News

2018-08-08: GPlates 2.1 and pyGPlates beta revision 18 released

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This release contains both GPlates 2.1 and pyGPlates beta revision 18.

• Please use this pyGPlates release when working with any data saved by GPlates 2.0 or GPlates 2.1 (especially topologies).
  • This will avoid incorrect reconstruction of half-stage rotation features (such as mid-ocean ridges) created by GPlates 2.0 (or above).
  • There are no major new features in this pyGPlates release, it is mostly for compatibility with GPlates 2.0 (and above).

What's new in GPlates 2.1:-

• Velocity legend:
  • Visual indicator of velocity arrow lengths in a target velocity layer.
  • Displays a single arrow and its velocity (in cm/yr).
  • Legend velocity can be constant (eg, 2 cm/yr), or variable (to keep arrow length within reasonable limits).
    • Legend arrow length changes in response to velocity scaling in the target layer.
• Projects and recent sessions:
  • Fixed problems loading projects saved on computers with different locales:
    • The following backward/forward compatibility rules now apply:
      • Can load the following on 2.1:
        • Projects saved with 2.1 on any locale:
          • For example, (English or Chinese)->(English or Chinese).
        • Only projects saved with 2.0 on English locale or same locale (if not English):
          • For example, English->(English or Chinese), or Chinese->Chinese.
      • Can load the following on 2.0:
        • Projects saved with 2.1 on any locale, but must be loaded on English locale.
          • For example, (English or Chinese)->English.
        • Only projects saved with 2.0 on matching locale.
          • For example, English->English or Chinese->Chinese.
  • Save anchored plate ID, background colour and graticule settings to project/session.
  • When asked to locate a missing data file, show directory where missing file should have been.
• Deformation:
  • Topological networks:
    • Can now use mid-ocean ridges as boundary/interior sections.
    • Added triangulation *draw* mode in topology network (brown) layers.
      • Can draw boundary, mesh or fill (independently of colour mode).
        • Display mesh by default (instead of boundaries).
        • Better visual indicator of deforming regions.
    • Deforming meshes now appear in 2D map views when strain rate smoothing enabled.
  • Strain rate and accumulated strain:
    • Added total strain rate.
      • Visualize and export.
      • Uses geodesy definition of second invariant in Kreemer et al. 2014.
    • Added exports for the following accumulated strain quantities:
      • Strain dilatation.
      • Principal strain and stretch.
        • Exports triplet (angle/azimuth, major axis and minor axis).
        • Major/minor axes are strain (extension positive; compression negative) or stretch (1.0 + strain; always positive).
        • Plot stretch ellipses in GMT (with psxy).
    • Added optional strain rate clamping:
      • Useful for excessively high strain rates in some triangles of deforming mesh.
      • Clamps *total* strain rate, since includes both normal and shear components.
    • All strain rate and accumulated strain quantities now calculated in spherical coordinates (instead of 2D cartesian).
    • Finite strain is now correctly accumulated.
      • By integrating deformation gradient tensor over time, using spatial gradients of velocity.
  • Crustal thinning:
    • Fixed crustal thinning (gamma) factor.
      • Should be '1 - T/T_initial' instead of 'T/T_initial'.
      • Automatically convert crustal thinning factors created by GPlates 2.0 (when loading GPML file).
    • Added crustal stretching (beta) factor 'T_initial/T'.
    • All three crustal thickness types now created when generating crustal thickness points.
      • Thickness (kms), stretching (beta) factor and thinning (gamma) factor.
      • Independently visualize and export.
    • Can optionally generate points within a lat-lon box.
    • Calculate statistics using entire history of crustal thicknesses/factors (instead of just at initial time).
      • Provides a better mapping of palette colours.
