November 1999

♦ ERDAS IMAGINE® V8.4

OVERVIEW 3

KEY FEATURES SUMMARY 3

FUNCTIONAL DESCRIPTION – IMAGINE PROFESSIONAL ™ 3

♦ IMAGINE EXPERT CLASSIFIER™ 3
Ø Knowledge Engineer 4
Ø Knowledge Classifier 5
Ø Why use IMAGINE Expert Classifier? 6
Ø Painte d Relief model 8
FUNCTIONAL DESCRIPTION – IMAGINE ADVANTAGE ™ 9
Ø Knowledge Classifier 9
Ø Change Detection 9
Ø Viewshed 9
Ø Mosaic tool & calibrated images 10
Ø Mosaic tool & Map Information 10
Ø Use of existing LUTs in Mosaic 10
Ø Spatial Modeler & calibrated images 10
Ø Batch Processing Spatial Models 11
FUNCTIONAL DESCRIPTION – IMAGINE ESSENTIALS™ 12
♦ IMPROVED VECTOR DATA HANDLING 12
Ø
ESRI Shapefile read / write / create 12
Ø
SDE vector client 12
Ø
Integrated vector handling 12
Ø
Vector layer editing native to IMAGINE Essentials 12
♦ IMPROVED RASTER DATA HANDLING 13
Ø Writeable raster DLLs 13
Ø Enhanced TIFF image creation 13
Ø Create State Plane NAD83 / Feet GeoTIFF 14
Ø 2 GB file size limit on IMG files removed 14
Ø New and improved raster DLLs 15
Ø New importers / exporters 16
Ø Default compression method for all programs 17
♦ BATCH WIZARD P ROCESSING 17
Ø Command List Batch Processing 17
Ø Automation to provide multi-file input / output support 17
Ø Wildcard selection of files 17
Ø Drag-and-drop data loading 18
Ø Image Command Tool 18
Ø Compare Images 18
♦ VIEWER ENHANCEMENTS 18

1
 Ø Summary of Behaviors 18
Ø New behaviors for the Zoom In tools 19
Ø New behaviors for the Zoom Out tools 21
Ø New behaviors for the Hand tool 21
Ø Scrolling 23
Ø Drag-and-drop data loading 23
Ø Extended Inquire Cursor 24
Ø Transparent Background 24
Ø Quick Statistics 24
Ø Status Bar Projection Info 25
Ø Style Chooser 25
Ø International 2-byte fonts 25
Ø Map Series tool uses the extent of all layers 25
Ø Viewer resampling 26
Ø New style link box 26
♦ P ROJECTION SUPPORT 26
Ø Viewer Geographic Link by reproject 26
Ø Viewer reproject images on-the-fly 27
Ø Mapmaker reproject 27
Ø 28 new Projections 27
Ø 5 new Spheroids 27
Ø Reproject command interface 28
Ø Rigorous Reprojection Process 29
Ø ARC World Files 29
Ø Enhanced CellArray™ precision 30
Ø Units definable in Coordinate Calculator 30
♦ P RINTING 30
Ø Improved Windows NT printing performance 30
Ø Pre-rasterize map before printing 31
Ø Print vector layers below rasters 31
♦ GENERAL 32
Ø Quick access to the Recent list 32
Ø Year 2000 issues 32
Ø CellArray scrolling 32
Ø Printed manuals as part of On-Line Help 32
FUNCTIONAL DESCRIPTION: IMAGINE VIRTUALGIS™ V8.4.1 33
Ø Drag-and-drop data loading 33
Ø Water layers 33
Ø MultiGen OpenFlight 33
Ø Sun position and glare 33
Ø Transparent Polygons 33
Ø Distance-based 3D model rendering 34
Ø Cross option for texture 3D models 34
Ø Faster Virtual Worlds 34
Ø Optimizing Performance 35
FUNCTIONAL DESCRIPTION: IMAGINE ORTHORADAR™ 36
Ø Faster orthocorrection 36
PLATFORM SUPPORT 36

2
 ERDAS IMAGINE® V8.4

Overview
ERDAS® is pleased to provide ERDAS IMAGINE® version 8.4. Many private and commercial users
who need to extract and interpret information from imagery recognize ERDAS IMAGINE as a must-
have. With ERDAS IMAGINE 8.4, ERDAS’ latest, most advanced release of ERDAS IMAGINE,
production workflows are enhanced and simplified like never before.

As an example, the Batch Wizard streamlines repetitive procedures such as importing, reprojecting,
and exporting large numbers of files at once, using a wizard approach to record and “re-play”
commonly used procedures.

Also featured is the IMAGINE Expert Classifier™ – a tool for graphically building and executing
geographically aware, rules-based expert systems. This tool can be used to build decision support
systems, classifiers for high-resolution imagery, GIS analysis techniques, etc. These can then be
distributed to other users for use with their own data.

Key Features Summary

• IMAGINE Expert Classifier
• Direct read and edit of ESRI’s Shapefiles
• Direct read of ESRI’s SDE data
• Enhanced and expanded native raster file handling
• Re-projection of raster data on-the-fly
• Batch processing wizard
• Enhanced Viewer functionality
• Improved print versatility on Windows NT
• International 2-byte font support in Annotation layers
• Support for ERDAS IMAGINE .img files larger than 2 GB

Functional Description – IMAGINE Professional™

♦ IMAGINE Expert Classifier™
One of the most exciting new developments for ERDAS IMAGINE 8.4 is a tool for building
(and executing) geographic expert systems for image classification, post classification
refinement, and advanced GIS modeling. The use of expert systems has been gaining
increasing acceptance in areas such as medical diagnosis, but ERDAS IMAGINE 8.4 is one
of the first commercial packages for creating expert systems using geographic data to solve
geographic problems.

The IMAGINE Expert Classifier interface is designed to capture the intellectual process that
an expert in a particular field of expertise would normally use to sift through geographic
data, process it, analyze it and compare and combine results, in order to infer some form of
information about a geographic location. The captured process can then be repeated by
someone who may not be an expert in either the application field or in the use of software

3
 tools. Because the IMAGINE Expert Classifier has recorded the expert’s inference process
and can repeat it with new data, reliable and repeatable analysis results are always produced.
In effect, the IMAGINE Expert Classifier does much of the thinking for you.

The software consists of two parts — the Knowledge Engineer and the Knowledge
Classifier:

Ø Knowledge This program provides a graphical user interface for the "expert" to build a knowledge base.
Engineer The knowledge base is represented as a tree diagram consisting of final and intermediate
class definitions (hypotheses), rules (conditional statements concerning variables), and
variables (raster, vector, or scalar).

Figure 1: The Knowledge Engineer interface

Hypotheses are evaluated by the use of rules – if one or more rules are true, then that
hypothesis may be true at that particular location. A rule is evaluated based on input
variables to determine if it is true. For instance, a rule could be that slopes must be gentle
(less than 5 degrees) – to evaluate this, a variable is required determining the slope at every
location. This could be in the form of an existing image specifying slope angles, it could
come from a spatial model calculating slope on-the-fly from an input DEM, or it could even
be an external program. Variables can also be defined from vectors and scalars. If the
variables’ value indicates that the rule is correct, this (combined with other correct rules)
indicates that the hypothesis (class allocation) is true.

