Cartographica Blog

This is the fifth follow-up to Onward to 1.5 documenting the move to the 1.5 release.

It's taken a bit of time to get to this development release (d17), but that's because I've been working on an oft-requested improvement for Raster fans. In this case, it's a new Georeferencing system. It's not completely finished yet (development version, remember), but the bulk of it is in and solid, and I'd appreciate feedback from anyone who works with Georeferencing Raster images.

I'm leaving the existing Georeference Editor (located in the Edit > Georeference… menu) in place for the time being, and …

This is the fourth follow-up to Onward to 1.5 documenting the move to the 1.5 release.

We've got some goodies for the Raster fans out there in this development release. I don't have time to get all of the documentation complete before posting the code, but the big feature this week is some serious Raster DEM (height) analysis. We're picking up most of the tools and options that are available in GDAL and thus much of what's in QGIS on this front. Future blog posts and docs will go into some detail about the options and the provenance …

This is the third follow-up to Onward to 1.5 documenting the move to the 1.5 release.

For those who noticed the update today, you'll note that the release notes were very short. All of the work the last two weeks was on internals. Much of the work was performance enhancement and modernization of some of the older code.

Stay tuned for the next release which should be more exciting.

Test versions

Today we're releasing the next development test version. This is not for the faint of heart. The development test versions are available by changing your Preferences to …

This is the second follow-up to Onward to 1.5 documenting the move to the 1.5 release.

This release should be the last update related to the replacement of our key libraries. I've finished getting up to the current 2.4.x release of GDAL and the latest component libraries, which should enable better and more compatibility with file formats.

New File formats

Updating to the latest GDAL libraries provides us with access to a number of new file formats. I'm still working at adding tests for the new formats, so if you have files of these types that …

This is the first follow-up to Onward to 1.5 documenting the move to the 1.5 release.

The last few weeks has been filled with a lot of internal library updates (and a week-long break for a long-delayed vacation) and preparation for building and testing under 10.15.

I've now posted 1.5d8 which is also available in the Development feed in Cartographica's Check For Updates…

Among the updates are major upgrades in the libraries we use for importing and exporting Vector and Raster files. These should mostly improve performance, reliability, and compatibility, but there are also some additional …

Cartographica has been stuck in the 1.4's for a while now, but there's been a lot of work going on as we're moving to get the long-rumored 1.5 out the door.

Moving the macOS requirements

Since October of 2014, we have been indicating that the 1.5 release of Cartographica will push the supported macOS substantially forward in order to allow us to adopt new features and improve the internal structure of the software. As we have been developing 1.5, we've pushed that expected version out a couple of times (as a consequence of being able to …

In June, Apple announced pre-release availaibility of iOS 13 and macOS Catalina (10.15). ClueTrust is working to verify complete compatibility with these versions prior to their release this fall.

However, as a rule, we caution against the use of pre-release operating systems for crucial work. Although we are unaware of any problems today that hamper the use of either Cartographica or CartoMobile, it is always possible to experience crashing and data loss with operating systems that have not been fully tested.

With that said, if you choose to experiment with iOS 13 or macOS Catalina and run into problems …

Dinosaur Database has a really interesting interactive map which will show a location on the Earth as it has moved through time.

Type in your address in the upper-left corner and then use the menu at the top of the page to dial back time to show that location as it would have been millions of years ago.

Although the map has few practical uses, the educational value is significant and it's a great illustration of the power of visualization.

Version 1.4.9 of Cartographica is now available for download from our site and is available in the update stream.

Changes are mostly bug fixes, including a critical fix to Activation and Bing Maps access.

Cartographica 1.4.x is now in critical update mode, with new features going in to 1.5 and beyond. The key changes will be for people with older versions of macOS.

After a lengthy development process and with the help of many fine testers, ClueTrust has released 2.0 of CartoMobile. CartoMobile 2.0 is now available on the App Store.

New for 2.0:

• Automatic bookmarks to zoom to full map or all features
• Receive Maps via email and web (c11amz format described on our support site)
• Send collected data via email
• Tiled raster maps from individually selected files or "rasterpack" folders
• Buffer ("range" bubbles) around point layers
• Now using MapBox for background maps with support for multiple types of imagery, including satellite and topo
• Support for latest iPhone sizes …

As of September 24, 2018, Apple has released macOS High Sierra (version 10.14).

