The Minnesota DNR released DNRGPS on February 15, 2012 and has already issued an update to fix some functionality problems. DNRGPS is the long-awaited replacement for DNRGarmin 5, and is designed to address incompatibilities between ArcGIS 10 and DNRG. It will also work with GPS units not manufactured by Garmin, Inc, prompting the name change.

DNRGPS is written as an Open Source application, and utilizes other open source software for portions of its core functionality (notably gpsbabel and GDAL). The developers are still working on updates to the program – be sure to read the known issues, release notes, and help file found on the application’s web page.

DNRGPS requires Windows XP or Windows 7, and works with ArcGIS 10 and Google Earth. Long-time users of DNRGarmin will want to do some testing before using DNRGPS on a daily basis. The move to open source underpinnings has changed how the software operates, notably how projections are handled. The ArcGIS toolbar is no more, but Geodatabase functionality has been added.

Stay tuned for more impressions and tutorial data.