    • Fixed missing IMPORT_AGE attribute in OGR vector formats (eg, Shapefile).
      • Required for crustal thickness points to work propertly (and half-stage rotations).
  • Added option to remove points from within a deforming network as soon as they fall outside.
  • Fixed symbols not working for points when they are reconstructed using topologies.
• Rasters:
  • Enable import and export of NetCDF version 4 rasters (via GDAL library version 2).
    • Interoperable with GMT version 5.
    • Optionally compress exported NetCDF.
  • Support export of *gridline* registered rasters.
    • Eg, global raster where left and right pixel columns overlap on dateline.
  • Support greater than 8-bit per channel RGBA rasters (including floating-point).
  • Import generates transparency for RGBA rasters supporting no-data values (in each R,G,B,A band).
  • Time-dependent raster (and 3D scalar field) import now supports times (depths) anywhere in filenames.
    • For ambiguous cases (eg, multiple decimal points) place times (depths) at end of filename (after '_' or '-').
  • Fixed incorrect half-pixel shift downwards (North to South) for *gridline* registered global GMT grids.
    • Has been incorrectly shifting since GPlates 1.4.
  • Fixed semi-transparent vertical seam near North and South poles at longitude 0 or -180.
    • Happened in 2D map views (and in 3D globe view when reconstructing raster).
  • Fixed slow rendering of very coarse rasters in 2D map views.
• Velocities:
  • Make GMT velocity export compatible with GMT psxy "-Sv" and "-SV" command-line options.
    • Angle/azimuth now in column 3 and magnitude in column 4.
    • Optional plate ID now in column 5.
• Colouring:
  • CPT files:
    • Support GMT5 "C/M/Y/K" colours and CMYK "COLOR_MODEL".
    • Support different colour types on a single line (eg, "R/G/B" and "gray80").
    • Added button to reload CPT file in colouring/draw styles.
  • Assign *all* known feature types a random colour in Feature Type draw style.
    • From GPlates 1.3 to 2.0 inclusive, all but 11 feature types were incorrectly assigned the default navy colour.
• Digitization:
  • Fixed vertex edits not modifying topologies.
    • Eg, moving vertices of a feature used as a topological section in a topological network.
  • Digitize New Geometries:
    • No longer offer Reconstruction/Conjugate Plate IDs for topological networks and topological lines.
      • Only meaningful for topological polygons (eg, to calculate non-deforming plate velocities).
• Geometry tests:
  • Point-in-polygon test now considers points *on* a polygon edge (within extremely small tolerance) to be inside polygon.
    • Helps ensure points lying exactly on dateline are inside a polygon that has an edge exactly aligned with dateline.
  • Fixed Assign Plate IDs retaining only first geometry in each feature when using 'copy by overlap'.
  • Fixed point proximity to a polyline/polygon in rare situations.
    • Resulted in incorrect selection with Choose Feature tool.
• Topology tools:
  • Build topology tools are now always enabled (makes it easier to build topologies at any time).
• GPlates Geological Information Model (GPGIM):
  • Loosen constraints on properties that can be loaded from a GPML file.
    • Any feature type can now contain any property defined in the GPGIM.
    • Can have feature types not defined in GPGIM.
    • More aligned with current ability to add any property to any feature type (albeit with a warning message).
    • Also more aligned with Shapefiles (which can load any property, in Shapefile mapping, into any feature type).
  • Allow multiple 'gpml:boundary' polygons per feature.
• Graphics (OpenGL):
  • Only disable surface mask functionality in 3D scalar fields for problematic graphics driver/hardware.
    • Only affects surface masking of scalar fields (not all scalar field functionality).
• Support up to 10-digit plate IDs (essentially 32-bit signed integers) in all Plate ID spin boxes.
• Fixed inability to save PLATES rotation files using non-ASCII (unicode) filenames (in some cases).
• Fixed inability to save/load OGR formats (eg, Shapefile) to/from non-ASCII (unicode) filenames.

