GMDE — which stands for Geologic Map Data Extractor — is a program to extract information from a scan (raster image) or an MBTile file of a geologic map or image of known scale. A huge assortment of maps are available for free online from the USGS and the GSC, or you can scan your own maps. GMDE can read .jpg, .jp2, .png, .tif, and .pdf formats (pdf’s are Mac-only). GMDE can also be used in new mapping projects and has full StraboSpot upload and download capabilities.
Checkout the GMDE screencasts on YouTube
NEW! There are 13 sample datasets that you can download for your teaching. You can also load them onto your iPhone or iPad if you are visiting one of these classic localities..
Log4J Note: GMDE is not written in Java, has no logging mechanism and is thus not subject to the Log4J exploit. Websites that GMDE may contact by explicit user action (StraboSpot, Google Maps, elevation web services, etc.) may or may not be affected. Check those sites for information.
GMDE 10
With the program, you can:
Use the mouse to drag along a strike line; you type in the dip and the program automatically determines the latitude, longitude, elevation, and strike of the datum. The strikes and dips can be output to your favorite stereonet program or saved as .kml file for visualization in Google Earth using Tom Blenkinsop’s cool 3D symbols.
Calculate the map thickness of stratigraphic units using any two points, one on the base and one on the top of the bed
Measure irregular line lengths (both map length and slope length) and areas
Digitize contacts in latitude, longitude, (and Eastings and Northings) and elevation using as many points as you want. These digitized contacts can be used in digital down plunge projections and can be exported via .kml files to GoogleEarth.
Construct topographic profiles along a line of section marked with the unit boundaries, just by clicking on the boundaries and entering an annotation. Because topo profiles can have as many bends in them as you want, in addition to making geologic cross sections, this is useful for constructing river profiles, etc. GMDE can project apparent dips onto the line of section. Profiles can be saved as .SVG files for use in your favorite (modern) graphics program
Version 9 & 10 History
Version 10.0.5, 10.0.6 — 2024.10.26
IMPROVED: Many small interface refinements that you may not have notice but which bugged me!
FIXED: When you have multiple windows open with different project, the base map submenu now updates correctly.
Version 10.0.2 — 2024.10.14
IMPROVED: POIs with overlapping labels at a particular zoom level are now suppressed until one zooms in resulting in a cleaner, less cluttered look to the map.
IMPROVED: The workflow for adding photos without EXIF location info to a project.
FIXED: Various cosmetic issues with the display of uncertainty circles, especially for orientations.
Version 10.0.0 & 10.0.1 — 2024.09.11 , 2024.10.01
FIXED: v. 10.0.1 fixes an issue where GMDE would not import correctly GMDE Lite database files.
NEW: A more streamlined interface. Most of the metadata for orientations, contacts, and POIs has been removed from the main window but is still available quickly and easily via a “pop-over” window by clicking the “Show/Edit Metadata” button This new interface allows one to see more metadata than could be shown in the old interface. On the Mac, you can drag the pop-over to turn it into a floating window if you want to keep it around for some reason.
NEW: A thumbnail image of any pictures attached to POIs is now shown right in the POI details panel. The thumbnail image area also acts as a drop target to drag and drop photos and turn them into POIs (if they have attached metadata with location information). Click on the thumbnail to see the photo in a full-sized window.
NEW: Tags! You can set up a single list of tags that can be applied to any POI, orientation, or contact. Tags have a name, abbreviation, color, geological and absolute age, as well as notes. With tags, you can set up rock units (e.g.: Twin Creek Formation (Jtc)), or you can identify localities with separate tags so that you can quickly find all observations/features from a single locality. You can choose to color the features on your map by their tag color. Tags are managed in a separate page of the Settings Panel.
NEW: Reposition scale bar menu command under the Operations menu allows you to move an existing scale bar without having to redefine it.
IMPROVED: You now set default errors in the Settings panel and individual features can have their own errors which override the default errors in the settings panel. Observation specific errors are set in the pop-over windows showing metadata for each observation.
IMPROVED: The m/pixel scale for MBTiles base maps is now shown correctly in the Orientation Panel.
