Environment

SmartGlobe Rembrandt Users

The CADAC smartGlobe Rembrandt System has been developed for the specialised aeronautical chart production environments as can be found in Flight Services Departments of Airlines and AIS Departments of Civil or Military Aviation Authorities as well as specialised commercial chart production bureaux.

The typical end-user in these environments is highly trained and skilled. It is assumed that the reader of this User’s Guide has a thorough knowledge of navigation and aeronautical charting.

In the following it is assumed that there are three types of smartGlobe Rembrandt users:

• Cartographer: This person is responsible for creating charts and preparing them for publication. They will also keep the charts up to date when new data becomes available from eEAD.

• Configuration manager: This person is responsible for maintaining the configuration for an organization. They can manage symbols, symbolization rules, chart types etc.

• Viewer: A viewer can view any chart within an organization, but not make any changes.

About smartGlobe Rembrandt

Goal

The goal of the SmartGlobe Rembrandt application is to support aviation authorities in creating ICAO compliant aeronautical charts for their AIPs, based on data that is available in the eEAD database.

The most important functions are:

• Creating and setting up a chart: a three-dimensional area on the globe must be projected onto the two-dimensional design plane.

• Grid generation: a chart border (neat lines) and grid or reticule can be generated, with tick marks at user-defined intervals.

• Automated generating of chart contents: aeronautical elements can be generated automatically from the database for a specified chart area and effective date.

• Checking and updating chart contents: for an existing chart the chart contents are checked against the most recent database values.

Focus

The focus points of Rembrandt are automatic chart generation and systems integration. In addition, map elements with geographic coordinates that don’t exist in eEAD (contours, topography, outlines of buildings, etc.) are imported through Shape files or SVG graphics. Text and simple graphics (highlighting tool) for non-AXIM elements are available to capture or added missing information.

Successor

Rembrandt is positioned as a successor of the original SmartGlobe add-on to MicroStation. The purpose of both products is the same, yet their implementation, methodology and end user interaction are different. As such, not every functionality in the original product should or will exist one-to-one in the new product. Rembrandt is not intended to be a design tool and will not recreate CAD functionality of MicroStation.

As described in Section 5 non-AXIM compliant data can be added though SVG or Shape file imports and through annotations, labels and highlighting. It has been identified that the end user leveraged on the extensive CAD functionality of MicroStation and expanded the use of SmartGlobe beyond its intended purpose. Rembrandt is in its first releases focusing on replacing that original intended purpose, i.e. production of charts.

Cartographer in supervising role

With the new product, the role of the cartographer will shift from drawing charts with a CAD system to supervising the automatic generation. The application creates a solid starting point for a chart, removing repetitive and tedious work for the cartographer. While the chart already includes required elements, the cartographer still needs to add annotations, to declutter and make the final chart more readable (referred to as the 'clean-up' phase). As the automatic generation can be changed by adding custom rules, the cartographer can improve charts that are generated in the future with a single action, instead of having to modify every chart by hand.

Data quality and completeness

SmartGlobe Rembrandt is built on the assumption that contributing aviation authorities fill the eEAD database with complete and correct data (both published and planned data). Rembrandt will not contain functionality to support handling missing or incomplete features and procedures. It is therefore the responsibility of the individual clients to ensure that their data is up-to-date in eEAD. Non-AIXM elements are unsupported.

Configuration

Rembrandt allows for limited configuration/customization which are provided as a paid service. The configuration capabilities are aimed at bridging the gap between ICAO compliance and national/regional regulation allowing authorities to have a consistent branding of their charts.

The configuration capabilities are not intended to allow for personal taste or preferences in charting.