Latest Version of ERDAS ECW Plug-in for ArcGIS Desktop

The ERDAS ECW Plug-in for ArcGIS Desktop 10.1 has been released by Intergraph. The plug-in is free. This plug-in version will not work on ArcGIS for Desktop versions earlier than 10.1. Esri customers having an earlier version of ArcGIS for Desktop should use the earlier version of the plug-in.

The ERDAS ECW Plug-in for ArcGIS Desktop 10.1 enhances the native ECW / ECWP support Esri has built into ArcGIS for Desktop. This new version of the ECW Plug-in for ArcGIS Desktop adds over 35 enhancements. Among these enhancements are the following:

• Support for Esri's ArcGIS 10.1 for Desktop, released in June 2012
• ECW v3 file support has been added
• Local files will read and store statistics information within the ECW fileheader
• Display speed of ECW v2 files has been improved when compared to Esri’s default v10.1 capabilities
• ECWP v3 has been added for improved streaming performance when connecting to ERDAS APOLLO 2013 servers over low bandwidth and secure environments
• ECWP will continue to work on older ERDAS APOLLO versions
• An automatic 99% clip is now applied to >8 bit JP2 or ECW v3 files when streamed over ECWP
• Projection handling of ECWP layers has been significantly improved to support additional EPSG and now also Esri's defined coordinate systems
• Numerous enhancements to ERDAS ER Mapper ERS and ALG file support
• Added support for catalog searching of ERDAS APOLLO Advantage 2013 servers
• Esri’s ArcCatalog now fully supports managing ECW v2, ECW v3, ERS and ALG files
• Resolved side-by-side compatibility with ERDAS Extensions for ArcGIS. Both products can now coexist in the same ArcGIS for Desktop install

The plug-in is available from Intergraph here:  http://geospatial.intergraph.com/products/other/ecw/ECWPlugins/Downloads.aspx 

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.

ESRI Adding for ECWP in ArcGIS 10

When ESRI released ArcGIS 10, they added support for reading ECW files from the free ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK, v3.3. Now ESRI is working on support for the ECW Protocol for streaming ECW and JP2 data from an ERDAS APOLLO IWS server into ArcGIS products. This link provides information from ESRI’s support site concerning the matter. It is great to see ESRI support ECWP!

ERDAS continues development of our latest version of the ECW Plugin for ArcGIS. We expect to deliver the product to the market soon. I will give more detailed information on the ArcGIS Plugin around the time of the Hexagon 2011 Conference. ERDAS' goal is to add support for these capabilities to this version of the plugin:

• ArcGIS 9.3.1, 9.3.1 SP2, and 10.0


• New dynamic progressive rendering of ECWP layers


• ECWP local caching (persistent and configurable)


• Opacity channels


• Faster progressive display


• Support for foreign language versions of Windows (GUI not localized)


• Re-projection of the ECWP streams on-the-fly

ERDAS is working with Autodesk on a new ECW Plugin for AutoCAD 2010/2011 as well. I will provide more information on that topic after Autodesk and ERDAS work through some bumps in the road.

For more in ECW support in ArcGIS 10, see: http://field-guide.blogspot.com/2011/05/esri-adding-for-ecwp-in-arcgis.html

News Release: ERDAS Releases New Product, ECW for ArcGIS Server

The following news has just been distributed to the press....

ERDAS Releases New Product, ECW for ArcGIS Server Norcross, GA — ERDAS proudly announces the introduction of the all-new ECW for ArcGIS Server, which provides a means for ArcGIS Server 10 to deliver Enhanced Compression Wavelet (ECW) data to clients via OGC-compliant Web Coverage Service (WCS) and Web Map Service (WMS).

Using components of the ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK version 4.2, ECW for ArcGIS Server enables ArcGIS Server to support ECW imagery, providing the fastest decompression available. Using minimal memory, ECW can quickly decompress and open massive files, in many cases faster than uncompressed imagery can be opened. Additionally, multi-resolution level of detail is built into the file, eliminating the need to generate or distribute pyramids or overviews. The ECW technique does not require that immediate tiles (RRDs) be calculated and stored on disk; they are an inherent part of ECW’s Discrete Wavelet Transformations (DWT). ECW also supports opacity channels, allowing images to overlay other imagery cleanly without showing compression artifacts around the edges.

The ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK technology was developed by ER Mapper Ltd beginning in 1998 and is governed by three patents (US6201897, US6442298, and US6633688).

ECW for ArcGIS Server may be installed on a single ArcGIS Server, with or without other ERDAS software installed. However, ECW for ArcGIS Server does require a FlexNet license file from ERDAS.

This new product expands the industry-wide level of support for the ECW format. ECW is already supported in traditional desktop GIS, CAD and remote sensing packages such as ArcGIS®, AutoCAD®, ERDAS IMAGINE®, ERDAS ER Mapper, FalconView™, Bentley Microstation®, ENVI® and PCI Geomatica®.

"ERDAS created ECW for ArcGIS Server in response to overwhelming user demand. For any geospatial organization requiring an accelerated workflow and reduction of hardware costs, ECW is the compression format of choice," said Paul Beaty, Technical Product Manager, ERDAS. "Its popularity stems from the fact that it doesn’t merely compress files; it simplifies their handling by making them faster to decompress and transfer. ERDAS is committed to providing rapid geospatial data delivery for organizations using any software platform."

To learn more about ECW for ArcGIS Server, please visit the official product page or attend a free webinar on Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 11 am or 7 pm (GMT -4).

For more information about ERDAS or its products and services, please call +1 770 776 3400, toll free +1 877 GO ERDAS, or visit http://www.erdas.com/.

This means the two articles 32824 and 36261 posted on ESRI's Support website concerning ECW in ArcGIS Server 10 are now out-of-date. Just get ECW for ArcGIS Server from ERDAS, and you are off to the races.

Q/A From Today's ECW/JP2 SDK Webinar

Below are the questions and answers that we covered in today's ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK Webinar.

Q1: Compression is always followed by the loss of detail information, right? How does ECW handle that? Which compression rates are useful?

A1: ECW does not support numerically lossless compression at this time. However, if you use a target compression of 4 to 6:1 on RGB data, you should have a visually lossless image at a 2x zoom. See my blog for more information: http://field-guide.blogspot.com/2010/07/understanding-target-compression-ratio.html


Q2: Would you recommend ECW over JP2?

A2: I would recommend ECW over JP2 for all applications where an 8-bit lossy compression works. In the GIS community, a visually lossless setting is usually fine. We did a test when I was at Georgia Tech to see what compression was needed for the majority of users using a statewide dataset. The results are documented on my blog, linked above.

But remember, the ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK supports JP2 very solidly! Any product using the SDK will have fast JP2 support and even faster ECW support.


Q3: It seems ECW cannot be used on ArcGIS Server and image server, any comment?

A3: ERDAS will release a new product, ECW for ArcGIS Server, spring 2011 to address this very issue. Look for it!


Q4: For aerial photos and orthophotos, which is better for delivering products without losing resolution and data, ECW or JP2?

A4: Pixel resolution is never lost in compression. The first thing you’ll notice in compression is very minor loss of contrast. As you compress further, a little more contrast is lost, and in heavier compression artifacts appear around road lines, edges and other linear features on aerial imagery. The question to ask is, “Do I need visually lossless or numerical lossless compression?” In most GIS applications, visually lossless compression works very well. In some (but not all) remote sensing applications, numerically lossless compression is needed.

The reason data vendors deliver numerically lossless data is that the data provider does not know if you are a GIS user doing imagery analysis or an image expert doing detailed remote sensing. They deliver one version to all, numerically lossless JP2. No problem, the ECW/JP2 SDK supports this!


Q5: Does a standard/report exist for the compression rates for several products (vector map production, base ortho maps, etc.)?

A5: I wish I knew of one, but I do not. This is an area for cartographers and remote sensing researchers to look for research grants. We need a standard.


Q6: How much faster can ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK make image compression?

A6: I tested and documented this on my blog. Some SDK customers say their applications using v4.2 ECW encode 7x faster than it did in v3.3. Our research indicates most applications will experience greater than 2 x improvements over v3.3. But, JP2 is faster in v4.2 as well. Please see the following link for some tests I ran: http://field-guide.blogspot.com/2010/04/single-core-vs-multi-core-image.html


Q7: What can I provide a customer if he cannot read the ECW format - can I offer him a simple/free ECW reader/decoder?

