MAP NAVIGATOR
Map Navigator is a geographic data viewer and editor equipped with tools for measurement, exploration, and routing. The software is written in Java and requires JRE 1.8 or later to be installed on the computer.
The goal of Map Navigator is to bridge the functionality between Google Earth and established GIS applications such as ArcGIS, QGIS, and OpenJUMP. It is designed to serve both as a didactic application and as a professional-grade tool.
Map Navigator requires an installed Java Runtime Environment (JRE) version 1.8 or later and an internet connection.
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MAP NAVIGATOR LICENSE
Map Navigator is distributed under the GNU General Public License version 2 (GPL-2.0) or later.
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html
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LIBRARIES AND SERVICES LICENSES
• JMapViewer
Core map visualization component used by Map Navigator.
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/JMapViewer
Licensed under the GNU General Public License v2 (GPL-2.0) or later.
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html
• Small Icons
Toolbar icons from:
https://www.small-icons.com/packs/24x24-free-application-icons.htm
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
• OpenStreetMap Carto Symbols
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OpenStreetMap_Carto/Symbols
Licensed under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 (Public Domain).
https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
• Geoarbores Outdoor and Geological Symbols
https://github.com/ma15569/geosymbols
Licensed under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 (Public Domain).
https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
• Mapzen / Tilezen Terrain
Terrain tiles and elevation data processing originally developed by Mapzen.
Elevation data derived from multiple open datasets including SRTM, USGS NED, GMTED and ETOPO1.
Attribution information:
https://github.com/tilezen/joerd/blob/master/docs/attribution.md
• OpenTopoData
Elevation API server software.
https://www.opentopodata.org/
Licensed under the MIT License.
https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT
• Nominatim
Geocoding service powered by OpenStreetMap.
https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, licensed under the Open Database License (ODbL).
https://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/
• OSRM (Open Source Routing Machine)
Routing engine based on OpenStreetMap data.
https://routing.openstreetmap.de/
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, licensed under the Open Database License (ODbL).
https://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/
• Wikipedia GeoSearch API
A feature of the Wikimedia MediaWiki API that allows searching for Wikipedia articles near a geographic coordinate.
Wikipedia content is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0).
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Kosmo Saig FormUtil.class used for layout in Map Navigator.
Licensed under GNU General Public License v2 (GPL-2.0) or later
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CHANGE LOG
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2026-08-16
* Added a caching system to all AbstractLayers to ensure both performance
(fast lookups) and correctness (data consistency) while handling batch
operations efficiently
* Rewrite tree move operation to remove some bugs on Layer/Object sync
* Rewrite Style panel to minimize commands and labels
* Rewrite and enhanced object and layer structure
* Added tool to explore the attributes of objects as table
* added valid query builder on attributes with several option:
a) View result
b) save result as a new LayerNode
c) move result to a new CategoryNode under the same LayerNode
d) view the attribute table of result
2026-07-21
* New organization with ID: each AbstractLayer.class (each node at the
tree panel, included objects) has a unique ID
* Add possibility to select multiple objects on JTree with multiple menu
* Remove borders of the components of the UI for a modern look
* Syncronized line and area color with default vector point symbols
* Rewrite point symbol as a button with a more intuitive popup window
* Improved Save view to image adding the possibility to save a view
defined by a fence at different scales/zoom
* Added FreeMap.sk and OpenHikingMap to tile sources (https://openmaps.fr/)
* Added experimental WMS from www.pcn.minambiente.it (IGM and De Agostini)
* Improved Routing tool substituting provider to Openstratmap.de
adding also bike and foot routing options together with car option
* Improved ArrowMenu/IconMenu classes with correct general listners.
All arrowMenus or iconMenus instances cooperate through a static
reference to the currently open menu in order to have only one
arrowMenu or iconMenu opened at time
* Improved speed of Geocoding service (OSMNominatim.class)
* Expanded mouse shortcut to delete vertex to multiple vertices using
Alt + drag to define the vertices to delete in a selected geometry
* Added Shortcut info page in Chinese and Russian
* Added button at startup to close the app (in case of loop at start)
* Add on info panel a Java panel with all info include a button to optimize
heap memory
2026-05-30
* Extended coordinate status bar with elavation (from Terrarium tiles)
* Aesthetic buttons for tool bar (dark gray/red arrows) which are visible
in any look and Feel
* Added cicle, square, 45° rotaded square and flag to default symbols.
* Convert Search Wikipedia plugin to a cursor tool with radius of search
defined by the user
* Enhanced Save view to image for a professional usage. User can choose
the zoom level and the DPI to define the level of detail and the print
quality
2026-05-12
* Optimized cache of Mapzen Terrain. The ram is reduced to half
* Optimized detecting elevation of coordinates from Mapzen tiles
the time is now few fractions of second.
