Golden Software Blog

What is a Skybox? Imagine projecting an artificial environment all around you, so you can look in any direction and see a seamless image – similar to the actual world around you, but maybe a more exciting vision than your office. You could be suspended in space, or in a lush forest, or on the top floor of a Tokyo city skyscraper. This is essentiall...

I'm pleased to introduce our first ever guest blogger, Scott Carter, Owner and Creative Director of Creative Map Solutions. Creative Map Solutions is a Geographic Information System (GIS) solution and Mapping Support company based out of Firestone, CO. Creative Map Solutions has over 20 years of experience in providing GIS and Mapping Solutions to companies. They leverage their experience to handle everything from large one-time projects to ongoing GIS and mapping support.

A true artist at heart, Scott has become an expert on a number of industry leading software applications utilized for GIS, mapping, drafting, 3D modeling, and data conversion. His custom map work has been published in many different media formats including magazines, books, television programs, and a major motion picture.

While less than 1 mile (1.42 km) in length, the Manitou Springs Incline is not for the faint of heart. Originally built for cable cars used to carry materials during the construction of Pikes Peak pipelines, the Incline was a tourist attraction until 1990. Thereafter, the cable cars were disassembled, and soon the Incline grew in popularity as a hiking trail and fitness challenge.

The bottom of the Manitou Springs Incline. Approximately 2,744 railroad ties <br />make up the steps to get from this location to the summit.

The Incline’s average grade is 41% (68% at its steepest) over a 2,000 foot (610 meter) elevation gain. The trail consists of uneven stairs made with roughly 2,744 railroad ties. The Incline is a mecca for exercise enthusiasts and anyone desiring a challenge.

A classified raster layer in ArcMap generated from Raster Tools overlaid with a roads shapefile.

Golden Software’s new Raster Tools add-in for ArcMap leverages Surfer’s 12 different gridding methods directly in the ArcMap ecosystem to create accurate and precise raster datasets from your point data with only a few clicks. Raster Tools is a wizard-based add-in that walks you through all of the necessary interpolation parameters that have been elegantly laid out on 3 pages, so you have quick access to select an interpolation method, customize neighborhood search parameters, choose output raster extents and resolution, and more.

Golden Software customers possess a broad assortment of backgrounds, from earth science and engineering to education and politics. This vast background results in a variety of uses for Golden Software’s products. Each customer uses our software in their own unique way, and we are pleased to share these stories. This blog features Willem Havermans, a senior engineering consultant for MWH Global, who uses a combination of Voxler and Surfer's mapping software to visualize groundwater contamination levels and generate conceptual remediation models for their areas of interest.

Willem Havermans has been a faithful user of Golden Software applications dating back to early 2000. He has purchased multiple versions of Surfer's mapping software. He also uses Voxler's 3D data visualization capabilities on a daily basis and has held a Strater license for the past few versions. Havermans, working with MWH Global, uses a combination of Voxler and Surfer to perform 3D data processing of surface and subsurface soil contamination and surface creation. He uses Goolden Software's mapping software to create a strong basis for generating conceptual models of groundwater contamination and in planning of remedial designs.