What’s new in GeoCalc SDK 9.0?

The Blue Marble Geographics GeoCalc Software Development Kit (SDK) is a fully object-oriented class library utilized in many geospatial and geodetic software programs for geodetic data management and conversion. With this development kit widely used throughout many industries, GeoCalc is regularly updated to stay current with the latest geodetic standards. Here is a look at some of the new features and updates in GeoCalc SDK 9.0

Updated dialogs, including powerful new live filter search and advanced multi-parameter search within the geodetic datasource

The GeoCalc dialogs include all of the interface dialogs used to browse, select, and edit objects in the datasource. These dialogs interact with a geodetic data source that has grown to encompass more than 5000 coordinate systems, 2000 transformations, and many other parameters. To assist you in browsing these objects, the search bar has been expanded to allow you to search using partial terms. With this update, you can search without knowing the full name or even what category or regional grouping to find it. 

While the longstanding folder-style view is still a primary way to navigate the datasource, the updated dialogs now contain a checkbox to view the objects in all subfolders of the selected folder, which facilitates the search. This optional expanded view, coupled with a live filter search and multi-parameter search, makes it easier to pull up a coordinate system or other geodetic definition you aren’t sure exactly how to find.

The live filter search, on the top left of the datasource browsing dialogs, dynamically updates the list of matching objects as you type in a search term. This allows you to find the item you are looking for with fewer clicks than in the past. The advanced search opens a new dialog where you can enter multiple search conditions and select the relevant geographic area through a more flexible map interface. The advanced multi-parameter search is particularly helpful when you only have partial information on a specific coordinate reference system. By entering what you do know, the search function quickly searches projections by the datum, projection, and central meridian filters across various country’s folders and finds the regional system you need.

Added support for accessing individual errors provided by NADCON 5 and NTv2 transformation grids

In recent years, a very common transformation for our American users, moving between various realizations of the North American Datum, has moved over to the new toolkit by the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) known as NADCON 5. This toolkit, supported by GeoCalc 9.0, is the basis of the national transformations between any realization within the National Spatial Reference System. With the advent of NADCON 5, more detailed information about transformations is now easily accessible on an individual point basis, with an impressive new capability important in high-accuracy mapping applications as we move towards future surveying technologies and coordinate systems. 

In GeoCalc 9.0, transformations involving the NADCON 5 methods report what NGS refers to as “uncertainty” of the transformation of the individual points, allowing users to assess the confidence in the output positions based on the transformation. These uncertainties reported by the NGS on the NCAT website are labeled as errors in Geographic Calculator 2023 and made available for any Interactive or Point Database NADCON 5 transformation.

Updated Horizontal Time Dependent Positioning toolkit to version 3.4.2, and EPSG database version 10.078 

The modern GNSS-based coordinate systems are beginning to provide additional metadata about points on an individual level. For time-based coordinate transformations, this includes velocities between the epochs involved. In GeoCalc 9.0, velocity information provided by the relevant survey authorities is now available for Horizontal Time Dependent Positioning version 3.4.2-based transforms here in the United States, as well as the Canadian time-based transformations. 

These updates improve the program’s usability and expand support for the latest advancements in geodetic science. The GeoCalc SDK allows developers to utilize the underlying geodetic library that supports Blue Marble’s Geographic Calculator within their own programs. If you are interested in working with the GeoCalc SDK, visit our website to learn more and download a trial today.