A7: Many GIS applications can read ECW. ERDAS has a free viewer, ER Viewer that can be used as well. See: http://www.erdas.com/products/ERDASERMapper/ERDASERViewer/Details.aspx


Q8: At times, ECW cannot be opened directly in ArcGIS 10. Any suggestions about how to do that?

A8: There are two possibilities. One, ArcGIS 10 uses a version of GDAL that uses an older version of the ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK . GDAL has now addressed that and supports v4.2; ESRI will pick up the ball and do the rest.

Two, some organizations who have licenses for the ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK have added things to the ECW file that are not in compliance with the file format. This will cause problems. You might want to contact the organization that created the data to make sure they do not add any ‘goodies’ to the file format.


Q9: Are there any plans to use GP-GPU for compression?

A9: Yes. I cannot give specifics at this time, but I can say ‘yes.’


Q10: Can I lose accurate pixel value when I compress ECW data?

A10: At the present time, ECW has a visually lossless capability, not a numerically lossless capability.


Q11: Do you have any plans to support the updating of parts of an existing ECW file?

A11: Yes, this is under discussion. I will assume your question indicates an interest and will put your name in the request column. Thanks!


Q12: What would you use for storing floating point data, e.g. DEM data?

A12: Up until now, geospatial people have been using some sort of DR-RLE compression, such as that found in ERDAS’s IMG file format. Going forward, as the floating point JPEG2000 standard takes hold we will see more people use JP2 for lossless floating point data.

The question to ask is whether the maximum 2.5x reduction in file size on encoding worth the slowdown in decoding?


Q13: Which format is useful for signed16-bit data, ECW or JP2?

A13: ECW does not support signed data right now. Therefore, JP2 is the solution at this time.


Q14: Spanish users are having issues with plug-ins when using the Spanish version of the ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK. Are you going to solve this soon?

A14: The ECW/JP2 SDK should not have a problem with this. If there is a problem with the free plug-in, it is in the plug-in code, not the ECW/JP2 SDK. We are working with Autodesk Germany on the AutoCAD 2011/2011 Plug-in to solve language support issues right now.


Q15: Paul, can you say anything publicly about when the AutoCAD 2010 plug-in will appear?

A15: We are waiting on Autodesk to help with a few installer questions. After that, we are ready to go.


Q16: Does ECW support stereo imagery data?

A16: Not inside the ECW file format. There are some companies that have modified the ECW file format (breaking the file for others), to support stereo parameters inside the file format. We have asked them to work with us to get it formally supported in the formal standard.

Until that time, the stereo parameters can be stored in the external .aux file.


Q17: Why is it necessary to have a plug-in to work with ECW in ERDAS software?

A17: When older versions of ERDAS software were made, ERDAS had not purchased ER Mapper and ECW support was incomplete. ERDAS purchased ER Mapper in May 2007, so that is when native ECW support became standard.


Q18: For unsigned 8-bit, unsigned 16 bit mss data, which format is more useable, ECW or JP2?

A18: ECW is an unsigned 8-bit data format. It can store panchromatic, RGB and multispectral data. 16-bit data should be stored in JP2 at this time.


Q19: Can the ECW format support hyperspectral data?

A19: ECW is a lossy, unsigned 8-bit data format that supports 65,535 bands. Give ECW a try!


Q20: We need to be able to make the background pixels of imagery transparent in ArcMap. ECW doesn't support this, but JP2 does. Is there any way to get the background pixels in ECW files to "disappear" in ArcMap (i.e. set the bg values to 255 or 0)?

A20: ECW added support for transparency in ECW/JP2 SDK v4.1, released in the fall of 2010. We had beta versions available in the summer, but this was too late for ESRI to get it supported in ArcGIS Desktop 10. GDAL is now updated, and the ball is in ESRI’s court. Let them know you want it!

In the ERDAS IMAGINE 2011 Exporter and MosaicPro, we enable you to define whatever value you want to be transparent; you can even define a region using a polygon.

Using ERDAS IMAGINE 2011’s “Create ECW Transparency” feature, you can also add a transparency layer to an existing ECW file via DNs or polygons without recompressing.