IMPROVED: You can now select a filled contact by clinking anywhere inside it.
Note: the GMDEbinary file format has been updated to include tags, The new version can read older file formats but older versions of the app cannot read the new file format!
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.
Version 8 History
Version 8.8.9 — 2022.01.21
Toggle on/off now works with projected contacts.
Using Find Text with contacts and then applying Toggle on or off from the Edit Menu no longer produces a crash..
Version 8.8.7, 8.8.8 — 2022.01.12
Copy Special now allows you to choose whether to copy the checked, selected, or all items from a submenu for the appropriate data type.
Assign elevations to POIs that are not on the surface. Thus you can now set a POI for, say, the depth of an interface in a well. When you change the depth so that it is no longer on the surface, the program will verify if you are sure and offer you to opportunity to revert to the surface elevation for that latitude-longitude pair.
Calculate a best fit plane from three or more selected POIs. The orientation can be saved as any existing orientation type. In combination with the previous improvement, this means that you can now calculate the best fitting plane for known points in the subsurface (say, from well data).
When you convert a Photos database into new POIs that are not in the app already, more information about the POIs are included, such as title, notes, etc.
Fixed bug that would assign duplicate unix time stamps to split contacts or broken composite contacts.
v. 8.8.8 has less aggressive optimization which means smaller file size and may potentially avoid some “edge case” bugs but will run a little slower on computationally intensive tasks.
A few other bug fixes as well….
Version 8.8.5 — 2021.12.02
Text find and replace across different fields of a single record/datum. You can even use GREP (General Regular Expression Parsing language) to conduct very general find and replace operations. This is especially useful if you have imported a KML file with attributes and wish to use one of the attributes as the name for the datum.
Auto merge contacts: Goes through your list of contacts and automatically merges those which are touching. Be careful as this can have unintended consequences!
There are now three different ways that you can use to decimate a contact (i.e., reduce the number of vertices in the contact): (1) remove every other vertex, (2) subsample the contact to a user specified vertex spacing, or (3) use a method that removes vertices if the triangle at which they are at the apex falls below an area threshold. The last method is likely to preserve the general ship of the contact best.
Fixed a bug that could cause a crash if the user entered an empty contact.
Version 8.8.3 — 2021.10.07
Projecting contacts when using LiDAR DEMs is much faster now because the DEM is subsampled. Vertices on projected contacts are now 5-10 m apart rather than well under a meter as previously.
Labels on the scale bar and graticule scale dynamically with zoom of the map. This enables you to set up the graticule and scale bars with the labels that look appropriate at the current zoom level. Then, if you zoom in to create a screen capture mosaic that will have a resolution appropriate for publication (e.g. 300+ DPI) the labels will remain the appropriate size.
A bug which cause a crash when trying to delete the vertices of a projected contact has been fixes
Additional bug fixes…
Version 8.8.0, 8,8.1 — 2021.09.23
Several bugs and unexpected behaviors concerning the definition of topo profiles have been addressed, including one that persisted after v. 8.8.0 was released (thanks, Nestor!)
Topo profiles can how remember their vertical exaggeration and the next time they are displayed during an ongoing editing session, they will show their set vertical exaggeration. Different profiles can have different vertical exaggerations.
The behavior of the record button on the Orientations tab has been changed. After saving a new or edited orientation, it is now disabled, all orientations deselected, and the details panel emptied of data so that (a) you cannot add a duplicate and (b) you can immediately do another three point problem without first having to click to deselect the selected orientation.
Version 8.7.8 — 2021.09.03
If you are using a local DEM for topography, GMDE can now tell you the exact elevation and location of the highest and lowest points in whatever part of the map that you drag the mouse over. You can set points of interest at either of those points if you so choose.
The crash dialog now provides more troubleshooting info for you to provide to the developer (i.e., me!)
bug fixes
Version 8.7.5 — 2021.06.19
Numerous small changes and tweaks to ensure better functioning with GMDE Lite.
bug fixes
Version 8.7.0 — 2021.05.22
GMDE Desktop has been updated to enable seamless copy and paste between the desktop Mac version and the upcoming GMDE Lite. If your Mac computer and your iPhone or iPad are within Bluetooth range, you can copy a dataset, selected, or checked data on the desktop and then just copy it into GMDE Lite thanks to Apple’s HandOff technology and clipboard sharing. It works in the other direction, too: copy data on your iPhone and then just paste it into GMDE desktop. Note that photos attached to POIs are NOT transferred via the clipboard.
