March 3, 2021

GeoTalks 2021 Questions

Thank you for attending GeoTalks 2021. The recordings for the sessions have been posted and as a registered attendee you should have received an email with links to view them. 

 

I tried to create a fly though from a lidar point cloud, and regardless of the preview or export settings, every other frame (approximately) displays/exports only half the lidar points. I had contacted support about this but never got a reply. Do you know if this bug has been resolved at this point? 

The ticket addressing this issue is #GM-10320 and has been investigated by our development team. Some changes and improvements have been made to the flythrough saving function in Global Mapper for the upcoming version 22.1 release.

 

Can you record both Point and GPS auto Distance at the same time?

While creating a line or area with GPS auto distance or GPS auto time you can tap and hold on the screen to add a quick picture point. The app will keep recording the line/area feature but will allow you to capture an image to be placed on the map at the GPS geotagged location. 

 

Can Mapper Mobile be used offline e.g. in regional areas?

Global Mapper can be used without an internet connection although cellular data or a network connection may help to improve the GPS location accuracy in the app. 

 

What if I want multiple field personnel to use the same map and see what each person is collecting, is this an option?

Global Mapper Mobile is not set up to show, merge, and save live edits on a project from multiple devices. The changes made to a project in Global Mapper Mobile are saved to the device and the user can then export the edited project and share it to be imported into Global Mapper desktop. 

 

Do you provide these programs outside of the US?

Yes, Blue Marble does business worldwide offering our programs in many different countries. For the Global Mapper program we provide language translated versions of the program for ease of use with some international consumers. 

 

GeoCalc Online uses a credit system?

For the time being GeoCalc Online is unlimited and free to use, but in the future it will switch to a credit system. Each credit will then cover one point to point conversion in the GeoCalc Online Calculator tool. 

 

Grand Canyon – What specific data source was used for the topography?

For that dataset, all I used was the USGS 3D Elevation Data for the terrain, and World Imagery for the imagery. Both sources are available from the Online Sources menu within Global Mapper. 

 

Will Global Mapper v22.1 work with the network license for v22.0?

No, the version 22 licence will not work with v22.1. Each version requires an updated license file. You will need to contact our sales team at orders@bluemarblgeo.com to get a new license file for the next version.

 

How do you activate the ridge line again?

The Eye Dome Lighting (EDL) 3D display option that helps to highlight ridges and features in the 3D Viewer can be enabled in Configuration > 3D View Properties > Environment. In this dialog you can toggle the Eye Dome Lighting on and off and well as adjust the strength to optimize the display of your data in the 3D view. 

 

If you are particularly interested in identifying the ridge lines in a dataset, Global Mapper does have a tool to find the ridge lines in a dataset and create line features along them. 

 

Is this dataset available for download, or within a Global Mapper? I’d like to follow along. 

We do not have the specific datasets used in the GeoTalks Global Mapper demonstrations packaged and available to download, but we do offer some custom training workflows with data on our website. The Global Mapper Self-Training is free from our website and exploring these workflows is a great way to get familiar with Global Mapper or work to expand your basic knowledge of the program. 

 

For more in depth training we do offer public training classes (currently in a live online format). With the training classes data is provided and an instructor will walk you through various workflows explaining tools and functions in Global Mapper and providing you the opportunity to ask questions. 

 

Is MangoMap (extension) part of Blue Marble 22? or do we need to purchase it separately?

The MangoMap extension does need to be purchased separately to be able to fully use the functionality. You can however download Global Mapper 22 and request a trial license, and also subscribe to a trial of MangoMap within the application.

 

How much does it cost?

You can find the subscription options and cost on this page here: https://www.bluemarblegeo.com/mango-purchase/

 

Did you record previous training sessions? If so can we access these courses?

If you are interested in accessing previous GeoTalk sessions, GeoTalks express webinars, and any other related content, you can go to this page here to access them.

 

Why does Global Mapper automatically not recognize the map zone, and asks before adding?

Not all data files contain the needed projection information for Global Mapper to automatically know the projection. Some file formats have the ability to store projection information for data in the header of the file, but some formats rely on an external projection (*.prj) file for this information. If adequate projection information is not found in the data file or an associated projection file, Global Mapper prompts the user to select the projection in order to properly position and display the data. 

 

With the change detection tools, are you able to generate a volume difference calculation or report?

While the Combine/Compare Terrain Layers tool in Global Mapper does not provide any volume calculations, the program does support other tools for volume calculations. Likely the most relevant volume calculation tool for a change detection analysis would be the Measure Volume Between Two Surfaces tool. This tool will calculate the cut volume and fill volume between two surfaces, essentially providing you with the numbers to accompany the visualization created with the Combine/Compare Terrain Layers tool. 