Q21: ECW or JP2 - where can I use each format and I how do I know?

A21: Both file formats are broadly accepted in the geospatial industry. If you wish to buy a product that does not support ECW/JP2, tell that product’s manager to give me a call. Remember, the SDK to provide desktop/client ECW, JP2, ECWP reading is free to the software developer.


Q22: Will you post the webinar.

A22: As usual, I forgot to record the webinar! I will re-record and post it later this week.

ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK Product Page Link: http://www.erdas.com/products/ERDASECWJPEG2000SDK/Details.aspx

YouTube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6rjEgOkhoc&feature=plcp

ECW Support in ArcGIS 10 Desktop

With the release of ArcGIS 10, ESRI’s desktop products support ECW image files natively through GDAL. The GDAL move was part of ESRI's switch from the ERDAS Raster Data Objects (RDO) that ESRI paid ERDAS to use. It was very low cost, as ESRI has historically been a business partner, but ESRI wanted to go in another direction. (The ESRI community can expect a bumpy raster ride for a few releases.)

The GDAL version used in ArcGIS 10 uses an older version of the ERDAS ECW JPEG2000 SDK (ECW SDK), so opacity is not supported and the speed is a little slower than what will be available using the latest version of the ECW SDK, v4.1.

ERDAS is working with GDAL to upgrade GDAL to the latest version of the ECW SDK, scheduled to be complete before Feb 1, 2011. Once the GDAL work is complete, software companies using GDAL (such as ESRI) need only download the Read Only ECW SDK and build in their desktop application as defined by GDAL and according to the ECW SDK EULA for free ECW, ECWP and JPEG2000 desktop read capability.

GDAL is a SDK and the ECW SDK EULA states a SDK cannot deliver the ECW SDK with their SDK. The solution is for GDAL to build against the ECW SDK, but not deliver the ECW SDK. Then the companies using GDAL can simply download the Read Only ECW SDK from ERDAS and put GDAL and the ECW SDK in their desktop software application.

The beauty of the way the Read Only and Full ECW SDKs were put together, once the developer has done the work for ECW, the work to implement ECWP and JPEG2000 may take as few as 30 more minutes’ development time.

If a company wishes their software application to write ECW and JPEG2000 data, they can use the same GDAL approach noted above; and with a purchase of the Full ECW SDK from ERDAS, they add writing ECW and JPEG2000 data.

For ECW support in ArcGIS Server see: http://field-guide.blogspot.com/2011/04/news-release-erdas-releases-new-product.html

For streaming ECW and JP2 data via ECWP in ArcGIS desktop see: http://field-guide.blogspot.com/2011/05/esri-adding-for-ecwp-in-arcgis.html


Why ECW?
Many in the geospatial community correctly think of ECW (Enhanced Compression Wavelet) as a data format that saves disk space. A more powerful aspect of ECW, because of its fundamental mathematical breakthrough enabling fast compression, the same breakthrough provides very fast decompression as well; while only using a small amount of RAM. Whether accessing ECW on a desktop, over a LAN, or over the internet, ECW is very fast. In many cases, ECW is much faster than accessing the imagery in an uncompressed format.

What is ECWP?
Geospatial images can be hundreds or thousands of gigabytes in size. Traditional mechanisms for serving image data over the internet are inadequate when high-speed performance is required. ECWP (Enhanced Compression Wavelet Protocol) leverages the benefits of a the mathematically efficient ECW format and allows the server to stream these large geospatial images to a user's application, rather than sending a regular image ver HTTP, while only using a tiny amount of RAM. JPEG2000 can be streamed with ECWP as well, with higher performance than JPIP.

Why JPEG2000?
JPEG2000 is an ISO-certified wavelet compression image format that is commonly used for geospatial imagery. The format is defined by the Joint Photographic Experts Group. Because JPEG2000 was designed by a committee to do a great many things, it will never be as fast as ECW. Because JPEG2000 compression and decompression technology is similar to ECW, it was simple to add this capability to the ERDAS ECW JPEG2000 SDK, even supporting JPEG2000 streaming within ECWP. But, because JPEG2000 was created by a committee to a great many things, JPEG2000 is unlikely to ever be as fast as ECW.

