New GTData Utility: GTEditEmbData

GTEditEmbData

A new utility called GTEditEmbData will be added to the next version of GTData.   This utility is a pretty low-level tool that most of you will probably not need, but there may be some users out there that will find a use for it.

Those of you who deal with Embedded Data (tabular data embedded on graphic elements), may find GTEditEmbData a handy tool to have.   The embedded data can be from a custom app that stores collected data on redlines, GTField, GTSpot, GTViewer’s Session Link feature, etc.    Embedded Data is just a text string, but if it is formatted in the \t\a\v notation, it will appear as a tabular record in GTViewer, GTVx, GTWeb, etc.   

The GTEditEmbData utility will do a simple search and replace on all of the embedded data strings in a .GTG file.   You can also just do a search for one or more strings to see if they exist in a .GTG file’s embedded data:

          GTEditEmbData – 1.0.0.1

          (c) 2012 Graphic Technologies, Inc.

         

-i

-o

[{-rep }]

[{-find }]

[{-ifind }]   (not case sensitive)

[-v]  (verbose)

You must specify an input .GTG file (with –i) and an output .GTG with (with -o).   You can then either perform a search and replace with the –rep option or perform just a search with the –find or –ifind options.

One of the main reasons this tool was written was to update GTField data that had been collected using one schema, but needed to be changed so that it would work with a different schema (the table names had changed from SSMANHOLE to MANHOLE).   In GTField, the table name is also prepended to the attribute name, so they would all need to be changed as well.

The command-line looks like this:

GTEditEmbData -i input.gtg -o output.gtg -rep "\tSSManhole" "\tSSManhole"  -rep "\aSSManhole." "\aSSManhole."

Then, embedded data that looked like this:

\tSSManhole\aSSManhole.Year_Installed\v2003\aSSManhole.Diameter\v48\aSSManhole.Depth\v19.5

Would be changed to look like this:

\tManhole\aManhole.Year_Installed\v2003\aManhole.Diameter\v48\aManhole.Depth\v19.5