Blue Marble Geographics, a provider of geospatial data solutions, has announced the release of Global Mapper version 16.1. This interim release features a UAV Video Playback Tool, new options to rotate the map view, and the ability to select and measure features in the 3D viewer. Blue Marble’s geospatial data manipulation, visualization and conversion solutions are used worldwide by thousands of GIS analysts at software, oil and gas, mining, civil engineering, surveying, and technology companies, as well as governmental and university organizations.
Global Mapper is an affordable, powerful, and easy-to-use GIS application capable of displaying, converting, and analyzing virtually any type of geospatial data. This release includes a variety of updates to both the Global Mapper base product and the optional LiDAR Module. One of the most significant enhancements is a new video playback tool that allows users to play a video derived from the flight of an aircraft or UAV. The playback option displays a video file synced to any line feature with per-vertex times, fly-through lines or point features with recognized timestamp attributes.
Version 16.1 of Global Mapper also offers the option to rotate the map view as needed, allowing the user to more clearly visualize any spatial data with a unique alignment. The automatic “Track Up” mode works when connected to a GPS device and rotates the map view based on the current GPS heading. This new release also introduces the ability to select vector features with the Digitizer tool in the 3D Viewer. This functionality links the 2D and 3D maps, allowing users the option to pan, zoom, measure, and add vector data in one viewer while automatically replicating actions and updating features in the other. The right-click menu enables users to perform many Digitizer operations on the selected features in the 3D window.
“For a minor release, version 16.1 really packs a punch,” stated Blue Marble President Patrick Cunningham. “The new UAV tool, attribute calculations, and 3D tools really enhance the user’s experience with Global Mapper whether it’s their primary GIS tool or a part of their greater GIS infrastructure.”
Version 16.1 includes improvements to the Control Center for setting up custom attribute calculation with the ability to calculate new attribute values using spreadsheet-like formulas. There are also numerous improvements to the LiDAR Module, many new formats including support for the ZFS (Zoller+Frohlich) LiDAR format, more scripting options and speed improvements for online data access.