We are very pleased to finally make available the first release of 1.4, our largest version of Cartographica to date. Please read these notes if you choose to use this beta version of the software. We will be following up this post over the next few weeks discussing the new features and capabilities of Cartographica 1.4.

Beta Test Warnings

Warning: Although we have done extensive internal and private beta testing, it is important to remember that this version of Cartographica is still considered to be in testing. Please make sure that you have files that you are working on with 1.4 backed up sufficiently that you can recover from a catastrophic data loss due to file format incompatibility, erroneous data, or the or other potential errors.

Talking about 1.4

Cartographica 1.4 contains a wide variety of new features, user interface enhancements, performance improvements, and new file format support. Over the next few weeks, we will be posting new information on our blog and tweeting new information as well as making more information available on our website about 1.4 and the exciting new changes contained herein. These release notes will contain many individual feature but do not serve as sufficient documentation for how those features are used.

We welcome input from all of our customers and potential customers during this testing period, through email to support@cluetrust.com as well as via our web support site.

We would also like to encourage the sharing of opinion, feature ideas, and usability issues on our forums at our support site. This is the home of our knowledge base and is a good jumping off point if you run into problems or would like to make a suggestion.

During this period, we will be collecting data about the functioning of the software, some of which will be sent whenever the software starts, and some of which will be sent only upon your request. If you encounter a crash, please send in a little detail on what was happening at the time of the crash. If you include your email address, we will try to follow up with you when a fix is available or if we need further information.

OS Compatibility

Cartographica 1.4 requires Lion or Mountain Lion (10.7.5 or 10.8.1) or more recent in order to function correctly. We take the process of removing support for older versions of the OS very seriously, but there are many new features that we could not reasonably support on versions prior to 10.7. We have opted not to move to 10.8 as a requirement, due to the lack of support for the popular 2008 Mac Pros. At this time, customers using OS 10.6 will need to remain on the 1.2 versions of Cartographica, which will be maintained for at least six months. This includes fixing of significant bugs, but does not include the introduction of new features. We will continue to test for basic forward and backward compatibility between the 1.2 versions and the 1.4 versions.

Keys

Cartographica 1.4 uses the same keys as all previous versions of Cartographica. However, we have made some modifications to the verification system and therefore it is more important than previously to have your name and company name exactly as it was on license that you were granted either during the evaluation period or when you purchase the software. If you have trouble getting the software to recognize your valid key, please visit our lost key page and request that your key information be resent to you. This is the same information the Cartographica uses to determine the validity of your key and therefore if you put the information in exactly as it is sent to you, you should not have any problems.

If you do experience problems with the new key verification system, please let us know. We are performed extensive automated testing on this, we realize is an irritating element of the software and we want to make sure that operates as smoothly as possible.

If you're running both version 1.4 and the prior version of Cartographica, newly verified keys will work appropriately with both.

Compatibility with prior versions of Cartographica

We've gone to great lengths to ensure compatibility both forward and backwards between versions of Cartographica. Map sets that are written with versions 1.4 should be readable with both versions 1.4 and 1.2.10. All map sets that do not contain WFS layers or grid layers will be compatible with versions back to 1.2.9. We expect to release version 1.2.10 by the time that first and 1.4 is released, and it is also available as a direct download and using our RSS feed for test versions.

Changes made to styles will generally be visible in version 1.2.9 and above, with the exception of the new style types for lines and the new pattern fill styles. If you load a layer containing those into 1.2.x, the new styles will be appropriately ignored. If, however, you save the files using 1.2.x, the line and pattern styles will be eliminated during the same operation.

Downloading the beta

Cartographica betas will be available for direct download or available by setting your Cartographica software update preferences to Beta or Development.

Beta information is available on our beta page and release notes for 1.4 will be updated regularly.