ClueTrust is unaware of any problems with the current shipping version of Cartographica (1.4.8). All functionality tested is working and we have not experienced any issues with internal testing.

In addition, we've created a new beta of LoadMyTracks that addresses some recent issues with some devices and versions of macOS.

Please make sure that you are using the most recent versions of Cartographica (1.4.8) or LoadMyTracks before reporting a bug when running macOS High Sierra.

Version 1.4.8 of Cartographica is now available for download from our site and is available in the update stream.

Changes are mostly bug fixes, including a critical fix to Bing Geocoding with OS X 10.7.x (introduced in last month's update).

As of the July release, Cartographica 1.4.x is now in critical update mode, with new features going in to 1.5 and beyond. The key change will be for people with older versions of macOS.

Cartographica version 1.4.7 shipped on July 1, 2017 providing a few bug fixes and a crucial change to ensure compatibility with updates to the Bing Maps API that we use for Live Maps.

We encourage everyone using macOS 10.7 or more recent to upgrade to Cartographica 1.4.7.

Release Notes for 1.4.7 are available from MacGIS.com.

In June, Apple announced pre-release availaibility of iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra (10.13). ClueTrust is working to verify complete compatibility with these versions prior to their release this fall.

However, as a rule, we caution against the use of pre-release operating systems for crucial work. Although we are unaware of any problems today that hamper the use of either Cartographica or CartoMobile, it is always possible to experience crashing and data loss with operating systems that have not been fully tested.

With that said, if you choose to experiment with iOS 11 or macOS High Seirra and run …

After quite a long time in beta and development, ClueTrust is pleased to announce the release of CartoMobile 1.4.4, our iOS App for field data collection and use.

There are a lot of changes in 1.4.4, probably quite a few more than would otherwise be indicated by the small bump in version numbers. However, we have put out over 30 test versions since the last release in order to make sure this version is ready to go.

The last version, 1.4.3, was remarkably crash-free. We expect this version to be similarly reliable, although not …

If you have version 1.4.6 (the current shipping version since May 2015) or greater, then your Cartographica is not susceptible to this problem. If you are running 1.4.5 or lower, please read this message.

The updater that we use in Cartographica (Sparkle) has been found to have a specific set of vulnerabilities that can cause remote execution.

The specific problems can be exploited via a MITM (Man-in-the-Middle) attack, resulting in arbitrary code execution in the Javascript portion of the display that Cartographica shows during updates.

Unbeknownst to us, we mitigated this problem last spring when we …

Cartographica version 1.4.5 shipped on March 2, 2015 providing mostly bug fixes for the 1.4 series and increasing compatibiility with large-record shapefiles (contrary to the documentation, a number of products, including ESRI's products, are now using a 32,767-byte limit instead of a 4,095-byte limit for records in the DBF files.

Release Notes for 1.4.5 are available from MacGIS.com.

Cartographica has for a long time supported geocoding photos based either on tracks or based on data inside of the photos themselves. For most of that time, we have supported doing this for bothfiles on disk and images that are stored inside of Apple's iPhoto application.

With recent versions of OS X (basically since 10.8.5 or so), Apple has been providing access to photos in both iPhoto and Aperture through the file selection or Open dialog as well by way of the Media item in the sidebar on the left.

Since the introduction of that feature, we have …

ClueTrust has released Cartographica version 1.4.4, which is now available for download from the MacGIS.com site. This update is free to all current Cartographica users, and any user who has valid trial key. (If you have previously tried Cartographica, you will be eligible for a new 10-day evaluation key if you visit our lost key page.

Full release notes for 1.4.4 are available at our site, but here is a summary of the changes:

• Fixes for compatibility problems with OS X 10.8 and 10.7
• Improved performance and progress information for Table and Database …

There's a great article from VerySpatial making the case that the use of "analog" maps in cases where differential information is being compared might night be the best way to display data online. We've been looking into this space recently and already have excellent KML Export in Cartographica, which can be easily paired with online tools like Google Layers and Leaflet.

The original article from The Washington Post is an interesting piece about use of time across the US.