New ERDAS extensions for ArcGIS 9.3

Yesterday (New Zealand time) ERDAS has announced availability of two extensions that operate with Stereo Analyst for ArcGIS. These extensions are Feature Assist for ArcGIS and Terrain Editor for ArcGIS.

 

Expanding its ArcGIS extensions offering, ERDAS is introducing FeatureAssist for ArcGIS and ERDAS Terrain Editor for ArcGIS. FeatureAssist for ArcGIS includes a suite of templates to collect rooftops of varying complexity in an ESRI Multipatch format. A multipatch shapefile allows a 3D model to be constructed and optionally textured for realistic scene generation. ERDAS Terrain Editor for ArcGIS provides point, breakline and area tools to edit geodatabase terrains.

 

  

 

Terrain Editor

This extension supports geodatabase terrain features and represents them in stereo window as points, breaklines and triangles.

General edit tools include:

• Add or edit a terrain point
• Delete single or multiple terrain points
• Add or edit a breakline
• Delete single or multiple breaklines
• Selection tools
• Select all features in current extent of the stereo window
• Select by rectangle
• Select by custom defined area

 Operators that work on the terrain are

• Delete Selected Points
• Remove Elevation Spikes
• Fit Surface to Points
• Thin Points
• Bias Elevations
• Smooth Elevations
• Set Constant Z
• Delete Selected Breaklines
• Remove Breaklines and buffer points
• Clip and Delete Selected Points or Breaklines

 

 

Product literature and actual software can be downloaded from here.

 

 

 

Feature Assist

 

Using this extenstion user can capture complex roof shapes and create complex models. The output from this extension is multipatch shapefile. There is a number of toolbars added to ArcMap to encapsulate functions of this extension.

 

Key features include:

 

• Manual construction tools
• Predefines rooftop templates
• Perspective viewer
• Multipatch shape edit tools
• Azimuth tools
• Snapping and guides
• Model generation

 

System requirements for both of these extensions are the same as for Stereo Analyst for ArcGIS. More specifically they are:

 

• Pentium 4 or higher
• 1 GB RAM
• 420 MB for software, optionally 745 MB for data
• Windows XP SP2 or higher, Windows Vista
• Nvidia Quadro FX cards or 3Dlabs Wildcat graphics card

More detailed information is available from this page.

 

On its own Stereo Analyst is a very useful extension if you want to capture 3D features from aerial photograpy or stereo pairs.

Just one observation on terrain editor. I am not too sure that I would edit the terrrain features. ESRI's idea of terrain is to be a reduced resolution of full detail DEM suitable for display and analysis at different scales. Therefore terrain levels are generated from the source like LIDAR points. Editing LIDAR source? I know I would not be happy to do that...