Version 9 History

Version 9.9.5— 2024.02.29 The leap year release…

• NEW: The Stereonet plot now allows you to plot planes as poles, plot cylindrical best fit (i.e.,, the orientation tensor), or a rose diagram of strikes of planes or trends of lines. If planes are plotted as poles, then the rose diagram shows the trends of the poles rather than the strikes of the planes.

• FIXED: A bug that would cause an out of bounds crash when importing a .KML or .KMZ which did not include an elevation, just a longitude-latitude couplet.

Version 9.9.2— 2023.12.31 Happy New Year

• FIXED: A number of issues with Annotations

• UPDATED: Copyright to 2024 ;-)

Version 9.9.1 — 2023.12.18

• Minor interface enhancements and bug fixes.

Version 9.9.0 — 2023.11.17

• All base maps that you open for a project are now listed in a new submenu under Plot>Base Maps. You can now quickly switch from one base map type to another with this menu. You no longer need to go to File>Open Map and then search for the file you want to open on disk. GMDE will automatically load all of the .MBTiles files in the project folder into the Plot>Base Maps submenu. However, because raster maps come in a variety of different formats, you will have to load each raster map from File>Open Map once before GMDE remembers that file and puts it into the Base Maps submenu.

• Export the entire project — MBTiles file(s), 3 DEM files, and a .SQLite data file — as a single .Zip archive using File>Export>Complete Project to iOS. This option makes it much easier to transfer a project to your iPhone or iPad. GMDE Lite (v. 5.6 and higher) can now read the .Zip file directly and make a new project stored in the GMDE Lite Documents folder simply by going to the Settings Screen and choosing Open Project. All of the pertinent files will be put the the appropriate places in the GMDE Lite Documents folder and the project will be opened. You will be given the option of deleting the .Zip file after the app has installed all of the pieces.

• GMDE (desktop, all versions) can also read the exported zip archive and make a new project on the desktop. Simply use the File>Open menu command and select the .Zip archive to open. This provides a convenient way for you to share projects with students or colleagues, even if they do not have an iOS device.

• New Map metadata screen for MBTiles files accessed from Settings>Show Map Metadata. Among other things, this screen shows you the actual resolution, in meters/pixel, of the minimum and maximum zoom levels, as well as the total number of map tiles, in the MBTiles file.

• Bug fixes, of course…

Version 9.8.5 — 2023.10.29

• New Stereonet window: You can now plot your orientation data — either just selected data, just checked data, or all data — in a Stereonet window. The results in the Stereonet Window can be save to file, or copied to clipboard, as publication quality pdf files.

• GMDE can now read .KMZ files as well as .KML files.

• Satellite View (Mac only): Double click on the satellite image to zoom in. Command (⌘) double click to zoom out. Hold down the shift key to zoom in or out faster. The satellite view will recenter itself on the place that you double clicked on

• The zoom combobox menu at the bottom right corner of the map view now works again for changing the zoom level for MBTiles maps

• The usual bug fixes…

Version 9.8.2 — 2023.10.08

• Clicking on an orientation, POI or contact in a listbox in the right hand panel will now automatically center the map/satellite view on the selected observation. Using the find text panel to find an item will also center the map on the found observation when you click okay.

• Several bug fixes focused on the behavior for international users. GMDE should now use the formatting for the region set in your system settings for all displayed numbers.

• A few bugs associated with Apple Maps satellite view (Mac Versions only) have been fixed.

Version 9.8.0 — 2023.08.11

• Screen redraw with large maps with lots of contacts is now substantially faster and interactive operations are much faster as well.

• There is now a “Send to Back” menu option in Operations>Contacts in case you have a particular contact (or contacts) that you want to be drawn first (and potentially covered by all of the other contacts).

• POI titles, and dips/plunges of orientations can now have different font sizes based on the type of the POI or orientation. For example, you can now set the title of one type of POI to be 24 point and a different POI to be 12 point.

• The Operations Menu and the Operations>Contacts sub menu have been reorganized to make things a bit easier to find.

