October 7, 2025
What’s New in Version 26.2: Usability, Animation, and Lidar Enhancements
Completing your GIS workflow should never feel like running a marathon. The latest release of Global Mapper® (v26.2) focuses on improving user experience with refreshed toolsets, expanded file support, and lidar filtering. Regardless of your skill level, this “marathon update” makes it easy to reach the finish line for any GIS project.
Streamlined Access to Data and Tools
Global Mapper has always been known for its flexibility and broad support for countless file formats. With version 26.2, accessing files is now faster and easier thanks to a new dockable file browser. This pane provides direct access to directories, with filtering options by file type, so users no longer need to dig through folders to locate the right dataset.
The Digitizer toolset has also been enhanced to make editing vector features more efficient. First introduced in v26.1, this dockable pane now includes access to highly requested tools such as creating a path profile along a selected line, applying elevations, and displaying feature measurements. Vertex editing tools have also been added, putting even more functionality in one convenient place.
Another user-driven enhancement in this release resolves the movement of toolbars when Global Mapper is opened on a new monitor. Instead of navigating through menus (View > Toolbar > Restore Positions) to reset them, users can now restore default toolbar positions instantly with the simple Ctrl + R shortcut.
Easier GIS Animation and Timelapse Creation
Motion has been made easier with the 26.2 (marathon) release, thanks to a redesigned animation toolset. The new Animate Layers button opens a floating pane that streamlines the process of building and managing animations, replacing and improving on the previous toolbar. With this update, layers can be sequentially displayed to create dynamic visuals such as animations and timelapses. Users can also manually step through a timeseries with a slider for more precise control, record and export animations as videos, and even create multiple animations within a single workspace. These enhancements make it easier than ever to transform complex datasets into compelling stories about change over time.
Expanded Lidar and Terrain Filtering Controls
Introducing live visualization editing, the Lidar/Terrain Display Controls tool expands on the functionality of the former Filter Lidar tool. As the name suggests, it now puts display controls for both Lidar and terrain data in one place, offering greater flexibility and control. The tool is divided into two sections: Draw Mode and Point Filters.
Draw Mode
Draw Mode works with both point cloud and terrain data, allowing users to adjust how shader colors are scaled to the loaded dataset. The slider makes it easy to adjust the elevation range for each shader and see the results in real time. An accompanying histogram for point clouds provides a clear view of the data’s distribution for any attribute.
Point Filters
This updated point cloud filtering interface makes it fast and easy to view points that meet specific criteria, whether the point cloud is lidar or photogrammetric. Filterable attributes are automatically populated and calculated based on point metadata, moving beyond the limitations of built-in attributes such as elevation, intensity, or RGB values. Using histogram sliders, users can quickly adjust which points are visible in real time, giving them precise control over their dataset. Filtered points are excluded from analyses like gridding or contour generation, but are not deleted and can be restored at any time.
Additional File Format Support
Global Mapper continues to expand on the already extensive list of supported file formats, responding directly to user requests. Among the latest additions are support for OSM PBF (OpenStreetMap Protocolbuffer Binary Format) and TFADS-O (Table Formatted Aeronautical Data Set–Obstacles). Together with the improvements listed below, this further extends the software’s compatibility with widely used geospatial datasets.
IIQ File Support
A notable enhancement in this release is the addition of IIQ support. IIQ (Intelligent Image Quality) is the RAW output format from high-resolution cameras crafted by Phase One. The cameras are designed to preserve exceptional dynamic range and image fidelity with a lossless compression format. With Global Mapper now supporting direct import of IIQ files, users can process these images without first converting them to TIFFs, maintaining quality and range while saving time.
Easily Georeference Images
One of the primary workflows for IIQ imagery is georeferencing, or assigning the image accurate real-world coordinates. In v26.2, this process is more efficient than ever: IIQ images will load automatically as picture points when they contain location information but not full spatial extent. From there, users can quickly define the image’s real-world placement by right-clicking the layer in the Control Center. configuration settings allow georeferencing prompts to appear automatically during import. This option can be enabled under Configuration > General > Raster Formats > Load Images with EXIF position data as Picture Points. To explore georeferencing in more detail, read this step-by-step guide or watch this georeferencing tutorial.
Transparency support and other ECW & JP2 updates
Improvements have also been made to ECW (Enhanced Compressed Wavelet) and JPEG2000 (JP2) support. ECW is a lossy image compression format created by Hexagon and commonly used for large-scale aerial and satellite imagery. These formats now include expanded functionality for exporting transparency and multiband imagery, providing greater flexibility when working with raster datasets.
Learn More About v26.2: The Marathon Update
Discover the full benefits of these expanded file format options in our upcoming webinar, featuring guest panelists from Phase One and Hexagon. Don’t miss the opportunity to see the updates in action and learn how they can enhance your imagery and data workflows. Ready to take advantage of the latest tools? Upgrade today to unlock all of the new functionality and experience a smoother, more efficient workflow from day one.
