It’s been over a year since I last posted about a version update (4.5) for the free Windows GIS MapWindow (topic of multiple previous posts). Just noticed that version 4.7 was released just a bit more than a week ago. Improvements since 4.5 include:
- Stability improvements, particularly when dealing with large numbers of shapes in shapefiles
- TauDEM/Automatic Watershed Delineation Help Files
- Progress indicator improvements in many plug-ins
- Unit conversions available for more standard units and more accurate
- New image properties in MapWindow (Use Histogram, Allow Hillshade, Buffersize, Image Color Scheme, Set to Grey
- Zooming with mouse wheel
- Updated GDAL projection library
- Added GEOS shape functions (Contains, Crosses, Touches, Intersects, Overlaps, etc.)
- New printing plug-in
- New image properties (Use Histogram, Allow Hillshade, Buffersize, Image Color Scheme, Set to Grey)
- Bug fixes and speed improvements
- Improved documentation
And if you want to look at the future of MapWindow, there’s a Codeplex development page for MapWindow 6 where you can download the latest beta (which looks to be in a pretty usable state) and fairly extensive documentation. What’s the difference between MapWindow 4.x and 6? From the Forward:
The MapWindow 6 platform is a major step forward. It is completely .NET based, has no COM or ActiveX references, and is totally built around the idea of interfaces and components. If you are a developer you can rebuild the MapWindow 6 desktop application in about 10 minutes by simply assembling the correct components and hitting the “compile” button. If you are an end user, you will find significantly improved symbology and printing capabilities and a new modeling toolkit and environment that are just plain awesome.
First stable release of MapWindow 6 is scheduled for the first half of 2010, hopefully at the 1st International MapWindow Users And Developers Conference.