GroundGIS — Preview: GroundGIS is an ambitious Windows desktop Geographic Information System for raster, vector, point-cloud, mesh, mapping, remote-sensing, and geospatial automation workflows. This is a Work in Progress / Preview release. GroundGIS already provides a large professional toolkit, but some workflows, user-interface details, project formats, plugin behavior, and advanced processing features are still evolving. Please test it with copies of important data and report issues with the operation, input format, and error output. GroundGIS is designed as a serious Windows-first alternative for users who want a modern Office-style GIS workspace with a broad local runtime stack. It combines interactive map viewing and editing with a searchable processing environment, graphical conversion workflows, command previews, reproducible jobs, and direct access to bundled open geospatial tools. Core GIS workspace: GroundGIS supports simultaneous raster, vector, point-cloud, web-map, and basemap layers in one project. It includes project and layer management, named layer groups, visibility ranges, opacity, styles, labels, selections, attribute management, and project persistence. Editable GeoJSON layers support undo/redo, copy/paste, move, rotate, simplify, combine, split, vertex insertion and deletion, polygon-ring protection, and draggable vertex handles. GroundGIS also includes point, line, polygon, rectangle, freehand, and radius selection; per-layer and per-feature symbols; categorized and graduated rendering; expression-based selection; editable forms and tables; field calculations; attachments; and GeoJSON export. Large rasters are displayed through GDAL with overview-aware and tiled BigTIFF rendering. GroundGIS also provides map export, printing, measurements, elevation profiles, and QGIS-inspired QGS/QGZ project interchange where possible. Conversion Studio: GroundGIS includes a central Conversion Studio instead of separate converter applications. It integrates the workflows of GeoData Converter and BigTIFF Viewer directly into GroundGIS. The Conversion Studio offers searchable access to discovered GDAL utilities, unified GDAL algorithms, OGR tools, PDAL kernels and stages, GMT modules, and Osmium commands. It provides dedicated input, overlay/second-input, output, format, CRS, UTM-zone, resampling, compression, and advanced settings controls. Known values are presented as dropdowns where possible, while SQL, bounding boxes, field names, NoData values, expressions, and custom parameters remain editable text fields. The right-hand side provides runtime help, option/value rows, command preview, logs, and reproducible execution details. Raster and vector workflows are deliberately separated. Vector geometry tools reject TIFF inputs and guide users toward raster polygonization before running operations such as geometry attributes. Mapping and cartography: GroundGIS supports XYZ, TMS, QuadKey, WMTS, WMS, ArcGIS-style templates, custom tile URLs, and supported web-map providers. Multiple basemaps and georeferenced local layers can be stacked in one map view. Tile mosaics and BigTIFF workflows are designed for bounded memory use and direct-to-file output. GroundGIS also includes a graphical GMT Layout Designer with draggable map frames, titles, text, legends, scale bars, north arrows, color bars, images, and logos. Cartographic templates include blank maps, standard maps, topographic maps, web/social maps, and atlas pages. Classic, minimal, topographic, and dark presentation styles can be selected. Layouts can be saved, exported as reproducible GMT jobs, rendered through GMT, or generated as atlas series from coverage features. Raster and remote sensing: GroundGIS provides broad raster and remote-sensing functionality through GDAL, OTB, WhiteboxTools, GMT, and related native workflows. Available tools include format conversion, reprojection, Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF creation, mosaics, VRTs, overviews, metadata editing, NoData handling, raster calculation, contouring, rasterization, polygonization, tiling, and color relief. Terrain and analysis tools include hillshade, slope, aspect, roughness, TRI, TPI, viewshed, proximity, fill-NoData, focal statistics, reclassification, zonal statistics, raster footprints, raster comparison, and multidimensional raster inspection and conversion for formats such as NetCDF, HDF5, and Zarr. GroundGIS also provides atmospheric-correction and remote-sensing workflows where supported by the bundled runtime, as well as affine placement, manual georeferencing support, and automated georeferencing workflows. Vector, database, and topology workflows: GroundGIS provides broad OGR/GDAL vector workflows and native GroundGIS operations. Available functionality includes conversion, reprojection, SQL, filtering, field selection, joins, spatial filters, buffering, clipping, dissolve, simplify, overlay, merging, partitioning, indexing, and