5.1 of UAAR 2005, I can’t get the data from the Income Approach sheet to transfer to the summary sheet.
Answer: First, please check and ensure that you are using the most recent version of the Summary Page. The Summary page was updated with the 2004 version. The text "Value Conclusion" was changed to "Opinion of Value" to keep current with USPAP changes. The software will continue to auto fill fields on archived forms for one software release. With the 2005 release you need to use the Report Summary '04 form to ensure that all fields will auto fill correctly.
You can tell if you are using the old form by the color of the text in the Form Manager (shown below). If the form is red then the old form is still being used. This often is a result of customized templates not being updated or updating an old appraisal. If this is the case you can simply add the new form, put it in the correct location in the report, ensure all relevant data is copied to the new form and then delete the old form.
You can view all the forms that have been archived by looking in the "Archived Forms" folder of the forms library. Please check your Templated Appraisals and adjust them as needed.
If you have questions on this tip or other tips that you would like to share please e-mail us at agware@uaar.net.
End of the year special:
Maintenance Members Pay ½ Price Training for 2005!!
The following are the AgWare seminars for 2005. Please fill out the attached registration form and fax it back to us at 605-787-6163 if you are interested in attending. All classes will be held in Rapid City, S.D. and will be two days. The cost will be $300.00 or $150.00 for Maintenance Members (plus 6% SD tax).
**Please note additional training may be added during the year. ASFMRA Chapters frequently request training in conjunction with their chapter meetings, which we happily do. If there are 10 or more individuals interested in your area please contact us and we will assist you in organizing a seminar.
**Continuing Education hours are between 14 and 16 hours based on your state. For more information on our seminars please contact Agware at 605-787-7871 or see our website at www.uaar.net.
We would like to know what you think of the newsletter along with any comments and ideas for future issues.
AgWare, Inc.
PO Box 138
Piedmont, SD 57769
Phone: 605-787-7871 Fax: 605-787-6163
Email: agware@uaar.net
Website: www.uaar.net
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