Global Mapper v25.0

Global Mapper v18-Beta Release

Rayna Winters
Rayna Winters Global Mapper UserTrusted User
edited December 2016 in Announcement and News

The beta of Global Mapper 18 is now available at the following location; http://www.bluemarblegeo.com/products/global-mapper-beta.php

This major release offers a new sleeker user interface and significant enhancements to the 3D viewer. The beta can be installed alongside previous versions; they will not be impacted by the new version though some global settings are shared among versions. Once installed, you can request an evaluation license from the registration screen that will launch the first time you open Global Mapper 18.  Please send your error reports and suggestions to beta@bluemarblegeo.com. If you’d rather post your technical questions to the forum, look for the Global Mapper Beta questions thread: http://forum.globalmapperforum.com/discussion/13612/global-mapper-18-beta-questions/p1?new=1

As a reminder we recommend using an official release version for any production work.  

Thank you all for your continued support of Global Mapper, and thank you for your interest in this beta period.

Significant New Features in Global Mapper 18

  • Improved user interface for cleaner design
    • Complete graphical overhaul to support high-resolution displays
    • New, customizable toolbars
  • Changed Overlay Control Center to a dockable pane that shows by default
    • Ability to drag-and-drop layers to re-order them rather than having to use a right-click menu.
    • Many layer-specific right-click items have been moved to a new top-level Layers menu.
    • There is a new top Current Workspace item that has non-layer-specific right-click menu items, such as a new option to display the layers in top-down draw order rather than bottom-up
  • Improved 3D rendering to include data display outside of what is shown in 2D; the ability to dynamically display and navigate all loaded data from the 3D viewer window
  • Sped up the display and export of most raster/terrain formats, especially with large amounts of data loaded
  • Enhanced 3D feature select for digitizer and measure tools. Cursor snaps or changes appearance when near a selectable feature vertex. Will now select at vertex elevation rather than z=0
  • Added support for importing PDF files as vector layers (lines, points, and areas) rather than a raster image
  • Added option to save fly-through to MPEG-4 file.
  • And much more
Tagged:

Comments

  • macsmith
    macsmith Global Mapper User Trusted User
    has any more of the code be modified for parallel processing?  This is my main priority.
  • Rayna Winters
    Rayna Winters Global Mapper User Trusted User
    macsmith said:
    has any more of the code be modified for parallel processing?  This is my main priority.
    There have been improvements in threading for Raster and Lidar, but if you have a specific use case I can look into it and get you more information.
  • bmg_mike
    bmg_mike Global Mapper Guru Moderator, Trusted User
    There has been a lot of updates under the covers for parallel processing. Raster tile exports already use multiple cores and the 3D display now makes very heavy use of multiple cores.

    The 2D display of many types should also be much faster, and multi-core support during normal 2D draws is also coming soon (likely just after v18.0.0).

    Thanks,

    Mike
    Global Mapper Guru
    geohelp@bluemarblegeo.com
    http://www.bluemarblegeo.com/
  • kbellis
    kbellis Global Mapper User Trusted User
    RE: v18.0 beta
    Wow - This is so much more than I ever dreamed; really, very well done!! I'm continuing to test, but just had to give a shout out, BMG rocks!
  • macsmith
    macsmith Global Mapper User Trusted User
    generating viewsheds is where improvements would help me.  The last approximately 25% of viewshed calculations run in parallel but for the first 75%, 11 cores lie idle in my pc.
  • bmg_mike
    bmg_mike Global Mapper Guru Moderator, Trusted User
    I have created todo item #19071 for making the first part of a view shed calculation use multiple cores. As part of the 3D development we have added a bunch of tools for quickly and safely pulling together elevation data in multiple threads, so it shouln't be too difficult to update the view shed to use that.

    Thanks,

    Mike
    Global Mapper Guru
    geohelp@bluemarblegeo.com
    http://www.bluemarblegeo.com/
  • macsmith
    macsmith Global Mapper User Trusted User
    fantastic and thanks!
    Ian
  • Rayna Winters
    Rayna Winters Global Mapper User Trusted User
    We have a new Beta Build posted which will address a few of the items already noted by some testers. Please download the latest build to continue your beta testing. 
  • JamesRutter
    JamesRutter Global Mapper User Trusted User
    Great update. Is there a way to link panning and zooming of 2 or more 2d map views? I've currently got two 2d views set up side by side displaying different layers. It would be useful to have the same functionality which links panning and zooming a 2d view with a 3d view.
    Thanks
    James
  • bmg_mike
    bmg_mike Global Mapper Guru Moderator, Trusted User
    James,

    You can't yet link multiple 2D map views but that is on our todo list (item #16333). Hopefully it will be in the next v18.x release.

    Thanks,

    Mike
    Global Mapper Guru
    geohelp@bluemarblegeo.com
    http://www.bluemarblegeo.com/
  • mcsmoother
    mcsmoother Global Mapper User

    Any additional control added into the scripting language? I'm specifically hoping to access the advanced selection controls such as, select all areas with centroid contained.


