ERDAS IMAGINE 2013

Release Notes

Version 2013

December 2012
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Contents
About this Release ...................................................................................................................................... 7

New Platforms .............................................................................................................................................. 7

New Technology .......................................................................................................................................... 7

New Tools and Technology for Handling Point Clouds .......................................................................... 8
The new point cloud suite provides the following capabilities .......................................................... 9
Other LAS operators for file-based operations, providing batchable and
distributable capabilities ................................................................................................................. 10
2D, Profile and 3D Cloud Viewer, combined with the colorizing and filtering options,
provides for visualization, interpretation and better understanding of your data............................ 10
Next-Generation Spatial Modeler.......................................................................................................... 11
GeoMedia Integration with Spatial Modeler ................................................................................... 13
Summary of Spatial Modeler .......................................................................................................... 13
GeoMedia Integration with ERDAS IMAGINE ...................................................................................... 14
New Tools in the IMAGINE Radar Mapping Suite™ ............................................................................ 14
Radar Analyst Workstation (New) .................................................................................................. 14
Interferometry Module (Improvements) .......................................................................................... 14
Radar Utilities (Additions) ............................................................................................................... 15
Better Results for Object-based Feature Extraction ............................................................................. 15
Additional Indices and a Streamlined Interface for Working with Indices ............................................. 16
Enhanced Compressed Wavelet (ECW) version 3 ............................................................................... 17
New Technology in LPS ........................................................................................................................ 18
Ribonization .................................................................................................................................... 18
New Sensor Support ...................................................................................................................... 19
Z/I Mouse Support .......................................................................................................................... 19

Improvements ............................................................................................................................................ 20
Dynamic North Arrow and Scale Bar .................................................................................................... 20
Windows-based File Chooser ............................................................................................................... 21
Table of Contents Legends and Styling ................................................................................................ 21
Transitions tab....................................................................................................................................... 23
Measurement tab .................................................................................................................................. 24
Height from Shadow ....................................................................................................................... 24
General Measurement Tab improvements ..................................................................................... 27
Batch Processing .................................................................................................................................. 27
Unsupervised Classification .................................................................................................................. 29
Isodata and K-Means ..................................................................................................................... 29
Faster Classification ....................................................................................................................... 29
MosaicPro ............................................................................................................................................. 30
LPS - Terrain Handling Improvement ................................................................................................... 30

ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 Release Notes 5

About this Release
This document describes ERDAS IMAGINE 2013. Although the information in this document is
current as of the product release, see the Intergraph Support website for the most current
version.
This document is only an overview and does not provide all of the details about the product's
capabilities. See the online help and other documents provided with ERDAS IMAGINE for more
information.

New Platforms
ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 adds Microsoft Windows 8, Windows 8 Professional and Windows 8
Enterprise 64-bit (not the 32-bit versions) as supported platforms.

However please note that at the time of release of ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 Windows 8 does not
have stereo-capable display drivers and so stereo aspects of ERDAS IMAGINE (such as IMAGINE
VirtualGIS’ 3D View, Terrain Editor, Stereo Point Measurement tool and Stereo Analyst for
ERDAS IMAGINE) are not currently supported on this platform. Once stereo-capable display
drivers have been released Intergraph will perform certification testing and announce when
support will be available.

Also as of the release of ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 the ArcEngine product was not available for
Windows 8. Consequently the IMAGINE Geodatabase Support installer is not supported on
Windows 8 at this time.

Windows Vista is no longer a supported platform for ERDAS IMAGINE.

Please refer to the Supported Environments and System Requirements documents available at
the Intergraph Support website for the most current information on supported platforms.

New Technology
The ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 release is part of a Unified, Modern and Dynamic portfolio of
products offered by Intergraph.

ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 Release Notes 7

 Highlights of this release include:
 Point Cloud visualization, editing and processing
 A new Spatial Model Editor with more flexible programming capabilities and real-time
preview of results
 Integration of various GeoMedia-based technologies into ERDAS IMAGINE
 New and simplified tools for interacting with SAR imagery
 Better object-based feature extraction, including a new image segmentation approach
 A highly automated but flexible approach to applying band math functions to imagery
 Upgraded wavelet compression and decompression technologies
 New Photogrammetrical capabilities
 And a host of other improvements

These are detailed further in the sections below

New Tools and Technology for Handling Point Clouds

ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 enables you to more thoroughly visualize, analyze, and manage your
point clouds. New viewing technology allows you to simultaneously view point clouds in 2D, 3D
and as a user-specified profile that can reveal information by looking at cross sections of the
point cloud. There are also tools to classify, subset and filter your point data, as well as RGB
encode it (such as by using an orthophoto of the same area to add color to the points).

8 ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 Release Notes

The new point cloud suite provides the following capabilities
 3D Point Viewer (aerial and terrestrial) – optional clip to 2D extent, Link to 2D, specify
file for ground/solid surface
 View by return and/or classification and/or file
 Style points by return, classification, elevation, file, RGB, intensity
 Standard Profile across and along a defined box
 Ability to roam the profile along a vector corridor
 Overall profile of corridor defined by a polyline
 Measure in Profile and export measurements
 Delete and reclassify selected points in Profile or 2D view with undo/redo
 Measure in 2D View
 Area Operators for editing by selection (Constant Z, Bias)
 Point cloud metadata

ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 Release Notes 9

  Pyramids and spatial indexing provides for rapid display
 Read MrSID compressed LAS

Other LAS operators for file-based operations, providing batchable

and distributable capabilities
 Add projection
 RGB Encode
 Classification
 Subset
 Filter by classification
 Split and merge

2D, Profile and 3D Cloud Viewer, combined with the colorizing and
filtering options, provides for visualization, interpretation and better
understanding of your data
 Auto–roaming provides a way to rapidly inspect a lot of data – particularly useful in the
utility market where a user can roam along a power corridor, detect where vegetation
is encroaching, pause, make measurements that record the position and any
measurements along with user-defined notes. The measurements and notes can be
exported to a spreadsheet, where the co-ordinates can be fed to field crews to
perform remedial actions.
 The Constant Z area operator is used to correct sensor errors in water bodies - usually
these areas are flat, but turbulence and other factors can cause small pits and spikes in
the LiDAR returns. These can be removed by applying a constant value across the
surface in a given area.
 Bias is an area operator commonly used in forestry. If you have only single return
LiDAR, or pixel correlated points, your point cloud will include the tops of dense forest.
In some cases the user is interested in an approximate ground map and if you know
the average tree height you can bias the elevation to ‘eliminate’ the trees.
 Adding projection information – Many LiDAR post-processing systems remove the
projection metadata making it impossible to reference the point data to other
referenced imagery or vectors for combined analysis. This tool allows the user to apply

10 ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 Release Notes

 the captured projection. In addition, because LAS files are generally large causing most
users tochoose to create small tiles, our batch tool and distributed processing
capabilities provide for adding the projection to many files at once.
 RGB encoding adds value to the LiDAR data and makes it more interpretable. With
typical LiDAR data each point has x, y, z, classification, return and perhaps a few other
fields but the LAS format also provides for encoding each point with an RGB color
value. This tool takes a point cloud and a corresponding ortho image (or other source
of “color” information) and maps the color from the raster to the point. The result is a
3D color view providing much easier visual data interpretation.
 The Classification tool looks at groups of points and attempts to understand the macro
feature they represent such as ground, buildings and various vegetation size classes.
This is obviously important to better understand your data and it also provides a
mechanism to examine your data by component. For example, you could view bare
ground with buildings but remove the vegetation. Classification is batchable and
therefore distributable.
 Subsetting and filtering are ways to make the LAS data more manageable.
 Support for reading of MrSID compressed point clouds.

Next-Generation Spatial Modeler

Spatial Modeler is ERDAS IMAGINE's next generation spatial modeling suite. It has been
redesigned from the ground up to provide a robust extensible processing architecture coupled
with a more responsive and intuitive user experience. The core engine is based on a “Pull”
architecture which means that no computation is done until the data is needed, providing the
ability to have real time feedback of the results. The system is extensible in both data types
and operations on data types which has enabled it to support a rich set of vector operators in
addition to the traditional raster functions, many of which have been implemented from the
GeoMedia and GeoMedia Grid applications.

ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 Release Notes 11

 Python scripting allows users to extend the utility of the modeler and even incorporate
operators from other software.

The user interface is now completely integrated into the ERDAS IMAGINE Ribbon workspace as a
new type of application which presents the user with a blank sheet of paper and set of tools for
building a model. The model is built by dragging and dropping operators in the page then
connecting their inputs and outputs to build a running model. The results of the model can be
directly viewed in real time in the Preview Window or it can be run in a file to file mode.

The user interface is composed of the following elements:

Spatial Modeler Tab - Located at the top of the interface in the Ribbon, the Spatial Modeler tab
provides the tools for controlling the interface and making edits to the model. When the Spatial
Modeler Editor is active this tab will appear in the Ribbon.

Spatial Model Editor View - The area in the middle that actually contains the model. The view
can be resized using the zoom control on the Home tab, including the Fit to Frame button, which is
also included in the Show group on the Spatial Modeler Tab

Operators - Is a panel, located on the upper right by default, which contains the list of available
operators.
Properties - Is a panel, located on the lower right by default, which displays property information
about the currently selected operator.

12 ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 Release Notes

 Spatial Modeler is now also tightly integrated with the batch system, so that running a model on
hundreds of datasets is just a matter of clicking on “Run in Batch”, selecting the input files and
clicking on “Run Now” in the Batch dialog.

GeoMedia Integration with Spatial Modeler

New Operators Derived from GeoMedia and GeoMedia Grid are included in Spatial Modeler:
 GeoMedia Warehouse Output
 Shapefile Output
 Buffer Operator with Merge Option
 Basic Attribute Filter Operator
 Spatial Query operator
 Warehouse Attribute Table / Update Table Operators
 Insolation Operator
 Cost Spread Operator
 Proximity Spread Operator
 Least Cost Path Operator
 Reverse Path Operator
 Path Back Network Operator

Summary of Spatial Modeler

 The new Spatial Modeler has a modern look
 Provides real-time preview on most functions
 Build and execute vector and raster models, including operators derived from
GeoMedia and GeoMedia Grid
 Open and use your existing 2011 (and prior) graphical models
 Make use of python scripting
 Publish your model to APOLLO Professional as a Web Processing Service (WPS)
 Easily create simple User input dialogs and batch jobs

ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 Release Notes 13

GeoMedia Integration with ERDAS IMAGINE
Besides the integration into Spatial Modeler, GeoMedia functionality is also now integrated
into other areas of ERDAS IMAGINE.

 The GeoMedia connection manager is embedded to provide access to common

GeoMedia vector data sources.
 GeoMedia conversion tools, which formerly required a side-by-side installation of
GeoMedia are now available from ERDAS IMAGINE, enabling users to convert between
shapefiles and GeoMedia warehouses, and to create coordinate system and
initialization files.
 Plus a simplified file to file buffer analysis tool is included.

New Tools in the IMAGINE Radar Mapping Suite™

IMAGINE Radar Mapping Suite provides new tools that enable easier, more thorough use of
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data resources. Many of the radar tools are now presented
using a ribbon interface for faster and easier access. Other features include on-the-fly
georeferencing, and quick and easy detection of floods or spills.

Radar Analyst Workstation (New)

 Geocode-on-Ingest with no resampling of pixel values
 Radar Look Direction arrow to guide visual interpretation
 Real-time Edge Enhancement to directionally emphasize lineaments
 Real-time Level-Slice of histogram to delineate features of interest
 Automatic conversion of Level-Slice decisions to Shapefile Product
 Real-time Region Grow to extract feature perimeters

Interferometry Module (Improvements)

 Fully automatic Coregistration of image-pair with less precise ephemeris
 Support for Spotlight-mode images which is the higher resolution data.
 Improved Coregistration in areas of high relief
 New industry-standard Output Products
o Land Use Product

14 ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 Release Notes

 o Temporal Coherence
 Calculation of new Match image in Reference image geometry
 Adaptive Spectral Shift Filters embedded into IMAGINE, for use in Coherence Change
Detection (CCD)
 Improved coherence & interferogram computation & accuracy of results

Radar Utilities (Additions)

 Coherence-to Incoherence Conversion
 Coherence-to-Inverse Coherence Conversion
 Stand-alone Coregistration Tool – important for multitemporal analysis.

