ERDAS ER Mapper® 2010Release Notes

November 2009

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The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice.

Government Reserved Rights. MrSID technology incorporated in the Software was developed in part through a project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, funded by the U.S. Government, managed under contract by the University of California (University), and is under exclusive commercial license to LizardTech, Inc. It is used under license from LizardTech. MrSID is protected by U.S. Patent No. 5,710,835. Foreign patents pending. The U.S. Government and the University have reserved rights in MrSID technology, including without limitation: (a) The U.S. Government has a non-exclusive, nontransferable, irrevocable, paid-up license to practice or have practiced throughout the world, for or on behalf of the United States, inventions covered by U.S. Patent No. 5,710,835 and has other rights under 35 U.S.C. § 200-212 and applicable implementing regulations; (b) If LizardTech's rights in the MrSID Technology terminate during the term of this Agreement, you may continue to use the Software. Any provisions of this license which could reasonably be deemed to do so would then protect the University and/or the U.S. Government; and (c) The University has no obligation to furnish any know-how, technical assistance, or technical data to users of MrSID software and makes no warranty or representation as to the validity of U.S. Patent 5,710,835 nor that the MrSID Software will not infringe any patent or other proprietary right. For further information about these provisions, contact LizardTech, 1008 Western Ave., Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98104.

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1Preface

Preface 1

PrefaceThis document provides important information about ERDAS ER Mapper 2010.

• High-level requirements (software and hardware) for installation.

• Summary of new features and improvements.

• Facts to know, workarounds, helpful hints, and last-minute information we could not include in the documentation.

For more information regarding ERDAS products, visit our web site at http://www.erdas.com.

2 Preface

Hardware and Software Requirements 3

Hardware and Software RequirementsThe hardware and software requirements for ERDAS ER Mapper 2010 are listed below.

Computer/Processor • 32-bit: Intel Pentium 4 or 100% compatible, 2.4 GHz minimum

• 64-bit: Intel 64 (EM64T), AMD 64, or 100% compatible, 2.4 GHz minimum

• Dual-core, quad-core, or higher strongly recommended

Memory (RAM) • 2 GB minimum, more strongly recommended

Disk Space • 700 MB for installing all software

• 530 MB for installing all example data

• Customer data disk space requirements depend upon specific project requirements1

Operating Systems • Windows Vista x32 SP2 or higher, Business, Enterprise & Ultimate

• Windows XP Professional x32 and x64 SP3 or higher2

• Windows 7 x32 and x64 Business & Ultimate3

• Windows Vista x64 SP2 or higher, Business, Enterprise & Ultimate

• Windows Server 2008 x32 and x64 SP2 or higher

Software • Adobe Acrobat Reader 7 or higher

• Internet Explorer 6 and higher with JavaScript enabled, or

• Firefox 2 and higher with JavaScript enabled

• Java Runtime 1.6.0.6 will be installed with ERDAS ER Mapper 2010

• Microsoft DirectX 9c or higher

4 Hardware and Software Requirements

These requirements are subject to change. Visit our web site at http://www.erdas.com for the latest system specifications.

Graphics Displays • Display resolution of 1024 X 768 X 32 minimum, higher recommended

• The latest graphics card drivers recommended

Peripherals • DVD Drive required for software installation

• One Microsoft Windows compatible mouse (scroll wheel recommended)

• Microsoft Windows supported hardcopy devices4

• Software security requires one of the following:

• Ethernet card with TCP/IP configured, or

• One USB port for hardware key, or

• One standard (DB25) parallel port for hardware key

1. Typically, disk I/O is the slow point in geospatial data processing. Fast hard disks can help productivity. SCSI hard disks are typically faster than SATA and IDE drives. Solid state disk drives have quick access time, but sus-tained rates are slower than traditional spindle hard disks. Disk arrays can improve performance, but certain RAID configurations can slow performance.

2. Microsoft Windows XP x32 has limited large output file sizes. The maximum file size depends upon system con-figuration and rarely exceeds 70GB. All other supported OS versions do not experience this limitation.

3. Support for Microsoft Windows 7 was developed and tested using Microsoft Windows 7 release candidates and Windows 7 RTM.

4. HP-RTL drivers are recommended. If printing from a Windows x64 operating system the print server will require 64-bit print drivers.

What’s New 5

What’s NewERDAS ER Mapper is powerful image processing software for geoscientists and GIS professionals. It has unique data display tools to enhance satellite imagery, elevation data and geophysical datasets. Easy to use and intuitive, it has many domain specific workflows such as advanced seismic analysis toolbox in the form of wizards. With its powerful technologies such as ECW compression, mosaic and color balance, it is the ideal tool for imagery preparation for web data deployment.

