3. Introduction

gvSIG Desktop (gvSIG from this point forward) is a Geographical Information System in free software, that is, a computer application aimed to represent, edit, analyze and manage information from the point of view of spatial relations.

The gvSIG licence is GNU/GPL v.3 which gives the user the rights of free use, study, improvement and distribution.

The gvSIG firts version was born in 2004 within a project that consisted in a full migration of the information technology systems of the Generalitat Valenciana in Spain (Valencian Regional Government). Since 2010, the project is managed by gvSIG Association.

Developed under the values of collaboration and sharing knowledge, gvSIG has evolved very quickly and in a few years it has become one of the most used applications to manage the geographical information.

Welcome to gvSIG!

3.1. What can we do with gvSIG Desktop?

gvSIG is a sophisticated Geographical Information System and, as such, it is used to do every kind of work related to the territory management.

If you are curious about the different gvSIG uses, don't hesitate to visit the website for cases of use.

http://outreach.gvSIG.org/case-studies

The most common tasks to do with gvSIG are:

  • To represent data spatially. gvSIG allows you to open all format types (vector and raster; archives, databases and remote services) and represent them spatially in the different coordinate systems. You can apply all kind of legends and labels to represent your data.

  • To design maps to print, gvSIG has tools to easily design maps, allowing you to add all type of cartographic elements and offering different options to print and export your new map.

  • Edition. It offers a huge range of tools to edit either cartographic data or alphanumeric.

  • Analysis. gvSIG has tools to facilitate the analysis of the existent data, either cartographic or alphanumeric data. More than 300 geoporcessing tools ara avaliable in gvSIG.

  • To customize gvSIG. Apart from having the option to extend the funcionality of gvSIG through Java, it has a scripting module using Python