The ArcView - XGobi - XploRe environment has been designed to combine the strengths of three different software packages in the exploration and analysis of data collected in a spatial framework.
ArcView, commercially distributed by ESRI, is a Geographic Information System (GIS) that allows spatial data in many forms to be displayed, queried, and manipulated.
XGobi is a dynamic graphics program that allows multivariate data to be explored through the manipulation of scatterplots. XGobi provides tools for the exploration of multivariate data such as linked brushing, identification, the grand tour, and projection pursuit.
XploRe is a full analytical statistical package that complements the graphical capabilities of XGobi. In combination with ArcView and XGobi, XploRe can be used for statistical modeling as well as for the smoothing of data in statistical graphics and maps.
The ArcView - XGobi - XploRe environment allows data collected at spatial locations that is stored in ArcView to be dynamically passed to XGobi and XploRe and be explored and analyzed. The link between the data in XGobi and XploRe and the locations from which they were collected is maintained through "linked brushing". Linked brushing, as used in this context, is the ability to change the glyph/size/color of the points in either ArcView, XGobi, or XploRe and to see the corresponding points in the other applications change simultaneously.
This document does not contain extended documentation of the use of either ArcView, XGobi, or XploRe. Please contact ESRI to obtain additional documentation on ArcView or check the XGobi and XploRe Web sites for their extensive on-line documentation. Each individual software package also provides interactive help that is accessible by the click of a mouse button when the software is properly installed.
The initial version of the ArcView/XGobi link has been developed between 1994 and 1997 at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.
Since 1997, we have been extending the ArcView/XGobi link with the addidtion of a new link to XploRe to form the ArcView/XGobi/XploRe environment. This part has been developed at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany, and Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.
Recent work on the full ArcView - XGobi - XploRe environment has been conducted in 1999 and 2000 at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, and Utah State University, Logan, Utah.
Copyright (c) Jürgen Symanzik, James J. Majure, Dianne Cook, Nicholas Lewin-Koh
Please check the inidividual copyright restrictions for each of the software packages, i.e., ArcView, XGobi, and XploRe, that make up the ArcView - XGobi - XploRe environment. In particular, ArcView® is a registered trademark of Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., Redlands, CA, USA.
We encourage you to share questions, comments
and modifications. Please contact us in case of any question or problem.
Jürgen Symanzik
(symanzik@sunfs.math.usu.edu)
James Majure (No longer an active member of the team)
Dianne Cook (dicook@iastate.edu)
Nicholas Lewin-Koh
(nlewin@iastate.edu)
This work was conducted under funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through Cooperative Agreement CR822919 with Iowa State University (1994-1997).
Symanzik's research was also partially supported by a German "DAAD-Doktorandenstipendium aus Mitteln des zweiten Hochschulsonderprogramms" (1994-1995).
Additional funding has been provided by the John Deere company (1997-1998).
Recent additions have been made under a contract (Reference No. 99C903053) with the National Center for Health Statistics (1999).
These documents have not been subjected to any of the previously listed agencies' peer and administrative reviews. No endorsement of the contents by any of these agencies should be inferred.