Best of GISuser 2006 - Popular GIS Tools, Freeware, and utilities
Written by Glenn Letham, GISuser
27 December 2006
The GISuser download repository is a valuable resource that has served up 10's of thousands of downloads over the past year. The following applications make up the Top 5 downloaded resources from 2006. If these apps aren't what you're looking for then be sure to check out the rest of the tools, apps, scripts, extensions, etc... more than 800 to select from and growing every day!
Do you have a freeware application, free demo, script, extension, tool, converter, or ??? Drop us a line, send us a link to your app and maybe you're app will be one of the Top ranked GIS user tools for 2007!
CoordTrans Company: Franson Technology AB www: http://franson.com/coordtrans/ CoordTrans converts geographic positions between different coordinate systems. Convert between UTM and WGS84. Convert between UTM and NAD27 / NAD83. And more... grids from 17 countries supported. See complete list.
Geographic Calculator Company: Blue Marble Geographics WWW: http://www.bluemarblegeo.com/products/calculator.php The leading coordinate conversion tool world-wide from Blue Marble Geographics. You can transform between coordinate systems, calculate the distance and azimuth between two coordinates, compute grid convergence, point scale factor, datum shifts
ArcExplorer - Free GIS Company: ESRI www: http://www.esri.com/software/arcexplorer/index.html ArcExplorer is a lightweight GIS data viewer developed by ESRI. This freely available software offers an easy way to perform a variety of basic GIS functions, including display, query, and data retrieval applications. It can be used on its own with local data sets or as a client to Internet data and map servers.
Other honorable mention for popularity & innovation:
GeoMedia Viewer GeoMedia Viewer is an easy to use, FREE GIS software application for desktop viewing and distribution of geospatial data.
Forestry GIS (Free) Forestry GIS is a complete GIS data viewer, digitizer and shapefile editing program for Windows® from the University of Wisconsin and Wisconsin DNR - Division of Forestry.
3DEM 3DEM for Win95/98/ME and Windows 2000 will produce three dimensional terrain scenes and flyby animations from a wide variety of freely available data sources including: USGS Digital Elevation Model (ASCII DEM) files USGS Spatial Data Transfer Standard (SDTS DEM) files USGS National Elevation Dataset (NED) files USGS Global 30 Arc Second Elevation Data Set (GTOPO30 DEM) files NOAA Global Land One-km Base Elevation (GLOBE DEM) files.
VTBuilder A tool for viewing and processing many kinds of geospatial data. Can also load any number of SRTM .hgt files, merge them, then fill the gaps with interpolation or lower-resolution data . can read elevation from DEM, SDTS DEM, MicroDEM, GTOPO30, SRTM.
GPS-Photo Link GPS-Photo Link is PC software that links digital camera photos with the latitude and longitude of where the photo was taken. A GPS receiver is used to determine the location of the photo, without physically connecting the camera to the GPS receiver.
Google Maps (gmaps) Mobile Mobile GMaps is a FREE application that displays Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps and MSN Virtual Earth maps and satellite imagery on Java J2ME-enabled mobile phones, PDAs and other devices.
The GISuser Tool repository is one of the most useful, most popular, yet most under-used sections at GISuser.com... be sure to share this resource with your friends and colleagues! The repository is made up of a number user contributed tools including:
- 120+ ArcView & ArcGIS extensions & add ons - 90+ free GIS and map viewers - 50+ data translators - 75+ developer docs - 90+ Google maps Mashup APIs and developer tools - 35+ GIS and Geospatial technology webcasts - much more!
One of our New Year resolutions is to have more than 1,000 useful and mostly free tools and apps in our repository. Help us reach that goal by suggesting your favorite application.
Top iPhone related GIS and Geo Tech news stories from 2009 - At the end of the year its always interesting for us to look at some of the stats and results to identify trends and more important, to see what our readers think is hot! In the "news" category it seems that iPhone related geo tech items were extremely popular.
Geo Social Location Checkin to Twitter from iPhone - With the cool SXSW event taking place Austin, TX, everyone who's anyone in social and social location seems to have rolled out updates this week, making your choice for how to check-in to your social media bookmarks even tougher to decide on!
10 Awesome GIS and Mapping apps for the iPhone - I recall last year at the ESRI UC when an iPhone was on stage showing a prototype app (think ArcPad on iPhone). It was then that I realized the iPhone platform is going to be BIG in mapping and there's a ton of opportunity for developers.
Nokia Booklet 3G, unboxing video and image gallery... Those of you in the USA who pop in to BestBuy occasionally, you may have seen a stand showing off the Nokia Booklet 3G. A sleek, 3G enabled, SIM slot (AT&T) sporting netbook.
Interesting Tweeple - 10 Geo Technology & Geo-Social Women of Twitter - given the growing love for geospatial and location-aware technologies, I’ve decided to hype 10 women that I feel make a significant contribution to the Geo-Twittersphere. If you’d like to add 10 knowledgeable and useful Twitter contacts to your Geo following list I highly suggest the following: (in no particular order)
10 Geo Social Location-Aware Apps Making Waves... With Twitter's opening of their location API to developers there's going to be a ton of third party apps that will enable Twitter users to share location-aware information via their Twitter accounts.
Signs that indicate you may be a GeoGeek (aka. GeoNerd) and some suggested Geo blogs - Chances are good that if you are a Geo Geek then you already know it and likely refer to yourself as one. However, there’s many of you out there that may be on the fence and wondering… “am I a Geo Geek?" Read on for a comprehensive list of signs you might be a GeoGeek followed up by some suggested Geoblog reading.
Real-time GPS Mapping and GIS Solution Aids Efficient Disaster Management - Saturday, February 7, 2009 will forever be known as Black Saturday in the State of Victoria, Australia. In the midst of a 10-year drought, a record breaking heat wave descended upon the state, with temperatures exceeding 45 degrees C (110-120 deg F), breaking all-time record highs in some cities - Victoria Police Use Trimble Juno SC Handhelds to Speed Assessment of Damage Caused by Bush Fires.
2010 ESRI Federal User Conference February 17-19, 2010, Washington D.C. Walter E. Washington Convention Center - The FedUC is the largest geospatial conference for federal agencies. Connect with other leaders, decision makers, and GIS professionals.
The International LiDAR Mapping Forum 2010 - Tenth Anniversary Event! ILMF 2010 will be held from March 3 - 5, 2010 at the Hyatt Regency in Denver at Colorado Convention Center.
The NAVTEQ 2010 Global LBS Challenge Awards Ceremony will be held during Ignite at O'Reilly Where 2.0. Be among the first to hear as NAVTEQ announces the winners for the North America region. Participants will be competing for a global prize pool of $10 million and growing by showcasing pre-commercial location-enabled apps using NAVTEQ map data & products. March 30, 2010, during Ignite Where, 7:30pm - 9:00pm, at the Marriott San Jose, CA
WHERE2.0 2010 - Now in its sixth year, the Where 2.0 Conference is where the grassroots and leading edge developers building location-aware technology intersect with the businesses and entrepreneurs seeking out location apps, platforms, and hardware to gain a competitive edge. For 15% use Discount Code: whr10lbs