GPlates 1.3 released

GPlates 1.3 released

What's new in version 1.3:-

  • Integration of Orange and GPlates as a data mining toolkit suite.
    • Includes Orange widgets to obtain pre-processed (co-registration) data from GPlates via network socket requests.
  • New GPlates Rotation (GROT) file format:
    • Extends PLATES4 rotation format to include a much richer set of metadata attributes.
    • Please visit the GPlates Rotation (GROT) page for more details.
  • Surface relief lighting:
    • Visually transpose one raster onto another in the form of relief/height map shading.
  • Volume visualisation of 3D scalar fields (early preview functionality):
    • Developed in collaboration with Tobias Pfaffelmoser (Technical University Munich).
    • For more details please see A Custom Implementation for Visualizing Sub-surface 3D Scalar Fields in GPlates
    • To be officially released in GPlates 1.4.
    • This release (1.3) contains preview functionality available to advanced users:
      • Requires the "--enable-scalar-field-import" command-line switch to enable scalar field import.
      • For example, "cd C:\Program Files (x86)\GPlates\GPlates 1.3.0" and "gplates-1.3.0.exe --enable-scalar-field-import".
      • Enables menu item 'File -> Import -> Import 3D Scalar Field...'
  • SVG export includes rasters, 3D scalar fields and filled polygons.
  • Export arbitrary resolution rasters (eg, 3,000 x 3,000 pixels).
  • Support for reading the OGRGMT file format ('.gmt').
  • New finite rotation calculator utilities.
  • New velocity imports/exports:
    • Velocity domain generators for Terra and Lat/Lon meshes.
    • Export velocities to Terra (text), CitcomS global and GMT formats.
  • Calculate velocities in "Calculated Velocity Fields" layer:
    • 'of domain points' - calculate velocities of reconstructed points.
    • 'of surfaces' - calculate velocities of surfaces that intersect domain points.
  • Enhanced velocity arrow display controls including screen space density and arrow scaling.
  • New topological 'line' tool creates dynamic polylines.
  • Canvas tools grouped into workflow tabs.
  • Centralised GPlates Geological Information Model (GPGIM):
    • GPGIM stored in a single XML file.
    • All GPlates dialogs now conform to this central GPGIM.
    • Features can now have either topological (dynamic) geometries or static geometries.
  • Upgrades to Manage Feature Collections dialog including sort-by-filename and group selections.
  • GPlates now contains a small assortment of commands (on the command-line):
    • Commands are specified on the command-line and do not invoke the graphical interface of GPlates.
    • Run GPlates with "--help" to list the commands and the options available to each command.
    • However, in future, we will be recommending our GPlates Python programming interface (work in progress).
  • Filled polygons in 2D map views.
  • Improved filled polygon performance.
  • Filled polygon opacity and intensity controls.
  • Raster reconstruction now works with 'self-intersecting' polygons:
    • Should mostly fix holes in reconstructed rasters due to missing polygons.
  • 'age' colour palette button in raster layer (to use when loaded raster is an age grid).

...and many other changes that are listed in the CHANGELOG file in the GPlates source-code releases.

GPlates 1.3 compiles and runs on Windows 7/Vista/XP, Linux and MacOS X. Download GPlates 1.3 from the Download page.

GPlates-compatible data have been made available. For more information, see the Download page.