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.
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 …
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.
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:
We are pleased to announce the release of Cartographica version 1.4.3, our latest minor feature and bug fix release. As with previous versions of 1.4.x, 1.4.3 is compatible with OS X versions 10.7, 10.8 and 10.9 (and we've also done some preliminary testing on 10.10).
Features that we have included in the 1.4.3 release include:
We have been testing against Mavericks since the early betas and the 1.4.2 version of Cartographica works well with it. At this point, we aren't taking advantage of any Mavericks-specific features, but we have found on our test machines that the upgrade is a good performance move, especially for laptops.
Other ClueTrust software, such as LoadMyTracks, has also been tested and works fine with Mavericks (excepting, of course, the long-standing issue with the Mac AppStore version of LoadMyTracks and serial devices due to Apple's policy change).
Although we haven't tested any of the 1.2.x versions on …
Cartographica 1.4.2 is now available, and it's got a little bit of everything to it: new features, performance enhancements, and bug fixes.
This release ended up taking a bit longer than we expected as we have been working hard to fix the bugs reported in 1.4 and 1.4.1. But, we haven't just been working on fixing bugs, we've also been enhancing the capabilities and performance of the existing capabilities of Cartographica, with improvements in everything from WFS compatibility to execution speed and progress information for many of our analysis tools.
I won't take up the …
iLoveMountains.org is an organization that, "is the product of 14 local, state, and regional organizations across Appalachia that are working together to end mountaintop removal coal mining and create a prosperous future for the region." Together this group provides information and research to the public about the problems that mountain top removal mining has cause, and continues to cause in the Appalachians.
According to iLoveMountain.org, "Mountaintop removal is a relatively new type of coal mining that began in Appalachia in the 1970s as an extension of conventional strip mining techniques. Primarily, mountaintop removal is occurring in West Virginia …
An owner of a golf course is working on redeveloping his golf course and has hired an analyst to help with the process. To make the process more streamlined and efficient the analyst is using GIS to help identify and plan various aspects of his new project. As part of the project the analyst needs elevation data for the greens on the golf course. He wants to know the elevations of the greens so that he can determine the best way to add new approaches and shots. Cartographica can help in this process by using Digital Elevation Models. To obtain …
Fracking has become a hot button topic among environmentalists and politicians over the past 10 years. Shale Gas is a type of natural gas found deep within shale rock formations. In 2000 shale gas provided only 1% of U.S. natural gas production; by 2010 it was over 20% and the U.S. government's Energy Information Administration predicts that by 2035 46% of the United States' natural gas supply will come from shale gas (Wikipedia, 2013). There is significant debate about whether fracking should be increased to these levels due to the environmental risks associated with the fracking process. Opponents …
Live Maps can be used for many purposes. On this blog we have highlighted the use of Live Maps for georeferencing images, identifying geological features, and providing context to local area studies. Another useful purpose of Live Maps is locating objects that are tied to specific places. What does that mean? It means we can look at places where we expect things to occur and make observations at those locations. In addition to making observations and identifying objects we can also use Cartographica to analyze what we see.
If you have followed this blog at all you might have notice …
A new feature in Cartographica version 1.4 is the ability to create contour maps. In GIS, a contour line joins areas of equal elevation above a given level, such as mean sea level. A contour map is a map illustrated with contour lines, which show valleys and hills, and the steepness of slopes. In this sense a contour map can be very useful in many contexts. One method for creating contour lines is by using Digital Elevation Models (DEM). A DEM is a digital model or 3D representation of a terrain's surface — commonly for a planet (including Earth), moon …
Recently, authors David Weisburd, Elizabeth Groff, and Sue-Ming Yang published a book titled The Criminology of Place: Street Segments and Our Understanding of the Crime Problem. The crux of the book is that in Criminology and other disciples have a long history of using geographic units of analysis that are area based. That is, we have become accustomed to using polygons as units of analysis. Part of the reason for the use of area based units of analysis is that demographic and social data are available through sources like the United States Census Bureau. In the book, the authors make …
With the end of the year approaching everyone is putting out their "Best of" list for 2012. Emily Badger of The Atlantic Cities recently released a list of the "Best Open Data Releases of 2012". These open data sources are available through various agency and government websites and allow users access to data sources that include geospatial data.
We decided to check out a few of the Open Data sources and wanted to create a few maps using Cartographica. The Philadelphia Open Data website was listed as the best Open Data website of 2012. We were able to download a …
The violence associated with the Syrian revolution continues to escalate as recent reports have indicated that Bashar Al-Assad's forces have begun to use SCUD missiles in attempts to drive back rebel forces in the area near the Syrian Capital. SCUD missiles are infamous for their use by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during the Persian Gulf War. Equally as infamous are the U.S. produced Patriot Missile systems that are designed to eliminate surface-to-surface missile attacks. Recent reports have indicated that American, German, and Dutch patriot missile battalions have been sent to Turkey to eliminate the risk to the Turkish …
Cartographica 1.4 now has the ability to perform Cluster Analysis. Cluster Analysis involves choosing and setting a number of parameters that are used to identify "hot spot" locations of point level data. Clusters are areas that have high concentrations of a particular incident. Knowing where high concentrations of certain things are located can be a very valuable tool for analysts conducting spatial analysis.
The two main parameters used to identify clusters are Minimum Count and Distance. Minimum Count allows you to determine how many points are needed to identify a cluster. For example, if the minimum count is set …