ERDAS ER Mapper is widely used as part of integrated GIS workflows; it is a tool particularly appreciated by geoscientists for its versatility in handling different type of data. Unique image processing tools help users in their interpretation tasks and support companies efforts for a maximum ROI from their imagery assets.

ERDAS ER Mapper 2010 builds on this legacy by extensively overhauling the projection system, expanding file format support, building even better performance of the compression technology, and paying particular attention in defect reduction for enhanced usability and stability. License tools have been upgraded so that it shares the same easy to use licensing system with other ERDAS software products, supporting valuable functions such as license borrowing.

General • Additional file format support – MrSID, RPF, PIX, PCIDSK, and native support of IMG.

• Blue Marble Geographics (BMG) Projection Engine – Integration of BMG for better projection support and compatibility with Image Compressor and IWS.

• 64 Bit Compression – Compression can be run under Windows 64 bit OS to support multi-terabyte input imagery and faster performance.

• ER Mapper Clip Region Wizard – It enables users to rapidly define output regions for large mosaics to eliminate uneven edges.

• ER Mapper to EPSG Code Matching Tool – It helps to utilize old ER Mapper imagery by mapping custom projections to the equivalent EPSG codes using a convenient GUI interface.

• Massive Defect Reduction – Hundreds of bugs have been fixed to make the software more stable.

6 What’s New

ERDAS-Net Licensing In ERDAS ER Mapper 2010, there is a completely new licensing system that works with FLEXnet Publisher (the next generation tool of FLEXlm from Acresso Software).

• Supports all ERDAS-supported OS platforms.

• Eliminates the need to merge or delete license files.

• Simplifies requesting and managing ERDAS software licenses.

• Generates a system ID and directly links to the ERDAS Support web page to request a license.

• Allows users to "borrow" licenses so they can disconnect from the network and work offline.

• Provides built-in drivers for FLEXnet ID and SafeNet dongles.

• Can generate reports on license usage including user ID and host name.

• Supports floating and node-locked licenses.

• Runs stand-alone or installed with other ERDAS applications.

Customer Resolutions 7

Customer Resolutions

ERDAS ER Mapper

Batch • Fixed saving contours into a vector file. [EMP-2310]

• Improved opening images with NIR bands. [EMP-5202]

• Fixed handling of British National Grid coordinate systems. [EMP-5525]

• Fixed batch file generation for the "Reproject Images in Batch" wizard. The wizard can now correctly produce the script to run reprojection in background. [EMP-5531]

BMG/GDT Database • Fixed not being able to change projections when only vector layers are open. [EMP-5365]

• Added GDT names for DHDN / Gauss-Kruger projections. [EMP-5385]

• Added support for TWD97 (Taiwan) coordinate systems. [EMP-5432]

• Added support for MAGNA-SIRGAS coordinate systems. [EMP-5472]

Compression • Fixed 64-bit command line compressor. [EMP-5358]

• Improved handling of imagery with Geodetic coordinate systems. [EMP-5381]

• Fixed compressor crashing when compressing 32-bit data to JPEG2000. [EMP-5405]

• Improved reprojection accuracy of Finnish coordinate systems. [EMP-5500]

Dataset Header Editor • Fixed Coordinate System Choosers to correctly set the Coordinate System Type. This enables setting geocoding information for RAW imagery. [EMP-5451]

Documentation • Updated documentation to reflect the coordinate system handling changes. [EMP-5360]

• Fixed help links for the Import and Export menus. [EMP-5390]

8 Customer Resolutions

Dynamic links • Fixed MicroStation DGN format support. [EMP-5376]

• Fixed a crash when displaying annotations on Windows Vista. [EMP-5397]

• Fixed not being able to edit vector layers with RGF93 datum. [EMP-5421]

• Fixed the Contour Wizard's "Save As..." capability. [EMP-5423]

Exports • Fixed a crash in the Export utility. [EMP-5382]

File Chooser • Improved reading of feet-based GeoTIFF projectons. [EMP-5320]

Geocoding • Fixed Geocoding Wizard GCP Editor not correctly populating Height values, causing incorrect calculations and crashes. [EMP-5340]

• ER Mapper can now utilize non-EPSG coordinate systems. [EMP-5364]

• Improved handling of some NAD83 / UTM projections. [EMP-5373]

• Fixed Z-value calculation in GCP editor. [EMP-5384]

• Fixed Polynomial geocoding. [EMP-5404]