geometry conversion. Geometry tools include validation, make-valid, polygon-coverage checking and cleaning, convex and concave hulls, boundaries, centroids, point-on-surface, densification, multipart handling, coordinate swapping, antimeridian processing, and geometry expressions. Additional workflows include attribute joins, geometry attributes, basic statistics, random extracts, raster sampling, duplicate detection, polygon-sliver detection, dangling-line detection, grid generation, batch geocoding, trajectories, stops, spatial statistics, point conflation, shortest paths, reachable network areas, STAC, OGC API, SensorThings, WaterML, and OpenStreetMap/Overpass processing. Point clouds, 3D, meshes, and LiDAR: GroundGIS includes a substantial local point-cloud and 3D toolchain. It supports LAS, LAZ, COPC, E57, PLY, PCD, BPF, Arrow, Draco, SPZ, TileDB, and related point-cloud workflows through PDAL. Tools include conversion, reprojection, merging, splitting, tiling, indexing, cropping, classification/range filtering, decimation, voxel downsampling, outlier processing, ground classification, height-above-ground, colorization, clustering, normals, covariance features, registration, transformations, and surface reconstruction. GroundGIS can generate DTM/DSM rasters, create COPC output, publish EPT add-ons, build Potree out-of-core hierarchies, and export glTF scenes. It also includes forest metrics, canopy analysis, density, vertical profiles, rumple index, and CSV output. Hydrodynamic and multidimensional mesh workflows are available through MDAL and GroundGIS Mesh Studio. Engineering mesh workflows are available through Gmsh, including optional OpenCASCADE-based CAD support. Automation and scripting: GroundGIS includes a local automation and processing environment with a native Processing Registry, reusable jobs, command previews, logs, and reproducible execution. The package includes Python 3.12 with PyQt, GeoPandas, Shapely, Rasterio, PyProj, xarray, rasterstats, NetworkX, PySAL, MovingPandas, pymap3d, and related geospatial packages. It also includes R and Java runtimes, plus a native host for GroundGIS-owned C/C++ integrations. Built-in consoles and runtime-oriented tools provide access to GDAL, PDAL, Python, Rasterio, R, Java, GMT, and other bundled components. GroundGIS also includes a safe Spatial Analysis Copilot that produces reviewable processing plans and requires confirmation before execution. Included runtimes: GroundGIS intentionally uses a maximal local runtime approach. It contains a large collection of open geospatial components so major workflows can work offline without separate installation steps. Included components include: - GDAL/OGR 3.13.3 - PDAL 2.10.2 - GMT 6.7.0 - GRASS-enabled GDAL capabilities - OTB-related remote-sensing support - MDAL 1.3.3 - WhiteboxTools - Osmium Tool and libosmium - CGAL helper components - PCL and CloudCore integrations - PotreeConverter - Tippecanoe, Tegola, Gmsh, FFmpeg, CesiumJS, and Supercluster - Python 3.12, PyQt, Rasterio, and the included Python geospatial stack - R and Java runtimes - GroundGIS Native Host and independent plugin infrastructure The application is therefore a large download. This is intentional: GroundGIS prioritizes a complete local toolset over a minimal installation. Experimental QGIS plugin compatibility: GroundGIS includes Experimental QGIS Plugin Compatibility. This feature provides an independent Python/PyQt plugin host and GroundGIS-owned compatibility modules for selected qgis.core, qgis.gui, layer, map-canvas, selection, and interface patterns. It also includes an experimental native-plugin ABI analysis and proxy-bridge path for selected native import scenarios. Important limitations: - GroundGIS does not include or redistribute the QGIS desktop runtime, QGIS executables, QGIS DLLs, QGIS Python bindings, or QGIS source code. - Compatibility is experimental and incomplete by design. - Some Python plugins may work fully, partially, or not at all. - Plugins that depend on undocumented QGIS internals, native QGIS ABI behavior, external services, unsupported Qt components, or specific QGIS Processing providers may fail. - Plugin authors and users should treat this as a preview compatibility layer, not a guarantee of complete QGIS plugin support. GroundGIS is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or a replacement for the QGIS project. Privacy, data, and licensing: GroundGIS can work entirely with local data. Some optional features access online map tiles, STAC catalogs, OGC APIs, geocoding providers, OpenTopography, Overpass, Earth Engine, or other web services. Users are responsible for complying with the relevant provider terms, attribution requirements, access limits, and data licenses. GroundGIS includes local license notices, component manifests, and applicable source-delivery materials for bundled open-source components.