Top New Features in Global Mapper version 24

Excelling in file format support, data creation, editing, and analysis, Global Mapper is hailed as a comprehensive geospatial software program. The latest version of Global Mapper, v24, continues to improve the program’s functionality and usability with enhanced raster and 3D data display accompanied by many other updates. 

Read more about the top new features in the standard version of Global Mapper v24 below, and download a 14-day free trial of the program to check out these new features in your workflow!

Histogram Matching

An often neglected form of data when it comes to analysis, pixel-based raster imagery is used throughout GIS workflows to glean additional information about a study site and to provide context. Quite often, image tiles need to be combined from multiple sources through mosaicking in order to cover larger study areas. Global Mapper v24 improves this process with a new Histogram Matching option for raster image data. 

Histogram matching, a setting found in the Raster Layer Options in Global Mapper v24, uses the color band histograms from one layer of imagery to adjust the selected layer’s display. As a result of this process, adjacent and overlapping layers of imagery blend more seamlessly together. This is particularly useful when users wish to mosaic image layers collected with different equipment, or at different dates, as is common with global satellite imagery or UAV photogrammetry from multiple flights. 

3D Viewer Enhancements

While much data in GIS remains two-dimensional, there has been a great expansion in the availability and production of 3D data over the recent years. Global Mapper’s 3D Viewer, a long-standing tool in the program, allows users to dynamically explore data in 3D. With improvements to processing and methods for 3D visualization, the rendering of complex 3D features is improved in Global Mapper with blended vector transparency and the ability to render holes in extruded vector data. 

The Global Mapper 3D Viewer offers an alternate and perhaps more real-world perspective of data for GIS professionals and clients with the ability to display any 3D data, including point clouds, gridded terrain, vector features, and meshes. Additionally, draping imagery over a gridded terrain surface adds context to the data view that can be saved as a view perspective in the Global Mapper workspace, captured as an image, or used in the creation of the fly-through recording. 

Point Feature Display in Path Profile

Yet another method for visualizing 3D data in Global Mapper is the Path Profile tool. Found in the Analysis toolbar, a Path Profile is a cross-sectional visualization of data along a line. In Global Mapper v24, the ability to render 3D point features encountered within a specified distance of the Path Profile line enhances the visualization of vertical control point offset, UAV-collected images along a flight path, and surface or subsurface asset points. 

Enabled as an option in the Path Profile Settings, points shown in the cross-sectional view will inherit the point style used to display the features in Global Mapper’s main view. With point features displayed, the measurement tools in the Path profile can be used to explore the vertical differences between the surface and each point feature, while the 2D view indicates how far from the drawn Path Profile Line each point lies in 2D space. 

With tools applicable to a wide range of industries and workflows, the standard version of Global Mapper v24 provides extended file format support, all manner of vector feature editing tools, terrain visualization and analysis, and much more. If more advanced tools for workflow automation and point cloud analysis are desired, check out the Global Mapper Pro, which extends the toolset found in the standard edition. 

To check out the exciting new functionality in Global Mapper standard and Pro v24, download a free 14-day trial today! And to see the new tools in action, register to attend a two-part GeoTalks Express webinar hosted by some of Blue Marble’s Global Mapper experts. Part one will take place on Tuesday, October 4th, followed by part two on Thursday, October 6th. If you have any questions, please contact us!