Global Mapper 14 Now With Spatial Database Support

Blue Marble Geographics is pleased to announce the release of Global Mapper version 14. This release features read/write support for ArcSDE, Personal and File Geodatabases, Oracle Spatial, Post GIS, MySQL Spatial and more, along with WFS and WMTS for consuming online datasources and read/write of CADRG data. Blue Marble’s geospatial data manipulation, visualization and conversion solutions are used worldwide by thousands of GIS analysts at software, oil and gas, mining, civil engineering, surveying, and technology companies, as well as governmental and university organizations.

Global Mapper 14 also includes many new usability enhancements including a reorganization of the Digitizer tool right-click menus by categories based on functionality. There is also a new customizable Favorites menu for quick access to Digitizer tool functionality, organization of import and export options, along with a new Terrain Analysis menu. The Terrain Analysis menu includes contour grid generation, the ability to combine surfaces, and watershed generation along with two new tools for finding ridge lines and calculating the volume between two surfaces. Many new formats are added with this release, including support for writing CADRG/CIB, ASRP images and reading/writing Garmin JNX format files

“This is our first major release of Global Mapper since the acquisition last year,” stated Blue Marble’s President Patrick Cunningham. “Of course we are very excited about this release as it has been an opportunity to begin to combine two great software companies and expand the power of affordable GIS software. We’ve worked closely with Global Mapper users and with Mike Childs to enhance the tool in a way that complements all that it was before we stepped in. We hope we have achieved that goal.”

Along with the support for seven types of spatial databases and the ability to consume WFS (Web Feature Services) and WMTS (Web Map Tile Services) Global Mapper can both publish and consume massive amounts of data. Delivering a tool with a total file format support of around 200 formats, at a starting price of less than four hundred dollars makes it a truly complementary utility for any GIS toolbox.

About Blue Marble Geographics:
Blue Marble Geographics of Gardiner, ME is a leading developer and provider of software products and services for highly accurate geospatial data conversion solutions. Blue Marble is known for their coordinate conversion and file format expertise and is the developer of The Geographic Calculator, GeoCalc SDK, Global Mapper and Global Mapper SDK. The company has been writing GIS software tools and solutions for over 19 years and currently serves hundreds of thousands of users worldwide.

Contact:
Danielle Caron
Blue Marble Geographics
Gardiner, ME, USA
M.: 800-616-2725
T.: +1(207)582-6747
www.bluemarblegeo.com

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Blue Marble GeoTranslate 5.1 Upgrade

Blue Marble’s geospatial data manipulation and conversion solutions are used worldwide by thousands of GIS analysts at software companies, universities, oil and gas companies, civil engineering, surveying, technology, enterprise GIS groups, government and military organizations.

With this toolkit, developers can read and write many of today's most popular GIS vector file formats. Developers are also granted direct access to a wide variety of geometry objects, which can be created and manipulated on-the-fly. Along with these geometry objects, developers have the ability to access the metadata and attributes that are commonly associated with these geometries. Additionally this architecture makes it easy for the developer to write their own file format support out of the box.

With version 5.1, developers can also reach out to spatial data stored in larger relational and spatial database systems such as Oracle, PostGIS, and Esri personal, file and SDE based Geodatabases. New interfaces for direct coordinate conversion of many formats can significantly speed up data transformation processes. Also, new in version 5.1, is the ASPRS compliant LAS formats for LiDAR datasets. Combined with the true vertical conversion capabilities of the GeoCalc toolkit, 3 dimensional data handling has never been easier!

GeoTranslate leverages the coordinate conversion power of GeoCalc, which is Blue Marble Geographics coordinate transformation engine. GeoCalc is recognized for its reliability, accuracy, and flexibility, and it ensures that the transformations performed within GeoTranslate are as precise as possible. This tool kit also provides users with access to the largest commercially available database of geodetic definitions, which includes the latest EPSG database (v7.2) and more. Together, these technologies add up to a very robust and effective vector translation solution.

“GeoTranslate 5.1 makes available a ton of new geospatial power for our developers,” stated Blue Marble President Patrick Cunningham. “The spatial database support combined with our unmatched support of highly accurate LiDAR 3-D coordinate transformation really enables our OEM partners to bring a bunch of important support to their products.”

