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Blog: Chris Harlow on ITSearch The Harlow Report Archives
Blue Marble Geographics® is pleased to announce the immediate availability of version 22 of the Global Mapper® and Lidar Module® Software Development Kits (SDK). The new releases incorporate many of the new features from the version 22 release of the desktop software, including dramatically faster rendering of tiled online sources (especially in 3D), support for creating point, line, or area features from a list of coordinates in an MS Excel (.xls/.xlsx) file, a tabular preview showing the beginning of an imported ASCII or Excel file, and many other new features.
Additional enhancements to the Lidar Module SDK include a new algorithm to improve building classification results, improved building extraction with better 3D shape simplification for generating building footprints, a new option to create a process summary report when using the Pixels to Points process, dramatically faster rendering of lidar path profiles with a large number of points, two new lidar draw mode- Color by Source Layer, and Color by Scan Angle -and more.
The Global Mapper and Lidar Module SDKs enable developers to add the functionality of Global Mapper and the Lidar Module to their own applications and to create custom toolbars and extensions for the desktop version of Global Mapper.
"GIS professionals have always had a desire to extend and customize Global Mapper. The SDK versions of the software are made available to programmers and developers that want to take that one step further," stated Patrick Cunningham, Blue Marble Geographics President, and CEO. "This release is another update that enables taking GIS to a new 3D level for both visualization and processing. The tools we have been releasing lately have enabled some great new solutions for everything from processing large amounts of data to virtual and augmented reality output. It is well worth a look."
For nearly three decades, Blue Marble's affordable, user-friendly GIS software has been meeting the needs of hundreds of thousands of satisfied customers throughout the world.
Read more about Gloval Mapper at Blue Marble Geographics…
first published week of: 11/09/2020
dartmaster666 posted this map, title "Why spacecraft orbits look like a sine wave on a flat map"
I may be late to this site -- they claim to have one million members. In case you are like me, a one in a million, who never heard of MapPorn, here's what it is about
Map port is a subset of Reddit. With over 430 million average monthly active users, I'm guessing you are one of them. Just in case you've been stuck in a virtual Esri meeting, Reddit describes itself, thusly: "Reddit is home to thousands of communities, endless conversation, and authentic human connection. Whether you're into breaking news, sports, TV fan theories, or a never-ending stream of the internet's cutest animals, there's a community on Reddit for you."
So what's MapPorn? It is a place to post and view all kinds of maps posted by people like you. Some of the maps are unique, some are unusual, some are cartographic works if beauty. Some will impress you, many will bore you and a few will make you wonder why anyone bothered to share the map with the world.
Remember, you are stuck working at home. While that gives you a shorter commute time, it also leaves you with plenty of time on your hands. It is a nice distraction that sort of fits into what you do for a living. Give it a try at MapPorn
first published week of: 07/13/2020
( Getty Images )
In an effort to build support for a national address database that could bolster the efficacy of the United States’ 911 system, elections and other critical services, the Nation States Geographic Information Council last week published a guidance document encouraging states to adopt best practices surrounding the collection and sharing of address data.
The document is the first in a series published by the organization, which is sharing the best practices identified in the Geospatial Maturity Assessment, its biennial survey of state officials responsible for geographic information systems. The group identified seven states that have implemented effective address data programs — Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Utah and Vermont — and condensed their findings into five best practices.
Read full story at StateScoop…
first published week of: 07/20/2020
The open-data portal is designed to help both the government and the public use geolocation data to improve services.
City and state governments alike use open-data initiatives to enhance citizen services. Now, the most populous state is significantly boosting its own efforts on that front.
Last month, California launched an interactive online database of location-based government data called the California State Geoportal. The portal is a centralized geographic open-data hub, “which includes authoritative data and applications from a multitude of California state entities,” the state says. According to Smart Cities Dive, the portal includes data from more than 1,200 publicly available data sets from 25 state entities.
The portal has data from agencies that deal with water, health, energy, land use, the environment, geology, wildlife and more.
The portal “runs on the ESRI ArcGIS Online Hub platform, which provides many tools to access and view data and maps,” according to the state.
Read full story at StateTech…
first published week of: 03/02/2020
( www.gov.cn )
In China, there have been over 6.6 million commercially operating vehicles powered by the Beidou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), and the government will gradually promote a comprehensive and in-depth application of BDS in the traffic and transportation industry, said Sun Wenjian, spokesman of China's Ministry of Transport.
His statement came after the 30th third-generation Beidou satellite was successfully put into its preset orbit by a Long March-3B carrier rocket on June 23. The launch signified the completion of the in-orbit construction of BDS, China's largest space-based system and one of four global navigation networks—the other three are the United States' GPS, Russia's GLONASS and the European Union's Galileo.
Mr. Sun said the Ministry attaches great importance to the industrial application of BDS and will proactively boost a wider application. Aside from the vehicles in commercial operation, China has already deployed more than 51,000 vehicles for postal and express delivery services, 1,356 official system vessels, 8,600 navigational aid facilities on water, 109 coastal ground-based augmentation stations and 300 general aircrafts which are all supported by BDS.
Read full story at Gasgoo…
first published week of: 06/29/2020
The official website for the Beidou network said in a statement that problems were detected during pre-launch tests of the Long March-3B booster and that the new launch date would be determined later. It did not offer specifics on the problems or the launch date.
The Beidou-3 satellite was expected to be the 35th and final satellite of the Chinese navigation system - an estimated $10 billion project meant to be Beijing’s answer to the U.S.-owned Global Positioning System.
When completed, China says, the system will keep military communications secure and improve weapons targeting, especially in the Asia-Pacific region.
Read full story at FirstPost…
first published week of: 06/22/2020