Free GIS Software
From GisWiki
Generally to make use of this data you will need some GIS (Geographic Information System) software package. The shapefile format the data is supplied is compatible with most GIS software.
GIS packages are available commercially, such as Mapinfo and ArcMap, but there are also freely available and shareware GIS packges available. In keeping with the freely distributable topographic data, this site will focus on freely distributable (Open Source) GIS packages.
Open Source can mean several things, but basically it is a philosphical approach to developing distributing software which believes that the users, developers and software itself all benefit from having the software as widely used and available as possible, with anyone who wants to able to contribute to the package. The converse is the closed model, which sees software as simply a means of making money, and restricts users and other developers from modifying the core software. In recent times, IBM, Novell, Sun and even Microsoft have moved towards the Open Source approach, to benefit from the collaborative approach to producing software.
GIS is a term with dozens of definitions. Here is a brief one. GIS refers to computer systems used to store, manage, query, analyse or display data with a geographic or spatial component. Open Source GIS packages have been available and used for some years. There is little that any commercial GIS package can do that cannot be replicated with freely available software.
Free GIS packages are available for both Windows and Linux. Generally the more powerful packages have been developed for Linux, although most of these have been ported to Windows, either a native windows version or via a Linux-like emulator for Windows such as Cygwin. Some commercial GIS companies provide free geographic data viewing packages.
Contents |
Open Source Software
There is an increasing trend in community driven projects to create software packages where the source code of the software is openly published and distributed. This allows people to fix bugs, and write new functions into the software so everyone benefits. For more information, visit the New Zealand Open Source Society.
GUI Applications
- QGIS - Quantum GIS is a new visual browser for many common spatial data formats. Available for Windows, OSX and Linux, highly recommended.
- GRASS - Geographic Resources Analysis Support System is a GIS with raster, topological vector, image processing, and graphics production functionality that operates on various platforms through a graphical user interface and commandline in X-Window. A powerful but complex package. Not ideal for novices.
- The GIMP - The GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages.
- JUMP - The JUMP Project suite includes the JUMP Unified Mapping Platform (JUMP), the JTS Topology Suite (JTS) and the JCS Conflation Suite (JSC). A JAVA (platform independent) GIS system with query & topology support.
- LandSerf - A JAVA based package for viewing elevation models. CAn be used to create very professional 3D hillshades and flyby's.
Command Line Tools and Libraries
- GMT - Generic Mapping Tools is a suite of command line programs for manipulating and plotting spatial data. More for an advanced users for publication quality maps and DEM modelling.
- Shapelib - The Shapefile C Library is a software library and some useful utilities for working with shapefiles. Can be very useful.
- OGR - The OGR Simple Features Library is a C++ open source library (and commandline tools) providing read (and sometimes write) access to a variety of vector file formats including ESRI Shapefiles, S-57, SDTS, PostGIS, Oracle Spatial, and Mapinfo mid/mif and TAB formats. Very useful if you want the topographic data in a format other than shapefile.
- GDAL - Geospatial Data Abstraction Library. A library (similar to OGR but for raster data instead of vector) used by many GIS packages for accessing raster data such as scanned maps and images. Includes utilities for turning a tiff image into a georeferenced geotiff image. Works well in conjunction with Image Magick for generating GIS raster maps from scanned or plotted maps.
- PROJ4 - PROJ.4 Cartographic Projections library, useful for reprojecting the topographic data if required. Generally for more advanced GIS users.
- ImageMagick - Image Magick provides command line tools to manipulate & reformat images. Useful for scripts to work with multiple images.
Servers
- PostGIS - PostGIS is a spatial datatype and query enhancement for the Open Source RDBMS PostgreSQL. For advanced users who wish to manage the vector topo data as database records instead of shapefiles.
- Postgres - Postgres is a leading Open Source database package. With PostGIS it becomes a fully featured spatial data management package.
- Mapserver - Mapserver is a popular web mapserver. For putting your maps and data on the internet.
Free Software
Free software doesn't cost anything to download and use, but you do not have access to the source code for the software.
- ArcExplorer - a free shapefile viewer from ESRI. ArcExplorer v2 is for Windows only, the newer v9 release is written in Java, and can be run on pretty much any Windows, UNIX or Linux system.
- AGIS - a simple Windows GIS package. It cannot read the shapefiles natively, but the free ogr2ogr package can convert the shapefiles to Mapinfo for use with AGIS.
- TNTlite - TNTlite is a free version of TNTmips, TNTedit, and TNTview for small-scale projects. TNTlite is not a demo, but a large, full-featured geospatial analysis software package. It does have limits on the complexity of the geographic data it can work with, which are not present in the commercial version.
- GIS Development portal - GIS Developments provides a portal to a wide range of free and trial GIS/GPS software & data. Much of the references here are not Open Source, so this site is a good complement to www.freegis.org.
Web Sites
- FreeGIS - FreeGIS.org is an organisation and web site providing links to a wide range of free GIS & GPS related software.
- OpenSUSE GEO repository - An online repository for users of OpenSuse, Mandriva or Fedora Linux. Contains a good range of ready to install GIS related software packages. This is one of the main reasons I use OpenSUSE, as it makes my GIS application support so easy.
- GIS Tutorial & help - An Introduction to Open Source GIS, including tutorials, links & info. Useful for GPS & GIS users of all levels, from novices to experienced users.
- MapTools.org - a resource for users and developers in the open source mapping community, and a home to many open source projects.
- The Open Source Geospatial Foundation - OSGEO is a foundation supporting the development of standards based and interoperable Open Source GIS applications. A wealth of information regarding FOSS GIS applications & data.
Live Disc's
Live disc's allow you to boot directly off a CDROM into an operating system that is set up specifically for running Open Source GIS applications. No software installation required.