About Blue Marble Geographics: Blue Marble Geographics of Gardiner, ME is a leading developer and provider of software products and services for highly accurate geospatial data conversion solutions. Blue Marble is known for their coordinate conversion expertise and is the developer of The Geographic Calculator and GeoCalc SDK. The company has been writing GIS software tools and solutions for over 18 years and currently serves hundreds of thousands of users worldwide. Learn more at www.bluemarblegeo.com.

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GeoCore 2.0 Tool Kit for Geospatial Data

Blue Marble Geographics announces the release of GeoCore 2.0, the all-in-one data conversion developer tool kit for geospatial data. Version 1 was released last year. The updated version of GeoCore includes the latest versions of GeoTransform, GeoCalc, and GeoTranslate software development toolkits. With these three products combined into GeoCore, users can seamlessly work with any Blue Marble data conversion toolkits in the same development environment to build powerful geospatial software. Whether your application needs coordinate, vector, CAD, raster, 2D or 3D geospatial data, GeoCore enables developers to address a variety of unique data transformation challenges, quickly and efficiently freeing up time to work on your core offering. Within GeoCore 2.0, developers will have access to GeoCalc 6.4.5 coordinate transformation library and toolkit, which now has support for HTDP time dependent shifts, Alberta Township System (ATS) land grids, as well as new Geoid definitions, and many other features.

Another exciting GeoCore feature is GeoTransform 6.1. This includes new interoperability components that allows sharing data between GeoTransform and GeoCalc applications, improved coordinate system reading and writing for Esri, and Erdas’ ERMapper coordinate system definitions, Digital Elevation Model support, and Blue Marble’s Projection Recovery Tool technology, which helps recover lost coordinate reference system from legacy datasets. The final component of GeoCore is the most recent version of GeoTranslate 5.1, the Blue Marble vector file conversion toolkit. Developers will also find within GeoTranslate the latest vector file Projection recovery technology, and spatial database read/write support for Esri ArcSDE, File and Personal Geodatabase, Oracle Spatial and PostGIS Spatial.

GeoCore gives software developers the coordinate transformation and definition powers GIS experts have come to rely on with GeoCalc, plus the ability to handle all of your raster and vector file format and geometry needs with GeoTranslate and GeoTransform. OEM Partners for Blue Marble span many verticals in geospatial software and include Landmark Graphics, Merrick and Company, Avenza Systems, Optech Inc, Inova, and many others. Look for these new features in their software over the next few years.

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Blue Marble Desktop Free Webinar

Blue Marble Geographics will provide a free web demonstration of the Blue Marble Desktop on Wednesday March 31st at 9:00 a.m. EDT. This 60-minute webinar will outline time saving techniques to correctly define and transform custom local coordinate systems. For all of your grid to globe GIS data conversion challenges, learn how the Blue Marble Desktop accurately and efficiently references both vector and raster datasets within one easy to use interface.

Blue Marble's geospatial data manipulation and conversion solutions are used worldwide by thousands of GIS analysts at software companies, universities, oil and gas companies, civil engineering, surveying, technology, enterprise GIS groups, government and military organizations.

This Webinar will demonstrate the Geographic Calculator best-fit functionality, which allows users to relate their local coordinate systems to any standard geodetic or projected coordinate systems. With a set of control points, you can create a local fitted system. This fitted system is then permanently added to your custom datasource, and can be used for conversions between your local system and WGS84 or any other of the hundreds of coordinate systems that are part of Blue Marble's extensive datasource. Users can choose the mathematical model for their best-fit analysis, from affine up to fifth order polynomial. With dockable windows, enhanced workflow tools and the ability to export to other users, Blue Marble will save you time and money on every project. The Geographic Calculator allows users to work with raw survey data to conduct a best-fit transformation to take grid data to geodetic easily and correctly, also making use of the georeference tool. Learn why GIS analysts and surveyors that need to bridge the gap between highly accurate survey data and user-friendly GIS data turn to Blue Marble.

Space is limited, so sign up now, here.

