Feb 21, 2023 9:15 PM : Global Mapper

The newest “dot release” of Global Mapper contains new tools, additional functionality for existing features, and hot off-the-press bug fixes. The standard version of Global Mapper 24.1 brings a highly requested ability to create Relative Elevation Models, commonly used to highlight terrain variation in otherwise flat regions such as riverbeds, the ability to add 2D, 3D, or perpendicular perspective Inset Maps in the Map Layout Editor, expanded raster resampling methods.

Other minor updates include: the renaming of the Control Center’s right-click menu item from Edit Attributes to Layer Attributes in order to better fit its functionality, the addition of Fathoms as a Supported Depth Unit for terrain layers (1 fm = 6 feet), and the ability to crop off one or both ends of a line feature. 

Here are three of the top new features in Global Mapper v24.1 standard. This blog is part two of two. Here is part one, where we cover the new features in the Pro version. 

Relative Elevation Models (REM)

Adding to Global Mapper’s extensive terrain analysis tools, Relative Elevation Models can now be created with the new Create Relative Elevation Grid tool. Sometimes called River Elevation Models, they are used to highlight terrain variation relative to a line feature, such as near a river, or highway. These models help to visualize aspects of the terrain that may otherwise be hard to identify in imagery or a digital terrain model (DTM) by looking at local changes in elevation rather than comparing elevation to sea level. 

Relative Elevation Models or REMs are created based on sampled elevation points along a linear feature (such as a river) in order to highlight the changes within the feature and/or the feature and the surrounding terrain. In the images below, compare a standard digital elevation model (Left) to a river elevation model (Right) of the same area. We know that rivers flow downhill, so a REM removes that trend from the data. They are useful for measuring the change in elevation as compared to the river, instead of comparing it to sea level.

Inset Map Elements 

Inset Maps can be added to maps in order to add a spatial reference or more information to the data displayed in the main map. You’ve likely seen them before as smaller, zoomed out, maps in the corner that help describe where in the world the main map is focused on. Global Mapper has taken this a step further in the Map Layout Editor. Inset maps can be created from the normal 2D viewer, and also from the 3D view or the Path Profile viewer.