NMPlot

A lightweight GIS application for viewing and editing georeferenced data

Latest Version

Version 4.96

What's New?

Availability

NMPlot is available as acknowledgement-ware: it may be freely downloaded, used, and distributed, provided that Wasmer Consulting is acknowledged as the author.

Requirements

Microsoft Windows XP or Vista
20 MB disk space

Download

Download NMPlot (4.58 MB)

See Getting Started in the User's Guide for help on installing, upgrading, and uninstalling NMPlot.

User's Guide

Download as PDF File (2.49 MB)
Download as Plain Text (278 KB)

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More Information

Screen Captures
Sample Movies
Source Code
MS-DOS Version
INM Patch
Adding Noisemap and INM Noise Grids

What is NMPlot?

NMPlot is a Microsoft Windows application for viewing and editing sets of georeferenced data points. These data sets, also know as grids, represent measurable quantities that vary with geographic location. Examples include predicted noise levels around an airport, monthly records of rainfall across a state, and water temperature measurements in a lake.

NMPlot can produce contour and color gradient plots, apply mathematical transformations to grids, combine two grids, and interface with GIS systems.

NMPlot reads and writes NMGF files. NMGF is a standard file format used to store grids. Information about the NMGF format is available on the NMGF home page.

The development of NMPlot was sponsored by the United States Air Force (USAF) and the United States Federal Aviation Administration (US FAA) to produce contour plots for their airport noise models. More recently, it has been incorporated into other third-party applications. NMPlot is currently shipped as the standard graphical analysis tool of:

• BNoise2, the United States Army's application for modeling noise from artillery and explosive operations

• INM, the US FAA's application for modeling noise around civilian airports

• Noisemap, the USAF's application for modeling noise around military airports

• ROUTEMAP, the USAF's aircraft training route noise model

• SANCTE, the Swiss environmental agency's Swiss Aircraft Noise Calculation Test Environment

• SARNAM, the United States Army's application for modeling noise from small arms firing ranges

• SIPS, the United States Navy's model of noise from explosive operations

• TNM, the United States Federal Highway Administration's traffic noise model

While NMPlot was originally designed to support noise models, it is neutral to any particular application domain. It can just as easily process data from other types of models (for example, air pollution models) or from sources other than computer models (for example, measured data).

What Can NMPlot Do?

NMPlot has the ability to:

• Read and write georeferenced data point grids

• Apply a mathematical function to the points in a grid

• Merge two grids

• Compute the sum or difference of two grids

• Display a contour plot of a grid

• Create a plot that displays a grid using a smoothly varying color gradient

• Overlay a plot over a background map

• Overlay one plot on top of another

• Draw a plot using a printer or plotter

• Export a plot to the clipboard and to a bitmap image file

• Create an animated plot from a series of grids

• Import background maps in the following formats:

  • ARC/INFO Shapefile (SHP)

  • Digital Line Graph (DLG)

  • AutoCAD Data Exchange Format (DXF)

  • Georeferenced Bitmap (BMP, TIF, JPG, PNG)

  • Compressed ARC Digitized Raster Graphics (CADRG)

• Export a plot to a Geographic Information System (GIS) in the following formats:

  • ARC/INFO Shapefile (SHP)

  • AutoCAD Data Exchange Format (DXF)

Using NMPlot With Your Data: A Quick-Start Guide

To use NMPlot with your data, it will be necessary to translate the data into the NMGF format, which NMPlot can read. Information on how to do so, including a quick-start guide, is available on the NMGF home page.

To display your data with a minimum amount of effort, follow these steps.

1. Create a NMGF file containing your data as described on the NMGF Quick-Start web page.

2. Start NMPlot, select Open from the File menu, and read the NMGF file.

3. Select Create Plot of This Grid from the Grid menu to create a contour plot of the data.