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Maptitude Mapping Software

GIS Software

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A Geographic Information System (GIS Software) is designed to store, retrieve, manage, display, and analyze all types of geographic and spatial data. GIS software lets you produce maps and other graphic displays of geographic information for analysis and presentation.

Ad Maptitude is the lowest-priced, easiest-to-use professional GIS software available. For more information about Maptitude please visit our Maptitude Mapping Software pages. Otherwise, please read on to explore the GIS capabilities of Maptitude.

In this article:

What is GIS Mapping Software?

GIS software lets you produce maps and other graphic displays of geographic information for analysis and presentation. With these capabilities a GIS is a valuable tool to visualize spatial data or to build decision support systems for use in your organization.

What is gis mapping software?A GIS stores data on geographical features and their characteristics. The features are typically classified as points, lines, or areas, or as raster images. On a map, city data could be stored as points, road data could be stored as lines, and postal code boundaries could be stored as areas, while aerial photos or scanned maps could be stored as raster images.

Geographic Information Systems store information using spatial indices that make it possible to identify the features located in any arbitrary region of a map. For example, a GIS can quickly identify and map all of the locations within a specified radius of a point, or all of the streets that run through a territory.

In addition to the above capabilities, Maptitude implements a professional-strength relational database, a feature critical for GIS software. Attribute data may be freely joined to and detached from geographic layers and tables. Relational data manipulation is integrated with robust and powerful geoprocessing for spatial queries, polygon overlay, and other location-based analyzes. This is supported seamlessly so that data are moved easily to and from relational tables and geographic databases. In addition, the Maptitude fixed-format binary table supports 32,767 fields and 1 billion records, and has unlimited character field widths.


Blog: Why 70% of Fortune 50 companies rely on Maptitude

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Geographic Information System Software Features

GIS Software Case Study

GIS Map Software

Maptitude is one of the most popular GIS software packages, and has extensive functionality. A list of typical GIS capabilities is presented below, and these are available in Maptitude:

Maps and Layers

  • The Create-a-Map Wizard allows users to easily create presentation-ready maps using their own data or the default maps
  • The Display Manager allows a map to be customized on-the-fly
  • User-defined preferences for map units, left/right side-of-road routing, file permissions, geocoding parameters, and many other settings
  • Toolbox and mouse-based map navigation is supported and includes panning, zooming, and magnifying
  • Map bookmark management allows the retrieval of custom map views
  • Multi-layer map feature query tools allow direct interrogation of spatial locations
  • A map librarian/manager allows the organization of various saved maps and comes with a library of pre-styled demographic maps
  • Geographic database layering controls allow customization of layer visibility and drawing order
  • Multiple maps can be open simultaneously, and can be duplicated, combined, synchronized, tiled, cascaded, and minimized/maximized
  • There is explicit map scale control including undo
  • Layer autoscaling allows customization of the scale at which layers are visible
  • An interactive map overview window provides perspective as you work and the ability to zoom anywhere in the study region

Visualization

  • Extensive layer style control includes font/style/opacity settings for points/lines/areas/labels/legends/drawings; point and area styles can use most image formats and their resolution can be controlled via scaling
  • Thematic visualizations include color, pattern/icon, dot-density, chart, scaled-symbol, and 3D prism themes
  • A drawing toolbox is provided, the drawing items are customizable, and there is a selection of north-oriented arrows
  • Each map has an editable legend that automatically lists displayed features and has a live scale bar
  • Stand-alone charting capabilities include pie, bar, line, area, scatter, radar, histogram, box plot, and function charts
  • Advanced text label placement and management tools include live label manipulation en-masse or individually, automated positioning, callouts/rotation, font control, multi-line, framing, hiding, styling, prioritizing, stretching, spacing, autoscaling, and additional text manipulation settings
  • Maps and graphics can be copy/pasted or saved as pictures/bitmaps (with optional quality/resolution settings) for insertion into MS Office and other external applications
  • Printing to any printer/paper size is supported, with a wide variety of spatial print options including using fixed scale, with actual point sizes, and as pre-rendered images
  • Report/layout creation can utilize settings for snap grids, rulers, paper size/orientation, dimensions, margins, alignment, print options, automated district printing, and a variety of other graphics software oriented options
  • Map interaction can be recorded to video
  • Layer style/label/autoscale override is provided through the Feature Display tool
  • Cartographic coloring uses Brelaz's Dsatur algorithm to assign colors that ensure that no two adjacent regions have the same color

