Hi everybody. As loyal user of Manifold since 4.5, and superbly grateful for a great product as Manifold 8, just like Mike Pelletier put it, on this tread. https://georeference.org/forum/t164708.16

I wonder how many of us, that still use Manifold 8 on a constant basis, have not made a full transfer to R9. (Because I don't call it Manifold 9, I call it Release 9, because it's whole different beast, just from the same mother), jajaja. Not a joke.

I understand business is business, and we as users, don't need to know nor the Manifold owner need to tells what they are doing or in what projects are they working at, that gives them the profit they need. But, I feel like an orphan, in some ways. Manifold 8 still is a powerful product, I still sell licenses and bring new users to the community, because IT WORKS and works well in most cases. For me (totally personal opinion) R9 is a ETL tool for projects that M8 can't handle fast or for import/export to formats M8 doesn't have.

You say it on your website... THE WORLD'S BEST CLASSICAL GIS so why stop having the best GIS just a little improved. Maybe a Plug in to completely complement M8 and R9. Now a days, I offer M8+R9, for the simple reason that we can do 98% of task in 8 and for the rest use the R9 for it. But not as a single GIS solution... so is not about losing sales... I rather sell both, which I think is the purpose of Manifold Inc, to sell the most number of licenses for the greater profit. Hey, you did a wonderful plugin for the competition giving ESRI REAL SQL capabilities, with the SQL for ARCGIS Plug in, and for that one, you had to adapt something... why not do the same for your community of loyal users. A transfer or evolution from 8 to 9, wans't like a Windows 10 to 11 or Excel 10 to whatever... but they did improved on file formats from xls to xlsx for example, and I firmly believe that Manifold is capable of that. If you can put this awesome of software in a less than 40Megabytes of an installer file in comparison to gigabytes of ESRI or any other software, then maybe not be that hard....

I am just curious, because, Am I been unreasonable or just crazy to think like I do, or others think like this as well. How many of use, have completely stopped using M8? I wonder how many GIS have not chosen Manifold for the uncertainty or unclear communication of Where is Manifold going... I am still here... after waiting 10 years for R9, and this is supposed to be a software that states on its website that is Community Driven....

Sorry for the tantrum, but hey this is a user forum, I am a user, and I just wanted to express how I feel. Maybe others feel the same. And the forum has been decreasing in posts... hasn't it??

Have a great weekend everybody. Crazy M8 user!!! Never stop using it, because for me still is the Best Classical GIS, faster to teach, easier to learn and powerful enough for 98% of classic GIS tasks. Cheers.

I hardly use M8. But I do mostly analytical stuff, less cartographic.

An M9 user

http://www.mppng.nl/manifold/pointlabeler

I almost never use 8 these days and if I do, it is only for cartography which I require very rarely. Like Sloots I am mostly analytical for which I use M9 every working day.

Landsystems Ltd ... Know your land | www.landsystems.co.nz

The most time i use MFD8, sometimes MFD9. For me it's like tomasfa reported.

http://www.thegisservicesector.de

Use Mfd 9 over 8 because of better data storage, SQL (automate tasks, edit query examples), cartography (labeling curved lines, line types, sharper), vector editing (traverse, speed of manually manipulating geometry), image server access, image manipulation, analysis tasks, and simple GUI allows big map. Only use 8 for web mapping due to use of Vincent Frechette's template, but hoping 9 replaces that in future.

Hi Mike. Thank you for the answer, but I wonder can you share with us the web mapping template from Vincent Frechette. Please. Cheers, Tomas.

Sorry Tomas but I cannot because it's Vincent's property. Try messaging him through LinkedIn. Looks like he is working for a forestry group in the Quebec, Canada area.

I retired from the appraisal district at the end of 2019, so stopped using either one professionally. I believe the ESRI style input for metes and bounds was just then developed. For straight property line definition, M8 is excellent. For maintenance to the property lines, M8 is speedier than M9, because in M8 the property being maintained becomes a translucent pink color which allows you to zoom in to see where corners do not meet. In M9, the property being edited becomes a solid color pink. Rather than visually inspect to see where corners do not meet, as you do in M8, in M9 you would have to move every corner away and move it back again.

For about the last 9 months in the office, I was able, using M9, to develop a way to assess how many head of livestock there should be on a ranch based on the USDA online soil productivity data maps. The data even account for rainy and dry years which the normal appraisal office is unequipped to do. Using the free M9 Viewer licenses, I trained two appraisers to use the software to create a report to justify why some landowners were not able to feed the "expected" number of livestock animals based on the non-scientific methods our office used. Prior to M9 capability, if a land owner had 100 acres with 50 acres of solid limestone, he/she would still be expected to produce livestock on the entire 100 acres to maintain a special agriculture appraisal.

The other feature I liked about M9 was the ability to import an entire county's worth of LiDAR data for accurate digital elevation model information. Then I could use the DEM from M9 in M8 where the appraisal work was done.

Every week I would export a Google Earth type file and post it on our website for download. We used to get requests from surveyors, Real Estate agents, city and county agencies, and others for that data. Every other county in Texas charged $200 for the file, but I made it available for free just to piss off the GIS appraisal subcontractors around the state.

The final thing M8 had that I could not live without was the ability to print/export a multi layered PDF file. It seemed about 3x per month someone in the county wanted a detailed map of their property. We sold 42"xXX" maps for $40, which was really a steal.

Now my interest is more in the area of artistic mapping. John Nelson is the resident ESRI expert on giving maps a beauty beyond the data. I started looking into the use of Blender to create 3D effects with maps, but learning Blender is like learning SQL. I have a pretty good head for GIS, but when you add in SQL and/or Blender, that's out of my league.

It seems to me that for the past few years while Manifold has made incremental improvements to M9, ESRI has implemented a tidal wave of technology to improve the appearance of their products. Am I right that the version of M9 we're using was released 2 years ago in May 2023?

Hi,

I also started with Manifold 5, if my memory is right. I have both 8 and 9, but do most of my work in R8. Not conversant and a bit lazy to go through steep learning curve. However I am disapponted with R9, wich doesn't read many new nc files. Hope they will solve it. I love R8, since it can do most of my job.

Regards,

Bhat

After understanding the tilemask functions and automating a good part of the procedure for placing coordinates around a layout frame, I only use Manifold 8 for very specific procedures, such as quickly ‘cropping’ images, so Manifold 9 is now my main GIS tool.

use R9 all the time. I use in the past M8 for create text database base on gis vector data ( use GUI script in M8). I really hope that R9 licenced user ll be able to code in external C# editor ( VS , LINQPad , ...) in real time when a C# file in a map R9 project is open.

Boyle surface fr ,en

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to share my thoughts as well. I’ve been using Manifold 8 since 2009, and I still use it daily — it remains my go-to tool, especially for SQL database retrieval and managing land survey spatial datasets. It’s fast, reliable, and easy to teach others.

I also have Manifold 9, but to be honest, I find it quite difficult to learn compared to M8. For me, the learning curve feels steeper — even compared to ArcGIS Pro, which I picked up much faster. Because of that, I still rely on M8 for most of my work.

I appreciate the power and capabilities of both products, and I admire the efficiency of Manifold software overall. But I agree with the sentiment here — M8 remains a superb “classical GIS,” and I hope it continues to be supported or complemented in some way.

Wishing everyone a great weekend, and thanks to the community for keeping the discussion alive!

— A loyal M8 & M9 user