ECW Plugin for ArcGIS Desktop Available

The latest release of the free ECW Plugin for ArcGIS Desktop is now available on the ECW Plugin Download site, http://www.erdas.com/products/ECWPlugins/Downloads.aspx.

The ECW Plugin for ArcGIS Desktop 2011 is built with the ERDAS ECW/JP2 Desktop SDK version 4.2 and offers many advantages over the previous versions of ECW Plugin for ArcGIS that were built with the ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK 3.x. These advantages are increased performance, additional capabilities and numerous fixes.

ECW Plugin for ArcGIS Desktop 2011:

Is compatible with ArcGIS Desktop 9.3, and 9.3.1 SP1 or higher, and ArcGIS Desktop 10 SP1 or higher
Decodes local ECW and JP2 data faster and more efficiently
Has a wider projection system support for ECW and JP2 than earlier plugin versions and native ArcGIS ECW support
Supports GML in JP2 data
Streams ECW and JP2 data via ECWP from ERDAS APOLLO Essentials IWS or ERDAS APOLLO Advantage
Uses dynamic progressive rendering of ECWP layers
Provides opacity channel support, not available in native ArcGIS ECW support
Provides a configurable persistent local disk cache of ECWP blocks
Provides an ECWP selection capability for discovery of ECWP streams on an ERDAS APOLLO Essentials IWS 2010 and 2011
Is compatible with foreign language versions of Windows (GUI not localized)
Re-projects ECWP streams on-the-fly
Supports multi-band ECWP streams
Supports 16-bit ECWP streams using min-max calculation
Improved printing support for large scale ECWP plots (tested up to A0)

ECW for ArcGIS Desktop will not:

Encode (compress) any data
Enable ArcGIS Desktop to serve ECW or JP2 data
Query the ERDAS APOLLO Advantage Catalog
Read ERDAS ER Mapper ALG or ERS files

ERDAS Press Relase: http://erdas.com/company/news/newsreleases/11-06-28/ERDAS_Extends_ArcGIS_Support_with_New_Version_of_ECW_Plug-in.aspx

Blog Post on Release of ECW for ArcGIS Server product

See info on the latest ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK.

Hexagon 2011 CEO Keynote: Turning The Pace of Change into the World's Advantage

Here is the complete version of Ola Rollén's opening session keynote address from Hexagon 2011. It is 51.42 minutes long.

http://www.hexagonmetrology.us/news-and-events/talking-points-blog/entry/hexagon-2011-ceo-keynote-turning-the-pace-of-change-into-the-worlds-advantage

For you ERDASians.... rememeber ERDAS was transfered from Leica Geosystems to Intergraph SGI in a technology swap. Intergraph Security, Government & Infrastructure (SG&I) received software (ERDAS) and Leica Geosystems received sensors (DMC). When Ola mentions Intergraph SG&I, he means Intergraph and ERDAS technologies together.

Frank Warmerdam (Mr GDAL) Joining Google

Mr. GDAL himself is joining Google in Mountain View, California. See: http://fwarmerdam.blogspot.com/2011/06/joining-google.html.

Google is likely to allow Frank to remain active in GDAL/OGR and in OSGeo (on the board and other committees) while in their employment. So, it looks like GDAL will still be mentored by Mr GDAL (some Google time or Frank's personal time), which is good news indeed.

Read Frank's blog for detailed information.

Also, Frank worked quite a bit over the last 6-months to solidify IMG and ECW support in GDAL. In the past some applications using GDAL created some non-standard IMG and AUX files, and most of these issues have been corrected in GDAL. Now it is up to the applications to make their corrections.

The ECW in GDAL work added support for ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK 4.1 and 4.2 and added further control to end-users.

Joel Campbell GIS Cafe Interview at Hexagon 2011

Did you miss Hexagon 2011? Make sure you plan on Hexagon 2012 June 4 - 7 in Las Vegas, NV, USA!

Here are some links to help you get an idea of what happened at Hexagon 2011 in Orlando.

