Spatial Aspect Explorer

GIS software comes in all shapes and sizes, with applications designed for both scientists and relatively inexperienced users. While complex solutions are certainly more versatile, a straightforward tool is sometimes more suitable for the task at hand.

Spatial Aspect Explorer is a user-friendly program designed to help you analyze spatial data stored in raster and vector files. It offers an intuitive set of navigation controls, supports several popular file formats and even allows you to export the rendered maps to PNG files.

Naturally, you should not expect Spatial Aspect Explorer to provide you with an extensive array of features, as it is not designed to complete with complex, and often expensive GIS solutions, and it supports only two map projections: Cylindrical and Polar Stereographic. However, it is a great utility for users who need a simple, no-nonsense analysis tool.

Also worth mentioning is the application’s reduced size, as it can be shared easily and deployed in no time at all. Its hardware requirements are also quite low, which is great news for those who rely on older computers, but it should be noted that the UI is rather outdated.

After launching the application, you need to set up the background layer, which can consist of a solid color or a raster file saved to various formats, such as SPM, BMP, DEM, SPE, ZRS and DDF.

Next, you can add all the vector layers that represent various features, such as elevation data, watersheds, regions and so on. These can be toggled on or off, and you can also change their order.

It is possible to define multiple regions that you can then navigate to with a couple of mouse clicks, and this data can be exported to RGN files.

Spatial Aspect Explorer offers a Legend Manager that can be used to fine-tune the map’s color scale and modify various rendering parameters, such as the sun height, brightness and ambient light.

Finally, the map can be exported to a PNG image or saved as a VMP file that you can work with at a later date.

In conclusion, Spatial Aspect Explorer is a handy software utility that enables you to load and analyze spatial data from raster and vector files. It offers a decent set of tools, and it is very easy to use, but it features a somewhat outdated interface.