Better Results for Object-based Feature Extraction

IMAGINE Objective uses a new segmentation algorithm, the Full Lambda Schedule, and
provides you with the ability to fine-tune the creation of segments based on shape, size,
texture, and spectral value.

ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 Release Notes 15

Additional Indices and a Streamlined Interface for
Working with Indices
ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 now includes more than 35 of the most commonly used indices (band
algebra formulas that enable easier information extraction from imagery), and the interface for
interacting with the Indices has been streamlined. The indices work with all of the sensor
models supported by ERDAS IMAGINE, and the Indices tool is connected to the Spatial Modeler
for easy editing and real-time calculation of the chosen indices.

16 ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 Release Notes

 Using the new Indices user interface users can easily invert the bands being used in standard
Indices, substitute different bands and perform simple band ratioing on any type of imagery.

Enhanced Compressed Wavelet (ECW) version 3

ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 takes advantage of version 5 of the ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK to provide
enhanced support for JPEG 2000 (JP2) and ECW v2 file formats as well as introducing the new
ECW v3 file format.

 New ECW v3 file format

o Unsigned 16-bit support
o Embedded metadata, RPC and Statistics information
o Use GeoTIFF specifications to store coordinate reference systems
 New multi-threaded compressor for ECW v2 and v3 files
o Faster compression
o Leverage multi-core and fast hard-disks

ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 Release Notes 17

 o Stable usage management when using tiled input data
o Even faster for corridor project areas with large amounts of null regions
 Significantly improved JPEG 2000 support
o Display improvements reading
o Need to generate J2I files greatly reduced

New Technology in LPS

Ribbonization
All LPS tools and features are now presented within the ERDAS IMAGINE ribbon, with tighter
integration with the ERDAS IMAGINE tools. This simplifies workflows for photogrammetry users
who use varied types of data and perform further processing, such as change detection or
image classification. The old interface is still accessible from the Tools tab to make transition to
the new interface easier.

18 ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 Release Notes

New Sensor Support
Support for the following sensors has been added.
 VisionMap A3 Super Large Format (SLF) Model,
 Pleiades Rational Polynomial Coefficients (RPC) Model,
 DEIMOS RPC Model.
These sensor models are also available throughout ERDAS IMAGINE® 2013

Z/I Mouse Support

Support for the Z/I Mouse as a digitizing device is added for Stereo Point Measurement tool
and Terrain Editor providing you with an additional input device choice.

Z/I Mouse is Z/I Imaging’s state-of-the-art 3-D input device that has fifteen programmable
buttons, two forcestick buttons and a thumbwheel control for taking precise 2D/3D
measurements

ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 Release Notes 19

Improvements
ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 provides several new Ribbon-based improvements

Dynamic North Arrow and Scale Bar

The 2D View’s North Arrow and Scale Bar elements now provide a more modern and flexible
experience. The North Arrow shows the numeric angle to True North and can be used to
manually rotate the data frame. The Scale Bar now interactively expands and contracts as the

20 ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 Release Notes

 contents of the View are zoomed (and panned, in the case of geometrically calibrated imagery
where the scale may vary across the imagery)

Windows-based File Chooser

Switching a Preference in ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 enables use of a Windows-based file chooser
which provides several time-saving capabilities such as preview thumbnails for imagery, file
searching, format-specific Recent file name lists and more.

Table of Contents Legends and Styling

The Table of Contents pane now provides direct access to Legend information specific to the
type of data being displayed. For raster data this could be a direct display of Thematic data’s
class names and colors, including the ability to quickly turn classes on and off in the 2D View
display. For Continuous (athematic) imagery colour guns can be turned on and off.

ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 Release Notes 21

 The icon for each raster data set can also now display an alert symbol (an exclamation mark in
a yellow triangle) if ERDAS IMAGINE suspects there is a problem with some aspect of the
image. Right clicking over the Legend entry and selecting “Correct the Alert Problem..” will
bring up a dialog which describes the problem, suggests corrective measures and enables those
corrective measures to be executed on one or more datasets.

For vector data layers, the new Legend capabilities include rapid access to the Styling tab to
change the appearance of how the data is displayed.

22 ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 Release Notes

Transitions tab
The Blend, Swipe and Flicker tools have been integrated into the contextual Ribbon interface to
provide a more familiar user experience for users. While doing so several improvements have
been made such as providing the ability to grab and move the Swipe divider directly in the
View for finer control of the split location and also to define the direction and order of Swiping.

ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 Release Notes 23

Measurement tab
The Measurement tool has been integrated into the contextual Ribbon interface to provide a
more familiar user experience for users. While doing so several improvements have been
made.

Height from Shadow

Previous versions of ERDAS IMAGINE introduced the ability to measure the height of features
based on the layover / lean of the feature. For example, a light pole may appear to be leaning
in an air photo because of the oblique viewing angle of the camera system. If the image is
geometrically calibrated using a 3D geometric model (such as the Frame Camera model) you
could measure the image location of the base of the light pole and the top and ERDAS IMAGINE
would derive the height of the light pole from those two image measurements. In the absence
of stereo imagery this is an extremely effective way of deriving height information.

24 ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 Release Notes

 However it is not always possible to use this technique. For example the feature of interest is
being viewed near-nadir (from almost directly above) and so there is no visible lean to measure
in the image. Or the feature might not have vertical sides. In these cases other methods must
be found to measure the height of features.

Two alternatives introduced with ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 take advantage of the shadows cast by
features to derive the height of the feature. If the position of the Sun is known (or can be
derived based on the date and time that the image was captured) then the length of the
shadow can be used to calculate the height of the feature that cast that shadow.

Two modes are available. The first is based on image measurements at the base of the feature
to the end of the shadow cast by the top edge of the feature above that base point. However
the base of the feature (such as a building) cannot always be seen (or the feature does not
have vertical sides). So the second mode measures from the top of the feature to the end of
the shadow cast by that top point. The latter mode is the least accurate of the modes of
measuring height, but is useful for non-vertical features such as domed buildings, spires,
electricity transmission towers, etc.

These three methods of measurement (layover, shadow base and shadow top) are all
demonstrated in the screenshot below:

ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 Release Notes 25

 In the case of satellite imagery the sun position can often be automatically derived from the
header information. In the case of aerial imagery (or when not derivable form the image
header) the sun position can be manually entered or derived by entering the date and time the
image was acquired.

In cases where neither sun position nor image acquisition information is known, the sun
position can be derived by measuring the shadow of a feature of known height.

26 ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 Release Notes

General Measurement Tab improvements
As well as the Height from Shadow measurement tools several other features have been
improved or added as part of transforming Measurement into a Ribbon-based tab:
 User-defined comments can be added in the CellArray and exported along with the
measurement values themselves for use in other products
 When using the option to automatically create Annotation elements for the
measurements the default styling has been altered to better stand out against a variety
of image backdrops (but can be easily modified using the Ribbon’s Format tab)
 The image from which measurements are being made is now clearly identified in the
Measurement tab. This is important when two or more geometrically calibrated
images (e.g. NITF format data) are displayed in the same View. The differing sensor
geometries of each image could result in an incorrect Height measurement if not
correctly identified.
 The Sensor Geometry group provides a useful tool for all users of imagery
geometrically calibrated with a 3D sensor model (such as RPCs, Rigorous Sensor
Models, Frame Camera, etc). As well as providing some of the information necessary
for making layover-based height measurements, the Sensor Geometry group
graphically depicts the sensor viewing geometry (angle above the horizon and azimuth)
which can greatly assist a user in analyzing the information they are seeing in an image.
 When using the option to automatically add measurements to a vector layer, the user
now has greater control over the attribute field to be populated and the type of
measurement that will be recorded.

