| POSC Specifications Version 2.2 | CGM*PIP Volume 1 - PIP/I/3 and PIP/II/3 |
Petrotechnical Open Software Corporation (POSC) is a not-for-profit membership corporation dedicated to defining an open computing environment for technical applications termed the software integration platform. Developed for the international oil and gas Exploration and Production (E&P) industry, the software integration platform is a set of specifications that addresses:
The goal of these specifications is to provide oil and gas organizations with methods to manage data resources and to support integrated multi-disciplinary projects. Using the POSC software integration platform contributes to this goal by improving the portability, scalability and interoperability of technical applications.
The POSC Specification, CGM*PIP, Petroleum Industry Profile for CGM, is one component of the software integration platform. This specification establishes the requirements to be met when two-dimensional graphical picture data that is vector or mixed vector and raster is used in the graphical interchange between petrotechnical applications employed in petroleum Exploration and Production (E&P) and related applications, using the format of the Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM).
The CGM*PIP specification is comprised of two volumes:
POSC encourages the petroleum industry to use this book as a specification for acquiring and developing applications and implementations.
The CGM*PIP specification was produced by an industry project team, of which POSC was a participant. Refer to Section 7, "Production Notes" for details on the development process. Following the publication of the document defining PIP/I/2 and PIP/II/1, the PIP working group officially disbanded in mid-1993. Recognizing the need to effect a smooth transition of the PIP work to a responsible industry body, six companies subscribed to a PIP Maintenance Project. From September 1, 1993 to September 1, 1994, Henderson Software Inc. (HSI) provided the functions of the PIP maintenance project. Contributions (defect reports and requests for clarification) were received and processed. The sources included both a small collection of early implementors and also standards people who were working on profiles and studying PIP. The PIP/I and PIP/II corrections and changes are documented in the PIP Maintenance Project Final Report (Henderson Software Inc., 1 September, 1994). That report also identified technical issues and recommendations to be considered for future PIP releases. The Maintenance Release of CGM*PIP Specifications defined PIP/I/3 and PIP/II/2 (maintenance edition 3 of PIP/I and edition 2 of PIP/II).
During the PIP maintenance period, POSC issued a Request for Comments (RFC) on Graphics Metafile Format (January, 1994). The primary purpose of the RFC was to verify the suitability of the CGM*PIP (I and II) specification as the base document for producing a POSC graphics metafile standard for the E&P industry. A secondary purpose of the RFC was to obtain feedback on the E&P industry's additional requirements for a graphics metafile format. Following analysis of the RFC responses, POSC endorsed CGM*PIP/I/2 for graphics data interchange, as documented in the POSC Base Computer Standards, V2.0. Due to the intertwining of the PIP/I and PIP/II specifications in the document produced by the PIP project, POSC published both levels of PIP, even though only PIP/I is endorsed at this time. POSC is tracking progress on the industry's implementation of the PIP/II specifications and will consider endorsement when sufficient industry acceptance is attained.
As noted in the PIP Maintenance Project Final Report, the PIP copyright was transferred to POSC, with the stipulation that POSC modifications to the PIP/I and PIP/II specifications be limited to reasonable maintenance fixes and that those fixes be compatible with future PIP versions. Following the conclusion of the PIP Maintenance Project in September, 1994, the electronic files for the Maintenance Release of CGM*PIP Specifications were transmitted to POSC. The contents of this POSC document are identical to the Maintenance Release of CGM*PIP Specifications, except for the substantive changes noted below, some minor editorial updates, and the addition of the POSC cover page, copyright page, and this Preface. Other cosmetic changes were made to maintain consistency with POSC publication style.
In October 1995, a Change Request (POSC #750) was processed and it was resolved that there had been an omission of a useful option in PIP, relating to the pre-scaling of sample values prior to derivation of colour indexes (by table lookup or linear scaling). As a consequence, two new values were defined for the parameters of the Variable-Area Fill Variant Colour Selection ESCAPE and the Background Fill Variant Colour Selection ESCAPE, resulting in an increment in the maintenance release number of PIP/II/2 to PIP/II/3.
In the March 1995 release of this document, defining PIP/I/3 and PIP/II/2, there were the following substantive changes to the Maintenance Release of CGM*PIP Specifications:
In the March 1996 release of this document, defining PIP/I/3 and PIP/II/3, there were the following substantive changes to the previous release (March 1995):
POSC is the maintenance provider for the CGM*PIP specification. All defects, problem reports, questions, comments, and recommendations for future enhancements should be directed to the POSC Help Desk: help@posc.org.
This entire document is provided in electronic form. Please be aware that there is a likelihood that some printers may print certain characters differently. Also, in the case of the Hershey glyph metrics (Figure 38), the characters may not print at precisely the correct size. In all cases, the official reference for compliance with the specifications stated herein shall be the hard copy master maintained by POSC.
This release completes POSC's planned work on CGM extensions. Developers and users are encouraged to contact POSC with recommendations for further extensions, such as for mapping and contouring, that would benefit the industry.
This specification is intended for use by:
Under the management of David Archer, Chief Operating Officer, and Cary Purdy, Integration Environment Project Leader, the editor of this CGM*PIP, Petroleum Industry Profile for CGM document is Dortha Dougherty, Integration Environment Technologist.
POSC wishes to thank the community of CGM users who worked to develop the PIP specifications and to all who responded to the RFC on Graphics Metafile Format. Special thanks go to the members of the POSC Plot/Hard Copy Work Group for their diligence in analyzing the responses to the RFC:
POSC thanks Lofton Henderson and his staff at Henderson Software Inc. for supplying the electronic files and for the extra effort involved in supporting the preparation of this document for electronic release. Thanks also go to Lee Metrick for his support of incorporating electronic files into the document.