Global Mapper is more than just a utility; it has built in functionality for distance and area calculations, raster blending, feathering, spectral analysis and contrast adjustment, elevation querying, line of sight calculations, cut-and-fill volume calculations, as well as advanced capabilities like image rectification, contour generation from surface data, view shed analysis (including Fresnel) from surface data, terrain layer comparison (including differencing), and triangulation and gridding of 3D point data. Repetitive tasks can be accomplished using the built in scripting language or comprehensive batch conversion functionality.