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Free Webinar: Blue Marble Georefencing Vector and Raster Datasets

Blue Marble Geographics will provide a free web demonstration of the Blue Marble Desktop on Wednesday January 20th at 11:00 a.m. EST. Are you tired of never having any information about the coordinate system, or the ability to create proper datum shifts? Then learn how the Blue Marble Desktop can help you to accurately and properly reference both vector and raster datasets with flexible, yet powerful tools.

Blue Marble's geospatial data manipulation and conversion solutions are used worldwide by thousands of GIS analysts at software companies, universities, oil and gas companies, civil engineering, surveying, technology, enterprise GIS groups, government and military organizations.

There are many tools that allow you to georeference, but Blue Marble is the only toolkit that is both user friendly and flexible for file and coordinate conversion. The Blue Marble Desktop now allows you work with vector or raster data through the Geographic Transformer georefencer tool. Supported by the largest, most accurate and reliable coordinate transformation datasource Blue Marble allows you to easily establish an "image-to-world" relationship between image and map coordinates and reproject an image into a georeferenced map. With dockable windows, enhanced workflow tools and the ability to export to other users Blue Marble will save you time and money on every project. The Geographic Calculator allows users to work with raw survey data to conduct a best-fit transformation to take grid data to geodetic easily and correctly, also making use of the georeference tool. Learn why GIS analysts and surveyors that need to bridge the gap between highly accurate survey data and user-friendly GIS data turn to Blue Marble.

Space is limited, so sign up now.

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GeoTranslate 5.1 Software, Free Beta Test

Blue Marble Geographics announces the release of a Beta Version of GeoTranslate 5.1 with Spatial Connect along with GeoTransform 6.1. GeoTranslate and GeoTransform are incorporated into the Blue Marble’s GeoCore SDK an all-in –one geospatial data translation developer toolkit that supports coordinate, geometry, vector, CAD, raster, and LIDAR data. Blue Marble’s geospatial data manipulation and conversion solutions are used worldwide by thousands of GIS analysts at software companies, universities, oil and gas companies, civil engineering, surveying, technology, enterprise GIS groups, government and military organizations.

Blue Marble is looking for user participation in the GeoTranslate 5.1 Beta test with Spatial Connect along with the GeoTransform 6.1 Beta for raster data. This testing program will give users a chance to evaluate and test the new spatial database connectivity functionality at no cost. Your feedback will also help to identify interface use issues and enhancement requests that we can integrate into new versions of the developer tool.

If you are interested in participating in this beta testing period please sign up at http://www.bluemarblegeo.com/products/betasignup.php.

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Geographic Calculator 7.3, released

Blue Marble Geographics released the Geographic Calculator 7.3 via the Blue Marble Desktop 2.0.

Geographic Calculator version 7.3 contains added support for Alberta Township System v4.1, Global Area Reference System (GARS), and British National Grid (BNG) string point data formatting. Performance enhancements for the ESRI / Geographic Calculator extension, additional XLS read write support, and a new arbitrary scale and translation for point database conversion jobs are also featured.

There is also a new projection recovery tool for finding the projection information on vector files when there is none present. These tools extend the power of the Calculator to enable geospatial data definition, manipulation and management across the user’s organization.

To learn more about Geographic Calculator 7.3, please visit the website.

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Geographic Calculator 7.3 released

Blue Marble Geographics announced the release of Geographic Calculator 7.3 and Geographic Transformer 6.1 via the Blue Marble Desktop 2.0, the all-in-one geospatial data management platform for Blue Marble’s popular data transformation tools.

This release will introduce the Spatial Connect 7.3 Module for working with a variety of spatial databases. Whether it is coordinate, vector, or raster data the Blue Marble Desktop allows you to address your data conversion challenges in the same application interface with powerful conversion and transformation tools. Blue Marble’s geospatial data manipulation and conversion solutions are used worldwide by thousands of GIS analysts at software companies, universities, oil and gas companies, civil engineering, surveying, technology, enterprise GIS groups, government and military organizations. Let the Desktop save your staff time and money by creating new efficient workflows.

