November 19, 2008 -- Lawrence, KS—ThinkGeo is excited to announce the release of Map Suite Desktop Edition 3.0 Beta 1, the next generation of its professional .NET native GIS control for desktop application development. Desktop Edition 3.0 has been re-engineered from the ground-up to help .NET developers create more efficient, more powerful and more attractive applications for the Windows desktop, making it the perfect platform for designing today's sophisticated GIS software applications.

By popular request, Map Suite Desktop Edition 3.0 beta now includes controls for Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) as well as Windows Forms, letting you develop the rich user interfaces today's audiences demand. Combined with a full range of editable map features, customizable data sources and robust user controls, Map Suite Desktop Edition 3.0 delivers a high-fidelity user experience that will engage your audience even as it provides them with all the spatial data they need.

Map Suite Desktop Edition 3.0 also offers a completely revamped API that's built for faster and simpler coding, better coherence and more extensibility. It supports a wide variety of .NET development platforms, including .NET 2.0, 3.0 and 3.5, and was designed for use with Microsoft Visual Studio.NET 2008. All this means that developers can use Desktop Edition 3.0 to accomplish their goals with greater ease than the competition, or with previous versions of Map Suite.

Other major new GIS features in Map Suite Desktop Edition 3.0 include drag-and-drop panning, spatial querying, advanced graphing and charting, and much more. There's also support for a wide variety of new spatial data formats like Oracle Spatial, PostgreSQL PostGIS, and Microsoft SQL 2008. You can even integrate your own custom OpenGIS® compliant data source.

GIS developers can start using this initial beta of Map Suite Desktop Edition 3.0 right away thanks to a wide variety of bundled sample applications provided with full source code in C#. The samples demonstrate how to implement all of Desktop Edition's core features, advanced capabilities and new enhancements. An easy-to-follow QuickStart Guide is also available.

ThinkGeo plans to release additional new beta versions of Map Suite Desktop Edition 3.0 in the coming weeks, all of which will add even more GIS features and capabilities. For more information on Map Suite Desktop Edition 3.0 Beta 1, including a free 60-day evaluation download and the latest news on other releases in the Map Suite 3.0 product family, visit ThinkGeo's website at http://gis.thinkgeo.com.

ThinkGeo is an industry leader in GIS mapping controls and components. The company offers a wide variety of high-quality products for software developers who are using mapping and geospatial functionality within their applications. They have clients from a wide base of industries ranging from agriculture to aerospace. For more information about ThinkGeo products or professional services, visit www.thinkgeo.com or contact one of our sales representatives at sales@thinkgeo.com or (866)847-7510.