 

Are costs for the online training sessions available online?

Yes, the costs for training can be found on our website. If you go to this link here, it will go to training upcoming (Feb 22-26), that is $660 per person.

 

Does GeoCalc include definitions for coordinate systems such as the guy from Alaska discussed or the Oregon Coordinate Reference system?

GeoCalc Online lists the known and defined systems including the State Plane coordinate systems and state specific coordinate systems. You can search for these systems in GeoCalc Online by searching based on am area and narrowing the object filters to horizontal projected coordinate systems. 

 

Global Mapper offers a cloud share data for results obtained with Pixel to point?

The outputs generated with the Pixels to Points tool can be exported to formats supported by Global Mapper. These files can then be shared with others via cloud drives or other methods. Is there a specific format you would like to use when exporting the Pixel to Point outputs?

 

I try to classify point clouds obtained by processing drone images with LiDAR classification tool but the results are not as good as I expected. Is it only for working with lidar point clouds?

The point cloud tools in the Lidar Module of Global Mapper can be used with any point cloud data, true Lidar data or photo derived point clouds like from the Pixels to Points tool. The parameters entered for the automatic classification tools are somewhat data dependent so make sure you are entering values that work with your data. More information on the tools settings can be found here in the Global Mapper knowledge base

 

Global Mapper doesn’t use the same formula transformation as Geographic Calculator when changing projections?

Global Mapper alone does not allow the user to select the specific transformation used to reproject data in the workspace. The transformations used by Global Mapper when reprojecting data are detailed here in the knowledge base

 

Geographic Calculator allows for much more control over the transformation used for files, letting the user select the specific transformation from the datasource. If you have Global Mapper and Geographic Calculator installed and registered on your machine you have the opportunity to enable GeoGalc Mode in Global Mapper. GeoCalc Mode brings the two programs together by using the Geographic Calculator datasource to transform data. 

 

Can you specifically use Global Mapper for hydropower development?

I do not have any specific use cases to point to that you can use Global Mapper for hydropower development, but if you would like to work, we could try 

You could request a professional service for us to take a look at your project in mind. https://www.bluemarblegeo.com/gis-services/ 

 

Can you make a training session in India?

If you have questions about requesting training or attending a training session, please contact training@bluemarblegeo.com for more information.

 

Any consideration of allowing GM to publish to an ESRI Portal?

At this time we are not considering any partnership with ESRI to allow direct publishing from Global Mapper to an ESRI map portal. Our partnership with MangoMap allows users to easily upload data to a web map and publish the map for sharing with others. Once data has been uploaded to a map, Mango provides various tools for folks to interact with and explore the data. 

 

What type of Mesh?

Global Mapper supports various 3D mesh/model file types and allows users to create mesh features in the program from point cloud or elevation data. Are you looking to generate or use a specific type of mesh in Global Mapper?

 

I suggest searching by projection purpose like navigation, area preservation (thematic mapping), etc. That will really help people pick a projection. 

GeoCalc Online offers different object filters to help users narrow down the type of projection they are searching for. For example, when using a geographic area as a search term you may want to filter for projected horizontal coordinate systems only to limit the number of search results. 

 

Is there education on how to pick the right transformation? Isn’t it location dependent? That’s a big pick list.

The search for objects in GeoCalc Online can be limited by an area of interest. Selecting an area or point on the map will limit the results of your search to objects related to the selected area/point.

 

If the web browser you are working in can determine your location you should see that reported on the map in GeoCalc Online. You can click to select your location on the map to help limit your search to objects relating to your current position. 

 

Why would I use this GeoCalc Online and not the National Geodetic Survey web tools? How is it better or different?

GeoCalc Online offers a much wider view than the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) conversion tool. The GeoCalc Online datasource is fully supported by Blue Marble, syncs with our other programs, and is kept up to date with the NGS systems as well as the EPSG library. This makes GeoCalc Online a tool able to convert coordinates worldwide, not just within the United States. Additionally, HTDP shifts are included and supported within the single GeoCalc Online page therefore eliminating the need to shift between the different NGS tools. 

 

​Can Geographic Calculator desktop version transform a point cloud?​

Yes, Geographic Calculator has a Vector Data Conversion job that will transform vector data from various formats, including point cloud formats.

 

For vector data transformation, do you need to run two separate conversions for horizontal and vertical coord systems?

Geographic Calculator and GeoCalc Online both support horizontal and vertical transformations. When working with 3D data you specify source and target horizontal and vertical systems so you do not need to run separate jobs to convert data once horizontally, and then vertically.

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