Key features:

• Graphical drag-and-drop tool for building the knowledge tree

• Confidence value definition and propagation, or the ability to handle uncertainty, is
of vital importance to the knowledge base. The expert places confidence in each
rule, and as multiple rules are triggered within a tree, the Knowledge Classifier
combines the confidences

4
 • Several rules could be true at a particular location – the one with the highest
confidence is most likely to be the class for that pixel
• Variables can be from various sources – images, vectors, scalars, graphical models,
and even user-defined programs
• The ability to include prompts for particular data files and variables enables the
creation of portable knowledge bases
• Use spatial operators (as opposed to traditional per-pixel classifiers) via Model
Maker
• Enables the multiple AND’ing or OR’ing of rules through the construction of the
tree branches horizontally or vertically
• Pathway cursor enables quick feedback on the results of a classification to aid in
developing and fine-tuning a knowledge base
• Access to existing ERDAS IMAGINE tools, such as Model Maker for defining
spectral/spatial operators, shortens the learning curve

Ø Knowledge With a previously created expert knowledge base, a less experienced user may use the
Classifier Knowledge Classifier to apply the knowledge base to data and perform a classification. This
program is designed with a simple, user-friendly wizard interface.

Key features:

• Wizard interface allows non-experts to apply the knowledge base to their own data
• Evaluate all possible classification classes, or only consider a subset of rules
• Identify missing files and prompt user to find them automatically
• Options to output fuzzy sets and confidence layers, as well as a classification
• Operator only requires an IMAGINE Advantage™ license

Fig 2: The Knowledge Classifier wizard

5
 The Knowledge Engineer is a standard part of IMAGINE Professional 8.4. The Knowledge
Classifier is a standard part of IMAGINE Advantage 8.4. Consequently expert users can
design their knowledge bases using IMAGINE Professional, but then these knowledge bases
can be distributed to the thousands of IMAGINE Advantage users around the world to apply
the knowledge-based classification process to their own data. This portability of knowledge
bases is one of the keys to the strength of the expert systems approach.

Ø Why use The foremost reason for using a knowledge-based (expert system) approach is the
IMAGINE increasing availability of high-resolution imagery. Per-pixel classifiers (such as Maximum
Expert Likelihood supervised classification or ISODATA unsupervised classification) are of
Classifier? limited use when using the higher-resolution imagery being produced by data vendors
today. Aerial photography has been providing high-resolution color imagery for decades,
but we have also recently seen the advent of commercially available high-resolution satellite
imagery, such as the 6m data from IRS-1C and –1D. Space Imaging launched a satellite
with approximately 1m panchromatic and 4m multi-spectral resolutions in September 1999,
and companies such as EarthWatch and Orbital Imaging all intend to launch satellites with
similar resolutions by the end of 1999.

These high-resolution images are difficult to classify because a single feature may consist of
many pixels with several differing spectral characteristics. For instance, a single tree canopy
may be comprised of dark pixels where the canopy is in shadow, grading through to light
pixels where the canopy is in direct sunlight. It is extremely difficult to train the traditional
classifiers to account for these variations. Therefore, instead of relying on per-pixel spectral
characteristics alone, expert systems can be built which incorporate rules looking at spatial
relationships and other contextual information (proximity to other classes or features,
altitude, aspect, shape, etc.).

This ability to use spatial operators then enables the operator to determine land use, rather
than the traditional land cover produced by per-pixel classifiers. For instance, a Maximum
Likelihood classification may have identified a particular pixel in the classified image as
“tree” land cover. A knowledge base can be constructed to go a step further – if a pixel is
tentatively identified as “tree” land cover its spatial association can be further analyzed:

• If it exists in close proximity to “semi-urban” and “road” features, the knowledge

base might assign a land-use of “parkland”,
• If in association with other “tree” pixels only, it may assign a land-use of “forest” ,
• If “tree” pixels occur in a regular pattern associated with “grass” pixels, a land use
of “orchard” may be assigned ,
• Etc.

The Knowledge Engineer can also be used to build expert systems looking at fuzzy
classifications and combining GIS and image processing techniques into complex expert
systems. These systems then become decision-support tools, rather than traditional
“classifiers” of imagery and data.

For example, a knowledge base can be built to assess the trafficability (mobility) of terrain
for the passage of certain types of vehicles. This knowledge base may not use satellite
imagery at all, instead relying on existing GIS layers such as soil types, digital elevation
data, etc., along with regularly updated data such as weather information. The operator then
runs the Knowledge Classifier wizard, selects the type of vehicle of interest, plugs in
today’s weather data and produces a map of traversible terrain for that vehicle, today – a

6
decision support tool.

Another advantage of the knowledge-based approach is that, once a knowledge base has
been built, it can be applied to new data or locations without re-training. Consequently, the
results of using a knowledge base are both reliable and repeatable – if you have passed a
knowledge base to a colleague in a different office or country, you know that the results
they are gaining with their own data are directly comparable to your own (repeatability),
because the exact same methodology is encoded into the knowledge base (reliability).

Equally important is the fact that the results are justifiable . The unique “pathway cursor” in
the Knowledge Engineer allows you to point to any pixel in your classified image and see
the exact path that was taken in the decision tree to arrive at this classification. This is
extremely important for both testing and fine-tuning a knowledge base that is in
development, but also in customer applications where it is important to be able to assess the
quality and accuracy of data.

Fig 3: Pathway Cursor being used to identify the decision path used in a classification

7
 A final reason for using a knowledge-based approach is that the end user doesn’t need to be
an expert in either the application field, or the operation of individual software tools. The
designer of the original knowledge base obviously needs to be an expert in the field of
interest – creating the rules of why a certain pixel should be a certain class. The original
designer also needs to be able to use ERDAS IMAGINE tools to design the spatial models
(or even C programs) which provide the input variables to these rules. However, once the
expert has done this, the knowledge base is self-contained and it can therefore be passed to
multiple non-experts who merely provide their own data as inputs to the Knowledge
Classifier wizard. These end users don’t need to know how to create or edit spatial models
in ERDAS IMAGINE, or why a certain class exists under certain conditions. Compare this
with the idea of medical diagnosis expert systems – the patient supplies their symptoms and
the expert system diagnoses the illness and prescribes treatment. The patient need know
nothing of how or why the expert system arrived at the particular diagnosis because the
medical expert has programmed this knowledge into the knowledge base.

As with all ERDAS IMAGINE tools, IMAGINE Expert Classifier is fully integrated into
the ERDAS IMAGINE environment. Inputs and resulting products are fully compatible
with the rest of ERDAS IMAGINE, allowing the user full use of ERDAS IMAGINE's other
capabilities on the input and output products.

Ø Painted Relief The Painted Relief graphical model (painted_relief.gmd) is included in the ERDAS
model IMAGINE examples directory as a further example of using the Model Maker. This model
takes as its input a digital elevation model (or other data representing a surface) and both
color level slices and sun-angle shades the data according to the USGS color to height
standard. The model can be easily modified with Model Maker to be applicable to any range
of heights

Fig 4: Painted Relief model being used to color shade a digital elevation model

8
 Functional Description – IMAGINE Advantage™
Ø Knowledge While the Knowledge Engineer is a standard part of IMAGINE Professional 8.4, the
Classifier Knowledge Classifier is a standard part of IMAGINE Advantage 8.4. Consequently expert
users can design and test their knowledge bases using IMAGINE Professional, but then
these knowledge bases can be distributed to the thousands of IMAGINE Advantage users
around the world to apply the knowledge-based classification process to their own data.
This portability of knowledge bases is one of the keys to the strength of the expert systems
approach.