Batch Processing
The Batch tool in previous releases of ERDAS IMAGINE was presented as a series of wizard
pages which were often confusing to interact with. With the 2013 release the wizard has been
replaced with a single dialog to better present the possibilities for interacting with the
recorded ERDAS IMAGINE command(s).

ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 Release Notes 27

 The new Batch dialog provides several other significant improvements
 Commands which have more than one input file (such as Pan Sharpening / Resolution
Merge operations) can now be automatically variabalized through use of the Variables
pull down in the dialog. Simply choose the “pattern” of number of inputs or outputs
and the Batch tool will substitute the correct input and output variables.
 The Batch tools interacts directly with the new Spatial Model Editor so that no
variabalization is required at all – the command is added to the Batch tool with all
regular variables pre-defined.
 Preview option lets you see a listing of the commands the Batch tool will issue when
Run or Submit is selected. This enables a rapid review to ensure that the correct
variables have been set up and are being interpreted as you want them to be.
 Auto-variables (such as pattern-based output filenaming) are displayed directly into
the table.
 Simpler editing of variables with instant display of edit effects such as name changes
showing up in the command syntax.

28 ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 Release Notes

Unsupervised Classification
Isodata and K-Means
The term "Iterative Self-Organizing Data Analysis Technique” (Isodata) describes a broad
algorithmic approach to performing unsupervised classification on imagery. It is iterative in
that it repeatedly performs an entire classification (outputting a thematic raster layer) and
recalculates statistics. "Self-Organizing" refers to the way in which it locates the clusters that
are inherent in the data.

In prior releases the form of Isodata implemented in ERDAS IMAGINE covered the subset of the
larger approach which is generally referred to as the K-Means method. This method requires
you to enter a predetermined number of output clusters. Pixels are iteratively classified into
this number of clusters without any deleting, splitting, or merging during the process.

With the 2013 release the Unsupervised capabilities available to IMAGINE Professional users
has been expanded to include a fuller set of Isodata options. In this expanded Isodata method
you can set a range for the number of clusters to be produced. This is because the Isodata
algorithm can perform cluster deletion, splitting, and merging between iterations.

One of the advantages of this enhanced Isodata option is that it provides for producing a
greater number classes in the tails of the image histograms – the dark / shadowed areas and
the bright areas.

Faster Classification
The new Unsupervised Classification dialog also provides an enhanced option for increasing the
speed of processing. This involves setting Skip Factors whereby the initial class clusters are built
up by the software using a sampling of the image pixels, thereby increasing the speed with
which the technique converges on a set of classes.

However in ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 an option has been added called “Add 1:1 Iteration” which
performs a final pass of the algorithm using all the original image pixels.

By this method a full resolution classification can be produced much more rapidly than by
traditional methods of running across the whole image, with little effect on the results.

ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 Release Notes 29

MosaicPro
The following improvements have been made:
 New active area by edge method deployed in Mosaic Pro to provide a significant
performance increase in overall mosaicking process by reducing the number of vertices
in active areas
 Histogram matching improvements
 GUI to choose layer in cloud punching tool
 Improved Stability when handling large file sets.
 Mosaic Pro now displays the image name within the footprint for easier identification
 The visual display has been improved to help determine overlap (fill Polygons)
 Ortho-calibrated images that have become separated from their DEM now correctly
fall back to constant elevation
 Band dependent dodging algorithm improvement preserves the color tone after
dodging if band independent option is not selected
 Fixed orthorectification for ALOS/PRISM L1B1 with RPC

LPS - Terrain Handling Improvement

LPS’s native terrain file format LTF has been enhanced to handle more points. In addition, level
of details has been introduced for LTF files (similar to raster pyramids) which make handling of
large LTF files more efficient. To differentiate the new LTF files from those generated in prior
versions, the format is renamed to LTFx.

30 ERDAS IMAGINE 2013 Release Notes