MalaGIS

Sharing GIS Technologies, Resources and News.

In recent years, applications such as digital museums, digital cultural heritage preservation, and digital scenic spots have become commonplace online. The 3D reconstruction technology behind them impresses with its stunning visual appeal—using just a screen, it can deliver an immersive experience. Nowadays, this kind of immersive virtual experience has permeated various industries. For example, in the popular game Black Myth: Wukong, the "Little Western Paradise" scene was created by capturing and reconstructing the Thousand-Buddha Cliffside Temple (Qianfo'an) in Xi County, Linfen, Shanxi Province. Similarly, Assassin's Creed: Unity used 3D technology to recreate the majestic Notre-Dame de Paris, achieving a remarkable synergy between the virtual and the real.

Above: The Thousand-Buddha Cliffside Temple in Xi County, Linfen, Shanxi Province.

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A few days ago, while processing some legacy DWG files left by the previous data team in QGIS, I was reminded of the company's AutoCAD replacement project from three years ago. That project, based on a open-source CAD software, was ultimately shelved due to the high costs of complex development. It got me thinking: it's already 2026, how have open-source CAD software options evolved? Are there any outstanding open-source alternatives? With these questions in mind, I searched some information. If you have other better recommendations, feel free to leave a comment for discussion.

FreeCAD

FreeCAD is currently one of the most popular open-source 3D CAD software, released under the LGPL license. It is suitable for fields like engineering, architectural design, mechanical design, and product design. Its core feature is parametric modeling, where all design elements are defined by parameters and formulas. When a parameter is changed, all dependent design elements update automatically. It comes with many features and tools for professional applications, including part design, assembly, motion simulation, material property management for mechanical engineering, and supports BIM (Building Information Modeling) workflows.

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On the evening of December 17, 2025, a strange incident occurred in Nanjing: citizens found that the Baidu, Gaode, and Tencent maps on their phones all "went on strike," and even Apple's built-in navigation was not spared. Some people were located "swimming" in Xuanwu Lake, while others riding shared bikes were prompted to be 57 kilometers away... The official announcement stated that this was due to temporary interference with satellite signals, though the military frequency bands of BeiDou were unaffected.

In a previous article Navigating Without GPS: Exploring Alternative Positioning Technologies - MalaGIS, we introduced several navigation and positioning methods besides GPS and BeiDou systems. However, those methods are either require professional equipment, need specific hardware support in phones, or are technologies that are not yet ready for large-scale commercial application. So, some friends have asked: how can I test if my GPS/BeiDou signal is being interfered with in such a situation, or how can I determine the credibility of my signal? Today, we recommend a method and tool for those who need it.

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If asked which software truly brought GIS (Geographic Information Systems) out of the ivory tower and made it a "must-have" on the average person's computer, the answer is likely one and only: Google Earth. Recently, the official Google Maps Platform released a special commemorative page celebrating the 20th anniversary of Google Earth's release. Hearing this news will surely take many veteran GIS professionals back to the moment they first spun the blue planet on their screens and first searched for their own rooftop. This editor first used Google Earth before university; perhaps by chance, or perhaps inspired by it, I ended up entering this field. Taking this opportunity, let's talk about the evolution of the world's most influential GIS software.

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It has been some time since the GPS and BeiDou signal anomaly incident in Nanjing. While the cause of the incident remains debated, an interesting question has been frequently discussed in the 'Malagis' GIS group recently: If one day, both our GPS and BeiDou signals are abnormal, and we don't have access to military-grade bands, how can we determine our location? The author has previously written a bit on this topic. Drawing from the group members' discussions and collected materials, here is a summary. Corrections are welcome if any inaccuracies are found.

Before delving into this topic, let's introduce a new concept: All-source Positioning. In this era of the Internet of Everything, the heavily relied-upon GPS is not omnipotent. Satellite signals cannot penetrate thick reinforced concrete or travel underwater. All-source positioning involves integrating various other sensors to provide alternative solutions when GPS fails. So, what are the current common solutions? Let's explore them.

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In the GIS field, especially when creating CIM digital twin scenarios, building white model data is often required. I have previously used many such building white model datasets (such as global building footprint data released by Google and Microsoft), but I frequently encountered situations where only the "footprint" was available without height information, or the height was randomly generated. A few days ago, I came across an interesting dataset online: GlobalBuildingAtlas, which can precisely solve the problem of missing height information. The data is global in scope, so interested friends should not miss it.

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The other day, while casually browsing in the MalGIS community chat, a friend @Tiantian suddenly asked me, "Does ArcGIS Pro 3.6 not support Windows 10 anymore?" This sudden question gave me a fright. After all, many friends following MalGIS should still be on Windows 10, some even on Windows 7. If there were such an issue, it should have surfaced earlier. However, when the friend later showed me the evidence, I couldn't be sure for a moment.

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In the field of GIS development, on-premises deployment is an extremely common requirement, and MinIO is almost synonymous with private object storage. Whether storing hundreds of terabytes of remote sensing imagery or billions of loose map tiles, MinIO has consistently been the "cornerstone" of WebGIS architecture due to its simple deployment, excellent S3 compatibility, and the high performance of the Go language. However, just last week, the official MinIO GitHub repository announced an update to the project's status, moving it to maintenance mode and ceasing to accept new feature requests. The main changes are as follows:

• The codebase is now in a maintenance-only state.
• No new features, enhancements, or pull requests will be accepted.
• Critical security fixes may be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
• Existing issues and pull requests will not be actively reviewed.
• Community support will continue on a best-effort basis via Slack.
• For enterprise support and actively maintained versions, please refer to MinIO AIStor.

To summarize the key point: if you wish to use a continually updated version of MinIO in the future, you must pay for the commercial version, MinIO AIStor. According to my research, the price is quite steep, requiring a subscription service. The annual fee is $96,000 to manage 400TB of data (a price point that is essentially unfeasible within the domestic GIS community in China).

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In the previous article QGIS 4.0 Delayed: New Release Scheduled for February 2026, the editor introduced the latest progress on QGIS 4.0 development, noting that the originally planned QGIS 4.0 version has been postponed to February 2026. This is very disappointing news for many macOS users, especially those with M-series chips, as everyone has been waiting for the official native QGIS application for Mac M chips. Consequently, users will have to continue using the translated version of QGIS (which still works). However, there is good news: the official team has ported the Mac packaging method originally intended for QGIS 4.0 to the QGIS 3.x series. This means that an official native QGIS 3.x version for Mac M chips is now available. The editor checked today and confirmed that the official website has been updated. Users still on the Intel-translated version are highly recommended to upgrade immediately!

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It's Friday, are you starting to slack off and prepare for the weekend? Hold on, just yesterday (December 3, 2025), React official and the Next.js team jointly disclosed a Critical-level security vulnerability. This is not just an ordinary bug, but a 'nuclear-level' vulnerability that allows unauthorized remote code execution (RCE). If your WebGIS project uses Next.js or React 19, please investigate promptly. This vulnerability is extremely dangerous and could lead to further data leakage risks.

Vulnerability Details

Vulnerability ID: CVE-2025-55182 (React) / CVE-2025-66478 (Next.js)

Affected Scope: As long as your project has React Server Components (RSC) enabled, even if you think you haven't written any backend logic, you could be affected.

Severity Level: CVSS 10.0 (maximum score) — This means attackers can execute arbitrary code on your Node.js server without logging in or performing complex operations, just by sending a carefully crafted HTTP request.

Affected Versions:

• React: 19.0.0 to 19.2.0
• Next.js: 15.x, 16.x, and versions after 14.3.0-canary.77

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