• You can now choose Edit>Rectangular Selection for selecting groups of POIs, Orientations, or Contacts (depending on which tab is showing on the right side panel). Rectangular selection is considerably faster than lasso selection. Note that, to select vertices along a contact, you still have to use a lasso selection.

Version 9.7.1 — 2023.07.26

• GMDE now recognizes the “LAYOUT” tag in GridFloat and .BIL DEM .hdr files.

• Fixed a bug introduced in v. 9.70 that would cause a crash when using some elevation servers

• Removed MapQuest as an elevation server as they changed their terms of service. Any projects which used MapQuest will now default to Open Topo Data service

• USGS elevation service changed their API slightly which was causing a return of -9999. This has now been fixed.

Version 9.7.0 — 2023.07.02

• NEW: Points of Interest (POIs) can now have labels turned an or off on a POI type basis. For example, if you want to label Samples but not Photographs, you can now do so. This option is set in Settings (used to be Inspector) under the POI panel. Toggle on or off the Show label check box. This option necessitated a new GMDEbinary file format which cannot be read by older versions of the program.

• NEW (MAC ONLY): Now compiled as a universal binary for native operation on M-series Macs.

• IMPROVED: When scrolling large maps with more than 50 contacts or POIs, only the base map will show during scrolling. At the end of scrolling, the screen will redraw will all of your contacts and POIs automatically.

• FIXED: Much more robust number parsing recognizing whether an input text file uses a comma or a period as the decimal separator. Input files can now use any format and GMDE should recognize and parse correctly the decimal point character, regardless of the origin of the file.

Version 9.6.5 — 2023.05.09

• NEW: Import .GPX files (both waypoints and tracks).

Version 9.6.0 — 2023.04.27

• NEW: Save your base map and overlying vector objects (contacts, orientations, and POIs) as a PDF file which can be opened in your favorite graphics program or in some case be used for publication as is. The base map is saved at the resolution showing on the screen at the time you select File>Save Map as PDF. You have the choice of saving the base map and overlying geological features as a raster image cropped to the graticule, or saving the entire map as a raster and overlying geological features as vector objects that can be edited in a vector graphics program. Please read the explanation file that can be opened from within the program by selecting Help>Save Map as PDF Guide to learn how to take maximum advantage of this new feature.

Version 9.5.0 — 2023.03.10 (updated 2023.03.21)

• NEW: GMDE (all versions) can now export a GeoPackage database. GeoPackage is an open standard for GIS data information exchange that an ESRI product manager in a blog on their site referred to as “the new shape file.” This means that you can seamlessly export your GMDE vector data to any modern GIS program, including the free and very powerful QGIS. Note that the next version of GMDE Lite will also be able to export GeoPackage databases.

• NEW: GMDE (all versions) can now import a GeoPackage database with data from a GIS program to plot in GMDE. This is particularly useful when you want to import a geologic map, perhaps from the USGS National Map Database, to plot in GMDE to use for teaching or research. Most GIS data on the internet is still in .SHP format, which is now more than twenty years old. Thus, you’ll have to open the data that you download in a GIS program and then export it as a GeoPackage. QGIS is a particularly convenient and free way to do this.

• Open Topo Data is now the default choice for online elevation server. These data are in a variety of resolutions and GMDE uses the dataset with the maximum resolution for the area of your project. Thus, in the US the 10 m NED is used, whereas in Europe the 25 m EU-DEM is used and elsewhere in the world the 30 m Aster DEM is used.

• As in the last release, the Mac version can also export SpatiaLite databases, another data exchange format that is widely supported by virtually all modern GIS programs.

Version 9.4.0 — 2023.02.14❤️

• NEW: Mac only right now (still to come on other platforms) — SpatiaLite database export for direct import of GMDE vector objects (POIs, Orientations, and Contacts) into all standard GIS programs (File>Export>SpatiaLite Database).

• FIXED: A previous update killed the manual setting of coordinate system offset. This has been fixed and restored in this version (all platforms).

Version 9.3.0 — 2023.01.27

• NEW: Enter contacts by entering a distances. and bearings (Operations>Contacts>New From Distance & Bearing). Great for plotting pace and compass or survey data: visualize closure errors. Click the map to identify the starting point of a traverse, then type in the measured distance and bearing. Units can be specified independent of the project units and the user can enter bearings in quadrant or azimuth format and with respect to true or magnetic north.