Copy and paste does not work on Windows because the underlying system technologies are not available. You can, however, use the sharing panel to export a datum or data to a text file to iCloud Drive and then import the text file on Windows for import into GMDE Desktop. This also works, of course, for the Mac.
This version of GMDE Desktop is better at transferring colors and symbols from Lite/Mobile.
A pasted or imported datum will be included if (a) there is no datum in the dataset with an identical time stamp, or (b) if the modification date of the data on the clipboard (or the text file you are reading in) is newer than the modification date on the desktop.
Bug fixes
Version 8.6.0 — 2021.05.08
The GMDE Lite import and export database format has been updated to be compatible with that used in the upcoming v. 1.5 of GMDE Lite
Version 8.5.7 — 2021.04.16
A new setting in Preferences that allows you to turn on (or off) the ability to have an updated POI in your Lite database replace the same measurement in you desktop project IF the datum from the Lite project was modified more recently than the same item in the desktop project. The default setting (off) is that POIs that are already in the desktop project are NOT imported. Eventually, this will work in the other direction, too. Note that you have modified the same POI in both the desktop and the GMDE Lite projects, and the latter was modified more recently, this could result in data loss (i.e., the modifications made in the desktop project) so use with care!
The POI tab of the inspector palette now has a button for adding new POI types, just like for contacts and orientations. Adding new POI types on the fly by typing a new name in the POI details section still works but now you have another, and more obvious way of accomplishing the same thing.
Version 8.5.6 — 2021.04.07
Plot a scale bar anywhere on the map. The scale bar is user configurable and is positioned on the map when the user clicks drags the scale bar to their preferred location. Choose Plot>Scale bar
Plot a latitude-longitude graticule grid on the map. You can also choose to drag to plot the graticule over just part of the map rather than the entire thing. The interval, color, and line weight are all user configurable. Choose Plot>Graticule.
Updated the format of the GMDE Lite/Mobile database that the desktop program can both read and save data for transferring to/from your mobile devices.
Version 8.5.2 — 2021.04.02
Updated to be compatible with the evolving format of the GMDE Lite/GMDE Mobile database format.
Version 8.5.1 — 2021.03.23
New version which can read the changed format of GMDE Lite Databases in the most recent beta of the app.
Version 8.5.0 — 2021.03.19
This version brings support for file/data exchange with the as yet unreleased new app called GMDE Lite which brings the basic functionality of GMDE Mobile to iPhones (but can also be used on iPads). Additionally, GMDE Lite will enable strike and dip measurement using the device as easily as Stereonet Mobile (lacking the sighting function and analytical capabilities of SM) in a map centered interface. When released, Stereonet Mobile and GMDE Lite will be able to exchange files readily on the iPhone/iPad.
A few bugs have been quashed. more undoubtedly remain.
Version 8.3.6 — 2021.02.23
You can now use strike azimuth or dip magnitude as a search/select criterion in the batch select orientations dialog box
Fixed a bug where a best fit orientation to a group of vertices would not be recorded correctly if the base map is in MBTiles format.
Version 8.3.5 — 2021.02.12
Fix for abysmally slow behavior on Windows when POIs are plotted
Fix for bug on Windows when return characters are used in the notes field of POIs, contacts, or orientations.
Binary file now keeps track of when the last file format occurred so that older versions can open binary files saved by newer versions as long as the older version post-dates the last change in the file format.
You can now click in the area between the POI listbox and the POI details group box and drag up or down. The notes field in the POI details group box will expand or contract depending on the direction of drag
Version 8.3.4 — 2021.01.30
You can now copy and paste contacts between GMDE Projects. Use Edit>Copy All> and select the data type to transfer. Then In the project where you want to paste the copied data, just choose Edit>Paste. The data type will be recognized automatically.
