GIS.XL Changelog

What's new in GIS.XL 2.0

• The GIS.XL ribbon toolbar tab looks like in the previous version and only few new items have been added.
• Most were updated (visually) individual dialogs that have been simplified. The original dialog interface was divided into two tabs. Important settings are located in the first tab and help information are now in the second tab – Data.
• In the previous version, new shape-files were created from coordinates stored in individual spreadsheet columns. Currently, the program allows you to create shape-file layer for geometries that are stored in one spreadsheet cell – in the WKT format. Supported geometries are point, linestring, polygon and polygon with holes.
• For shape-file export (function GIS to Excel), the program allows you to use new variables, such as the feature geometry definition in WKT or GeoJSON format. Additionally, the data export from shape-file layer was fundamentally redesigned. Now, the export of large shape-files is sometimes up to 1 000 times faster than in the last version. At present, it is possible to export data from more than 1 million features in shape-file layer.
• The well-known functions Stats in Polygons and Create Buffer were also accelerated and updated. A major update was applied on the Export to KML function. In GIS.XL 2.0, you can export geometries from several map layers into a single KML file, and the program supports correct export of polygons with holes. The add-in automatically exports geometries and visual properties of features, such as fill color or line thickness. It is also possible to set whether you want to export data from shape-file attribute table.
• An interesting new feature is direct data import from GPX files (waypoints and trackpoints). Selected map layers from map panel you can (using another new function) export to a GeoJSON file, and it is possible to set whether the geometry only will be exported or also actual visual properties and data from the attribute table.
• In the previous version, we could divide the map layer features into groups and display them in different colors from the basic color palette. In the current version, the program allows you to apply dozens of new color palettes to the created categories. You can use continuous color palettes or special set of palettes – Color Brewer for categorical data.
• A new is the Set Visual Properties feature, which allows you to set up an individual selected property at once for all layers features or categories, such as transparency of fill color.
• The last and perhaps the most interesting feature is Publish / Share Map. If you need to export and share your map out of add-in environment in the vector format, you can use this feature. Using the dialog, you can setup and create html document that you can display in any browser. This document contains a zoomable map that is created using open source technology – leaflet.js. In this document, you can display selected map layers from the add-in in identical visual form (geometry, visual settings and data from attribute table). You can view these vector layers on the map background from several online map providers (e.g. OpenStreetMaps, ESRI, CartoDB, Stamen). Created html document you can use in "offline mode", or you can paste it on your websites.
• Smaller add-in updates will be described step by step in later posts. New version of GIS.XL add-in is ready and will soon be available for download.