• NEW: In the Contacts Tab on the right hand side, you can now resize the Selected Contact Info box to show more of the notes field by dragging the new separator at the base of the box. This will, of course, reduce the number of contact vertices that you can see in vertices list below the box.

• The usual assortment of bug fixes.

Version 9.2.2 — 2022.11.06

• Fixed a bug where the georeferencing window would not display text boxes (thanks, Daniel).

Version 9.2.1 — 2022.10.21

• New Zoom to Location menu command (Windows>Zoom to Location), enabled in the satellite view (Mac only) allows you to go anywhere in the world by entering latitude and longitude, UTM coordinates, or by typing an address. Latitude and longitude can be entered in either order, and you can use degrees-minutes-seconds as a format if you wish.

• Fixed crash that occurred immediately after start up if one attempted to show the satellite view without first entering a raster base maps.

• The calculation of uncertainties on map thickness is, once again, enabled after being inadvertently disabled in a recent update.

• Fixed a bug that would cause the map thickness not to be saved when saving an orientation observation.

Version 9.2.0 — 2022.10.08

• New streamlined internal program architecture, eliminating much unnecessary old code.

• New menu command: Operations>Draw Path — You can use this command to draw a continuous path by clicking and dragging in the map window. After drawing the path, the length and enclosed area will be displayed and you will be given the option of saving that path as a contact or a topo profile.

• New menu command: Operations>Contacts>Make Topo Profile from Selected — With this command, you can turn any contact into a topographic profile. This is especially useful where you have recorded GPS tracks as “contacts” and want to plot a topo profile along them.

• New menu command: Operations>Contacts>Eliminate Duplicates — This command will delete any contact that has identical coordinates, name, and type as any other contact automatically, leaving you with just one version of a contact. Note that it does not check the notes field to see if you have changed the note or not so be careful!

• New menu command: Operations>Contacts>Bring Selected to Front — Use this command to move the selected contact to the bottom of the contact list so that it will be drawn last, on top of every other contact. This is especially useful in cases where some of your contacts are filled with a color and you want to move those underneath so that they plot on top of the filled contact.

• Set the font size for POI labels — A new combo box in the POI panel of Settings allows you to specify the font size to use for plotting POI labels on the map.

• Contact area and length reported in a variety of units —popup menus in the contact details area allow you to display area as sq. feet, sq. miles, or acres (if feet are selected as the base unit) or sq. m, sq. km, or hectares (meters as base unit). Contact lengths can be displayed as feet/miles or m/km.

• Turning on dynamic scaling (Settings>Dynamic Scaling) now automatically sets the “base scale” as scale of the current view the first time you turn it on. Dynamic scaling now applies to POI point symbols and labels as well as to orientations and contacts.

• Improved algorithm for determining whether a point or click is inside or outside of a polygon

• improved algorithm for changing the elevation point spacing of topo profiles.

• Massive improvements to the Satellite View (Mac version, only):

  • The drawing layer over the satellite view is now identical, regardless of the base map/satellite view you are using. Dip values, POI labels, etc. all show up on the satellite view.

  • You can draw a graticule and scale bar on the satellite view.

  • Dynamic scaling can be applied to the satellite view as well as any other base map.

  • Satellite view is closely registered to the base map view so toggling back and forth causes minimal jumping around.

Version 9.1.2 — 2022.08.30

• The Inspector Palette — now called Settings — has been completely revamped with new organizational tabs on the left side and content for the selected tab on the right. You access Settings from the Window Menu and the key command, as before is ⇧⌘I (Mac) or Shift-Ctl-I (Windows and Linux). It is now much easier to find what you’re looking for!

• Scale bar and graticule spacing, units and more can now be changed in settings and will appear instantly on the map.

• The Graticule Tab in Settings has acquired a new option: You can now show latitude and longitude values with either hemisphere letters or with a negative sign for west longitude or south latitude. I call this the “GSA publications option” 😉

• Dynamic scaling of scale bar and graticule text is now saved with the binary file. This has required an update to the GMDEbinary file format. This version of GMDE can read older formats but older versions cannot read this new file format.