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

GPlates 2.1 compiles and runs on Windows 7/8/8.1/10, Linux and MacOS X.

Download GPlates 2.1 from the Download page.

GPlates-compatible data have been made available, and has been updated and extended in many ways for the GPlates 2.1 release. For more information, see the Download page.

PyGPlates enables access to GPlates functionality via the Python programming language. This may be of particular use to researchers requiring more flexibility than is provided by the GPlates user interface.

The pyGPlates binaries currently require Python 2.7, however the pyGPlates source code now works with Python 3. PyGPlates compiles and runs on Windows 7/8/8.1, Linux and MacOS X.

Download pyGPlates beta revision 18 from the Download page.

The pyGPlates documentation and tutorials are available on the User Documentation page and includes:

• an introduction to pyGPlates,
• an installation guide,
• a 'Getting Started' tutorial,
• documented sample code,
• foundations of pyGPlates, and
• a detailed reference of pyGPlates functions and classes.

The pyGPlates tutorials are Jupyter Notebooks that analyse and visualise real-world data using pyGPlates. These tutorials complement the sample code in the pyGPlates documentation by providing a more research-oriented focus.

2016-11-18: GPlates 2.0 released

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What's new in version 2.0:-

• Projects and recent sessions:
  • Now saves and restores all layer information:
    • Including layer order, visibility and all settings within each layer (such as colour styles and colour palette filenames).
  • Open projects using File menu, drag'n'drop, double-clicking or command-line.
  • Project name displayed in window title.
  • Copy a project to another computer. For example:
    • Zip up a folder containing project file and associated data files (including colour palette files).
    • Unzip to another computer and open project file.
  • Option to locate missing data files (when loading project or recent session):
    • Useful when data files moved since project or session was saved.
  • Option to resolve ambiguous data filenames (when loading relocated project):
    • Useful when data files exist in both original and relocated locations.
  • GPlates 2.0 can open projects and recent sessions saved by all prior versions of GPlates:
    • However information saved by earlier versions is limited.
  • GPlates 1.5 can open projects and recent sessions saved by GPlates 2.0:
    • However restored information is limited (to what GPlates 1.5 can understand).
• Deformation:
  • Topological networks:
    • Boundary is similar to a topological closed plate boundary, but also has:
      • A deforming interior region (due to individual deforming points).
      • Optional interior rigid blocks.
    • Build New Network Topology tool now publicly available (without requiring command-line switch to enable).
    • Export topological network boundaries in general Resolved Topologies export.
    • Query and visualise velocities and strain rates at arbitrary points in networks.
    • Optionally display total (accumulated) strain at arbitrary points:
      • Displays principal components and orientation.
      • Outward-facing red arrows for extension.
      • Inward-facing blue arrows for compression.
  • Reconstructing regular features using topologies:
    • Use both topological rigid plates and deforming networks to reconstruct regular features.
    • Incrementally reconstructs by plate ID in topological rigid plates.
    • Incrementally deforms in topological deforming networks.
    • Begin incremental reconstruction at a feature's time of appearance, digitisation time or present day.
    • Use specific topological layers or default to all loaded topologies.
    • Option to detect lifetime of each point in a geometry:
      • Oceanic points appear (mid-ocean ridges) and disappear (subduct).
      • Based on convergence velocity and distance to plate boundary during a plate/network transition.
  • Scalar coverages:
    • A new geometry type in a new layer type.
    • Each point in a multipoint/polyline/polygon has a scalar value associated with it.
    • For example, visualise mid-ocean ridge spreading rates and asymmetry calculated externally using pyGPlates.
  • Crustal thinning:
    • A specific type of scalar coverage containing crustal thickness values.
    • GPlates recognises this coverage type internally:
      • Uses deformation strain rates to evolve crustal thickness over time.
    • An input dialog generates initial crustal thickness points:
      • Uniform distribution of points within a topological rigid plate or deforming network boundary (with optional random offset).
      • Specify initial constant/flat crustal thickness at a past geological time.
    • Choose from a selection of built-in colour palettes to visualise crustal thickness variations over time.
    • Export crustal thickness values to GMT(xy) or GPML format.
    • Also added a separate export for deformation (strain rates).
• New Hellinger tool:
  • GPlates has a new workflow to determine best-fitting poles by the method of Hellinger:
    • Import and export data files compatible with the FORTRAN programs of Chang and co-workers.
    • Edit and create magnetic pick data points, via the canvas or tabularly via the Hellinger dialog.
    • Adjust segmentation of magnetic picks.
    • Enable/disable magnetic picks from inclusion in the fitting algorithms.
    • Specify pole and angle estimates via the canvas or via the Hellinger dialog.
    • Perform fitting using a python implementation the FORTRAN programs.
    • Visualise resulting fit and uncertainty on the canvas.
    • Export fit and uncertainty data to text file.
• Net rotation export:
  • GPlates now calculates and exports net rotation of the lithosphere (based on the method of Torsvik et al., 2010) using global coverages of dynamic plate polygons.
  • Net rotations are exported via the standard "Export…" tool, and by selecting the "Net rotation" export type.
  • Any dynamic plate-polygon data sets currently active in GPlates will be used as the basis for net rotation calculations.
• Official public release of volume visualisation:
  • No longer require command-line switch to enable importing of 3D scalar fields.
  • Latest improvements:
    • Reads georeferencing and spatial reference system (SRS) from first depth layer during import.
    • Frees disk space after import (removes cached depth layer rasters).
    • Fixed flickering cross-sections.
    • Fixed SVG export of isosurfaces (on Mac OS X).
• Improved OGR spatial reference system (SRS) support:
  • GPlates now has more complete support for OGR-supported files (e.g. ESRI shape file, OGR-GMT and others) which provide spatial reference system / projection information.
  • Any SRSs supported by the PROJ4 library should now be accepted by GPlates.
  • When saving to a file which had a non-WGS84 SRS associated with it, GPlates will prompt the user to export in either the original SRS, or in WGS84.
  • All other forms of file export in GPlates continue to use WGS84.
• Donut polygons:
  • Contain interior holes.
  • Supported in file input/output, raster reconstruction, filled polygons, 3D scalar fields, etc.
• Colour palette improvements:
  • Available in raster, 3D scalar field and scalar coverage layers.
  • Remap the range using mean and standard deviation of the layer data (raster, 3D scalar field or scalar coverage).
  • Added a variety of built-in colour palettes based on ColorBrewer sequential and diverging colour scales.
• Raster reconstruction improvements:
  • Improved stability and speed when connecting raster layer to polygons layer.
  • Removed raster seams/cracks between adjacent polygons.
• Toggle visibility of all layers:
  • Using the new visibility icons in the Layers dialog.
• Combine multiple rotation layers into one layer.
• Added velocity time interval options to velocity layers.
• New half-stage reconstruction (version 3) for mid-ocean ridges:
  • Changes to spreading asymmetry, after digitisation, no longer incorrectly reposition ridge.
• Improved handling of import / export directories:
  • GPlates now stores the last used directory for Project files.
  • In addition, there is more fine-grained support for both Feature Collection and Project folder preferences.
  • These can be adjust through the Preferences (Ctrl+,) dialog.
• Added named ages with timescale information and uncertainty tracking:
  • Supported for various feature types in GPlates Geological Information Model (GPGIM).
  • Find-as-you-type named ages with timescale colouring.