Geocoding

  • The tabular and geographic find tool can identify locations anywhere on earth
  • Robust and flexible pin-mapping tools support geocoding by address, postal code, city/town, join, coordinate, longitude/latitude, by any populated place in the world (village, town, city), and also manually
  • Custom geocodable indexes can be created to pin-map based on external datasets
  • Geotagged images from smart phones, tablets, or GPS-enabled devices can be mapped

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GIS Mapping Tools and Geographic Analysis

Geographic analysis tools are the most valuable component of GIS software because they let you analyze the geographic components of your data. Below are some of the geographic analysis tools that are standard in Maptitude:

Territory Building Tools

Maptitude GIS territory map with territories created from states and provinces using Maptitude GIS mapping tools

Districts/Territories can be created using map-based filters or via tabular groupings

Buffers

Maptitude GIS map of buffers around hospitals

Circular buffers/bands for analyzing proximity

Facility Location

Maptitude GIS facility location results

A facility location tool identifies the best location for one or more facilities from a set of candidate sites

Geographic Overlay

Maptitude GIS overlay results for demographics

Geographic overlay/aggregation is supported and allows attribute assignment between layers based on percentage overlap for estimating demographics of territories, buffers, areas of influence, and more

Hot Spots

Maptitude GIS map of customer hot-spot in Perth, Australia

Kernel-based density grids can be created using the quartic, triangular, uniform, or count methods, and allow "hot-spot" mapping

Weighted Center

Maptitude GIS map of weighted center gravity location of customers in Sydney, Australia

Weighted center calculations allow the identification of centers of "gravity" among points

Shortest Path

Maptitude GIS map of shortest path route returning to origin

The shortest path calculations allow for minimizing the cost of the path as an ordered/unordered route with options to produce directions and to return to the origin

Drive-time Bands

Maptitude GIS map of 10-minute drive time rings around two sites

Drive time/distance bands allow you to visualize the extent to which locations can be accessed within a certain drive time or distance

Drive-time Territories

Maptitude GIS map of territories based on drive-time to nearest hospital

Drive time partitions allow regions across a line layer to be defined based on network cost

Clustering

Maptitude map of customers clustered with a maximum number of units capacity

A clustering tool groups points or areas into compact clusters, while placing optional constraints on the clusters such as maximum size or a balanced total field, such as Sales or Population

Balancing

Maptitude map of territories balanced by adult population

A balancing tool automatically creates territories that are balanced by a specific demographic

Routing Deliveries & Pickups

Maptitude map of delivery routes with time windows from two depots

Routing tools optimize routes for several vehicles needing to reach many destinations for deliveries and pickups in fixed time windows

Measuring Tools

Maptitude GIS map with customer and store locations and table of travel times from customers to each store

Length/area measurement tools allow map-based calculations

Desire Lines

Maptitude GIS map of desire line map of U.S. exports

Desire lines (also known as spider diagrams) allow the visualization of flows

Surface Analysis

Maptitude GIS surface analysis map showing the areas where a proposed tower would be visible and not visible

Surface analysis tools include spot height data querying, surface profiling, viewsheds, contouring, 3D terrain visualization, DEM/TIN creation, and the calculation of terrain shortest paths

Data Classification

Maptitude GIS quantile map

Data classification methods include: quantiles, equal weight, equal interval, standard deviation, nested means, arithmetic or geometric progression, Fisher-Jenks/optimal breaks, categories, and manual classification (by range, counts, or percentages)

Areas of Influence

Maptitude GIS map of area-of-influence/Voronoi territories

Areas-of-Influence (also known as Thiessen Polygons or Voronoi Diagrams) are a powerful GIS tool that divide the study area using a triangulated irregular network (TIN)

GPS Support

Maptitude GIS map of GPS playback data

GPS support includes the ability to read/animate/import GPS data, overlay tracks with aerial photos and topographic or vector maps, track real time GPS locations, create vector line/point layers from GPS playback files, and import/export formats such as GPX (the GPS Exchange Format)

Spatial Queries

Maptitude map with spatial query filtering customers to the nearest store

Filter features based on geographic location, proximity to other features, by radius, by pointing, by polygon, or based on a value or condition.