• Improved Map-to-map reprojection speed. [EMP-5410]

• Fixed incorrect cell size calculation when geo-coding images with GEODETIC coordinate systems. [EMP-5449]

• Fixed reprojection from Alaskan coordinate systems. [EMP-5452]

Imports • Fixed creating labels when importing Shape Files. [EMP-5140]

• Improved projection identification for IMG files. [EMP-5210]

• Fixed import of ARC/Info Coverages. [EMP-5345]

• Improved reading projections from MrSid files. [EMP-5359]

• Fixed handling of JPEG compressed TIFF files. [EMP-5466]

Installation • ER Mapper is now a part of ERDAS Install Manager. [EMP-5270]

Miscellaneous • ER Mapper is now able to mosaic thousands of MrSid images. [EMP-5311]

Customer Resolutions 9

• Fixed dynamic compilation for Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition--workaround no longer required. [EMP-5313]

• Fixed contours not working correctly when displayed without any raster layers. [EMP-5374]

• ER Mapper 7.2 now supports Windows 2000. [EMP-5387]

• ER Mapper 2010 supports running in Demo Mode. [EMP-5414]

• Fixed an interaction issue between ER Mapper and MatLab. This fix also reduced the chances of interactions between ER Mapper and other applications. [EMP-5419]

• Fixed band selection behavior for IMG files. [EMP-5468]

• ER Mapper now correctly identifies band combinations for IMG, MrSid, SPOT5, and other formats translated by eRaster. [EMP-5469]

• Fixed ER Mapper occasionally crashing on exit after running certain Map-to-Map reprojections. [EMP-5596]

Reprojection-on-the-fly • Added a mechanism to select default datum shift methods. Adjusted the datum shift method between ETR89 and KKJ to behave same as ER Mapper 7.1. [EMP-5380]

• Accuracy issues when reprojecting from NTF coordinate systems within ERDAS ERMapper have been corrected. [EMP-5420]

• Greatly improved projection engine performance. [EMP-5496]

Save As • Fixed ETRS89 projection output for GeoTIFF. [EMP-5584]

Statistics • Fixed a crash in Scattergram tool's "Show Means and 95% ellipses" function. [EMP-5442]

Transforms • Fixed Fast Fourier Transform to correctly process non-ERS input. [EMP-5407]

• Fixed visualization of 16-bit and Floating Point data. [EMP-5502]

Translator related • Fixed reading of PCRL JPEG 2000 files. [EMP-5165]

• Fixed the issue with upper values getting cut off in Floating Point and 16-bit data, which caused noise to appear on imagery. [EMP-5351]

• Fixed reading NITF files with RPCs. [EMP-5369]

10 Customer Resolutions

• Upgraded ECW library to version 3.6.0.271 and Blue Marble Geografic library to version 6.3.5 to fix crashes when opening certain JPEG 2000 files. [EMP-5412]

• Fixed georeferensing of ASTER HDF files. [EMP-5428]

• Fixed ECW ouput in "Cut Algorithm Into Tiles" wizard. [EMP-5527]

Known Issues 11

Known Issues

ERDAS ER Mapper

Annotation • TIFF map object may not display correctly. A work-around is to create an ALG that displays the TIF, and then use an ALGORITHM map composition object instead of IMAGE map object. [EMP-5461]

Batch • "Batch to ECW" wizard may create incorrect file names for some spatial resolutions. i.e. Compressing test.TIF will produce a test.TIF.ecw instead of test.ecw. [EMP-5433]

• "Edit or Create ERS Files In Batch" wizard's "Restore" function will not work on .ERS files with a non-EPSG projection. Users have to back up and restore the .AUX files manually. [EMP-5679]

BMG/GDT Database • ER Mapper does not currently support RPC map models for NITF data type. [EMP-5615]

Compression • Compression Wizard does not suport HSI Algorithms. A work-around is to save the ALG to a VDS and then use the VDS as input for the compression process. [EMP-5356]

• Using the "current window" in compression input will compress the whole window, including any visible space outside of the actual imagery. Use "Adjust Windows Aspect on Load or Zoom" preference or adjust the window extents to match the image exactly to make sure no extra data is compressed. [EMP-5430]

• 64-bit ECW Compressor in ER Mapper 7.2.2 may get stuck on launch. The workaround is to use the command line compressor instead. [EMP-5688]

Exports • Saving a subset from the Image Window to TIFF may result in cell size being off, resulting in a shift by a fraction of a pixel. Users are advised to subset into ERS instead. [EMP-5332]

