Frequently Asked Questions - CubeSTOR®
 

What is a Spatial Data Warehouse?
The concept of a Spatial Data Warehouse evolves from the same concepts and definition that are applied to business data warehousing:

A subject-oriented, integrated, time-variant, non-volatile collection of (geo)spatial data.

In essence, geospatial data that:

  • Is composed of multiple (disparate) data sources and data products;
  • Is optimized to support data production and data distribution requirements
  • Is updated by operational systems.

A Spatial Data Warehouse is a multi-dimensional solution:

  • It stores all types of GeoData (vector, matrix, raster, etc.) directly into the repository at different levels of resolution
  • It allows end-users to query vast amounts (terabytes) of disparate GeoData with a very fast response time
  • It allows for visual discovery (or navigation) of all GeoData relating to a subject, or spatial extent:
    • End-users can "slice and dice" through different (and disparate) layers of GeoData
    • End-users can drill down or roll up through various dimensions (resolutions) of GeoData
    • End-users obtain a generalized or aggregated view of the GeoData

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What is CubeSTOR®?
CubeSTOR is a highly scalable Spatial Data Warehouse solution that handles massive amounts of disparate geospatial data. Built within the Oracle engine, this product includes a spatial cartridge used to store, manage, access and publish geospatial data (vector, matrix and imagery) on the Internet.

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What geospatial data types can CubeSTOR ingest?
CubeSTOR can ingest the following formats

 ogdiOpen Geospatial Datastore Interface
 shapeESRI® Shape-file format
 dbfDBF xbase/dbase® file format (non spatial)
 mifMapInfo® MIF/MID-file format
 pccfPostal Code format
 linksMulti-Resolution Feature-Links format
 geotiffGeoTIFF image format
 bsqPCI® BSQ/AUX-file format
 dtedDTED® (Digital Terrain Elevation Model) format
 gtopoUSGS Global Elevation data format
 usgsdemUSGS Digital Elevation Model format
 ceosCEOS/AVHRR tape format
 doqUSGS Digital Orthophoto Quadrangle format
 adrgARC Digitized Raster Graphics format
 nitfNational Imagery Transmission Format (CIB, CADRG)
 gmlGeographic Markup Language format 
 soi_dgnSuevey of India DGN encoded format
 dgnMicrostation DGN graphics format
 mdfCubeWerx Multi-Dimensional-File format
 bxfsBasic XML feature schema format
 wkbCubeWerx Well Known Binary raster format
 pngPNG (Portable Network Graphics) Image format
 svgSVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) Image format
 gifGIF Image format
 jpegJPEG Image format
 pnmPPM/PGM/PPM Portable Pixmap Image format
 lidarLIDAR irregular elevation data format
 wfsOGC Web Feature Service interface
 cwfeatureCubeTILE feature access
 cwtileCubeTILE Tile access
 cubestorCUbeSTOR Spatial database
   

 

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Does CubeSTOR have any reprojection capabilities?
CubeSTOR allows users to specify a different reprojection when data is being ingested inside the warehouse. CubeSTOR directly supports over 1100 EPSG projections.  In addition, users can create their own spatial reference system definitions.
 

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Do you need Oracle® Spatial to run CubeSTOR?
CubeSTOR does not require Oracle spatial, or Oracle Enterprise.  It runs on Oracle's standard edition server product.
 

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Can CubeSTOR coexist with other spatial cartridges such as ESRI ArcSDE™ ?
CubeSTOR can coexist with ESRI ArcSDE and/or Oracle Spatial cartridges.

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How does CubeSTOR differ from ESRI ArcSDE™?
The two (2) major differences between CubeSTOR and ESRI ArcSDE are:

  • CubeSTOR provides you full customization capabilities for the spatial data model used to create the spatial tables inside the warehouse
  • Visual discovery of geospatial data stored inside CubeSTOR does not require any prior knowledge of the existence and/or location of a particular layer. This means that you don't need to create a project (map) to link/access/discover a layer. CubeSTOR support GeoData Browsing. White Paper on GeoData Browsing (PDF format)

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How does CubeSTOR differ from Oracle® Spatial?

CubeSTOR has a number of OGC-compliant Web services that help with the discovery, publication and distribution of geospatial data on the Internet.

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Does CubeSTOR allow you to customize the underlying spatial data model?
CubeSTOR comes with a utility that allows you to customize the spatial data model used to created the spatial tables inside the warehouse.

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Can you store raster imagery directly in CubeSTOR?
Yes, regardless of volume (terabytes).

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Does CubeSTOR support color rasters, multi-layered rasters, lossless compression, lossy compression?
Yes to all of the above.

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Which raster formats does CubeSTOR support?
GeoTIFF/TIFF, PNG, JPEG, GIF, BSQ/BIL/BIP, DTED, GTOPO, USGS DEM, CEOS, DOQ, ADRG, NITF, CADRG.

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Does CubeSTOR support recreation of seamless orthomosaic when tiles are updated in the warehouse?
Yes. The aggregation process allows you to update individual tiles without having to reaggregate the entire content of the spatial data warehouse.

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