The ability to view and interact with CGM graphics is a crucial task for many companies and organizations. The ability to view graphics is just one of the requirements, also important is the capability to convert to additional file formats. Also, the facility to print is equally significant, especially to larger format devices, a requirement in the Oil and Gas industry.

1. Informational Webinar
The Complete Guide
CGM Graphics Viewing
Presenters
Don Larson – CEO
David Manock – VP Sales & Marketing
Welcome
The Webinar will begin shortly

2. Webinar: Housekeeping
• All attendees will be muted for the duration of the Webinar
• If you experience problems when joining the webinar, please
use the questions function to communicate
• Computer Audio is the recommended option
• We have some product data sheets available in the Handouts
section, drag and drop to download, at anytime
• Post questions during the webinar using the panel
• Questions will be answered following the main presentation
or by email
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3. Agenda
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• Company Overview
• Introduction
• CGM Viewing in Detail
• Standalone
• Technology
• Including live demos
• Q&A session
• Closing remarks

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Larson Software Technology
• Based in Houston, Texas, USA – New Location
• Founded in 1984, graphic technology experts for 30 years
• We develop powerful, innovative graphics software and
toolkits, based on open standards
• Promoted CGM usage, by providing a free CGM & TIFF
viewer, replaced by a subscription version available online
• The Larson online store is now open, the address:
• www.cgmlarson.com/store
• Developer of the first HTML5 CGM viewer, no plug in!
• Member of the CGM Open Foundation
• Larson technology simplifies the graphics workflow for
Technical Publications Professionals, Engineers,
Geologists, and Geophysicists
• www.cgmlarson.com

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Introduction
• The viewing of CGM graphics can be neatly split into two disciplines
• Standalone
• Technology
• Standalone – The Viewer application is installed on a specific
computer or mobile device to view graphics
• Technology – The Viewer, using a Software Development Kit (SDK) is
embedded inside solution (Internet), enabling the display of graphics

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The Requirement – Standalone Viewer
• The primary requirement is to View the CGM or TIFF graphic
• Usually some interaction with the graphic is required
• However, the ability to convert to other file formats, and print the
graphic is also important
• Convert – Requiring another file type for data exchange scenarios
• Print – Although we are moving away from a print paradigm this is still a
useful function, particularly large format printing E.G. Presentations

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The CGM format
• CGM (Computer Graphics Metafile)
• An Open Non-Proprietary format
• Ability to contain both Raster and Vector Data and retain attributes
• Oil and Gas industry the preferred graphics format
• Driven by the PIP profile
• Extension for seismic data
• Aerospace and Defense Specifications compliant, S1000D and ATA
• W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)
• WebCGM profile developed specifically for web delivery
• http://www.w3.org/Graphics/WebCGM/
• Interoperable
• Supports metadata, for example, can contain hotspot information

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View
• Why do we need to view CGM graphics?
• There are various scenarios where this task is required
• View CGM graphics
• embedded in an interactive manual
• in a web environment
• on mobile devices, iOS and Android
• Exchanging data from other systems where the CGM is a supported
export format
• Displaying Seismic data and well log data maps
• Quality Assurance, the ability to view and also markup the graphic

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Convert – Data Exchange
• Why do we need to convert or create CGM graphics?
• The requirement is about differing data exchange scenarios
• Open a CGM file, save into another format for onward use
• Objective, create a file for use in an environment not supporting CGM
• E.G. Microsoft Office
• Open another file format, e.g. DWG, and save as a CGM
• Objective, create a usable file
DWG
TIFF
EMF
JPG PNG

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Print
• Why do we need to print CGM graphics?
• The ability to print is a significant function of a viewer
• So what are the scenarios?
• Print hard copy for internal and external reports
• Print to PDF, also another possible data exchange scenario
• Print to large format devices for presentation purposes

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CGM Graphics Viewers - Features
• Standalone Viewers
• Need to be cost effective
• Task orientated
• Flexible
• Easy and intuitive to use
• Mobile device friendly
• Embedded Viewers
• Easy to implement
• Cross platform and browser support
• The key functionality is interaction

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Standalone Viewers

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• Entry level
• Supports the viewing of CGM and TIFF formats
• Basic Functionality
• Pan and Zoom
• Limited print functionality
• No data exchange capability
• Cost effective solution
• Available in our online store