* Extended "Extract OSM features" to water paths and coast lines
* Topographic section tool saves the plot also as DXF
* Remove flashing JTree when extracting features from OSM
2026-05-05
* Extended Mapzen terrain service to all the tools that require elevation:
draw section, draw point with elevation
* Added faster 3-level cache for Mapzen images: Memory (L1), Disk (L2), Web
(L3)
* Added Mapzen elevation maps as tile with an enhanced topographic LUT
2026-05-01
* JMapViewer core: enhanced Tile.class which is 3-10x faster comparing
the original:
* Embedded into the software the icons for point symbology
* Added 3D viewer which uses Mapzen Terrain Services to build
a 3D plot of a view
* Added experimental "Extract DEM from current view" which allows
to export the altitude data of the current view as a GeoTIFF
DEM using Mapzen Terrain Service
* Added Import trails from OSM which uses Overpass turbo, a web
based data mining tool for OpenStreetMap
* Added Build Legend to build customized legends, legends are
exported as panels into info dialog
* Changes area measurement from Shoelace to Geodedic one (algorithm
from Some Algorithms for Polygons on a Sphere" (Robert. G.
Chamberlain and William H. Duquette, NASA JPL Publication 07-03)
2026-03-11
* Upgraded to OpenJDK 25 saved backward compatibility to JRE 1.8
* Improved GUI:
- Optimized plot windows to reduce the size and opened in the
lower position of the screen
- Plot tool save also .gpx track and map, together with the
plot, attributes and table of coordinates
- Reduced width of Editing menu
- Changed icons of Measure, Editing, Map item and Wikipedia
tools
- Generalized JSpinner to a unique class for all the tools
* Improved Services:
- Removed some redundant Tile sources
- OSM Nominatin (Zoom to location tool) uses edited user email
saved into properties file
- Retrieve altitude from faster Mapzen Terrain service by default.
Use Open Topo Data service only if retrieve see floor altitude
fails. Mapzen Terrain uses a disk cache for the raster tiles
that speeds up the elevation decoding
* Improved Tool:
- Add submenu on objects tree menu to access its measurement
(length, area, coordinates) as variables on Calculator.
* Add experimental translation by ChatGBT and controlled
by DeepSeek:
- Arabic
- Symplified Chinese
- Russian
* Point symbology:
- Added GeoArbores icons for outdoor activities
* Some bugs solved on editing mode
* Substituted Tango icons with Small-Icons
https://www.small-icons.com/packs/24x24-free-application-icons.htm
2026-03-02
* Removed bug to export files other than KMZ
* Added localization on line when the cursor moves on the profile
2025-11-05
* Optimized map scale bar
* Added small scale bar to lower info bar
* Improved zoom by mouse dragging
2025-11-04
* Add an option to measurement in Imperial system
* Centralized measurements into UnitAndMeasure.class
* Completed license section
* Speed up tile renderer using VolatileImage instead of
BufferedImage and a cache of loaded tiles
2025-10-31
* Image importer:
a) improved reading LZW and ZIP compressed TIF file
b) improved GEOTIFF pixel scale and tie point reading
c) if the image is without georeferencing, option
to load it into the view
* Vector importer: Added Shapefile reader
* Data exporter: export elements takes into account the type:
a) if they all are vectors -> export to KMZ, GPX, DXF, CSV
vector formats
b) if there is only one image element -> export to TIFF,
KMZ, PNG, JPG and GIF raster formats
c) if there are both vector and image ->export to an unique mix
raster and vector KMZ format
* Editing:
a) Added draw vector tool
b) prioritized vector display over raster
c) Centralized addMapObjects to JMapViewerTree main class
2025-10-18
* Improved zoom to punctual geometries
* Added popup on Wikipedia table result to open web page and to zoom.
* Rearranged help/info dialog to add licenses and list of functions
* Centralized zoom commands, added zoom previous/next tools on toolbar
2025-10-15
* Fix some bugs on Language management
* Added support to georeference raster image (not activated)
* Added Geportale Nazionale IGM and De Agostini tile maps
2025-09-06
* First public realize on Source Forge
2025-09-06
* Make editing and modifing tools undoable
2025-08-15
* Added support to store Map<Strig,String> of attributes to MapObject
in order to make a create an adapter between KML Attribute Data and
GIS attributes
* Added export to DXF
* Added support to export Attribute table as CSV file for DXF, GPX and WKT
writers
* Enhanced drag on JTree
* Enhenced JTree display
2025-08-11
* Added support to read image files with worldfile or KML raster files
2025-07-28
* Added support to read image files with worldfile or KML raster files
* Added Extract centroid and Extract segments for MapPolygonImpl
* Added Polygonize and Extract intersection for MapPolyLineImpl
2025-06-23
* Added support to Undo/Redo
* Added modify geometries plugins on object jtree menu
2025-06-18
* Complete Draw tools with Draw Adiacent polygon, Draw hole/island
* Added support for MapPolygonImpl with holes
2025-06-02
* Added support to modify geometries
* Added support to MultyGeometry (not activated)
* Refractor Image libraries as separate project
2024-11-30
* Add support to open web pages (Wikipedia) for Linux and Mac OSX
2024-05-09
* Correct bug on zoom to a single point
* Added Icon to Layer on jTree
* Added topology validator framework with some significant rules
2024-04-18
* Added a save and load MapNavigator project XML file (*.mnx)
2024-04-15
* Rewrite jTree structure
* Correct bug on delete layer
* Added measure Azimuth on drawing tools
2024-03-25
* Initial realize