See the IMAGINE Expert Classifier section above for further details of the Knowledge
Classifier wizard.

Ø Change An automated Change Detection function has been added to Image Interpreter, in the
Detection Utilities section.

If you have two athematic (continuous) images of the same area, but from different points in
time, the Change Detection function enables you to identify the areas that have changed
over time, including the ability to categorize the levels of change into a thematic output file.

Ø Viewshed The Viewshed tool, formerly distributed as part of the IMAGINE VirtualGIS™ module, is
now available to IMAGINE Advantage users in the Topographic Analysis section of Image
Interpreter.

Fig 5: A full 360-degree viewshed analysis (the transparent areas representing the viewable
terrain, the semi-transparent being the obscured areas).

9
 The Viewshed tool allows single and multiple observer points to be defined. Elevations,
viewing cone angles and diameters (viewing range) can also be specified. The tool is
interactive, with results being displayed immediately in the ERDAS IMAGINE Viewer.
Results can also be saved to disk as thematic .img files for further analysis, or used as
drapes in the 3D environment.

Ø Mosaic tool & The Mosaic tool now supports all types of calibrated image files (not just polynomial
calibrated calibration). One benefit to this is that you can use the geometric correction tools to apply
images aerial photo ortho-calibrations to a series of input files and pass all these into the Mosaic
tool for simultaneous mosaicking and warping, saving time and disk space in the ortho-
photo production process.

Ø Mosaic tool & The Mosaic tool no longer requires full map projection information for mosaicking, unless
Map reprojection is desired as part of the mosaicking process. You can therefore use relatively
Information positioned images or images with just map info, such as images with world file geocoding
(e.g., TIFF World), as inputs to the Mosaic tool.

Ø Use of existing The Mosaic tool now enables you to use existing lookup tables (LUTs) to perform color
LUTs in Mosaic balancing. This is useful if you want to manually set up color balancing between the input
frames, rather than using the automatic color balancing tools.

Ø Spatial Modeler Spatial Modeler (and Model Maker) has been updated to better support calibration and
& calibrated reprojection of imagery.
images
If two or more images are input into a model and they have differing projections, you will
be able to specify the projection system to be used by the Modeler in producing its outputs.
This is achieved through the Model | Set Projection… pull-down. The default is the
projection system of the first raster input added to the model.

Fig 6: Selecting the operating projection for a model

10
 The Modeler now also fully supports the input of calibrated imagery and will attempt to
output calibrated imagery, if possible, or resample outputs to the projection system if it is
not possible.

This reprojection on-the-fly is controlled by a new set of Preferences under the Raster
Processing category.

Note: These changes to Modeler mean that the majority of Image Interpreter functions
(which use underlying Modeler programs) also now support multiple input projection
systems and calibrated imagery.

Ø Batch The Model Librarian now has a Batch button so that spatial models can be easily used in the
Processing batch environment. (See the Batch Wizard section below for more details on the new batch
Spatial Models capabilities.)

If you wish to run a graphical model in batch mode, first convert it to a script form *.mdl
model (Process | Generate Script…), then open the resulting *.mdl file in the Model
Librarian and use the Batch button.

11
 Functional Description – IMAGINE Essentials™
♦ Improved Vector Data Handling
Ø ESRI Shapefile The vector layer in ERDAS IMAGINE − which previously handled only ArcInfo coverages
read / write / − has been enhanced to support other formats, such as the ESRI Shapefile format. Thus,
create users can now display, create, edit, attribute, symbolize, print and analyze Shapefiles.
Shapefiles can also be used in many of the tools that previously accepted coverages, such as
the Surface Tool, Image Interpreter Zonal analyses, etc.

Fig 7: Selecting a vector format type from the File Chooser

Ø SDE vector ERDAS IMAGINE 8.4 can act as a client for vectors stored in ESRI’s SDE database
client program. A wizard interface leads the user through the process of linking ERDAS
IMAGINE to SDE, including setting the linked attribute fields, geographic extent and so on.

Extensive attention has been paid to supporting the SDE projection systems, to avoid any
potential projection mismatches between SDE and ERDAS IMAGINE.

Note that the SDE capability is read only - features can be queried, used to create AOIs,
etc., but cannot be edited.

Ø Integrated vector ESRI ArcInfo coverages, Shapefiles and SDE vectors are all accessed through the normal
handling vector layers mechanism, so common tools can be used with them (e.g. the editing tools
within the Viewer) and they can be used in common ways (e.g. in the 3D Surfacing tool, to
create AOIs, etc.)

Ø Vector layer The ability to use the Viewer’s editing tools on vector layers becomes a native part of
editing native to IMAGINE Essentials under UNIX as well as Windows in ERDAS IMAGINE 8.4. In other
IMAGINE words, the IMAGINE Vector ™ module is not required to create or edit coverages and
Essentials Shapefiles, nor is it required to display, symbolize, print etc., coverages, Shapefiles and
SDE vectors.

12
 ♦ Improved Raster Data Handling
Ø Writeable raster ERDAS IMAGINE 8.3 included the unique capability of being able to natively display and
DLLs process a wide variety of raster formats without having to import them first. However, this
was a read-only capability – for example, a JPEG file (JFIF) could be input into the Mosaic
tool, but the resulting mosaic would have to be created as an IMG file (ERDAS
IMAGINE’s native file format).

In ERDAS IMAGINE 8.4, writeable raster DLLs have been provided for IMG, TIFF
(including GeoTIFF and TIFF World), and ESRI GRID Stack formats.

Therefore, it is now possible to display a JPEG file in the Viewer and save the top layer as a
GRID Stack image. Or, you can input several TIFF files to the Mosaic tool and write the
resulting mosaic straight back out to GeoTIFF.

Additionally, users can use the documentation and examples provided with the IMAGINE
Developers’ Toolkit to add read/write support for any raster format they wish.

Ø Enhanced TIFF The writeable TIFF raster DLL also enables enhanced TIFF (and GeoTIFF) image creation.
image creation Preferences for the writeable TIFF DLL allow control over parameters such as compression,
tiling, creation of TIFF world files, etc., in the resulting image file.

These capabilities are controlled through the Preference Editor. To change these settings,
select Session | Preferences… from the main ERDAS IMAGINE icon panel, and then click
on the TIFF Image Files category.

Fig 8: The new style Preference Editor showing the TIFF preferences

The TIFF raster DLL now supports the reading and creation of the following data types:

• Unsigned 1-bit
• Unsigned 4-bit
• Unsigned 8-bit
• Signed 8-bit

13
 • Unsigned 16-bit
• Signed 16-bit
• Unsigned 32-bit
• Signed 32-bit
• Single Precision Floating Point
• Double Precision Floating Point

The TIFF raster DLL also has no limitations on the number of bands which can be
supported (e.g. the exporter will only output 1 or 3 bands, whereas a "Save As" will output
as many bands as you have loaded).

Note that the TIFF Exporter remains unchanged. The TIFF Exporter will produce
uncompressed TIFF or GeoTIFF files. If you wish to create other types of TIFF files, you
must use the writeable TIFF DLL, which allows you to create the relevant TIFF image
directly, via whatever process you are running (e.g., reproject directly to TIFF format), or
display an existing image in the Viewer and save the top layer to the TIFF format.

Ø Create State Another improvement to the TIFF raster DLL is the ability to create GeoTIFF files that have
Plane NAD83 / a projection of State Plane / NAD83 and pixel units of Feet. The GeoTIFF specification
Feet GeoTIFF precludes this combination (only allowing units of Meters for NAD83), but this ability has
been added to ERDAS IMAGINE 8.4 due to customer demand.

