September 25, 2024
Improved Ease-of-Use, Editing, and Data Support in Global Mapper v26.0
The recent release of Global Mapper® v26.0 contains exciting new features for convenience to users, 3D data editing, and file format support. These features aim to make Global Mapper a more valuable tool in your geospatial toolbox. Read on to learn more about what’s new in version 26.0 of Global Mapper!
Check out this blog on the top new features in Global Mapper Pro v26.0!
Searching: Find Exactly What You Need
Version 26.0 of Global Mapper includes updates that improve the usability of the program. Two of these new features in Global Mapper v26.0 add searching functionality to the software making it easier to find precisely what you are looking for. A Global Command Search tool lists all the tools within Global Mapper making it easy to find and use each one. A revision to the Connect to Online Data tool adds a search option to help filter through the ever-expanding list of available online sources.
More resources about Global Mapper’s online data sources:
Global Command Search
The Blue Marble Geographics development team works tirelessly to add new tools and options to Global Mapper based on user requests and industry trends. As the tools in Global Mapper expand, we’re committed to creating solutions that make the software easier to navigate. The reorganized menu structure touted in version 25.1 of the program brought more organization to the ever-expanding toolset. Through working with Global Mapper every day and talking to power-users, it became clear a searchable toolbox was needed.
A new Global Command Search tool serves as a toolbox for Global Mapper. This dockable window organizes all the tools and commands available in Global Mapper into logical categories. Browsed as a tree structure or searched with a dynamic filter search found at the top of the window, the Global Command Search makes it easy to find the tool you need without browsing through the toolbars and menus of Global Mapper.
A double-click on any tool will open or enable it, while a single-click will select it, allowing you to open the Help page for more information using the question mark help button at the top of the window. The Filter button in the Global Command Search window allows you to filter the list of tools to only those relevant to the data loaded in the workspace. This functionality helps you to target and browse through only the tools that you can currently activate and use.
Search Online Data Sources
The Connect to Online Data tool in Global Mapper is known for its extensive list of data sources. This tool — which is built for streaming data from online sources directly into Global Mapper — contains an extensive list of built-in sources. A new search bar at the top of this list allows you to filter the list of sources based on their names. For example, start typing in imagery to see the list shrink to only the sources containing imagery in the source name.
Another notable change to the Connect to Online Data tool is the split of the tool into a two-step dialog. The first window contains the list of sources, the new search, and options to add new data sources. Once a source has been selected, click Next. In the second window, the bounds and data load options can be set before clicking Connect to bring the data into Global Mapper.
Editing: Creating and Changing 3D Data
Much of GIS involves creating and changing data. Global Mapper contains a myriad of tools to perform data creation and edits on many different data types. The updates in Global Mapper v26.0 focus on improved editing of 3D data, specifically the creation of flattened site plans in terrain and the adjustment of 3D vector lines.
Contain the Bounds of a Flattened Site Plan
The ability to create a Flattened Site Plan based on a loaded area feature has been available in Global Mapper for many versions. This tool uses a polygon boundary and loaded terrain for the area to create a flattened site with edges that slope smoothly to connect to the surrounding terrain area. In version 25.0 of Global Mapper a new option was introduced to optimize the placement of the flattened site on the terrain, new in version 26.0 is an option to keep all the edited or changed terrain within the selected polygon boundary when generating the flattened site.
The Create a Flattened Site Plan tool now provides users with multiple options to keep the edited terrain within the selected polygon bounds. A new option to Flatten Terrain at Edges to Specified Height is disabled by default to keep the functionality of the tool the same as previous versions of Global Mapper. Enable the checkbox in the tool setup to use the new flattening option. Highly requested by Global Mapper users, this checkbox allows you to keep all edited terrain within the selected boundary providing needed control over the edited area when planning earthworks projects with definite boundaries.
Editing Lines in the Path Profile
3D line features in Global Mapper can be loaded from files, created as contours or breaklines, or manually digitized. Per-vertex elevations on lines in the program can be updated from loaded terrain, point cloud layers, or manual vertex editing. Version 26.0 of Global Mapper allows fine tuning of 3D lines in the Path Profile tool through the use of perpendicular profiles.
To adjust the vertex positions of a line feature using the Path Profile view, start by selecting the line and creating a Path Profile View along it. Within the cross-sectional view, click the button to Edit/Extract features. This will prompt the creation of a series of perpendicular profiles with one view per vertex. Once the vertex shown in each profile view can then be moved within the view to adjust the position.
In Global Mapper Standard, users can adjust 3D lines in reference to terrain layers. In Global Mapper Pro, the same tool can be used with point cloud data displayed in the Profile view.
New Data and File Format Support
Since Global Mapper is a data-driven program, the Blue Marble Geographics development team strives to support as many file formats and data types as possible. With over 300 file formats supported for import, and almost as many for export, Global Mapper is a leader in interoperability of data. Global Mapper v26.0 improves lidar data support, adds the ability to export to Cesium formats, and introduces a new high-resolution online data source.
Non-Standard Point Cloud Fields
Global Mapper has always supported the standard set of attributes in the LAS and LAZ point cloud file formats. New in version 26.0 is the support of extra attribute fields associated with point cloud returns. These non-standard, or extra-byte, fields can contain additional information for point clouds generated from a sensor during data collection, or calculated in a post process. With the added ability to load these non-standard point cloud attributes, the ways in which you can work with point cloud data and the information to view is expanded. Once loaded into Global Mapper, these additional data fields can be exported to LAS/LAZ format as well as the proprietary Global Mapper Package format.
Cesium Export Support
Another highly requested feature available in Global Mapper v26.0 is the export to Cesium tile formats. Cesium data formats are growing in popularity and are optimized to use with Cesium products for data viewing. All 3D data types – terrain, vector, mesh, and point cloud– can be exported to Cesium formats. Cesium Terrain Tiles supports raster terrain data, while Cesium 3D Tiles support 3D vectors, mesh layers, and point clouds.
TCarta Marine Basemap
A notable addition to the list of freely available built-in online data sources is TCarta Marine Basemap data. This high-resolution source is a labeled and shaded marine relief map that can be streamed into Global Mapper from the Connect to Online Data tool. With global bounds, TCarta’s data source provides a great basemap for any project working in coastal or marine areas.
Explore these and many more new tools and features in Global Mapper version 26.0 today! If you are a current Global Mapper user with a license in current Maintenance and Support you should be able to download Global Mapper v26.0 and license the new version with your order number. If you would like to explore the program before purchasing, request a 14-day trial license. If you have any questions, please contact us!