    Thanks,

    Mark

  • kbellis
    kbellis Global Mapper User Trusted User
    Hi Mark,

    Here are the listed scripting changes in Global Mapper 18 as listed in the 20160907 WhatsNew.rtf:

    Scripting Changes

    • Support including full alpha band values (rather than just 0 or 255) when exporting to RGB PNG files using the EXPORT_RASTER command. The SAVE_FULL_ALPHA parameter allows you to activate this behavior. [Item #18393]

    • Support looping over a list of files from an external text file or inline list using the DIR_LOOP_START…DIR_LOOP_END commands. Use the LIST_FILENAME parameter with DIR_LOOP_START to specify either the name of a filename list defined with DEFINE_TEXT_FILE or with the name of an external text file. [Item #18395]

    • Support automatically defining a variable with the index of the file being iterated over using DIR_LOOP_START…DIR_LOOP_END. Add an INDEX_VAR parameter to the DIR_LOOP_START command to specify the name of the variable to place the index in. [Item #18395]

    • Updated the GCP parameter defining control points for the IMPORT command to support simple mathematical formulas in addition to raw numeric values. [Item #18395]

    • Added support for using wildcard characters (* and ?) in the DIRECTORY parameter for the IMPORT_DIR_TREE command to allow loading from multiple folders at once. [Item #18460]

    • Allow exporting CSV files with the Y/latitude coordinate before the X/longitude coordinate. Use COORD_ORDER=Y_FIRST in the EXPORT_VECTOR command to do this. [Item #18201]

    • Allow tiling raster KML/KMZ exports using the EXPORT_RASTER command with the KML_SUPER_OVERLAY option to multiple KML/KMZ files. [Item #18452]

    • Improved assignment of default ELEV_UNITS for EXPORT_ELEVATION command if none is explicitly provided. Now higher resolution units (like CENTIMETERS) will be used automatically if the format supports it. [Item #18802]

    • Fixed issue with parameters with an implied YES value at the end of command lines being ignored. [Item #18247]


    I tried to attach the RTF but was thwarted as the rtf format was not allowed; however, the zipped up version was allowed and I've attached it to this message in case anybody wanted to read up on any/ all of the changes in v18.



  • geomannie
    geomannie Global Mapper User Trusted User
    Annoying feature in new Overlay Control Centre

    I like the new Overlay Control Centre but it has an annoying feature. As I am using a single screen I find I prefer to keep it quite narrow. However, if I then open an overlay with a long(ish) name, the scroll bar shifts to the right and I have to manually drag it back so the layer selection buttons are once more visible (see images). Not a major problem but definitely annoying. Can you set it so that the Overlay Control doesn't automatically scroll?
  • kbellis
    kbellis Global Mapper User Trusted User
    Actually that little niggle has been present for a while, not just in v18. I appreciate the mentioning of this as I too am frequently/ always having to scroll, which btw, the scroll wheel does come in handy.
  • Rayna Winters
    Rayna Winters Global Mapper User Trusted User
    I have marked Item 19104 for development to resolve the automatic re-justification problem. It is quite a bit more apparent with the new Control Center. The requested change will maintain a left-justified control center.

    As a note, we have an updated beta build available with, but not yet all, 3D changes. If any of the beta testers are using 3D heavily please update to this new build to continue testing. 

    Thank you all for you continued feedback, we are getting a lot of excellent reports!
  • bmg_mike
    bmg_mike Global Mapper Guru Moderator, Trusted User
    I have updated the Control Center to maintain the same horizontal scroll position when new layers are added so this shouldn't happen anymore. This will be in the next beta.

    Thanks,

    Mike
    Global Mapper Guru
    geohelp@bluemarblegeo.com
    http://www.bluemarblegeo.com/
  • Rayna Winters
    Rayna Winters Global Mapper User Trusted User
    edited September 2016
    we have a new beta build up with many of the reported issues fixed. Still working on a few, please continue sending in your reports so I can ensure they are fixed before the release date. Thank you everyone!
  • Ice Age Mark
    Ice Age Mark Global Mapper User Trusted User
    Hello,

    It seems like the latest Beta release is just the unregistered version of the final release, and a two week demo license is unavailable to me because I just used it on an earlier Beta; though it says it's "Beta 7" dated 9/21.  Wasted a lot of time downloading and trying to make it go; can't do any more testing now.

    Mark
  • Mykle
    Mykle Global Mapper User Trusted User
    Mark,
    If you are ready to upgrade, the process does work for v18 although it doesn't say "v18" until you are well into the procedure.   Yes, you will need numbers from your v17 upgrade.  I have registered mine, so have avoided the demo timeout. 
    Mykle
  • Rayna Winters
    Rayna Winters Global Mapper User Trusted User
    edited September 2016
    Mykle's case is fairly specific to the particular orders associated with the account, as a result is not expected to work for all users. 

    If your demo license has timed out and you are still interested in testing please send an e-mail to beta@bluemarblegeo.com and I would be happy to reset the demo timer for you.
  • Dear brother i am user your Global Mapper... 
    any how i have expire my one ... 
    please send me demo version of global mapper 18 or any one
    saifulautocad@gmail.com

    best regards ,

    Saiful Islam  
  • Hi everyone, the link of beta version isn't working please can u send a new link for that purpose.  
    Thanks

    Regards,
  • bmg_bob
    bmg_bob Global Mapper Programmer
    POHN said:
    Hi everyone, the link of beta version isn't working please can u send a new link for that purpose.  
    Thanks

    Regards,
    The official version of Global Mapper 18 has been released, and is available here.

    Cheers,
    Bob
This discussion has been closed.