Note some other packages may not recognize the use of Feet as units with NAD83.

Ø 2 GB file size ERDAS IMAGINE 8.4 has been modified to create and support very large image files, and
limit on IMG the IMG raster DLL will now support reading, writing and creating files larger than 2 GB.
files removed
The size of the file you can create depends upon many other factors than just number of
rows and columns − the block size you use for the IMG file, the byte depth of the imagery,
the number of layers or bands, etc. Image files may now be created in ERDAS IMAGINE’s
native HFA file architecture, with up to 2 billion rows, or 2 billion columns, or 2 billion
layers, or 2 billion blocks per layer, in any of the currently supported data types (8-bit
integer, 64-bit float, etc.).

Based on these interlocking variables, a reasonable assumption is a limit of 8 terabytes of

data per layer for 8-bit data, blocked at 64 by 64 pixels (e.g., a three band, 16-bit data set
might have a limit of 48 TB).

When creating an image larger than 2 GB in size, the default settings will create a *.img file
to store “header” information and then use an *.ige file to store the imagery itself. For
example, if trying to mosaic together a large number of aerial photographs that would
amount to 50 GB of raster data, ERDAS IMAGINE 8.4 will produce a small .img header
file and a 50 GB .ige file.

Why was the support for larger than 2 GB images done this way? To preserve backward
compatibility with applications which only read *.img files smaller than 2 GB. For instance,
there are many third-party products which can import or directly read IMG files. If we
simply changed to 64-bit addressing, these products would no longer be able to read the new
IMG files, even if those files were less than 2 GB in size. With this backward compatibility,
third-party applications can still read the IMG files if they are less than 2 GB (i.e., if no .ige
file has been created).

14
 These changes also allow extremely large images (in terms of number of rows and columns,
etc) in other formats to be read by ERDAS IMAGINE. For instance, a MrSID image may be
relatively small in terms of file size because of the wavelet compression, but have a large
number of rows and columns.

Note: While ERDAS IMAGINE is now capable of creating image files larger than 2 GB, the
size of any file you can create will still be partially dependant on the limitations of the
Operating System version, disk partition type, network file system, etc., that you are trying
to write to. A brief summary of some of these limitations is given below:

File System Generally associated OS File Size Limit

FAT Windows 95 2 GB
FAT32 Windows 98 4 GB (minus 1 byte)
NTFS Windows NT 4.0 264 Bytes
UFS Sun Solaris > 4GB *
XFS SGI IRIX > 4GB *
N/A IBM AIX > 4GB *
N/A HP-UX 11.0 128 GB
AdvFS Compaq Tru64 UNIX 16 TB (minus 512 KB)
UFS Compaq Tru64 UNIX 128 GB
NFS v3 Compaq Tru64 UNIX 512 GB

* The operating system allows files greater than 4 GB to be created, but absolute limits are
not provided by the manufacturer.

Ø New and • DTED raster DLL

improved raster
DLLs DTED frames can be directly read by ERDAS IMAGINE. This provides a highly
flexible method for importing DTED data, since the frames can be directly opened in an
application such as the Mosaic tool, allowing an IMG file (or GeoTIFF or GRID Stack)
to be created directly from a CD with a user-specified spatial extent and projection
system.

• Lizardtech MrSID raster DLL (available for Windows and Solaris only).

The MrSID DLL is based on the LizardTech Encoder version 1.2. The DLL will also
display MrSID files created by Encoder v1.3, but will not be able to recognize any of
the newer features of that version, such as the provision for full georeferencing
information (as opposed to a simple World File) to be retained in the MrSID file.

ERDAS will produce a new plug-in raster DLL to support these optional features
shortly after the release of ERDAS IMAGINE 8.4. This may also provide MrSID
support on a wider number of platforms.

• Raster Products Format (RPF) raster DLL

The RPF DLLs provide support for both Controlled Image Base (CIB) data and
Compressed Arc Digital Raster Graphics (CADRG) data. There are actually four
separate RPF raster DLLs which attempt to read the different spatial extents under
which the data are stored on CD (frames, cells, products and overviews). These provide

15
 a highly flexible method for importing RPF data, since the files can be directly opened
in an application such as Mosaic, allowing an IMG file (or GeoTIFF or GRID Stack) to
be created directly from the CD with a user-specified spatial extent and projection
system.

A preference for non-polar zones offers the option of lat/lon or the equirectangular
projection. When projected to equirectangular, the frames are very nearly square. In
lat/lon the frames look rectangular, but it is easier to mix data from different zones in
the Viewer or Mosaic tool. This preference also affects the RPF importer.

In polar zones, images are projected to the azimuthal equidistant projection

.
• Improved JFIF (JPEG) raster DLL

The JFIF DLL has been enhanced to provide superior handling of JPEG compressed
files. ERDAS IMAGINE 8.4 no longer needs to decompress the entire image to a
temporary disk file before display – instead, only the displayed tiles are decompressed
in memory. This provides much faster display and roaming of JFIF files.

• Improved binary Band Interleaved by Line (BIL) raster DLL

ERDAS IMAGINE 8.4 has been redesigned at a low level to better handle the reading
of pixel data from images stored with a band interleaved by line (BIL) format, rather
than a tiled image format. Formats affected include ESRI ArcInfo and Space Imaging
BIL files, non-tiled TIFF, DTED, ERMapper .ers, and many other BIL-based image
formats.

This provides much faster operations, such as zooming out and performing a Fit Image
to Window operation (i.e., operations whereby sub-sampling of the imagery is required)
− even when pyramid layers have not been computed. This feature may also benefit
some tiled formats if the tile size is small (e.g., with JFIF images having 8 x 8 tiles).

• Statistics can be defined in RAW raster DLL file headers

• Support georeferencing information from ERMapper files

• Support the statistics from ERMapper files

Ø New importers / • Import / Export Surfer Grid files

exporters • Import / Export MapInfo .mif files
• Import SeaWiFS level 1B and 2A data (Orbview CEOS format)
• Import IRS-1C (EOSAT and Euromap Fast Format C formats)
• Import Daedalus
• Import NDF (NLAPS Data Format)
• Import SPOT 4 (CAP / SPIM formats)
• Import GeoSPOT (4 band data)
• Import Landsat 7 (EOSAT Fast Format L7 from EROS and ACRES)
• Improved USGS DOQ importer (adds support for color and “new” USGS keyword
format variants)

16
Ø Default A new Preference has been added to the ERDAS IMAGINE image files (native) category
compression which enables any IMG file created by an ERDAS IMAGINE process to be compressed or
method for all uncompressed by default. For example, if this preference is switched to Run-Length
programs Encoding, ERDAS IMAGINE will attempt to compress the results of classification or
projection resampling processes.

♦ Batch Wizard Processing

Ø Command List This much anticipated addition to ERDAS IMAGINE provides the capabilities of
Batch processing multiple files at once and stringing multiple processes into one process chain, on
Processing top of the already existing batch capability of scheduling a time at which to execute a
process.

Note: The Batch Wizard is designed to record processes in ERDAS IMAGINE which have a
Batch button on the graphical interface. Functions without Batch buttons are more difficult
to use within the Batch Wizard. For example, if trying to reproject a series of images, do not
use the Viewer | Raster | Geometric Correction | Reproject method, because this has no
Batch button – instead use the new Data Prep | Reproject… tool, which is specifically
designed for use with the Batch Wizard.