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• Enhanced functionality
• Mark-up
• Large print capability
• Add commonly used industry
symbols
• Draw shapes
• Create hyperlinks
• Data Exchange capability
• Evaluation version available

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• All the functions of VizEx Pro
• Specific Oil & Gas Functionality
• View Well Logs side by side
• Lock image
• Splice graphics
• Supports the Petroleum
industry profiles
• Evaluation version available

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• Use on iPad and iPhone
• CGM and TIFF formats supported
• Has many of the functions available
in VizEx Pro
• Available in the App Store, only $1.99

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The Requirement – Embedded Viewing Technology
• Larson also provides Viewer Software Developments Kits (SDK’s)
• The objective view CGM files in a proprietary solution or more commonly a
web browser-based solution
• Internet or Intranet solution
• This could be and Interactive Electronic Technical Manual
• The ability to view the graphic but also interact is paramount
• Traditionally the viewing of CGM files in a web was achieved via a plug-in
technology
• Browsers are stopping the support of plug-ins mainly down to security issues
• The result, use an alternative file format or technology
• HTML5 is the real game changer for internet content

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HTML5
• HyperText Markup Language (HTML) - Version 5.0
• Core technology of the Internet used for structuring and presenting content
on the World Wide Web
• W3C Recommendation
• Not owned, non-proprietary
• HTML5 adds many new syntactic features including:
• <video>, <audio> and <canvas> elements
• Additionally the integration of the SVG graphics format
• The new features are primarily designed to enable multimedia delivery
without using plug-ins
• Device-independent design to work on broad array of devices PCs,
smartphones and tablets
• Introduces several application programming interfaces (APIs) for complex web
applications

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Use Cases – VizEx View HTML5
• Currently the viewing technology is being deployed in
technical manual environments
• Operation instructions, interactive spare part
catalog
• We see a fantastic opportunity for the Oil
& Gas industry to embrace the technology
• Develop cloud-based viewers to present and
distribute and share graphical information,
internally and externally
• Standby for a live demo of VizEx View HTML5

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Technology Viewers (SDK’s)

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• Optimized CGM loading and rendering
• Support for raster formats: TIFF, JPG, BMP, PNG, GIF
• Automatically detects supported file types
• Text Search is possible through toolbar
• Display multiple CGM images on single web page
• Support for XCF, XML companion file
• API enhanced
• New functions, customer driven
• Javascript library (VizExView.js) loaded dynamically
• Can be loaded as a background process
• Evaluation version available
http://cgmlarson.com/VizEx_View_HTML5_Tests.html
Main Features

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• Chrome: Linux, Windows, Android…
• Firefox: Linux, Windows, Android…
• Internet Explorer 11: Windows 7 and 10
• Microsoft Edge: Windows 10
• Safari: iOS and OSX
Browser Support

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• We still offer this technology and support and maintain our customer base
• We recommend new customers evaluate the VizEx View HTML5 technology
• Why is the technology now unpopular?
• Plug-in weaknesses
• Had to be installed on the target computer
• Strongly criticized for creating security issues
• In some organizations, they would require IT accreditation
• Browser Support
• Only Internet Explorer still supports ActiveX
• The Microsoft Edge browser – support was dropped
• Good indication the technology will be phased out
• Chrome blocked plug-ins in 2016
• Firefox still supports plug-ins
• Future strategy unknown
• A CGM viewing solution with no reliance on a plug-in will be beneficial

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• We provide dedicated environments to create mobile
applications
• Example code to get you started
• Develop Custom Apps for company use or commercial sale

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• C++ Library SDK for Linux and Windows
• Sample code
• Documentation
• Object Code Library
• Wrapper for calls from C# Applications

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Live Demo

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So why do we still need to view CGM & TIFF graphics?
• The facts:
• CGM is still probably the mostly widely used graphics format in the Oil &
Gas industry
• Substantial legacy archive of CGM and TIFF files
• Reliable data exchange format and display
• Industry standard software still has good support for CGM
• Haliburton, Schlumberger, Kingdom
• Why not just convert the CGM file to another format
• Potential for data loss
• Cost
Final remarks

28. Q&A
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Closing Information
Thank you for attending
• You will receive an email with links to the recordings and slides
• View our Blog at www.cgmlarson.com/blog
• Larson Webinar Channel https://www.gotostage.com/channel/larsonsoftware
• Supporting Information
• www.slideshare.com/donlarson1
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