GISCafe posted and interview with Joel Campbell, ERDAS' President, and Sanjay at Hexagon 2011. As a post conference note, in my opinion, ERDAS received a boost from meeting ERDAS customers, distributors and partners. Also, the interest in ERDAS technology from all the other Hexagon companies was also tremendous.

http://www10.giscafe.com/video/ERDAS-Joel-Campbell-President/35179/media.html

Watch Joel's interview read the other links on "The Field Guide" concerning Hexagon 2011, what is coming with the ERDAS - Intergraph synergy effort, and what is coming in ERDAS 2012 when I return from vacation.


Mladen Stojic discusses the synergy efforts and the new development projects ERDAS is currently working on, and showed at Hexagon 2011: http://www10.giscafe.com/video/ERDAS-Mladen-Stojic/35210/media.html


Ryan Hughes of Skygone has some interesting thoughts on how he believes Hexagon should approach addressing the software product (ERDAS-Intergraph) synergy effort in this article: http://cloudcomputing.sys-con.com/node/1860109%20. His interview at Hexagon 2011 is found here: http://www10.giscafe.com/video/Skygone-Ryan-Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif-COO/35180/media.html.

Other Hexagon 2011 links:

Movie showing ERDAS IMAGINE Live Link with GeoMedia narrated by Paul.

3D the Way Forward for GIS Industry

The Future of Spatial Analysis Through Intergraph and ERDAS

Hexagon 2011 international Conference Attracts 2,500+ Attendees From 65 Countries

Hexagon 2011 Kicks Off with Game-Changing Vision for the Future

Field Report: Hexagon 2011 International Conference

Hexagon 2011 Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.206253446083641.50370.169045849804401&l=de2f88525b

Hexagon 2011; the razing of the wall

The ERDAS portion of the Hexagon conference began on June 5, 2011 with customer training and ERDAS Ignite 2011. I arrived Sunday evening the 5th and on Monday morning attended the ERDAS International Distributors Meeting. In this meeting, ERDAS outlined what we are developing for the 2012 release, due in the next service packs and the development synergies we are working on with Intergraph GeoMedia and ERDAS IMAGINE. Our distribution partners are as excited as ERDAS employees about where ERDAS is going, and that ERDAS is aggressive in our plans and execution strategies.

As for me, I may be more excited about a different theme than others. Yes, the new modeling environment is exciting. Yes, the viewing environment moving to a more advanced form of the ER Mapper dynamic processing viewer is powerful. Yes, faster data processing is always enticing. And yes, LiDAR is needed by the mapping market and I love we are moving to deliver solutions there. And yes, Hexagon renting out Universal Studios, including Harry Potter World, for all conference attendees Tuesday evening was great too!

But, the theme of my excitement dates back to conversations I had with the ERDAS management in 1991 and have continued until today; saying ERDAS should be the one to tear down the wall between raster (remote sensing and raster GIS) and vector; by putting a powerful vector processing and database capabilities into ERDAS IMAGINE.

I have long believed this artificial segregation of data formats and processing techniques hurt the greater geospatial community, and ERDAS should raze the wall. Other than a purely academic or research exercise; remote sensing without significant vector capabilities limits what the customer can accomplish. Soon, for the first time ERDAS will have an arsenal of vector processing capabilities and significant database access.

The restrictions are being removed, the raster/vector barrier will be removed at the dawn of the point cloud data processing era. This time next year, you will see a very different ERDAS IMAGINE product. A product that makes the best remote sensing product in the world better, faster, uses dynamic processing, has new photogrammetry tools, new LiDAR tools, has many vector and database tools, and offers more than these to the GIS world.

This is not a token move, this is real. This is the path customers have asked ERDAS to take for 30 years; tearing down the raster – vector wall. The wall will be down before the Hexagon 2012 meeting.

Thank you Mladen Stojic, Joel Campbell, John Graham, Jürgen Dold, and Ola Rollén for giving the GIS community what they have long requested.