Global Mapper v14.2 is Now Available!

Blue Marble Geographics is pleased to announce the availability of the official Global Mapper v14.2 release for download at http://www.bluemarblegeo.com/downloads/global-mapper/global_mapper_setup.exe. If you need the 64-bit version you can download and install that from http://www.bluemarblegeo.com/downloads/global-mapper/global_mapper_setup_64bit.exe.

Numerous significant enhancements and bug fixes have been made to Global Mapper since v8. The most significant changes are described below:

• Improved Volume Measurement Tools such as one too measure the volume difference within multiple area features.
• Added new right-click option to the ‘Search Vector Data’ dialog to allow calculating and displaying the statistics for a numeric column in a result set including minimum, maximum, average, and standard deviation.
• Many scripting updates and additions, including support for calculating attributes, splitting layers, and interactively prompting users for files and folders.
• Many LiDAR enhancements, including search by elevations, rendering of points based on return value, point loading slider bar, reporting tools for point cloud density, improved import/export options including point cloud to DXF/DWG.
• Additional LiDAR processing improvements such as;
• Dramatic increase in LiDAR processing and display speed, and the ability to view and process point files in the hundreds of millions range. This is beneficial for previewing the data before processing and includes rendering intensity values in a variety of ways such as; limiting import by return type, statistics display and feature attribute editing
• Global Mapper Package (GMP) files are now able to store Lidar point clouds in a special compressed manner much smaller (4-10 times usually) than uncompressed LAS data in line with the best compression on the market today
• Ability to render the intensity values as grayscale images, coloring by LiDAR classification, and coloring by point elevation or RGB color if present
• Ability to limit import of LiDAR files by return type (like first, last, first of many, last of many return, etc.)
• Added display of a large number of statistics for LiDAR data
• Updated editing of LiDAR point features to have special edit dialogues for the attributes that apply to LiDAR point data
• Global Mapper Package (GMP) files now being able to store Lidar point clouds in a special compressed manner much smaller (4-10 times usually) than uncompressed LAS data
• New USB Dongle licensing available
• Added new Analysis menu (formerly the Terrain Analysis Menu) option to compute the areas covered when you raise the water level of selected areas or a fixed elevation by some height. This is useful for modeling the rise of a flood plain by some height or by modeling sea level rise
• Added option to Analysis menu to allow calculation of Voronoi/Theissen polygons for loaded point features
• New File Formats: GeoMedia MDB, DWG 2013, MapBox MBTiles and RMaps SQlite files for use on mobile devices like Andriod and much more
• Many new Digitizer tool improvements and bug fixes including a new option to Advanced Feature Creation submenu to create a coverage area (concave hull) for loaded or selected point features. This allows you to easily get the coverage for an irregularly shaped grouping of points, like in a Lidar data set
• Updated DigitalGlobe premium imagery with access to new DigitalGlobe servers with faster access to more up-to-date and higher resolution imagery in most locations
• Added support for specifying custom paper sizes for geospatial PDF export.
• Added MapQuest OpenAerial Worldwide Imagery as built-in source
• Load many geospatial PDF files at higher resolution
• Added built-in access to Geologic Map datasets for most of the world using the Download Online Imagery/Data menu
• Many enhancements to the Digitizer tool
• New format support for LogASCII, Norwegian SOSI export, PCI Geomatix PIX, NDVI in HDF5 format, EasyGPS .loc, and several others
• Added new network licensing option with borrow feature and concurrent seat access.
• New Geospatial PDF functionality like import/export to 64-bit versions, ability to select which layer to load and ability to load multi-page PDfs with geo-positioning.
• Significantly sped up depression filling step when generating watersheds/drainage areas.
• Added built-in access to land cover datasets and generation of grids from layers.
• Many new enhancements to the Digitizer tool.
• Added support for LAS 1.4 and LASzip (compressed Lidar) files.
• Added support for JeoJSON and Digital Bathymetric Database Variable Resolution (DBDB-V).
• Created native 64-bit version of Global Mapper, allowing users of 64-bit versions Windows to work with much larger data sets.
• Added direct access to high resolution DigitalGlobe imagery for the entire world through the File->Download Online Imagery menu command. Free access is provided to watermarked imagery for reference only, with access to un-watermarked imagery that can be exported to new files can be purchased.
• Added support for exporting ECW files of unlimited size. Previously there was a limit of 500 MB of uncompressed data for ECW exports.
• Added map layout support for easily adding margins, text, map legend, and north arrows to your map and setting up the display and location of the distance scale and elevation legend.
• Added built-in access to global street-level maps from OpenStreetMap.org, NAIP color imagery for the US, worldwide ASTER GDEM terrain data, 10m (1/3rd arc second) US NED terrain data, and US Parcel Data via the File->Download Online Imagery/Data menu command.
• Added support for exporting loaded data to JPEG2000 format files.
• Support for importing/exporting GeoPDF® files!
• Support for exporting loaded vector data to DWG files.
• Added support for automatically delineating stream networks and watershed areas using loaded terrain/DEM data using the File->Generate Watershed menu command.
• Added support for numerous new formats, including ESRI Personal Geodatabase (MDB), BigTIFF, MrSID MG4 LIDAR, Vertical Mapper (MapInfo) Grid/Clutter, SOSI, QCT, QED, HTF, SPS, BAG, ARCS and many others.
• The 3D Viewer now supports displaying 3D vector features in space above or below the terrain surface. You can also extrude 3D area features to create building-like displays.
• Added support for exporting multi-band GeoTIFF, BIL, and JPEG2000 files with 8, 16, or 32-bits per band.