Blue Marble Desktop 2.0 introduces the Spatial Connect Module 7.3 giving users the ability to read and write to ESRI Geodatabase, ArcSDE, and Personal and File Geodatabase along with Oracle Spatial and PostGIS native spatial database objects. Spatial Connect is used in conjunction with the Geographic Calculator in the vector file conversion tab enabling individual or batch file work. Blue Marble Desktop 2.0 also has Windows Explorer application integration available for all major GIS and CAD file types – make Blue Marble your default program to open certain formats. There is an updated viewer for area calculation on polygons and view attributes for all features in your data layers.

This release features an upgrade of the Geographic Calculator to version 7.3, which now contains added support for ATS, GARS, and BNG string point data formatting. Performance enhancements for the ESRI / Geographic Calculator extension, additional XLS read write support, and a new arbitrary scale and translation for point database conversion jobs are also featured. Additionally there is a new projection recovery tool for finding the projection information on vector files when there is none present.

The update for Geographic Transformer, 6.1, also contains the new projection recovery tool but for raster datasets. Projection recovery is perhaps more applicable to raster data in that it is far more common for raster data to lose its associated projection information. Use the projection recovery tool to conduct a forensic research of your data to produce a quick list of the most likely candidate projections for your data. This process will save time and money when working with secondary data with lost projection information.

To learn more about the Blue Marble Desktop 2.0 with Spatial Connect, please visit our website at http://www.bluemarblegeo.com/products/desktop.php.

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GeoCore toolkit, released

Blue Marble Geographics has announced the release of GeoCore, an all-in-one geospatial data translation toolkit that supports coordinate, geometry, vector, CAD, raster, and LIDAR data. GeoCore gives software developers the coordinate transformation and definition powers, plus the ability to handle all raster and vector file format and geometry needs with GeoTranslate and GeoTransform. GeoTranslate 5.0.1 and GeoTransform 6.0 are the vector and raster components of GeoCore.

Additionally coordinate definition and manipulation support in GeoCore comes from GeoCalc 6.4, the latest offering of our coordinate transformation "engine" that performs on-the-fly coordinate transformations as well as geodetic calculations. When used within any GPS, surveying, engineering, or mapping system, GeoCalc provides highly accurate and dependable geographic coordinate transformations and geodetic calculations.

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Blue Marble GeoCalc 6.4 new features

Blue Marble Geographics has released an update to their flagship developer toolkit, GeoCalc, the comprehensive coordinate conversion engine. Found under the hood of the popular Geographic Calculator and other industry standard seismic analysis solutions, GeoCalc supports over 12,000 coordinate system transformations, along with pre-defined linear and angular units, ellipsoids, geodetic datums and coordinate systems. Blue Marble’s coordinate conversion technology is used worldwide by thousands of GIS analysts at software companies, universities, oil and gas companies, civil engineering, surveying, technology, enterprise GIS groups, government and military organizations.

New features and enhancements in Blue Marble Geographics GeoCalc 6.4 include:

• Support for Canadian Alberta Township System (ATS) Land Grids, British National Grid 10 Figure Grid Reference, and NGA’s Global Area Reference System (GARS)
• Ability to Import Datum Transformations from ESRI native GTF files
• Ability to record edits to the GeoCalc Datasource through a ‘changelog’ class, important for high quality data management
• Support for Danish DVR 90 Geoid model

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Geographic Calculator 7.2 Multi-Vector File Translation and ESRI SDE Support

Blue Marble Geographics announces the release of the Geographic Calculator 7.2 via the Blue Marble Desktop 1.1, the all-in-one geospatial data management platform for Blue Marble’s popular data transformation tools. This release features two major functionality enhancements available with the purchase of a Geographic Calculator 7.2 license: multi-vector file translation and ESRI Spatial Database support. Whether you are working with coordinate, vector, or raster data the Blue Marble Desktop allows you to address your data conversion challenges in the same application interface. Blue Marble’s geospatial data manipulation and conversion solutions are used worldwide by thousands of GIS analysts at software companies, universities, oil and gas companies, civil engineering, surveying, technology, enterprise GIS groups, government and military organizations.