• Export to EPS does not support algorithms with dynamic links. Use "print to hardcopy" instead. [EMP-5346]

• Command line exporters will only export a multi-layer .ERS to a 3-layer image. The workaround is to create an algorithm with each band in its own surface. [EMP-5368]

• Importing multi-part line shapefiles is not supported. [EMP-5659]

12 Known Issues

Geocoding • In order to read NAD27(CGQ77) / UTM projections, customers must place their pcgq77-98.gsb into the etc directory. [EMP-5377]

• The "Geocoding Type" will be reset if it is selected before an input image is specified. [EMP-5678]

Gridding • All raster formats can be used as input for the Gridding Wizard, but not all raster files can be successfully processed. [EMP-5458]

• Gridding Wizard may fail to read the input data from a UNC path. The workaround is to map a network drive first. [EMP-5653]

Imports • Importing EROS NLAPS in ER Mapper produces an incorrect result. Use IMAGINE instead. [EMP-5391]

• Import image files in batch does not currently support IMAGINE IMG format. Use "Import Raster Translated" instead. [EMP-5460]

• Saving as GeoTIFF may not persist the projection correctly. If such cases occur, ER Mapper will georeference the output as WGS84 Geodetic. [EMP-5532]

• Batch import in HDF Wizard does not support Level-3 MODIS "Surface Reflectance 8-Day L3 Global 500m" data. The workaround is to use IMAGINE's batch importing capabilities instead. [EMP-5547]

Installation • ER Mapper Professional 7.2 is not officially supported on Windows Vista; however, most of the functions should work normally on Windows Vista Enterprise with User Access Control turned off. [EMP-5331]

Miscellaneous • Instructions to enable dynamic compilation with Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition

1. Download and Install Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition from here: http://www.microsoft.com/express/2005/download/default.aspx 2. Download and Install Windows Platform SDK from here: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7653972 3. Copy C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2\Lib\Uuid.lib to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\lib. (Alternatively, you can obtain the Uuid.lib file from a previous Platform SDK installation). [EMP-5313]

Known Issues 13

• Tabular Dataset Wizard fails to display the .tbl files, the workaround is to manually add them as Dynamic Links using the Algorithm Editor tool. [EMP-5463]

• Cell Values Profile tool may report incorrect values for the upper edge of images. [EMP-5467]

• Creating FFTs for very large datasets may cause ER Mapper to crash. This issue affects wizards that rely on FFT as well, such as the Desktop Minerals Wizard. [EMP-5495]

• When compressing images in NITF 2.1 format to ECW using ERDAS ER Mapper, ER Mapper may not correctly read the projection of the NITF data. In this case, use ERDAS IMAGINE to compress the NITF files into ECW. [EMP-5528]

Printing • Scattergrams are always printed with a black background. [EMP-5454]

• When printing to a .BMP file, the output will be placed into the TEMP directory. [EMP-5669]

Reprojection-on-the-fly • When using ERMapper with data registered to EPSG code 2955, you will need to obtain the file que27-98.gsb. This file should be placed in the folder $IMAGINE_HOME/etc for use with ERDAS ERMapper 2010. [EMP-5438]

• For .ers files with no DATUM field, ER Mapper will show a random EPSG code for image's projection. This case only applies to corrupt ERS files. [EMP-5557]

Roaming • Zooming in, zooming out, and roaming while holding the middle mouse button may rarely cause ER Mapper to freeze. [EMP-5269]

Save As • Saving as .ers may produce files with "metre" as units. This may cause problems with some versions of ArgGIS. The workaround is to edit the ERS file in a text editor and change the unit name to "meters". [EMP-5515]

• Saving datasets with State Plane coordinate systems may occasionally output a different projection into the TIFF. The resulting projection will be equivalent to the input State Plane projection, but will not be identified as such. [EMP-5645]

• ER Mapper may fail to save large datasets to NITF. [EMP-5657]

• Save As NITF may fail on very large input data. [EMP-5690]

14 Known Issues

Transforms • Histogram calculation in the Transform tool cannot be performed if an algorithm contains layers with "Sunshade" turned on. The workaround is to temporarily turn off the "Sunshade", let the Transform tool calculate the histogram, then re-enable "Sunshade". [EMP-5587]

Translator related • BIL/HDR datasets are misregistered by half a pixel. [EMP-5448]

• If customers previously mosaiced IMG data with ER Mapper, they may notice that if the images had black edges, they are no longer transparent in ER Mapper 2010. To correct this behavior, customers must set the NODATA values in the input IMG files. [EMP-5560]

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