Blue Marble Geographics, a developer of versatile geospatial software solutions, has released Global Mapper v26.2, the latest update to its all-in-one GIS software.
The new version focuses on enhancing GIS workflows and user experience through significant usability improvements. It introduces a redesigned animation toolset, expanded LiDAR and terrain display options, and support for highly requested file formats, such as Phase One’s IIQ image format.
Version 26.2 streamlines workflows through several new features. A new dockable file browser provides quick access to directories with options to filter by file type, allowing users to locate datasets directly within the application.
The Digitizer Toolkit, first introduced in v26.1, has been expanded to include highly utilized tools for creating path profiles, applying elevations, vertex editing, and displaying feature measurements, all accessible from one location.
Users can also now instantly restore toolbar positions with a simple Ctrl + R shortcut, which is useful for those working across multiple monitors.
This new update has a redesigned animation toolset, with a new Animate Layers button that opens a floating pane, simplifying the process of building and managing animations.
This replaces the previous toolbar with a more intuitive interface, allowing users to display layers sequentially to create dynamic visuals like timelapses, step through timeseries with a slider, record and export animations as videos, and even create multiple animations within a single workspace.
The Lidar/Terrain Display Controls tool improves data visualization. Users can adjust shader color scaling for terrain data using sliders, making it more intuitive to adjust the elevation range and view results in real time.
Pro users can adjust shaders for lidar data with an accompanying histogram to show a clear view of the data distribution for any attribute.
Filtering of point clouds, whether lidar or photogrammetric, is also easier. Filterable attributes are automatically populated, and histogram sliders allow users to interactively adjust which points are visible. Filtered points are excluded from analyses, such as gridding or contour generation, but are not permanently deleted, providing precision and flexibility.
This new release continues Global Mapper’s tradition of responding to user requests and expanding compatibility by building on its extensive file format support. New additions include OSM PBF (OpenStreetMap Protocolbuffer Binary Format) and TFADS-O (Table Formatted Aeronautical Data Set–Obstacles).
The inclusion of Phase One’s IIQ image format enables users to import high-resolution RAW images directly, preserving dynamic range and fidelity without needing conversion to TIFF. This development also includes improved transparency and multiband export options for ECW and JPEG2000, achieved by updating to the latest ECW SDK.
Jenna Nelson, Training Coordinator, commented, “In developing Global Mapper 26.2, our priority was clear: efficiency for our users. We delved into customer feedback to identify key routines from within the Digitizer menus and made those functions – like quickly obtaining feature measurements and statistics – immediately accessible in the dockable Digitizer Toolkit.
“I’m excited for new users to find an easier entry point to accessing these functions, and our seasoned users will enjoy how much faster and more intuitive their day-to-day work has become.”
