GIS Software

Information about GIS software and applications including both commercial and open source GIS applications. This category covers desktop GIS (Esri’s ArcGIS suite, MapInfo, QGIS, and GRASS) as well as web mapping, GIS apps, mobile GIS, and component GIS.

GIS Software

What are QGIS Files?

April 27, 2018By Caitlin DempseyGIS Software

A .qgs file extension refers to a QGIS project file.

Viz Palette Helps You Pick Colors for Data Visualizations

April 12, 2018By Caitlin DempseyGIS Software

There’s a new color picker tool to help with selecting a palette for data visualizations.

A screenshot showing ArcMap.

What is a MXD File?

March 29, 2018By Caitlin DempseyGIS Software

Files with the extension .mxd are ArcMap document files. MXD files are created by Esri’s ArcMap, a component of the ArcGIS suite of GIS software.

Adding “Early Voting Wait Time” Information to a Layer in ArcGIS.com

March 8, 2018By GIS ContributorGIS Software

Tracy Garrison outlines an example of how a “County” might provide current early voting wait times to the public with ArcGIS.com and coding.

QGIS 3.0 Released

February 23, 2018By Caitlin DempseyGIS Software

Version 3.0 of QGIS, the popular free and open source GIS software, was released today.

Holographic GIS

January 27, 2018By Mark AltaweelGIS Software

As mobile and handheld devices increasingly use virtual reality and augmented reality applications, GIS has been incorporated to deploy spatial databases that apply holographic capabilities.

Free GIS Data Viewers

January 9, 2018By Caitlin DempseyGIS Software

Free data viewers for a variety of GIS data formats. These viewers allow you to display geographic data as well as perform some basic GIS functions.

How to Geocode Addresses Using QGIS

January 9, 2018By Caitlin DempseyGIS Learning, GIS Software

If you have a CSV formatted file containing addresses, you can take advantage of QGIS to map out those addresses. This article contains step by step instructions for geocoding addresses using QGIS.

PostGIS logo.

What is PostGIS?

September 28, 2017By Mark AltaweelGIS Software

PostGIS is an Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) compliant software used as an extender for PostgreSQL, which is a form of object-relational database. While PostGIS is free and open source, it is used in both commercial (e.g., ArcGIS) and open source software (e.g., QGIS).

Why Online GIS for Local Government Is Moving To The Cloud

August 30, 2017By Chris BrownGIS Software

Chris Brown, the CEO of Mango, discusses the benefits of Mango’s GIS for Local government web mapping application.

Using Satellite Imagery to Track Volcanic Ash Clouds

Researchers have developed an algorithm that can distinguish between volcanic and non-volcanic clouds using high-resolution satellite imagery.

Using Machine Learning and Satellite Imagery for Street Address Generation

Researchers from Facebook and MIT Labs have proposed a new methodology that uses machine learning and satellite imagery to generate street addresses in areas of the world where individual buildings don’t have a unique address.

Elements of a Map

Maps are the primary tools by which spatial relationships are visualized. Maps therefore become important documents. There are several key elements that should be included each time a map is created in order to aid the viewer in understanding the communications of that map and to document the source of […]

Learn GIS for Free

There are a few online options to learn GIS for free. Take advantage of resources that provide you access to free courses from some of the world’s best universities and institutions.