Ø Automation to Through the new Batch Wizard interface, customers can record a process (such as an import
provide multi- operation) and then automatically set up repeating the operation on multiple files. Equally,
file input / the wizard can be used to record a series of processes (such as importing a file, reprojecting
output support it to a different projection, running an NDVI and then exporting to a different format) which
can then easily be re-applied to another file, or series of files.

Figure 9: Recording multiple processes for automation in the Batch Wizard

Ø Wildcard The list of files to be processed by the new Batch Wizard can be selected
selection of files • one at a time using the file chooser
• or multiple files can be selected at once by specifying an ASCII file list
• or by using wildcards in the modified file chooser Selection Options tab
• or by drag-and-drop from any Windows application which supports this feature

17
Ø Drag-and-drop On Windows platforms, you can load data to the Viewer, IMAGINE VirtualGIS or the
data loading Batch Wizard simply by dragging-and-dropping from an application that supports drag-and-
drop. For example, several image and vector files could be selected in Microsoft Explorer
and these files dragged into a Viewer for rapid display.

Ø Image An Image Command tool has been provided for changing projection / map information and
Command Tool other details about selected image files. This tool is especially useful for use with the Batch
Wizard, since it allows the automation of functions that previously could only be done
through the Image Info tool one image at a time. The Image Command tool has a Batch
button, so any action can be added to the Batch Wizard for automation across multiple files,
for example adding projection info to several TIFF World File images (via an .aux file).

Ø Compare Images The Image Compare utility is mainly for use by developers in conjunction with the Batch
Wizard, to test repeatability of newly developed functions.

♦ Viewer Enhancements
Several new behaviors have been added for the point, zoom and roam tools on the ERDAS
IMAGINE Viewer tool bar to enable faster image exploitation. These behaviors are
summarized below.

Ø Summary of Viewer Icon

Behaviors
Mouse Operation
Click Left Mouse Button Select / Zoom in x2 Zoom out x2 Auto-Roam
Digitize on / off
Drag Left Mouse Button Select / Box zoom in Box zoom Manual roam
Digitize out
Middle Mouse Button * Select / Real-time Real-time Rotate
Digitize zoom zoom
Wheel ** Scroll up / Scroll up / Scroll up / Scroll up /
down down down down
Shift Wheel ** Scroll left / Scroll left / Scroll left / Scroll left /
right right right right
Ctrl Wheel ** (not used) Real-time Real-time Real-time
zoom zoom zoom
Click Right Mouse Button Quick View Quick View Quick View Quick View
menu menu menu menu

* If no middle mouse button is available, these functions can be replicated by using Ctrl
Left Mouse button.

** Requires an IntelliMouse, or a similar pointing device, with a middle “wheel” button and
appropriate driver on Windows platforms.

Note: If using a Windows PC with IntelliPoint 2.2 installed, the mouse control panel should
be used to set the ERDAS IMAGINE 8.4 Viewer program (<IMAGINE_HOME>
/bin/ntx86/viewer.exe) as an “exception” from the use of IntelliPoint Wheel behavior. To do
this, start the Mouse Properties dialog from the Control Panel. Under the Wheel tab, click
on Exceptions in the Universal Scrolling section and Add… the viewer.exe program.
IntelliPoint may otherwise conflict with the native behaviors of the Viewer.

18
 Ø New behaviors for the Zoom In tools
The new features added by this enhancement are:

• Animated zoom-in by a factor of two

The Viewer takes the existing data that has been displayed, animates centering
the focal point, animates zooming up to the new zoom ratio (by expanding the
data stored in the Viewer’s backing store) and then re-paints at the higher
resolution.

Click and release the Interactive Zoom

In tool on the location to be centered

Viewer centers and zooms, by a

factor of two, the backing store

Viewer re-paints using the higher

resolution data by reading from file

19
 • Box Zoom In

This new behavior adds more versatility to the Viewer – the ability to hold
down the left mouse button and drag out a rectangle that represents the area to
be zoomed into. The area selected is zoomed, in the same manner as described
above, until it fills the Viewer extents, and then the correct resolution data is
painted in from disk.

Hold and drag rectangle over

area to be zoomed

Center, magnify and re-paint at

the correct resolution

• Real-Time Zoom

This behavior allows the operator to interactively zoom in or out of the data.
The user first selects the Interactive Zoom In tool and moves the tool into a
Viewer. Then, rather than initiating any of the behaviors described above, the
user holds the middle mouse button (or Ctrl-Left Mouse Button if you have a
two-button mouse) and moves the mouse forward (up the screen) to zoom in, or
backward (down the screen) to zoom out.

When the mouse is dragged, imagery from the backing store is continuously
expanded or reduced, centered on the center of the Viewer. When the middle
mouse button is released, the imagery is re-painted with the appropriate data
read from disk. Also, while zooming, the Status Bar at the bottom of the Viewer
continuously reports the image-pixel to screen-pixel zoom ratio to aid in
selecting a point at which to release the mouse button.

20
 Hold the middle-mouse button
and drag forward to zoom in.
Pixel-to-pixel
zoom ratio is
displayed in the
Status Bar

Ø New behaviors for the Zoom Out tools

The Zoom Out tools have been enhanced to provide similar new functionality to the
Zoom In tools, except that they work in reverse. Any differences are noted below.

• Animated zoom-out by a factor of two

Works in the same manner as the Zoom In tool, except that the imagery centers
(based on the center of the Viewer or of the point clicked) and zooms out by a
factor of two. The Viewer then re-paints over the backing store, using the
correct resolution of data.

• Box Zoom Out

Works in the same manner as the Zoom In tool, except that the Viewer centers
the data that was in the rectangle area, and then zooms out to a resolution
defined by scaling the data that was originally displayed, to fit into the
rectangle. The data is then re-painted using the correct resolution, filling in the
areas around the originally displayed data.

• Real-Time Zoom

Works in the same manner as the Zoom In tool.

Ø New behaviors for the Hand tool

• Continuous Rotation

The Roam “hand” has been enhanced to allow for the continuos rotation of data

21
 displayed in the Viewer.

Select the Roam “hand” tool and move the hand into the Viewer. Hold down
the middle mouse button (or Ctrl-Left Mouse Button if you have a two-button
mouse) and drag the mouse to rotate the data around the center of the Viewer.

The Status Bar continuously reports the angle to which the data has been rotated
(negative values represent a clock-wise rotation and positive counter-
clockwise), and the Viewer shows the data being rotated in real-time.

Once the button is released, the data is re-painted using the correct resolution of
data at the angle rotated to − as well as rendering any areas not covered by − the
backing store.

Hold the middle-

mouse button
and drag to rotate

Rotation angle
is displayed in
the Status Bar

• Auto Roam
The Hand tool also enables a new auto-roaming, or “hands-free”, method of
roaming the dataset displayed in a Viewer.

This mode is best used when Virtual Roaming is enabled (View | Virtual
Roaming), which is now the default behavior in IMAGINE 8.4 (the default can
be changed in the Viewer category of the Preferences).

Left-click the mouse button when the Hand tool is selected to select a reference
point and to switch on and off this mode. Moving the mouse away from the
reference point starts the data sliding in that direction. The further the mouse is
moved away from the reference point, the faster the data moves. Moving the
mouse around the point controls the direction in which the data moves. Click
again with the left mouse button to release this mode.