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

GPlates 2.0 compiles and runs on Windows 7/8/8.1/10, Linux and MacOS X. Download GPlates 2.0 from the Download page.

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

2016-02-04: PyGPlates beta revision 12 released

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Welcome to the first beta release of the GPlates Python library known as pyGPlates.

PyGPlates enables access to GPlates functionality via the Python programming language. This may be of particular use to researchers requiring more flexibility than is provided by the GPlates user interface.

The following pyGPlates functionality is available:-

• Load and save feature data (GPML, Shapefile, etc).
• Create/modify/query feature data.
• Traverse/modify/query plate rotation hierarchy.
• Partition into plates and assign plate properties.
• Reconstruct geometries, flowlines, motion paths.
• Resolve topological plates and query their boundary sections (ridges/subductions).
• Calculate velocities.
• Distance between geometries (region-of-interest queries).
• Geometry queries (length, point-in-polygon, area, centroid, tessellate, interpolate, join, partition).

Download this release from the Download page. It supports Python 2.7. And compiles and runs on Windows 7/8/8.1, Linux and MacOS X.

The pyGPlates documentation and tutorials are available on the User Documentation page.

The pyGPlates documentation includes:

• an introduction to pyGPlates,
• an installation guide,
• a 'Getting Started' tutorial,
• documented sample code,
• foundations of pyGPlates, and
• a detailed reference of pyGPlates functions and classes.

The pyGPlates tutorials are Jupyter Notebooks that analyse and visualise real-world data using pyGPlates. These tutorials complement the sample code in the pyGPlates documentation by providing a more research-oriented focus.

2015-03-11: GPlates 1.5 + hellinger-testing released

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What's new in version 1.5 + hellinger-testing:-

• New Hellinger tool:
  • Added new workflow to determine best-fitting poles by the method of Hellinger:
  • Import and export data files compatible with the FORTRAN programs of Chang and co-workers.
  • Edit and create magnetic pick data points, via the canvas or tabularly via the Hellinger dialog.
  • Adjust segmentation of magnetic picks.
  • Enable/disable magnetic picks from inclusion in the fitting algorithms.
  • Specify pole and angle estimates via the canvas or via the Hellinger dialog.
  • Perform fitting using a Python implementation the FORTRAN programs.
  • Visualise resulting fit and uncertainty on the canvas.
  • Export fit and uncertainty data to text file.

This experimental release of GPlates contains a new Hellinger tool in addition to all functionality available in the recent GPlates 1.5 official release.

This release compiles and runs on Windows 7/8/8.1, Linux and MacOS X. Download this release from the Download page.