With the release of Calculator 7.2, Blue Marble has rolled up the entire functionality of the Geographic Translator into the Geographic Calculator’s map file conversion tab. Now with the purchase of a Geographic Calculator license Blue Marble customers can translate between over twenty various vector, CAD, and ASCII formats. Support for new vector formats include: KML, GML (simple features), DXF, DWG, DGN, DLG, E00, GEN, SDTS, S-57, TIGER Line (legacy format), and much more. Geographic Calculator also features a major upgrade to the ESRI Extension tool. Users can now work with the Calculator ESRI Extension in the Arc Tool Box or ArcMap. The new Arc Tool Box features read and write support for ESRI Personal and Arc SDE Databases.

The Blue Marble Desktop 1.1 also features a new Geodetic Datasource View tool to streamline administrative set up of the datasource, dramatically simpler filtering of the datasource view, new viewer tools for changing the appearance of vector files in the display, and the ability to import custom datum transformation parameters from ESRI GTF files. Additionally, Desktop 1.1 is now compatible with EPSG database 6.18.

About Blue Marble Geographics: Blue Marble Geographics of Gardiner, Maine is a leading developer and provider of geographic software products that provide sensible solutions for users and developers of geographic data. Blue Marble has been writing GIS software tools and solutions for 15 years and currently serves hundreds of thousands of users worldwide.

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Blue Marble at 2008 GEOINT Symposium in Nashville

Blue Marble Geographics will be exhibiting at the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence (US GEOINT) Symposium in Nashville, TN from October 28th through October 30th, 2008. Come and visit Booth 808 to learn about the latest updates to Blue Marble’s new all-in-one geospatial data translation software suite, The Blue Marble Desktop. Blue Marble’s geospatial data manipulation and conversion solutions are used worldwide by thousands of GIS analysts at software companies, universities, oil and gas companies, civil engineering, surveying, technology, enterprise GIS groups, government and military organizations.

Here are just a few of the exciting new tools and services Blue Marble will be sharing at Booth 808:

* The Blue Marble Desktop: all Blue Marble applications, one interface!

* New versions: Calculator 7.1 & Transformer 6.0

* Extend the geodetic power of ArcGIS using the new Geographic Calculator extension

* Applied Geodesy Courses and the fundamentals of mapping

* New administrative tools to insure data quality throughout your organization

* Developers: embed our technology instead of reinventing the wheel

“Geospatial data comes in many formats and many varieties,” states Blue Marble President Patrick Cunningham “Blue Marble software not only allows users to support a wide array of data types, but enables organizations to do so in a secure, high quality, accurate way time and time again across the organization."

About GEOINT 2008: The annual GEOINT Symposium will be celebrating its fifth year as the Nation’s Premier Intelligence Event. Each year, more than 3,000 attendees visit GEOINT to discover cutting-edge geospatial intelligence technologies, converse with top leaders in the intelligence community, learn from academia, and network with government, industry, academic, and military leaders.

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Blue Marble and 1Spatial release results of Open Geospatial Consortium

Blue Marble Geographics is pleased to announce that after a resounding response to a survey on spatial data quality measures, the results are now available for participants. The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Technical Committee’s Spatial Data Quality Working Group, under the leadership of Blue Marble President Patrick Cunningham (Vice Chair), and Seb Lessware (Chair) of 1Spatial, developed and distributed the survey to thousands of geospatial data suppliers and users from around the world. The goal of the survey was to provide a solid foundation in the form of user feedback, upon which the OGC could develop relevant terms of measure and a robust spatial data quality model.

The mission of the Data Quality Working Group of the OGC Technical Committee is to provide a forum for describing an interoperable framework or model for OGC Quality Assurance Measures and Web Services, to enable access and sharing of high quality geospatial information, improve data analysis and ultimately influence policy decisions. In order to achieve the Working Group’s task, it was necessary to poll organizations involved in the marketplace to ascertain what they are referring to when they use the term “spatial data quality.”

“This survey is an important part of what the Working Group is doing for the geospatial technology industry,” explained Sam Bacharach, Executive Director of Outreach, OGC. “We are pleased to provide participants with anonymous survey results. We thank them for supporting our research in this area, and we hope that they will continue to follow our progress and provide input.”