ECW on Wikipedia

Return to Singapore

After 16 years and 11 months, I am returning to Singapore. In September 1992 I traveled to Singapore with Karen Willoughby, Bruce Rado and Jack Dangermond; followed up by Adelaide, Australia. The trip was to attend the 1992 South Asia and OZRI User Group Meetings (UGM). In those days, ERDAS and ESRI held joint international UGMs as most of our distributors sold both companies products and the companies were considered business partners.

At the UGMs I presented a pre–release version of ERDAS IMAGINE 8.0.2. The products I presented were the recently released IMAGINE Digital Ortho and the soon to be released WYSIWYG Map Composer, IMAGINE Vector Module, and the graphic flow chart model builder enhancement to Spatial Modeler script language, Model Maker.

During the same meetings, Jack presented ESRI’s soon to be released product, ArcView. This was ESRI’s move to a graphical user interface. While ERDAS IMAGINE had already made the jump in 1991, ESRI was making the jump in 1992.

When we had some quiet time, Jack demoed ArcView to me and answered my questions. I was impressed at the simplicity of the product. I recognized it a difficult task to take niche technology and create a product to reach out to a wider, non-geospatial trained community. As I discussed ArcView with him, I saw that the product could make that transition.

After we finished looking and discussing ArcView, Jack said he wanted to see IMAGINE Model Maker. Of course, I ran the models that I had planned to run and knew the models would run. Then, as I did to Jack, he asked me to do things that were not planned. He wanted a specific model built from the beginning. I cannot remember the models, but I built and ran them… no problems (ArcView had crashed all over the place on Jack when I asked for specific things).

Almost 17 years later, ArcView has grown up to ArcGIS. For the release of ArcGIS 9.0 in 2004, ESRI copied the Model Maker idea to create Model Builder. ArcView targeted a horizontal expansion of the market and Model Maker targeted a deeper penetration in the existing market. Both product ideas are powerful and have succeeded.

Where will geo-processing be in another 16 years and 11 months? As for ERDAS IMAGINE, imagine that ERDAS IMAGINE 2010 is just the beginning.

Reprojecting Compressed Images

Have you ever had a very large compressed image you needed to reproject? The challenge is, you do not want to reproject to a new uncompressed version of the image file and then re-compress.

Have you used Calibration in ERDAS IMAGINE?

Let’s say you have a 2GB 20:1 MrSID compressed color infrared (CIR) image you need to deliver to an ArcGIS user in your organization. The last thing you want to do is resample and re-compress, right? That takes too much disk space and time.

Display the image in the Viewer, select Raster > Geometric Correct > Reprojection. On the dialog that appears, select the new projection and then select the ‘ruler’ on the Geo Correction Tools dialog to calibrate the image.

This process will create a .aux for you MrSID file storing the mathematical model to reproject the image on-the-fly.

Deliver both the MrSID image and the .aux file to your ArcGIS friend. That as fast and simple.

Notes:

1. Starting ERDAS IMAGINE 9.2+, the IMAGINE MrSID encoders write full projection information to the MrSID header. WKT strings are written to MG2, and WKT strings and GeoTIFF tags to MG3 data.
2. With this change, the need for .sdw files and .aux files for map and projection data are no longer needed, but are available.

ArcCatalog no longer seeing Raster Data?

I am providing this information for the benefit of ERDAS IMAGINE customers who are using ArcGIS as well.

The problem: ArcGIS can no longer see raster data in ArcCatalog using ESRI’s File Chooser. The only way the customer can add raster data to ArcMap seems to be a drag and drop from Windows Explorer.

A friend told me said the problem started appearing with ArcGIS 9.2. I have experienced it in 9.2 as well. This is the result of a setting in ArcCatalog being changed somehow. The friend said the problem occurred on systems with both ESRI and ERDAS products loaded as well as with ESRI products alone. To complicate things, it doesn’t happen on every machine (a phantom problem).

Notwithstanding the illusive nature of the problem, it is easy for the customer to correct on their computer.

To resolve the issue, go to ArcCatalog – Tools – Options. From the General Tab under the "Which types of Data do you want the Catalog to show?" section, check the checkbox next to Raster Files and apply the change. This will restore ArcMap and ArcCatalog’s ability to display rasters in the file chooser dialog and catalog listing.