Version 8.3.3 — 2021.01.24
Batch Find/Change for orientations, contacts, and POIs now shows the number of observations that will be selected in the dialog box (in case you’re looking for statistics of things as I was recently).
Improved contextual menu behavior in list boxes
Fixed a bug where the quality was not being recorded correctly for new orientations.
The usual bug fixes.
Version 8.3.0, 8.3.1 — 2021.01.13
Contextual menu access to the Toggle On and Toggle Off commands when the user right-clicks on the Orientations, Contacts, or POIs list boxes.
Many additional interface tweaks
Not a few bug fixes…
Version 8.2.2 — 2020.12.27
NEW: The user can now adjust the size of orientation and POI symbols on a per-type basis in the Inspector palette. The size change is specified as a percent of the default size. If the default size is too large for you, set the scale popup menu in the Inspector to a number less than 100%; to enlarge choose > 100%.
NEW: POI symbols now have user specifiable border colors (or turn off POI symbol borders altogether).
IMPROVED: The record buttons on the data tabs automatically become the default (blue color) when a selected datum has changed and is in need of saving.
FIXED: A problem where under certain circumstances a dashed line style would be applied to orientation symbols
Version 8.2.0 — 2020.12.24
NEW: Batch search and replace for points of interest
NEW: Batch Replace/Change based on the current selection
NEW: Set the quality of orientations on a scale from 1 (Poor) to 5 (Excellent). Note that the GMDEbinary file format has changed to record this attribute meaning that files saved by v. 8.2 cannot be read by previous versions.
IMPROVED: Interface fine tuning, including numbering of the orientations in the list, autoscrolling to the selected orientation, etc.
FIXED: a couple of bugs related to KML input and output.
Version 8.1.8 — 2020.12.20
FIXED: numerous annoying issues with saving and reading in text files of data.
FIXED: KML file output always uses a POSIX locale so that Google Earth doesn’t get confused by systems where commas act as decimal points. Also, KML symbols and colors have been changed for a more limited selection of symbols (four total) and colors (four) and they now reference files on this new web page rather than the older Cornell web page.
Version 8.1.6 — 2020.12.10
FIXED: The program should no longer crash when adding vertices to an existing contact.
Version 8.1.5 — 2020.12.10
NEW white outline around orientation symbols — This option, set in the Inspector Palette, will draw a thin white line around orientation symbols so you can have dark symbols stand out on a dark background. Text also gets a shadow behind it to make it stand out better.
NEW: The Minimum window height has been reduced to 640 pixels. If the window is less than 800 prixels a scroll bar will appear tot he right of the Data pane, allowing you to scroll it.
Fixed: SVG files now can include contacts projected into the subsurface.
Fixed: Duplicate contacts can now be edited separately from the original
Version 8.1.0, 8.1.1, 8.1.2 — 2020.12.06
NEW Linked orientations and projected contact — Now when you change an orientation that was used to project a contact, the contact is automatically reprojected with the new orientation. This makes it particularly easy to change, say, one of the three points in a three point orientation and, when you record the change, the project contact is automatically reprojected. Using this, you can really fine tune the orientation so it yields the contact with the best fidelity to the imagery. Only projected contacts are changed. Once you convert them to a manual contact, changing the orientation no longer changes the contact.
v. 8.1.1 updates the GMDEbinary file format so that the information linking orientations to their projected contacts is saved in the file. It can read older file formats but loder versions of the program cannot read the new format
v. 8.1.2 brings a workaround for malformed MBTiles headers that are written by some popular GIS software.
v. 8.1.2 also fixes an annoying issue where topo profiles would immediately become checked again even if you had just unchecked them (thanks, Sara!)
More bug fixes here and there...
Version 8.0.5 — 2020.12.03
NEW Batch Select and Change orientation and contact attributes — Contacts and orientations can now be selected by a wide range of criteria, not just their type. Use the Edit>Batch Select/Change Orientations or Edit>Batch Select/Change Contacts menu choices to access this feature. The old Edit>Select By and Edit>Change to menu commands have been eliminated as ther functionality and more is replaced by the new commands.
Fix for a bug in deleting a user entered orientation type.
Othere minor bug fixes.
