[postgis-users] [postgis-devel] Dropped DM (Time) dimension with intersections

Margie Huntington margaret.huntington at baesystems.com
Mon Oct 13 11:08:17 PDT 2008


I think there is a miscommunication.  I'm attempting to model moving objects
in the database; specifically aircraft.  These aircraft have both an
altitude and time as well as the normal x- and y- components.  The problem
is, I haven't found a function that will return time, the m-component. (I
can determine altitude myself since the points are linear; thus, this
omission isn't as critical.)

I'd like to determine if aircraft maintain a safe distance from each other. 
I had hoped st_expand would model a moving bounding box; but it only returns
an x-, y-geometry.   The st_zmflag is 0:


>From my perspective, a 

    shorterSegment geometry; 
    shorterSegmentBuffer geometry;
    coorddims smallint;  

           shorterSegment:= 'SRID=4326;LINESTRINGM(0 0 1.5, 10 10
2)'::geometry;      

        shorterSegmentBuffer := st_expand(shorterSegment, exactdistance);
        coorddims := st_zmflag(shorterSegmentBuffer);     

Same problem exists for st_intersection; only 2D geometries are returned
since the z-component is zeroed out.  The st_intersection function indicates
an intersection over the entire flight path even when the aircraft are
separated by days.  The M-component is critical since aircraft fly in the
same flight path; same x-, y- and z-components.

There aren't plans to make the M-component operational for st_expand() nor
for st_intersection()?  I was attempting a polygon surface only because
there isn't a 3D nor 4D bounding box that works with time.


Paul Ramsey-3 wrote:
> 
> Unfortunately, there's no such thing as a 3D polygon, except for
> trivial cases (the triangle, the shape with all Z's the same).
> Everything else is unclear on how to interpret the enclosed "plane"
> (if that is what it is) formed by an irregularly elevated boundary. So
> we can store the things, but there's really no decent way to interpret
> them in generality. For that we need the real stuff, Surfaces,
> volumes, etc.
> 
> I think the "low hanging fruit" is probably more the "infrastructural
> requirement". We need a 4D index. That will allow us to handle things
> like 4D time tracks and point clouds efficiently, and form the
> indexing basis for future volumetric objects.
> 
> P.
> 
> On Tue, Oct 7, 2008 at 9:44 AM, Obe, Regina <robe.dnd at cityofboston.gov>
> wrote:
>> I'm not sure how low hanging the fruit :), but first off would be being
>> able
>> to do intersections and indexable ST_DWithin with 3D polygons and
>> linestrings and so forth. For example when I place a cable up on a roof I
>> need to know if I'm hitting another piece of equipment.
>>
>> Higher fruit - being able to support volumetric geometries.  Right now we
>> support 2d-3D polygons and lines and you can form wireframes with those,
>> but
>> no true volumetric stuff.  But then what do I know, I'm just parroting
>> things I've heard in whispers and those whispers are getting louder is
>> all
>> :)
>>
>> There is still the issue of being able to display 3-D geometries without
>> spending a fortune on proprietary stuff which is not a PostGIS issue, but
>> has to gain in momentum to make PostGIS 3D more powerful (e.g. uDig for
>> 3D
>> or OpenJump for 3D or OpenLayers for 3D?)
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Regina
>> ________________________________
>> From: postgis-devel-bounces at postgis.refractions.net on behalf of Paul
>> Ramsey
>> Sent: Tue 10/7/2008 12:30 PM
>> To: PostGIS Development Discussion
>> Subject: Re: [postgis-devel] Dropped DM (Time) dimension with
>> intersections
>>
>> Perhaps elabourate on what better 3D support would be? There's the
>> surface object hanging around. There's the issue of maintaining higher
>> dimensional coordinates through lower dimensional transforms (which
>> you saw the result of a few days ago). There's elabourating the
>> complete set of 3D objects and relationships (gulp).
>>
>> It's not clear to me what is the "low hanging fruit" that will make 3D
>> users happiest in the shortest time.
>>
>> P.
>>
>> On Tue, Oct 7, 2008 at 8:54 AM, Obe, Regina <robe.dnd at cityofboston.gov>
>> wrote:
>>> Margie,
>>>
>>> Unfortunately I think the answer is no.  Most of the work going on in
>>> 1.4
>>> is
>>> to improve speed of existing functionality and reorganize the source to
>>> make
>>> it more maintainable.
>>>
>>> Someone please correct me if I am wrong.
>>>
>>> I for one would be very elated if we had better 3D support since CityGML
>>> and
>>> similar initiatives are becoming more of a hot topic around here.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Regina
>>> ________________________________
>>> From: postgis-devel-bounces at postgis.refractions.net
>>> [mailto:postgis-devel-bounces at postgis.refractions.net] On Behalf Of
>>> Huntington, Margaret (US SSA)
>>> Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2008 11:47 AM
>>> To: postgis-devel at postgis.refractions.net
>>> Subject: [postgis-devel] Dropped DM (Time) dimension with intersections
>>>
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>>     Currently I'm using PostGIS 1.3.3.  From past discussions and from
>>> testing, both the st_intersection st_extend methods return 2D results
>>> with
>>> 4D input geometries.  As a temporary work-around, I had hoped
>>> st_intersection might work with 3DM geometries.  (Plan was to
>>> interpolate
>>> the altitude value within the function call if PostGIS could calculate
>>> the
>>> time dimension).   I found time components are also dropped by
>>> st_intersection with 3DM geometries.  I abandoned usage of 4D bounding
>>> boxes
>>> since these too effectively degrade 4D geometries down to 2D geometries
>>> (altitude and time are zeroed out).
>>>
>>>     polyGeometry geometry;
>>>
>>>     bbGeometry geometry;
>>>
>>>     intersectionGeometry geometry;
>>>
>>>     coorddims smallint;
>>>
>>>            -- both polygon and linestring have an expected zmflag value
>>> of
>>> 1
>>>
>>>            polyGeometry := 'SRID=4326;POLYGONM((0 0 0, 0 10 4, 10 10 4,
>>> 10
>>> 0
>>> 0, 0 0 0))'::geometry;
>>>
>>>            bbGeometry := 'SRID=4326;LINESTRINGM(0 0 1.5, 10 10
>>> 2)'::geometry;
>>>
>>>            intersectionGeometry := st_intersection(polyGeometry,
>>> bbGeometry);
>>>
>>>            -- st_intersection method drops the time dimension; zmflag
>>> value
>>> of 0
>>>
>>>            coorddims := st_zmflag(intersectionGeometry);
>>>
>>> If I were to download the subversion snapshot, the current 1.4 version,
>>> might st_intersection work with either 3DM or 4D geometries?  Are
>>> bounding
>>> boxed or st_extend improved for either 3DM or 4D geometries?  I had
>>> incorporated polygons only as a possible work-around to the bounding box
>>> and
>>> st_extend 2D limitations.
>>>
>>> Margie
>>>
>>> ________________________________
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>>>
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>> The substance of this message, including any attachments, may be
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>> received
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