• As always, bug fixes…

Version 9.0.0, 9.0.1, 9.0.2 — 2022.04.12

• If you downloaded v. 9.0.0, please be sure to download and install v. 9.0.1 which fixes a bug in the software development environment that was discovered after 9.0.0 was posted. This bug could have degraded your location data (by about 10 m) under certain conditions (e.g., exporting or importing a GMDE Lite database to or from the desktop version). The bug does not affect the collection of data within GMDE Lite.

• v. 9.0.2 restores the ability to copy pdfs from the down plunge and topo profile windows. My license to the library I use timed out in the previous version.

• Mac Version, only — GMDE now uses Apple MapKit for the satellite view and that view is now incorporated into the main window rather than appearing as a separate window. Use of MapKit enables very significant new functionality for mac users. In short, you can now do virtually everything in the satellite view that you can do in the regular map view:

  • Show a satellite (or road map) image for anywhere on earth. The longitude and latitude of the pointer is shown in the lower left whenever the mouse is in the map screen. The satellite view is displayed directly in the main window rather than in a separate window. You display it with the same menu/key command as before (⇧⌘D).

  • Option clicking on the image will retrieve the elevation of that point from an internet elevation server (USGS server in the United States, the Canadian server in Canada, the MapQuest or GeoNames 30 m SRTM server elsewhere)

  • If you download and read in a GridFloat or .BIL DEM, the elevation at the cursor will be displayed automatically in the lower left. The boundary of the DEM is, by default, plotted on the image. With a local DEM, you can project contacts from orientations just like you would in the regular map view.

  • Orientations, contacts, POIs, and topo profile lines that you have already entered are plotted automatically on the satellite image. You can click on them to select them and use the Plot Menu to toggle on or off those which you do not want to see on the image.

  • You can enter new orientations, contacts, POIs, and topo profile lines using the satellite image, using the same techniques that you would in a normal local map file. Doing three point problems on the satellite image is particularly convenient. You can now do three point problems anywhere in the world, even where you don’t have a map or DEM. Contextual menu shortcuts work the same way they do in the regular map view.

  • Because a mouse click and drag scrolls an Apple maps view, there are two new menu commands under Satellite View in the Windows menu: Measure Distance will allow you to click and drag to get distance, bearing, and with a local DEM slope for any dragged line. Distance along path allows you to click and drag an arbitrary path on the satellite view to measure more complex distances.

  • You can project contacts from orientations on the satellite image after entering an orientation just as you would on any other map image.

  • The MapKit satellite view cannot display text on the screen so you will not see your dip magnitudes plotted.

• Windows and Linux version continue, for the time being, to display Google satellite images in a separate window. For the time being because the web browser technology that GMDE uses has been deprecated by Google and will cease working in June.

• DEM interpolation: you can now set whether the elevation from a DEM is interpolateded from the 16 closest grid nodes (using an inverse distance weighted algorithm with a power of 6) or if the reported elevation is that which corresponds to the upper left corner elevation. Interpolation is turned on automatically for cell spacings greater than 10 m but you can turn it on or off manually in the Inspector palette.

• DEM metadata: You can now see the metadata about the loaded DEM by choosing Settings>Show DEM Metadata. This option is only available if you have loaded a local DEM for offline use.

• Find High and Low Points by dragging over a region now temporarily shows you the high and low points in the selected region with solid and hollow rectangles. If you want to see them permanently you will need to use the dialog to set a POI at those points. The temporary points disappear when the screen is refreshed.. Find high and low points in DEM never uses interpolation.

• Make a POI by dragging a photo onto the POI add photo window. GMDE will extract time, date, and location from the EXIF data and, if you have added a caption and your photos library allows export of captions, the caption too. YOu can drag directly from the photos library, or drag a file that you have stored elsewhere on your computer.

• This version is better “internationalized” meaning that it should deal better with computers in regions that use a comma for the decimal point (applies to all versions of the program.

• Fixed a bug related to area of a contact calculation when the units were set to Feet.