Statistical Analysis

Maptitude box plot

Compute summary statistics (sum, min, max, mean, standard deviation), compute spatial autocorrelation, and create box plots, histograms, and radar charts.

Internet Mapping

Internet mapping of parcel maps and data

Map server products and Cloud and SaaS location-based applications such as Maptitude Online allow you to share your geographic data as device independent and mobile-friendly interactive maps. You can also add mapping functions to your web site such as providing the public with access to assessor parcel maps and valuation data.

Market Share (Huff Model)

Market share analysis map using Maptitude Huff model

Market share analysis tools calculate your market share for an area by examining how attractive your stores are compared to all competing stores.

Land Use Analysis

Maptitude map of land use mix by neighborhood

Accessibility measures of urban form to measure walkability and land use mix, to assess equitable access to services, amenities, and jobs.

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Imagery

  • Image layer and aerial photo tools include registration, a manager/librarian, contrast control, smoothing (from 2x2 to 10x10) and interpolation (nearest neighbor, bilinear, high quality bilinear, bicubic, high quality bicubic)
  • The image servers supported are Google Earth and OGC Web Map Services (WMS)

Database

  • The Maptitude GIS program has a powerful proprietary relational database
  • Support is provided for over 50 file types and more than 100 GIS and CAD formats, some natively including Excel, MS Access, ODBC, dBase, CSV, ASCII, ArcGIS platform formats (Esri Shapefile and Personal Geodatabase), MapInfo TAB, Oracle Spatial, and SQL Server Spatial
  • Support is provided for exporting to many formats including Excel, dBase, CSV, ASCII, Lotus, Google KML, ArcGIS platform formats (Esri Shapefile and ArcMap Document), MapInfo MIF, Oracle Spatial, SQL Server Spatial and AutoCAD DXF
  • Table tools include the ability to transpose, group/aggregate, identify duplicates, calculate statistics, convert longitude/latitude to XY coordinates, print mailing labels, copy/paste values, and perform undo/redo of edits
  • Regression and binary logit models can be estimated on any map layer or table
  • Table field tools include the ability to hide, show, filter, lock, format, multi-field sort, create live expression/formula fields, and perform multi-cell fills
  • Database modify tools include the ability to add/delete records/fields, delete filtered records, set aggregation rules, apply look-up table coding, and define field header balloon pop-up text
  • Database joins can be aggregate/non-aggregate and as one-to-one, one-to-many, or many-to-one joins
  • Multiple filters per layer or database can be created using SQL type queries, spatial queries (coincident, adjacent, within, and many more), and data classification methods
  • Topological/non-topological spatial databases can be created for points, lines, areas, or grids
  • Topological/non-topological layer (line/point/area) editing tools include the ability to use digitizers, create one-way streets, copy and paste lines, merge/split features/attributes, add/delete/move features, line/area conversion, point-to-line conversion, merging layers, clipping/masking geography by region/area, and undo/redo of edits
  • There is comprehensive projection, datum, and coordinate system support both natively and via import/export, and this operates in conjunction with tools such as vector rubbersheeting and on-the-fly raster layer reprojection
  • Any record can be linked to multiple files including photos, documents, web pages, and slide-shows

Development Platform

  • The Geographic Information System Developer’s Kit (GISDK™) has 850+ Caliper Script functions that can be called to create add-ins, build custom applications, and to access Maptitude from .NET or as a COM Object

Processing

Maptitude supports the latest Windows operating systems, file types, and common design elements. Maptitude runs as a 64-bit application on 64-bit Windows. Advantages of a 64-bit Maptitude include:

  • Save to much higher resolution images
  • Use more memory than the previous 4GB 32-bit limit
  • Open/import files via 64-bit Microsoft Office (e.g. Excel and Access).

Minimum Requirements

  • Versions: Install on a local Windows device such as a PC or Surface Pro; Or install on a Citrix or Terminal Services server or on a Windows device when accessing the software via Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) or Remote Desktop Services (RDS).
  • Desktop or laptop computer running 64-bit Windows 11 or 10
  • Internet connection for download
  • Hardware: 4GB of RAM (8GB of RAM provides optimal performance for users with very large data files.) 10 GB of storage space for data. More space will be required to save the maps and files created.