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

2015-02-14: GPlates 1.5 released

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What's new in version 1.5:-

• Projects:
  • Save and restore your sessions with project files.
• New kinematics tool:
  • Displays table of latitude, longitude, velocity, and velocity-related quantities for a given lat-lon point, plate ID, and range of times.
  • Displays graph of above quantities against time.
  • Exports table to text file.
  • Kinematic tool settings dialog to change details of the velocity calcliations.
  • Kinematic tool settings are saved in user preferences.
  • Auto-fills point data from focussed feature.
  • Auto-fills time ranges from animation settings.
• Import and export GeoJSON format feature collections.

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

GPlates 1.5 compiles and runs on Windows 7/8/8.1, Linux and MacOS X. Download GPlates 1.5 from the Download page.

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

2014-04-18: GPlates 1.4 released

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What's new in version 1.4:-

• Export numerical and colour reconstructed rasters:
  • Exports each visible raster layer to a separate raster file.
    • User specified latitude/longitude export region and pixel resolution.
  • Numerical export writes floating-point data:
    • Supported raster formats: NetCDF, GMT NetCDF, GeoTIFF and Erdas Imagine.
    • Standard use of not-a-number (NaN) for pixels not covered by reconstructed raster.
  • Colour export:
    • New supported colour raster formats: GeoTIFF and Erdas Imagine.
    • Uses per-layer colour palette as needed.
    • Includes surface relief lighting.
• Import raster improvements:
  • New import raster formats: ERMapper, Erdas Imagine and GeoTIFF.
  • Imports georeferencing from source raster file.
  • Supports inbuilt raster spatial reference system:
    • Includes projections (for example, Lambert Conformal Conic).
  • Improved performance when importing very large rasters and displaying in 2D map views.
• New Move Pole canvas tool:
  • Supports Modify Reconstruction Pole canvas tool:
    • by allowing user to specify location of pole used for rotation adjustments.
  • Drag pole location with mouse or enter text coordinates.
  • Optionally constrain pole location to moving/fixed stage pole of clicked feature.
    • Includes tracking stage pole over time.
• Velocity smoothing near plate boundaries.
• Mid-ocean ridges:
  • Supports spreading asymmetry.
  • More accurate half-stage rotation.
    • Needed in some rare cases.
• Volume visualisation of 3D scalar fields (continued early preview functionality):
  • To be officially released in GPlates 1.5.
  • This release (1.4) adds preview functionality (since 1.3) 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 1.4.0" and "gplates-1.4.0.exe --enable-scalar-field-import".
    • Enables menu item 'File -> Import -> Import 3D Scalar Field...'
  • Preliminary support for 'regional' (non-global) scalar fields.
  • Colour palette improvements:
    • Optionally remap scalar/gradient palette range.
    • Adjust range using mean and standard deviation of scalar field.
  • Supports transparent colours for isosurface and cross sections.

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

GPlates 1.4 compiles and runs on Windows 7/8/8.1, Linux and MacOS X. Download GPlates 1.4 from the Download page.

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

2013-10-22: GPlates News Quarterly Updates

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A newsletter regarding recent GPlates related research, information on tutorials, new GPlates compatible data and plate models, and other news from the research group is now available at GPlates News Quarterly Updates. This is the first in a series of quarterly newsletter updates so please subscribe at GPlates News Quarterly Updates to receive these regular updates.

2013-05-29: GPlates 1.3 released

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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.

Coming soon in GPlates...

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Some of the new features coming soon to GPlates are:-

• Volume visualization of 3D scalar fields:
  • Visualize scalar field as isosurfaces or 2D vertical cross-sections.
  • Import scalar field from a sequence of 2D depth layers/rasters.
• Raster surface lighting:
  • Visually transpose one raster onto another to combine details of two rasters.
  • One raster generates colour and the other acts like a heightfield to generate lighting.
• And many other features including:
  • New topological line tool to support construction of topological features using other topologies.
  • Improved PLATES-based rotation file format providing richer metadata attributes.
  • Export arbitrary (eg, 3,000 x 3,000 pixels) rasters to SVG and PNG/JPEG/etc.
  • Export to a variety of velocity formats including Terra, CitcomS and GMT.
  • Better integration of GPlates Geological Information Model (GPGIM) throughout GPlates.

Please see Conference publications for examples using GPlates volume visualization.

2012-10-24: GPlates wins NeCTAR/ANDS #nadojo competition.