22
 This allows the Viewer to be roamed without any interaction from the user once
it has started moving – simply move the mouse away from the selected point in
the direction you wish to move and let the Viewer roam.

Ø Scrolling

All the tools allow the use of an IntelliMouse wheel (under Windows only) to be used
for scrolling the Viewer. Rolling the wheel alone will scroll the Viewer north – south,
while holding down Shift and rolling the wheel will scroll the Viewer east – west.

This is particularly useful for roaming the Viewer while using another tool, such as
while performing vector digitizing (as you approach the edge of the Viewer, the wheel
can be used to scroll).

Ø Control of new Viewer behaviors through new preferences

Two new preferences have been added to the Viewer category of the Preference Editor
to help control the behavior of these new tools:
• Enable Animated Zoom

The Animated Zoom does incur an overhead in terms of time taken to zoom
compared to the old behavior of the zoom tools. If you do not wish to incur this
overhead (e.g., if the animation is too slow on your computer), switch this
preference off.

• Enable Box Zoom

The Box Zoom (dragging a rectangle over the portion of the data to be zoomed)
does cause a different behavior of the Interactive Zoom In / Out tools. Prior to
ERDAS IMAGINE 8.4, these tools operated when the button was depressed
(not when released). With the enhancement, the requirement to hold a button
down in order to drag a rectangle means that this no longer occurs – the button
must be clicked and released before the zoom occurs.

If you wish to use the old behavior, switch this preference off.

Ø Drag-and-drop ERDAS IMAGINE 8.4 supports drag-and-drop data loading to the Viewer (Windows only).
data loading
Any Windows application that supports the drag-and-drop feature (such as the Explorer) can
be used to select data sets. These data sets can then be dragged over and dropped onto a
Viewer to automatically load them.

23
Ø Extended The functionality of the Inquire Cursor has been extended to show all raster attributes for
Inquire Cursor queried thematic files, rather than just the Class_Names attribute field.

Fig 14: New Inquire Cursor dialog showing all attribute fields

Ø Transparent Transparent Background can now be set through the Arrange Layers dialog. This is useful if
Background you are overlaying one or more continuous tone images on top of another image and did not
select the Background Transparent option in the Options tab of the File Open dialog. You
can now invoke the Arrange Layers dialog and rapidly set transparent backgrounds for all
layers.

This is also useful for setting transparent backgrounds in the Map Composer, for instance if
you have generated a large number of compositions automatically with the Map Series tool.

Background transparency can also now be switched on or off for imagery without statistics.
Thus values of zero can be switched to opaque in data such as TIFF scanned maps, where
pixels of value zero are sometimes valid black text and lines.

Ø Quick Statistics Many of the image formats which can currently be accessed by ERDAS IMAGINE
(through raster DLLs) do not store image statistics within those formats. Without image
statistics ERDAS IMAGINE cannot create a Look-Up Table and therefore can only map the
image DN value to a screen brightness value. With data that isn’t stretched across the entire
8-bit range, or is stored in data formats other than 8-bit (such as IKONOS data), the imagery
would therefore look dark or washed-out depending on the exact data distribution. This
could be solved by calculating statistics using Image Info, but could be difficult if the data
were stored in a read-only location (such as a CD-ROM)

The ERDAS IMAGINE 8.4 Viewer overcomes this by automatically calculating “quick
statistics” if an image is opened which does not possess statistics. For example, if a 16-bit
GeoTIFF file is opened in a Viewer from a CD-ROM source, the Viewer quickly scans the
image blocks to acquire a representative sample of pixels and applies a 2 Standard
Deviation LUT to display the image with a satisfactory color distribution.

Note that for full control over image statistics and LUT manipulation, statistics should still
be calculated using Image Info (or the Recompute Histogram and Statistics for Layer raster

24
 tool). For data types of 16-bit or greater the user may also wish to use Direct Binning of
statistics to gain the best visual quality.

Ø Status Bar Projection Info is now displayed in the Viewer’s Status Bar.
Projection Info
This is useful in conjunction with the new on-the-fly reprojection capabilities of the Viewer
as it enables you to determine the projection system that data is currently being displayed in.

Ø Style Chooser There is a more efficient Style Chooser interface:

An Auto Apply check box makes it possible to immediately see the changes you are making
to a selected item. For instance, if changing the style of an annotation line in a Map
Composition, changes in the style chooser will immediately be visible in the composition
window.

The OK button now both applies the change and cancels the dialog box, reducing the
number of keystrokes required to edit a selected item.

Ø International
2-byte fonts ERDAS IMAGINE 8.4 makes use of the Unicode capabilities of Windows NT 4.0 to allow
the use of character sets which have more than 256 characters (i.e. 2 byte fonts). Users
working on systems using Chinese, Japanese, etc., versions of Unicode will be able to enter
text into ERDAS IMAGINE annotation text fields using their native language, have this
displayed on screen, printed from Map compositions, etc.

This capability is only available under Windows NT 4.0.

Figure 15: Using Unicode to enter Chinese characters into a Map Composition

Ø Map Series tool The Map Series tool now sets its geographic extent from the combined extent of all layers in
uses the extent the selected Viewer (i.e. the union of all input extents), rather than just the top layer.
of all layers
This enables multiple Map Compositions to be created without the need to mosaic multiple
image files together first. Instead, simply display all the images in a single Viewer and
select that Viewer as the source for the Map Series tool when prompted.

25
Ø Viewer The Viewer resampling method (Nearest Neighbor, Bilinear or Cubic Convolution) can now
resampling be set through the Quick View menu. This provides a quick and easy way for changing the
resampling method after loading imagery into the Viewer.

This is very useful when performing GCP editing, for example setting bilinear interpolation
to better identify the center of a road intersection.

Ø New style link The Viewer link box now has an extra mode of operation that places “grab bars” around the
box box. This helps move the link box if it is extremely small in extent in one Viewer – instead
of trying to grab the box itself (which can sometimes result in the box being resized instead
of moved), grab a “bar” and use it to reposition the link box.

Fig 16: Link box with grab bars

♦ Projection Support
ERDAS IMAGINE 8.4 extends the number of projections, spheroids and datums that can be
used, while also increasing their usability through a series of new features:

Ø Viewer Two or more Viewer may now be geographically linked even if the data in the Viewer is of
Geographic Link differing projections.
by reproject
For example, you can display an image in one Viewer with Geographic Lat/Lon projection
information, an image in a second Viewer with UTM coordinates, and still be able to
geographically link the two Viewers.

26
Ø Viewer reproject Two or more images (or other datasets) may now be loaded into a single Viewer even if the
images on-the- data is of differing projections.
fly
For example, in one Viewer you can display an image with Geographic Lat/Lon projection
information, then overlay a second image with UTM coordinates, and the Viewer will
automatically reproject the second image to the projection system of the first image, on-the-
fly.

Ø Mapmaker Mapmaker has also been enhanced to support this reprojection on-the-fly capability so that
reproject any on-the-fly reprojection data in a Viewer, or calibrated data, can be included in Map
Compositions and printed.

