SEXTANTE news and inofficial preview

Dear All,
As some of you may already be aware, there have been substantial changes to the SEXTANTE project.
The website at www.sextantegis.com now focuses on a new implementation of SEXTANTE, written in Python and designed primarily to run from within QGIS.
In response to this, we have contacted Victor Olaya, the original creator of SEXTANTE, and he agreed for us to transfer the Java source code to the gvSIG CE SVN. From now on, we will keep developing SEXTANTE as an official part of the gvSIG CE project.

Over the past few weeks, I have made extensive changes to the SEXTANTE settings system and the graphical Modeler. You can download a snapshot of the current SEXTANTE version here
Copy the ZIP into "../extensiones/es.unex.sextante" and unpack it, overwriting any existing files. You might also want to delete your old settings in the "Sextante" folder in your home directory.

The most important improvements are:
1. Renovated settings pages.
2. Better portability: GRASS, SAGA and R are by default looked for in subfolders of the SEXTANTE installation folder.
3. Brought back the ability to set up a GRASS installation anywhere on your system as an algorithm provider.
4. Vastly improved graphical modeler. This tool is now stable and should be fit for productive work.
5. GRASS vector modules work on 64 bit Windows.

For now, you will also need to select "High compatibility mode" on the GRASS settings page. This will make sure that SEXTANTE runs with any version of GRASS 6.4.x.
I would especially like your feedback on the new graphical modeler (note that the documentation is currently out of date). If you find any problems, please report them via the bug tracker (don't forget to select "SEXTANTE" as current project first).

Best,
Benjamin Ducke
gvSIG CE Team

gvSIG CE at 2012 Washington GIS Conference

Karsten Vennemann, principal of Terra GIS Ltd. and education contact for the “Cascadia Users of Geospatial Open Source” group, is ready to present a 4 hour workshop at the WAURISA 2012 conference: “Introduction to gvSIG CE and geo-processing with SEXTANTE”. 

The workshop consists of the following three parts (with 15 minutes breaks in between sessions):
1. Introduction to gvSIG CE Desktop GIS
60 minutes, presentation style
Objective: Participants will get a short introduction to free and open source GIS tools,  the desktop GIS gvSIG CE (Community Edition)  and the SEXTANTE library. The overview will include topics such as general GIS functionality in gvSIG CE, supported data formats, editing of GIS data, layout and cartography, accessing spatial databases and available extensions for gvSIG (e.g. 3D, Raster and Remote Sensing, and Network Data Analysis) . A discussion of geo-processing and spatial analysis with native gvSIG and with SEXTANTE tools will close the general overview.
2. “Hands-on” exercises and examples using gvSIG CE
75 minutes, demonstration style, participants can follow the demos “hands-on” on their own (windows based) laptop with gvSIG CE installed.
The exercises will cover the general use of gvSIG: editing of GIS data,  accessing spatial databases, and layout & cartography
Objective: The examples will illustrate how to use gvSIG CE as a general desktop GIS
3. “Hands-on” exercises and examples for Spatial Analysis and Geo-processing with gvSIG CE and SEXTANTE
75 minutes, demonstration style, participants can follow the demos “hands-on” on their own (windows based) laptop with gvSIG CE installed.
The exercises will cover the use of spatial analysis and geo-processing tools in gvSIG CE for raster and vector data: native gvSIG tools, and tools available via the integrated SEXTANTE library (also includes SAGA GIS, GRASS and R (Statistical package) algorithms).
Objective: The examples will illustrate how to use  gvSIG CE and SEXTANTE for Spatial Analysis and Geo-processing in order to learn about the capabilities and functionality available.

Workshop presenters/instructors
Karsten Vennemann, Terra GIS (GIS Analyst and instructor for OS GIS)
GIS Consultant, frequent speaker and OS GIS Instructor
http://terragis.net

Links
gvSIG CE (Community Edition): http://gvsigce.org
SEXTANTE: library http://www.sextantegis.com
Terra GIS: http://terragis.net

SEXTANTE article in GEO Informatics

SEXTANTE a free Java Library for Geospatial Analysis:
Authors: Ruth Schönbuchner, José Canalejo, Victor Olaya, Juan Carlos Gimenez
Geo Informatics, 8 December 2011 Volume 14 - ISSN 13870858


SEXTANTE  is a free library for Geospatial Analysis that includes a large set of geoprocessing tools. It contains more than three hundred algorithms for both raster and vector data processing. For most of them, contextual help has been prepared, which provides insight into the functionality of the tool.
In the current version of SEXTANTE it is possible to use an interface to the free software GRASS GIS and SAGA. Since august 2011 SEXTANTE can be also integrated into ArcGIS.
SEXTANTE can be improved by programmers to incorporate analysis functionalities into their software.
Although many innovations have been realized, the SEXTANTE project team members continue with new interesting ideas such as the integration of R, the powerful statistical software, into SEXTANTE.
Enjoy reading this article!