A Beginners Guide to PostGIS and Global Mapper

PostGIS is a powerful spatial database for PostgreSQL Server. With this plugin, we can store our spatial data set in PostgreSQL database. In the other hand, Global Mapper is a well-known GIS software that can handle almost any GIS file types including PostGIS. I have written a short tutorial how to open PostGIS table in Global Mapper. And now, I want to create another article that will explain more detail about PostGIS and Global Mapper.

What you will learn?

Shortly you will learn the following:

• Create a new PostGIS Connection
• Manage Spatial Database Connection within Global Mapper
• Export and Import PostGIS layers to Global Mapper

A. Create a New PostGIS Connection

I assume you have a working PostGIS database in your computer or network. You may have a look at my other tutorial how to install PostGIS on Ubuntu Linux.

To create a new PostGIS Connection, do the following:

1. Open Global Mapper
2. Go to Tools >> Connection Manager
3. Click New
4. Select PostGIS from the Spatial Database Type
5. Give a new name for this connection
6. Enter the PostGIS server details such as server host, port, username, password and database.
7. Click Test Connection and make sure it works
8. Hit OK

B. Manage Spatial Database Connection

Global Mapper supports multiple spatial database connection. Not only PostGIS, you can connect to MySQL database, SQL Server, ArcSDE database and Oracle spatial database. Everytime you need to edit the connections, you can go back to the Spatial database connection manager anytime and manage the connection from there.

C. Export and Import PostGIS tables to Global Mapper

Import PostGIS Table to Global Mapper

To open or import PostGIS tables to Global Mapper, do the following:

1. Go to File >> Open Spatial Database
2. Select the PostGIS connection or create a new connection if you don’t have it yet.
3. Click Open
4. Select the tables you want to import. You can import multiple tables at once.
5. Click OK

Export layer to PostGIS from Global Mapper

To export layer or table from Global Mapper to PostGIS, do the following:

1. Open or load the layer to Global Mapper
2. Go to File >> Export >> Export vector spatial database
3. Choose Select Spatial Database Connection (ArcSDE, PostGIS…) from the list.
4. Click OK
5. Select the PostGIS connection and hit Open
6. Configure the Spatial Database Export Options. Depends on your layer type, you can export areas, lines and points.

Additionally, you may need to specify the export bound for the layers.

Click OK to start export.