Ø 28 new 28 new Projections have been added to ERDAS IMAGINE 8.4:

Projections
• Space Oblique Mercator (Formats A & B)
• Alaska Conformal
• Interrupted Goode Homolosine
• Mollweide
• Interrupted Mollweide
• Hammer
• Wagner IV & VII
• Oblated Equal Area
• Plate Carree
• Equidistant Cylindrical
• Gauss Kruger
• Eckert I – VI
• Gall Stereographic
• Behrmann
• Winkel I & II
• Quartic Authalic
• Loximuthal
• Bonne
• Stereographic
• Cassini
• Two Point Equidistant

Ø 5 new Spheroids 5 new Spheroids have been added:

• Everest (Malaysia & Singapore 1948)

• Everest (Pakistan)
• Hayford
• Indonesian 1974
• WGS 60

27
Ø Reproject A Reproject command interface is provided to streamline the process of converting imagery
command in one projection onto a different projection.
interface
Instead of having to display the image to be reprojected in a Viewer and then using the
Geometric Correction tools, you simply specify the input file name, output file name and
new projection.

This option is especially useful with the Batch Wizard, when wishing to reproject large
numbers of files at once.

Fig 17: The Reproject dialog from Data Prep

28
Ø Rigorous As shown in figure 17 an option has been added to reprojection, which allows rigorous
Reprojection transformations to occur, as opposed to the standard polynomial transformations. In most
Process instances polynomial transformation is just as accurate as rigorous, but is much faster. The
rigorous options is useful in those instances where an image covers a very large extent (such
as the entire globe) and where a polynomial scheme would therefore fail to provide a good
fit. Due to the increased time taken to use the rigorous option, it is generally advisable to
use the polynomial option first and set a pixel error tolerance that you are willing to accept –
then set the Rigorous Transformation to be used if this tolerance is exceeded.

Ø ARC World Support is provided for ARC World Files.

Files
Previously, ERDAS IMAGINE 8.3 recognized TIFF World Files (.tfw) as providing rough
map information for TIFF images. This information was used as a fallback source of map
information if there were no georeferencing tags in the TIFF (.tif) file itself (i.e., it wasn’t
GeoTIFF). In other words, after being told to open a .tif file, ERDAS IMAGINE first looks
in the TIFF file itself for GeoTIFF tags. If these are absent, it looks for the simpler .tfw file,
then just reads the image in file coordinates if neither are present.

ERDAS IMAGINE 8.4 will do this for ANY type of image it is told to open (even for IMG
files). The software will first look for georeferencing information within the file format
itself (e.g., the HFA georeferencing nodes in an IMG file), and if these aren't present it will
look for a World File (e.g., .igw) with the same root name, then treat the file as file
coordinates if neither of these are present.

So, as an example, you could open a JFIF file (e.g. lanier.jpg). JFIF does not support
georeferencing in the format itself, so ERDAS IMAGINE would look first for a World File
(called, in this case, lanier.jgw) and use that for map info. Otherwise the file will be read as
raw file coordinates.

ARC World Files can be created as well as read by ERDAS IMAGINE 8.4. A source of
georeferencing map information is required − if no image already exists with this
information, you may have to resort to a text editor and create the relevant world file
manually. However, if you have an image with full georeferencing information, ERDAS
IMAGINE 8.4 provides the Image Command Tool for creating a world file (among other
things) from the header information of an existing image file.

This provides a convenient feature even if the image file already has projection
information (which is more complete than a World File can store). As an example, you may
want to pass the image to an application that doesn't recognize the georeferencing
information stored within the file format itself. For instance, many applications do not
recognize GeoTIFF georeferencing information, but may read a TIFF World File. So,
having created a GeoTIFF file in ERDAS IMAGINE 8.4, you can use the Image Command
Tool to select that GeoTIFF file and automatically generate a TIFF World File with the
.tfw extension to go along with the GeoTIFF .tif file. The other application, which doesn't
know how to interpret GeoTIFF georeferencing tags, then ignores the tags and uses the .tfw
file to supply map information instead.

This ability can be combined with the Batch Wizard to automate the production of hundreds
of World File style images. For example, if wanting to have 100 georeferenced IMG files
passed to an application that reads TIFF images with .tfw extension World Files, the new
Batch Wizard can be used to record and automate the following procedure:

29
 1. Session | Start Recording Batch Commands... (brings up the Batch Wizard)
2. Export one of the IMG files to TIFF in the output directory you require
3. Use Image Commands Tool to create a World File for the (Geo)TIFF file
4. Stop recording batch commands
5. Use the Batch Wizard to set an automatic output file naming convention and re-run this
procedure on the other 99 files automatically

This procedure would produce 100 .tif image files all with correctly named .tfw World
Files.

The process would be more complicated if the exported file format doesn't record full
georeferencing information in its format. For example if exporting 100 georeferenced IMG
files to JFIF (JPEG) and you wanted corresponding .jgw World Files, you couldn't use the
Image Commands Tool to generate the world file from the JFIF image, since the JFIF
doesn't store georeferencing information. Instead, you would have to generate the World
File from the original IMG files, but might set the naming convention and output directory
so that they are associated with the JFIF files.

Ø Enhanced CellArray has been changed to allow the display of up to 8 decimal digits of printed
CellArray™ precision. This is especially useful if showing Decimal Degrees or Degrees Minute Seconds
precision with decimal seconds in, for example, the Coordinate Calculator – much higher accuracy is
achieved by having the display not truncate.

Ø Units definable The Coordinate Calculator now allows the units to be set for the input and output projection
in Coordinate systems, thereby ensuring accurate coordinate translations between projections with
Calculator differing units (such as State Plane, feet, to UTM, meters).

♦ Printing
Ø Improved Printing performance has been improved, especially for the Windows NT platform, notably
Windows NT the ability to successfully print much larger map compositions to large format plotters.
printing These improvements are largely controlled through the addition of two new Preferences in
performance the Map Printing category.

Map compositions are now sent to printers in strips so as not to overload the printer with too
much data at any one time. The size of these strips can be controlled using the Strip Height
preference, if necessary.

The data being sent to the printer is also compressed by default, again to reduce the amount
of data and time taken sending to the device. If this has an adverse effect on the quality of
the hardcopy printouts you are receiving it can be controlled via the Printing Data Transfer
Compression preference. Conversely, if you are having problems sending large plots to a
printer you may want to increase the compression level in order to reduce the amount of
data the printer has to handle.

30
 Figure 18: The Map Printing category of the Preference Editor

Ø Pre-rasterize An option has been added to rasterize maps before printing. This is available as an option on
map before Windows platforms only – UNIX platforms automatically rasterize all non-PostScript
printing output.

This option helps maintain color balance when printing annotation overlays and polygon fill
styles to some printers. Most printers produce color by dithering dots of pure color and
commonly pick the closest color to the one requested and can consequently produce color
shift from what is represented on screen. Pre-rasterizing the entire Map Composition to a
raster form before submitting it to the print driver minimizes these effects and produces
color balance closer to the on-screen representation.

Ø Print vector Previous versions of ERDAS IMAGINE always forced vector layers in a Map Composition
layers below to be printed above raster layers, even if the vector layers had been arranged below rasters.
rasters ERDAS IMAGINE 8.4 preserves the arrangement of vector and raster layers when using the
pre-rasterization option (or when printing to formats other than PostScript under UNIX).

31
 ♦ General
Ø Quick access to ERDAS IMAGINE dialogs that use a Filename part to select file names have been extended
the Recent list so that the right mouse button can be used to directly access the Recent list files (Windows
platforms only).

Simply place the mouse pointer over the file selector icon and click the right mouse button.

Figure 19: Using the right mouse button to access the Recent list for an input file

Ø Year 2000 issues As part of ERDAS IMAGINE’s general support for Year 2000 issues, years AD100 through
AD10000 are now supported as date data (e.g., as date fields in a CellArray).