• Added 'Area Styles', 'Line Styles', and 'Point Styles' tabs to Options dialog for vector layers allowing users to setup the styling of features in a layer. Now users can use the default type-based styling, apply a single style to all features in a layer, setup an attribute-based styling system that styles the features based on the value of an attribute value or the display label, or randomly assign colors to the features in a layer.
• Added support for loading ESRI File Geodatabase (GDB) data sets.
• Added support for generating density grids from point features in a loaded layer. This density grid can be based on either just a count of the point features or any numeric attribute value associated with the points.
• Added support for joining a file with attributes to the attribute table of an existing loaded spatial layer against a common attribute.
• Added support for resampling raster and elevation layers using bicubic interpolation or a box average of size 3x3, 4x4, 5x5, or 7x7 in addition to the previously available options of nearest neighbor and bilinear interpolation. The "anti-alias" option on the Raster Options dialog has been replaced with one for selecting the sampling method to use.
• Updated the Control Center to support assigning groups to selected layers via the right-click menu. Those groups can then be collapsed in the Control Center to allow easily selecting, closing, or hiding/showing that group.
• Added support to combine area features, find the intersection of area features, and crop line and areas features to a crop area on export to some vector formats.
• Added real-time display of current cursor information (location, distance, elevation) to 3D Path Profile dialog. In addition, you can now also click to define a sub-path on the 3D Path Profile dialog and get information about that sub-path displayed.
• Added support for scaling point symbols, adding custom point symbols from PNG, GIF, JPG, and (new vector) .gmsym files, and easily creating symbols of custom sizes and colors for common shapes, like dots, squares, etc.
• Added toolbar for Digitizer/Edit Tool to make it easier to perform many commonly used operations.
• Added ability to create new line features by tracing them without clicking at each vertex with the Digitizer/Edit Tool.
• Added ability to rotate and scale features using the Digitizer/Edit Tool.
• Added support for exporting loaded raster/elevation data to KML/KMZ file for display in Google Earth (use File->Export Raster and Elevation Data->Export KML/KMZ menu command).
• Added support for exporting any loaded data into tiles for use in Google Maps or Virtual Earth.
• Added ability to make area features partially transparent.
• Made significant improvements to the triangulation and gridding of 3D point, line, and area data. This includes speeding it up, increasing the maximum number of points that can be gridded, and supporting constraints.
• Added more control over placement of labels for point features. Now when choosing the font to use for point features, you can also choose where to place the label for the point relative to the point location. An automatic setting will try different locations to try and make the label fit.
• Added support for selecting/changing the layer that features are in when editing existing features and creating new ones with the Digitizer Tool.
• Added support for creating new feature coordinates based on distance/bearing and/or COGO values from a start location using the Digitizer Tool.
• Added new Coordinate Convertor option under the Tools menu to allow easily converting a coordinate between any two supported projections/datums/units.
• Added ability to Search Vector Data dialog to limit your search to the existing search results. This effectively allows you to query on multiple attributes/values.
• Added new File->Combine Terrains menu command to allow combining loaded terrain layers with a variety of operations, including differencing terrains, averaging terrains, and using the min and/or max from two terrains.
• Added support for exporting loaded gridded elevation data to DTED format files.
• Added support for exporting loaded gridded elevation data and 3D vector data (including LIDAR point clouds) to LIDAR .LAS format files.
• Added support for exporting loaded vector data to the MapInfo TAB/MAP format.
• Added option to view shed calculation to generate area features for the covered areas. These generated area features could then be exported to vector formats like Shapefiles.
• Added support for loading ESRI Personal Geodatabase (MDB), BigTIFF, DMDF, OSM, RIK, OCAD, Windows EMF, PCX, German Topo (MPR/MPH), Arc Point Vector Coverages, Vulcan3D, SOSI, and Erdas .lan format files.
• Added support for loading Tiger 2007 Shapefiles with full attribution and automatic styling and type assignment.
• Added ability to easily create strike-and-dip (geology) points by right-clicking in the Digitizer Tool. You can now place your strike-and-dip points and specify the dip value, azimuth angle, and symbol to use and get the appropriate symbology displayed on the map.
• Added support for adding custom area fill styles from image files.
• Added support for rotating point symbols by a user-specified angle.
• Added option to the Digitizer Tool to calculate the minimum, maximum, and average elevation values within selected area features.
• Added new EDIT_VECTOR script command (replacing the ASSIGN_TYPES command) to allow adding/updating feature attributes values and display labels, reclassifying features, rotating/scaling/offsetting feature coordinates, or marking features as deleted by searching loaded features for matches against their attributes/label values and/or types.
• Added new GPS menu option to send any loaded data map directly to a compatible Garmin GPS device, such as a Colorado or Oregon handheld, for display as a raster map on the unit. This allows display of anything, including imagery, on compatible Garmin GPS devices!
• Added support for creating buffer areas some fixed distance around selected area and line features. This option is available from the Advanced Feature Creation submenu of the right-click menu in the Digitizer Tool.

Many other enhancements and bug fixes were made as well. See the What's New page at http://www.bluemarblegeo.com/products/global-mapper-new-features.php for a complete list of changes.

As always, upgrades and new licenses can be purchased from the Purchase page at http://www.bluemarblegeo.com/products/global-mapper-purchase.php.