How to Find the Right Section on Global Mapper Forum to Ask a Question
Global Mapper Forum (globalmapperforum.com) is the official user forum for Global Mapper, the GIS software produced by Blue Marble Geographics, and it organizes posts into topic-specific boards rather than one general queue. To get a useful answer, match your question to the board that fits its type: technical failures go to Technical Support, suspected software defects to Bug Report, feature requests to Suggestion Box, and development questions to SDK. Data-specific questions belong in the board named for that data type, such as Elevation Data, Vector Data, or Downloading Imagery. Before posting, search the board history — many threads are already marked Answered, which is the fastest route to a solution.
Board-by-board routing
The forum's discussion list shows the boards and the kind of thread each one carries. Use this table to pick a destination.
| Your question is about | Post in | Evidence from the forum |
|---|---|---|
| Software not working as expected, setup problems | Technical Support | "Max Likelihood Classification of UAV LiDAR" appears under Technical Support |
| Something that looks like a software defect | Bug Report | "Coordinate transformation bug" is filed under Bug Report |
| A feature you want added or changed | Suggestion Box | "Option to open Surpac .str and .dtm files" and "How to popup the setting dialog box when importing a .s file" sit in Suggestion Box |
| Scripting, API, or programmatic integration | SDK | "Exporting a geotif raster with overviews/pyramids" and "Display full length of path profile on Illustrator" are SDK threads |
| Elevation, terrain, and grid data | Elevation Data | "How do I thin X,Y,Z data?" and "Curves on a line" are Elevation Data threads |
| Vector layers, attributes, and geometry | Vector Data | "Set the required area style" is a Vector Data question |
| Basemaps and imagery access | Downloading Imagery | "I have suddenly been locked out of World Imagery" is in Downloading Imagery |
| General usage, workflows, and "how I use it" | How I use Global Mapper | "New pricing model thoughts (or how I USED to use Global Mapper)" is filed here |
| Anything that doesn't fit above | Other Discussion | "How do I place a picture of a table onto my map?" is in Other Discussion |
Two boards are worth checking first even when you plan to post elsewhere: Announcement and News carries release notices such as "Global Mapper v28.0 Beta is now open!", and Features Discussion covers capability questions that aren't strictly support tickets.
Search before you post
The discussion list shows a comment count and a status label for every thread, and "Answered" threads are common across boards — for example, "How do I thin X,Y,Z data?", "Curves on a line", and "Exporting a geotif raster with overviews/pyramids" are all marked Answered. Search the board that matches your topic, then search the whole forum, because a question about elevation data may have been answered in a Technical Support thread.
If you find a thread that is close but not identical, reply to it rather than starting a new one. The forum shows a "Most recent by" name on each thread, so you can see whether a topic is still active.
What to include in your post
Threads in the list that drew multiple replies tend to be the ones with concrete detail. "Option to open Surpac .str and .dtm files" has 13 comments and is marked Answered; "Curves on a line" has 8 comments and is also Answered. By contrast, threads with no replies, such as "How to popup the setting dialog box when importing a .s file" and "Set the required area style", had 0 comments at the time shown.
A post that gives responders something to work with should state:
- Global Mapper version — the forum distinguishes current releases from beta builds, so name the version you are running.
- Data format and source — for example, a Surpac
.str/.dtmfile, a GeoTIFF, or a specific imagery service, since format determines which tools apply. - Exact steps you took — the menu path or dialog you used, and what you expected versus what happened.
- Error text or a screenshot — if a dialog is greyed out or a script only partially loads, that detail is the question.
Choosing between a board and a direct answer
If your question is "how do I do X", a board like Elevation Data, Vector Data, or How I use Global Mapper will usually produce a workflow answer. If your question is "this is broken", Technical Support or Bug Report is the correct destination, and Bug Report threads such as "Coordinate transformation bug" show that defects are tracked there. If you are asking for something the software does not do yet, Suggestion Box is where those requests live, and the Surpac thread shows that a well-argued request can accumulate a long reply chain.
One practical note: the forum is a community of roughly 40,000 GIS professionals, and staff accounts such as BMG_Amanda appear as "Most recent by" on several threads, so official input does reach the boards. Posting in the right board does not guarantee a staff reply, but it puts your question in front of the people most likely to have hit the same problem.