Ø CellArray Improved CellArray scrolling is provided in ERDAS IMAGINE 8.4 via support for
scrolling IntelliMouse wheel operations on Windows platforms. The wheel can be used to scroll
vertically and the wheel-button can be used to auto-scroll in arbitrary directions.

Ø Printed manuals As part of the general improvements to On-Line Help, all printed documents are now
as part of On- available in the installation as Adobe PDF format documents.
Line Help
In addition these documents are linked into the hyper-text context-sensitive On-Line Help −
if a printed manual is referred to in On-Line Help, the reference can be clicked to
automatically start Adobe Acrobat Reader and load the relevant PDF document.

32
 Functional Description: IMAGINE VirtualGIS™
V8.4.1
Please also refer to the “What’s New: IMAGINE VirtualGIS 8.4” document for other new
features available in IMAGINE VirtualGIS.

Ø Drag-and-drop On Windows platforms, you can load data to the Viewer, IMAGINE VirtualGIS or the
data loading Batch Wizard simply by dragging-and-dropping from an application that supports drag-and-
drop. For example, several image and vector files could be selected in the Microsoft
Explorer and these files dragged into an IMAGINE VirtualGIS Viewer for rapid display.

Ø Water layers Add a water layer to your IMAGINE VirtualGIS scene and interact in one of two modes:

In the “Entire Scene” mode, a water plane is added across the entire scene extent. The water
height can then be interactively raised or lowered in real-time to simulate the flooding of the
area.

In the “Create Fill Areas” mode, a variant of the Seed Tool can be used to fill individual
hollows in the scene. Point and click at the location you wish to fill, specify the depth and
IMAGINE VirtualGIS will calculate the extent of the “lake” that forms from that point.
Multiple points can be selected and filled, with a CellArray providing information on the
surface area and volume of each water body thus created.

In either mode, the properties of the “water” can be controlled. The water surface color and
opacity can be selected, ripples can be added or a texture can be mapped onto the water
surface to provide added realism. In addition, the water surface can be made reflective so
that mountains and other surrounding features are reflected in the water.

Surface area and volume attribute information is also calculated and stored for each filled
area. This information can be displayed via the Fill Attributes CellArray.

Ø MultiGen Add 3D objects in the MultiGen-Paradigm OpenFlight (*.flt) format (Windows NT and SGI
OpenFlight IRIX only). These objects support texture mapping to provide an added level of realism.

Ø Sun position A file can be opened which defines graphic files to use to represent the sun and the lens-
and glare flare effects of this light source on the observer.

If using the Sun Position tool with Auto Apply on, the sun graphic and the lens-flare will
move across the sky to visually represent the movement of the sun.

Ø Transparent Transparency is now supported for polygon fill styles in the IMAGINE VirtualGIS viewer.
Polygons For example, ArcInfo polygon coverages can be set with semi-transparent fill colors and
when extruded vertically in the IMAGINE VirtualGIS scene they will be represented in this
semi-transparent color.

33
Ø Distance-based To further optimize the speed of the IMAGINE VirtualGIS display, 3D models placed in a
3D model Model Layer will be rendered only if within a certain distance of the observer.
rendering
Consequently objects in the far distance will not be rendered and therefore will not slow the
system down. As the observer moves towards the objects, they will be added into the scene
when the object reaches a user-specified size in terms of screen pixels.

Ø Cross option for “Flat” image textures can now be automatically added into a scene as “crossed” 3D models
texture 3D in a Model Layer, rather than as simple “bill-boards”. Unlike “bill-boards” the “crossed”
models models do not turn to face the observer continuously. “Crossed” objects are useful for
representing objects that are roughly symmetrical about their vertical axis, such as trees, etc.

Sun graphic

Lens Flare

Water layer

Reflections

Texture mapped Crossed

3D model textures

3D model © MultiGen, Inc.

Ø Faster Virtual A new option has been added to the Virtual World Editor to increase rendering speeds when
Worlds creating large Virtual Worlds (200MB and over). The improvements are to the rendering of
the elevation model and raster overlays that are part of a virtual world built using the Virtual
World Editor.

This enhancement is applicable to any high-end machine with plenty of RAM and texture
memory.

34
 In addition to general performance enhancements a new option is provided called "Tile
Size" in the Virtual World Editor (under the World Info tab, Change DEM Options section).
The existing sector size option divided the data into regions defined by one DEM file and
one image file. The "Tile Size" now defines how each sector is divided into chunks of data
that will be paged from disk when traversing the Virtual World in the IMAGINE VirtualGIS
viewer.

The "Tile Size" feature has a large impact on the footprint of the Virtual World in memory
when it is read by the IMAGINE VirtualGIS viewer. Previously the "Tile Size" was set at
64, which has proven to be adequate for Virtual Worlds under 200 MB. However, with
Virtual Worlds larger than 200 MB a "Tile Size" of 128 increases the rendering speed. For
Virtual Worlds over 2 GB in size you may want to increase the tile size to 256. Changing
the value of "Tile Size" will require a re-build of the Virtual World.

The larger the "Tile Size" the smaller the footprint of the Virtual World is in memory when
displayed by the VirtualGIS viewer.

ERDAS’ tests with a 2 GB Virtual World showed a 12 times increase in the frame rate
when using a Tile Size of 256 when compared to using the default 64 size in ERDAS
IMAGINE 8.3.1.

Ø Optimizing A new section is available in the help/hardcopy directory for IMAGINE VirtualGIS which
Performance discusses the Preferences and options to use for optimizing performance on individual
computers. This PDF file is called Vgis_Performance.pdf. These suggestions should be used
to tailor IMAGINE VirtualGIS to the particular OpenGL hardware, drivers and general
computer setup that you have.

35
 Functional Description: IMAGINE OrthoRadar™
Ø Faster The IMAGINE OrthoRadar orthocorrection process is much faster under ERDAS
orthocorrection IMAGINE 8.4.

Platform Support
ERDAS IMAGINE 8.4 will be shipped on all platforms simultaneously, to include:

• Microsoft Windows 98
• Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 (Service Pack 4)
• Sun Solaris 2.6
• Sun Solaris 7.0
• SGI IRIX 6.5
• IBM AIX 4.3.2
• HP-UX 11*
• Compaq Tru64 UNIX, Version 4.0F (running on the DEC Alpha chip – replaces DEC
OSF)
*
OpenGL support is not provided by the Server version of HP-UX 11. Additional software
from HP is required to run the Image Drape utility and IMAGINE VirtualGIS.

Information subject to change without notice.

For more information about our geographic imaging solutions, please contact us. We'll respond immediately.

www.erdas.com
ERDAS Worldwide Headquarters ERDAS in Europe, Africa, All Other Worldwide
Toll Free: +1 877-GO ERDAS (463-7327) Middle East, Asia/Pacific Rim Inquiries
Phone: 404-248-9000 Phone: +44 1224-881774 Phone: +1 404-248-9000
Fax: 404-248-9400 Fax: +44 1223-880160 Fax: +1 404-248-9400

Copyright © 1999 ERDAS, Inc. All rights reserved. ERDAS and ERDAS IMAGINE are registered trademarks; IMAGINE Essentials, IMAGINE
Advantage, IMAGINE Professional, IMAGINE Expert Classifier, IMAGINE VirtualGIS, IMAGINE OrthoRadar, IMAGINE Vector and CellArray are
trademarks of ERDAS, Inc. Other brand and product names are the properties of their respective owners. cc 11/99

36