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Congratulations to GPlates team on winning this year's NeCTAR/ANDS #nadojo competition. The award-winning work demonstrated a new web-enabled GPlates prototype on the NECTAR/ANDS eResearch computing infrastructure, porting some of the powerful plate reconstruction capabilities to the web. The new GPlates competed with several other candidates from universities and research institutes in Australia, and winning on the basis of the novelty and future potential. A judge was quoted as saying: "...being able to look at tectonic plates and how they move over 140Ma years ago brought me back to that child-like awe of wonder and amazement, like the first time you look up at the stars and realise how many (light?) years away they are..." Well done GPlates team!

2012-01-30: GPlates 1.2 released

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What's new in version 1.2:-

• New Small Circle tool:
  • Create small circles directly on the globe or map using the mouse.
  • Create small circles by specifying the centre and radii, and generating the centre from a stage pole if desired.
  • Create small circle features which can be: exported to gpml, imported from gpml, and visualised as a layer.
  • Query and edit small cirles through the Click Feature canvas tool.
• The Total Reconstruction Sequence dialog has been extended to allow:
  • Creation, editing and deletion of Total Reconstuction Sequences (TRSs).
  • Saving TRSs to existing rotation files, or to a new rotation file.
• Rasters can now be visualized in the map views:
  • Supports all raster variations (reconstructed, time-dependent, age-grid and combinations of these).
• Raster opacity (and intensity) can be adjusted per layer to control semi-transparency.
• Python colouring (see user manual for details):
  • Power users can create/register their own Python colouring scripts.
  • Can use preliminary Python Application Programming Interface (API) to query feature properties.
• Option to dateline wrap Shapefiles when saving and exporting.
• New Log dialog displays low-level debug, warning and error messages.
• New Preferences dialog provides an interface to view and modify settings and parameters used in GPlates.
• Improved interactivity for very high resolution rasters (eg, approx. 1 minute resolution).
  • New GPlates raster streaming tiled file format (files ending with ".gplates.cache").
• Clone Geometry tool can clone topological plate polygons.
• The Calculate Rotation Pole tool has its field automatically filled from an already-selected pmag VGP.
• Fixed slow saving to Shapefiles.
• Fixed rotation taking the longer path around a pole on rare occasions.
• Fixed holes appearing in large filled polygons.
• Fixed extremely long running time for Assign Plate ID assignment.
• Fixed exponential loading times when restoring many files during a session restore.
• ... Plus a number of other improvements and bug fixes.

GPlates 1.2 compiles and runs on Windows 7/Vista/XP, Linux and MacOS X. Download GPlates 1.2 from the Download page.

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

2011-07-04: GPlates 1.1.1 released

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Many bugs were fixed in version 1.1.1:-

• Added back missing age-grid smoothing of raster reconstruction.
• Fixed a number of issues with session save/restore of pre-1.1 sessions.
• Fixed a number of focused feature highlights issues including:
  • Losing highlight when reconstruction time changes.
  • Other geometries associated with focused feature not getting highlighted.
• Fixed a number of problems building/editing topologies:
  • Topological sections not getting inserted.
  • Incorrect auto-segment reversal.
  • Inability to add same topological section more than once to topological boundary.
  • Inability to add point geometries to boundary of topological network.
• Fixed a few update issues including:
  • Globe not updating after changing the anchor Plate ID.
  • Resolved topological boundaries not updated after editing a boundary feature's geometry.
• Filled polygons related fixes include:
  • 'Fill polygons' option toggling wrong layer.
  • Filled polygons rendered as square tiles for high zoom levels.
  • Small improvement in rendering speed.
• A few export related issues including:
  • Not exporting full motion path.
  • Option to export resolved topologies to OGRGMT format removed (not supported).
  • OGRGMT format now supports option to export to a single file.
  • Resolved topologies not exporting when only "Export each Plate Polygon to a separate file" checkbox is ticked.
  • Missing export of topological network boundaries.
  • Inappropriate default directory for exported files.
  • Exporting a single snapshot now does not modify current animation range.
• A couple of feature creation bugs fixed:
  • Fixed incorrectly creating a conjugate isochron feature when creating a mid-ocean ridge feature is created.
  • Fixed incorrectly adding a 'reconstruction' plate ID and conjugate plate ID to a new mid-ocean ridge feature.

GPlates 1.1.1 compiles and runs on Windows 7/Vista/XP, Linux and MacOS X. Download GPlates 1.1.1 from the Download page.