Version 8.0.0, 8.0.1, 8.0.2 — 2020.11.28
Composite contacts — Contacts can now be composed of one or more individual, unconnected segments. Composite contacts can be split back into their separate segments.
Closed, filled and/or locked contacts — You can elect to close a contact (or open it again) and contacts can be filled with a semi-transparent color. If your contact is a composite closed contact, holes in the composite polygon will fill correctly. Composite contacts in downloaded KML files and StraboSpot datasets are correctly interpreted. Locked contacts cannot be edited or deleted.
Contact Quality — you can now specify whether a contact is Known, Approximate, Inferred, or Covered and this setting will determine which of three different contact dashes are used in the map view.
StraboSpot upload AND download — you can now upload your contacts, orientations, and points of interest (POIs) to your StraboSpot account from within GMDE. Likewise, you can now download any dataset from StraboSpot into GMDE. Datasets will only be downloaded if they coincide with the current base map area. The formal StraboSpot lexicon is now available (but not required) for all GMDE projects. A new menu choice, Settings➤Enable StraboSpot Lexicon allows you to switch the current window to using StraboSpot terminology. Be sure to read the caveats and limitations in the new users manual.
Import KML files with attributes — If you have imported a .SHP file into Google Earth, when you save it as KML, the KML file will preserve the attributes of the original SHP file. Those attributes are now captured when you import a KML file into GMDE. You can name your objects by a particular attribute, and all of the attributes of an object are listed in the notes field in GMDE.
X and Y coordinates now UTM Eastings and Northings — If your base map has been georeferenced, the x and y coordinates that you see various places are now the UTM Eastings and Northings. For un-georeferenced maps, the local X and Y coordinates are still used. UTM E and UTM N are converted to feet if you have chosen feet for your units (because it would be too confusing to show the elevation in feet but the UTM coordinates in meters!).
Interface Enhancements — The interfaces for the Orientations and Contacts Tabs have been significantly revised. All editing of attributes of a selected orientation or contact is now done right in the tab rather than in a separate Details Window. Before you enter new data, be sure that you deselect existing data; otherwise you will end up editing the existing selected point!
Map Opacity Slider — You can now adjust the opacity of the base map you are using in case some symbols or contacts do not show well. This slider plays well with “dark mode” available on some operating systems.
Editing of individual points for an orientation — The point or three points that define an orientation can now be easily edited graphically: Just select the orientation, press the Click button that is next to the point that you want to change, then click in the map window to where you want to move the point. The result will be displayed and, if you like it, click the Record button to change the existing orientation.
Linear features are now equal citizens — The Orientations Tab now has a Lines/Planes segmented button that you use to define whether you are entering a linear or a planar feature. Lines can be assigned attributes just like planes. Lines in the orientation listbox are shown in a blue color to make them easy to distinguish from planes.
New Satellite Window — The Details Window has been eliminated and replaced with a new Satellite Window which just shows the desired satellite image. Contact and orientation overlays still only work on the Mac version, however (sorry…).
Entering new types for planes and lines — This task is now accomplished in the Inspector Palette. The menu choices under the Settings Menu and the associated dialog boxes have been eliminated.
Preferences Dialog Box — You can now set persistent preferences using the new Preferences dialog where you can specify default positional uncertainties and whether to use StraboSpot terminology by default. GMDE will remember your StraboSpot user name if you enter it in preferences.
Minor changes — A new Edit➤Deselect All menu command. The Edit➤Select by Type/Change to Type menu commands now work for both orientations and contacts, depending on which tab is showing. New graphical orientation symbol popup menu in the Inspector Palette. Undo is more generally useful and applies to object edits as well as deletions. PDFs do not work in the Windows operating system so the open dialog box will no longer show then as a viable map file type.
Bug Fixes — of course… more remain (and probably new ones, too).
New Users Manual — These things are a lot of work so please use it!
v. 8.0.1 has a fix for potential out of memory issue when using raster maps, especially on Windows systems with small amounts of RAM.
v. 8.0.2 uses a different scheme from drawing dashed contacts, resulting in symbols more closely resembling USGS maps. Contact lines now terminate in rounded end caps.