“We are particularly pleased to have been involved in this effort to gather feedback from members of the geospatial community,” commented Blue Marble President Patrick Cunningham. “With this data, we will be able to move forward with the Working Group’s directive of researching the best framework for spatial data quality standards.”

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Geospatial Data Definition and Transformation Desktop Released

Blue Marble Geographics announced the release of a new all-in-one Geospatial Data Definition and Transformation Desktop. With this release, Blue Marble combines the power of a new version of their raster tool, Geographic Transformer 6.0, with a new version of the Geographic Calculator, which allows users to work seamlessly with all of the features of both the Geographic Transformer and the Geographic Calculator in a single interface, on a combined license.

The Desktop features many new administrative and workflow tools to assist users in streamlining their processes and ensuring accuracy. A File Corral tool will permit colleagues to access common data quickly and easily, while improved Administrative Settings tools will enable administrators to define workspaces for users. A Data Source Audit Trail will track edits to the Geodetic Parameter data source, further ensuring accuracy, while assisting in troubleshooting. A Geodetic Definitions Import/Export tool lets users quickly share custom definitions with other users, and the Workspace Export tool makes workspaces easily portable. The Desktop now offers users the ability to use any datum as an intermediary for datum transformations, and also allows ESRI GTF transformation file import. Users can also expect to see updated progress bars, new message windows to monitor projects currently running, and improved process performance.

Geographic Transformer 6.0 is a major version upgrade that features many new enterprise-wide collaboration tools and core library enhancements. These tools extend the power of the Geographic Transformer to enable geospatial data definition, manipulation and management across the user’s organization. Visit Blue Marble at Booth 908 at the 2008 ESRI International User Conference for a demo!

The Geographic Transformer 6.0 interface is now extremely flexible and customizable. This version introduces dockable windows, workspace settings that can be saved and shipped to other users, and administrative tools that can be used to lock down editing of the coordinate datasource to protect definitions and guide users. Users can also expect enhanced JPEG 2000, ECW, MrSID, and GeoTIFF handling, new Tiling tools, enhanced Mosaic functions, improved Batch Transformation job creation, an improved Georeferencer tool, and many more. For more information, please visit

http://www.bluemarblegeo.com/products/transformer.php.

“This version of the Geographic Transformer is a result of some intense feedback sessions we’ve had with some of our main customers in Houston, Denver and Calgary,” says Patrick Cunningham, Blue Marble President. “We continue to demonstrate our willingness to listen to our customers first, then develop solutions around their suggestions. Once people realize that everything Blue Marble has to offer resides under one interface, we’re sure they will be extremely pleased.”

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Blue Marble Geographics at ESRI International User Conference

Blue Marble Geographics (www.bluemarblegeo.com) will be exhibiting at the ESRI International User Conference in San Diego, CA from August 4-7, 2008. Come and visit Booth 908 to review the latest revisions to Blue Marble’s image reprojection and coordinate transformation software suite. These software applications have been used worldwide by thousands of GIS professionals to extend the geodetic capabilities of the ArcGIS desktop.

Here are just a few of the exciting new tools and services Blue Marble will be sharing at Booth 908:

* Extending the geodetic power of ArcGIS with the Geographic Calculator ArcGIS extension

* Upcoming ESRI extensions from Blue Marble, including ArcSDE read/write

* Applied Geodesy Training for the ArcGIS user

* New versions of the Geographic Calculator & Geographic Transformer: stop by for a demo

* The Blue Marble Desktop: all Blue Marble applications, one interface

* Administrative tools to ensure data quality throughout your organization, working in ArcGIS or other tools

* Developers: save time and money by embedding Blue Marble’s technology. Why reinvent the wheel?

“Highly accurate mapping is a challenge to all GIS users,” stated Blue Marble Vice President of Sales Kris Berglund. “We’re excited to be able to complement and extend the capabilities of ArcGIS to address those needs. There’s no better venue than the ESRI International User Conference to show our users what we’ve been up to, we’re very excited to demonstrate how Blue Marble’s solutions will complement the ESRI software suite”.

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