April News Update

For many years ArcMap has been our ‘go-to’ software for everyday GIS work, though we also use ER Mapper, GDAL, GMT, GRASS, QGIS, and a host of other software tools. We have always had a love-hate relationship with ArcMap –it’s overpriced, inconsistent, lacks backwards compatibility, for many years was terminally unstable (now, thankfully improved), and is a routine source of stress for all of us in GRL. Somehow, we’ve never been able to shake entirely free from needing it, though the mental anguish it causes is motivation enough to keep us on the lookout for alternatives! One such tool is FME from Safe Software, and over the last couple of years we’ve been incorporating FME into some large geodynamics projects, work that has led to FME certification. Well done and thanks to David, our in-house FME champion.