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

2011-05-21: GPlates 1.1 released

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What's new in version 1.1:-

• The Recent Session menu can now restore the layer connections you were using.
• Can display filled polygons for dynamic and static polygons (per-layer).
• Added new OGRGMT file format ('.gmt') compatible with OGR library and ogr2ogr tool.
• Improvements to topology build/edit tools including:
  • Ability to add sections to interior and boundary of topological networks.
  • Options to visualise triangulations associated with each network.
• Velocity layers now calculate velocities inside static polygons (in addition to topological plate polygons).
• Velocity layers can now calculate velocities at the vertices of polyline/polygon geometries.
• Can now load and display higher resolution rasters, including up to 0.3 minute resolution global rasters for the JPEG format.
• GPlates fitted with a novel cube 'loose' quad tree spatial partition, supporting region-of-interest queries, fast insertion of reconstructed geometries, hierarchical visibility culling.
• Improved layers user interface including:
  • A button (in top-right of Layers dialog) to open the Colouring dialog.
  • Layers grouped by layer type.
  • A 'tick' icon for 'Reconstruction Tree' layers to toggle default layer.
  • Can prevent the default 'Reconstruction Tree' layer from changing when opening a new rotation file.
• Improved file load/unload performance when many compute-heavy files already loaded - for example, dense velocity mesh cap files.
• Improved export dialog general user interface.
• New export options to control granularity of exports.
• New OGRGMT exports for reconstructed geometries, flowlines and motion paths.
• Export resolved topologies to Shapefile format.
• Improved rendering performance for flowlines.
• ... Plus a lot of other behind-the-scenes work to prepare for exciting future functionality.

GPlates 1.1 compiles and runs on Windows 7/Vista/XP, Linux and MacOS X. Download GPlates 1.1 from the Download page.

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

2010-12-20: GPlates 1.0.0 released

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What's new in version 1.0:-

• The ability to create and visualise flowlines and motion paths of points across plates.
• A new Small Circle tool, to help visualise stage rotations.
• When closing, GPlates will remember the files that you had loaded. The new Recent Session menu allows you to re-open files from a previous session.
• The viewport can now be annotated with text including the current reconstruction time.
• The background colour of the globe and graticule resolution can be configured.
• Layers can now be toggled on and off in the Layers dialog.
• The default Rotation layer can also be controlled directly from the Layers dialog.
• A preview of a new Total Reconstruction Sequences dialog to enable more powerful control over the rotations.
• ...as well as a host of other improvements throughout the application.

GPlates 1.0 compiles and runs on Windows Vista, Windows XP, Linux and MacOS X. Download GPlates 1.0 from the Download page.

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

2010-08-31: GPlates 0.9.10 released

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This release is a preview of raster reconstructions and layers. We have implemented raster reconstructions to take advantage of the majority of graphics systems so please let us know if you are having difficulty on your system.

If you want to reconstruct a raster, and try out the new layers system, the sample data in this release contains the following files to demonstrate this:

• present-day plate polygons (in SampleData/FeatureCollections/StaticPolygons/) - Global_Earthbyte_GPlates_PresentDay_PlatePolygons_20100826.gpml,
• a rotation file (in SampleData/FeatureCollections/Rotations/) - Global_Earthbyte_GPlates_Rotation_20091015.rot,
• a global marine gravity raster (in SampleData/Rasters/) - DNSC08GRA_6m.gpml,
• an ocean-floor age grid (in SampleData/Rasters/) - agegrid_6m.gpml.

To reconstruct the above gravity raster load all the above files into GPlates using "Open Feature Collection" from the "File" menu. And then connect the present-day plate polygons to the "Polygon features" input channel of the gravity raster. The gravity raster should now reconstruct.

For a high-detail reconstruction you can also connect the age grid raster to the "Age grid feature" input channel of the gravity raster.

With the release of GPlates 0.9.10, we have prepared a video presentation introducing all the new features which are now available:-

• A completely new Raster Import workflow
• Cookie-cutting of rasters with polygons
• The new Layers dialog
• Age grid support
• NetCDF grid support
• Half-stage rotation reconstruction method
• Snap nearby vertices tool

GPlates 0.9.10 compiles and runs on Windows Vista, Windows XP, Linux and MacOS X. Qt 4.4.0 (or above) and CMake 2.6 are required. Download GPlates 0.9.10 from the Download page.