March 15, 2021

GeoTalks Express What’s new in 22.1? Questions and Answers

Thank you for attending the GeoTalks Express webinar, What’s New in Global Mapper v22.1. As a registered attendee of this webinar you should soon receive an email granting access to the recording posted on our YouTube channel.

Does Info Tips tell you Imagery collection date/metadata?

The Info Tips can show some basic information about the data at your cursor location. For raster elevation data this is the elevation and neighborhood elevation and for image layers this would be the color value. Additional information about the data layer can be found in the layer metadata accessed from the layer entry in the control center. 

Will there be a Mac version of Global Mapper?

Global Mapper is developed, tested and supported on native Windows machines. Some users have had success running the program in a virtual Windows environment, like with Parallels or Bootcamp on a Mac, but it is not officially supported here and there may be some issues with functionality.

Can you export the graphed data to eg. Excel?

The graph created in Global Mapper can be saved as an image and used in any other layouts or files as needed. The data used to create the graph can be found in the attributes of the features. In Global Mapper the feature attributes for a layer can be viewed in a table through the Attribute Editor. This table of information can be saved from the Attribute Editor to a CSV file for use outside of the program like with Microsoft Excel. 

Any plans in the future for easily creating run lines with KP markers and for exporting as ASCII?

Path Profiles of terrain data can be exported to text formats from the File menu with the option to Save Path to CSV File (XYZ, Distance, Slope). This method will save the sample point with x, y, and z coordinates as well as the distance metrics for each sample. This will include the total 2D and 3D distance as well as the distance from the last point. Total distances will be measured from the start of the path profile line. 

If you have a line or set of points representing your markers you can choose to apply elevations from the terrain to these features and then export the points layer to a text format or save the vertex information list to a CSV file.

What type of scripting language does Global Mapper use?

Global Mapper script is its own scripting language with commands and parameters specific to the Global Mapper program. A Global Mapper script is a text file with the extension *.gms to associate it with the Global Mapper program. More information on scripting in Global Mapper, including a complete guide to the commands and parameters, can be found here in the program knowledge base

Is it possible to export out the profile and cross-sections lines shown in plan view?

Path Profile and cross or perpendicular profiles can be exported from the view from the path profile file menu. Here you have the option to export the main and cross profiles to a new layer in the workspace. When exporting the cross profiles to PDF, or another format, as shown in the webinar only the cross profiles will be exported. After exporting the cross profiles you can disable the perpendicular profile option in the path profile settings and then save the original single profile line to accompany the saved cross profiles. 

Or to possibly show all the cross-sections along the profile? 

Saving the main and cross profiles to a new layer in the workspace will display the center profile line as well as the cross/perpendicular profile lines in the workspace main view. These will be 3D line features that can be exported or edited as any other vector features in Global Mapper. 

Is there a way to show all cross-profile lines along with the main sampling alignment? So that one can use that as a plan view reference to the cross-profile series?

To show the cross/perpendicular profiles in reference to the main profile line, choose to Save Path to New Layer from the Path Profile File menu and choose to save the main profile and all cross profiles. This will add these lines to the main view of Global Mapper and the cross profiles will be labeled in order along the main profile line. You can then use the Map Layout Editor to create a reference map for the placement of each cross profile. 

Does the operation overlap give the percentage of overlapping?

The spatial operation tools create new layers of features based on the input criteria, but they do not do any analysis to compute percent overlap. You can use the spatial operation tools in conjunction with the feature measurement options to determine the area of the total features and the area of intersection between features to manually compute a percent overlap. 

Can you save the views as individual jpegs?

Currently, there are options to save the cross profiles to vector formats, PDF, and Bitmap (BMP) images. I have requested the addition of JPEG format to the save cross profiles option from the path profile. 

Can you start the profile at a certain northing/easting point?

Yes, from the Path Setup Menu in the path profile window you can set the from and to position for the profile with entered coordinates. 

Are there any options to animate these cross-sections?

In the path profile view with a perpendicular profile setup, you can use the toolbar buttons or arrow keys to scroll through the perpendicular/cross profiles. 

On the Graph Properties Preview window does each point have data if you highlight over it?

The graph properties dialog contains options to apply labels to the data points. This would be the method for showing the data values on the graph. To differentiate the data series we recommend selecting contrasting colors for styling features by an attribute in the layer options and then using the graph setting to match the color to associated features. 

Can the cross profiles be associated with vertices along the line of section?

In the path profile settings there is an option to set the spacing for the perpendicular profiles. Currently, an option to only create profiles at the endpoints of the main profile line exists, but our team is working to create the option to create cross profiles at all vertices of the main profile line. 

Can path profiles be created from a stream centerline vector vs. digitizing a line manually?

Yes, to create a profile along with an existing line feature you can select the line feature using the Digitizer tool, then right-click in the workspace and choose Analysis/Measurement > PATH PROFILE – Generate Path Profile Along Lines. This will open the Path Profile window and display the selected line as the profile line.  

As an enhancement, it would be good to have the cross profile highlighted in a small map along with its profile for reference in the 30 page pdf you are showing. 

You can achieve an overview map for your cross profiles by using the Path Profile File menu option to add all the cross profiles and the main profile to your workspace as a layer. Then, using the Map Layout Editor, you can style a labeled index map for the cross profiles to accompany the PDF containing each cross profile view.  

Can the point of rotation be manually defined?

In the 3D view the pivot axis, or point of rotation, can be specified by the cursor location or a selected feature by using the new keyboard shortcut, z. You can digitize a point feature at a specific location and then select and use the new shortcut to specify the pivot point at a coordinate location. 

Can you save and share Feature Templates to include custom colors and custom icons?

Yes, you can add a Style Attribute when creating a feature template. With this attribute type in a template you assign a feature type to each value you enter. When the user adds a feature to the template layer and picks one of the style attribute values the associated feature type/symbol will be used to show the feature on the map. 

Custom feature symbols and feature types can be added in Configuration > Styles

Attribute Template ought to indicate units; e.g., DBH in inches, height, meters/ ft etc.

The units for new layers are determined by the units set for the workspace in Configuration. You can change the distance and area units settings in Configuration > General > Measure/Units, and the vertical or elevation units in Configuration > Vertical Options.  

If the rectangular lots are described by say only 4 points, how does the cut take place?

With the spatial operations tools that split or cut areas into new features, additional vertices are added along feature boundaries where features overlap or intersect. These added vertices are then used in the geometry of the new feature set produced by the spatial operation. 

 Your demos work very smoothly and fast – what sort of resolutions are you showing? I’m concerned my bathymetry data would be too low resolution.

The resolution for the elevation used in the webinar is roughly 30m by 30m. Global Mapper can handle a wide range of resolutions. In most cases, the only limiting factor is the user’s hardware. You can check the system requirements for Global Mapper v22.1  here in the Knowledge Base

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