Cost

Mapitude costs $695 annually, while Maptitude Online is just $420. Maptitude includes a FREE country package ($595 value) that includes an up-to-date street layer with addresses for pin-mapping (geocoding) and travel time information for computing routes and drive-time rings. Also included are building footprints for many urban locations, railroads, and comprehensive named landmarks that range from public facilities to commercial buildings including shops, restaurants, and retail stores. Postal data and detailed demographics (where available) are shipped with the product.

Benefits

  • Better see the information and trends hidden in your geographic data, tables, spreadsheets, and databases
  • Perform geospatial analysis: Create 3-D maps, heat maps, territories, drive-time rings, hot-spots, charts, and reports
  • Import, analyze, segment, and report on data in almost any format
  • Use location intelligence to filter and categorize data
  • Print, export, manage, share, and use location-based results to develop improved efficiencies and cost savings

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Online GIS Software

  • Map sharing add-in for desktop Maptitude allows users to create, upload, and share maps and reports
  • Secure login and permissions for administrators and teams to access maps, data, and reports
  • Option to share maps privately with username and login or publicly with map URL
  • Easy embedding of public maps in webpages or blogs using simple HTML iframe code
  • Ability to upload Excel or CSV data, copy and paste locations, or type addresses for geocoding
  • Batch geocoding and push-pinning of address, ZIP code, and city locations
  • Creation of thematic visualizations such as color/heat maps, pie charts, and symbol and size themes
  • Tools to create radii, buffers, circles, straight line influence areas, and weighted centers
  • Generation of demographic report PDFs and overlays
  • Interactive viewing, querying, selecting, and filtering of tabular data and map layer features
  • Exporting map images for use in presentations or reports
  • Multiple selections on a layer for interactive creation and visualization of territories
  • Ability to modify maps by hiding, deleting, or adding layers, spreadsheets, selections, themes, labels, or analytics
  • Comprehensive help and learning materials available for support
  • Competitive features and pricing for subscribing to Maptitude Online mapping software
Maptitude Online GIS Software

Frequently Asked Questions

What is GIS?

A Geographic Information System or GIS is a computer system that allows you to map, model, query, and analyze large quantities of data within a single database according to their location. GIS gives you the power to:

  • Create maps
  • Integrate information
  • Visualize scenarios
  • Develop effective solutions
  • Present powerful ideas  

GIS is a tool used by individuals, organizations, schools, governments, and businesses seeking innovative ways to solve their problems. GIS stores information about the world as a collection of layers that can be linked together by a common locational component such as latitude and longitude, postal code, census tract, or street address. These geographic references allow you to locate features on the earth's surface for analysis of patterns and trends. Dozens of map layers can be arrayed to display information about transportation networks, hydrography, population characteristics, economic activity, and political jurisdictions enabling you to identify trends that may otherwise be hidden.

What can GIS be used for?

Geographic information system (GIS) technology can be used for spatial data analysis and mapping, enabling sophisticated applications in urban planning, environmental science, epidemiology, and natural resource management. Its capacity to integrate diverse datasets enhances decision-making and promotes a nuanced understanding of spatial patterns and relationships.

GIS is a tool used by individuals, organizations, schools, governments, and businesses seeking innovative ways to solve their problems. Some specific examples of GIS applications include:

  • Census Geography
  • Transportation networks
  • Hydrography
  • Population characteristics
  • Economic activity
  • Political jurisdictions
  • Sales territory mapping
  • Route planning and deliveries

What is the best GIS software?

The best GIS software is subjective and depends on the user's needs and preferences. There are a variety of GIS software available, including open source and proprietary options. Some of the most popular GIS software include ArcGISQGIS, Maptitude, Global Mapper, and MapInfo.

Maptitude mapping software is widely considered to be the best GIS software for businesses due to its comprehensive features, affordability, and ease of use. It enables users to create sophisticated maps and analyze spatial data in a variety of formats. Its user-friendly interface allows users to quickly learn and master the software without being a GIS professional. It also offers powerful tools for data analysis, such as tools for querying, mapping, and reporting. Maptitude also provides support for many popular GIS formats, such as ESRI Shapefiles, GeoTIFFs, and Google Earth KML/KMZ files. Furthermore, it offers a range of advanced tools for data visualization, including sales territory mapping and route planning and deliveries. All these features make Maptitude the best GIS software for businesses.

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