-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        RE: MAPS-L: Plea for GeoExpress Help
Date:   Thu, 30 Mar 2006 12:40:06 -0600
From:   Kent Lee <[log in to unmask]>
To:     'Maps, Air Photo & Geospatial Systems Forum' <[log in to unmask]>


Dear Ann, List:

You might wish to consider several technical solutions:

1) There was a LizardTech MrSID Viewer available in 2002-2003 (presumably
for free).  It has been replaced by LizardTech/GeoExpress.  The older viewer
would allow one to extract GeoTIFFs out of MrSID files.  I am not sure if it
would work with the latest MrSID Generation 3 (MG3) compression format, but
it should work fine with older ones.  We checked our old viewer and it works
just fine to extract GeoTIFF, creating TIFF+ TFW + TAB files.

2) My favorite is GlobalMapper.  It can also be used in a batch mode,
although this functionality might be disabled in the free trial version.
However $250 for the licensed version seems not an unreasonable amount to
pay for such good software.

3) In ArcGIS you can export MrSID into GeoTIFF as well.

As you probably know, one thing to keep in mind is that when MrSID files are
getting decompressed to (Geo)TIFF, the file size will be 15-20 (typically)
times as large as for the original file.  Thus it might be the case that
your TIFF file will grow over its natural maximum limits (2Gb in size or
more than 32,000 pixels in any direction).  Some GIS packages would still be
able to handle such files, but not all of them.

Best,

Nick

Nick Nazarenko
Head, Geospatial Data Production
East View Cartographic
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-----Original Message-----
From: Maps, Air Photo & Geospatial Systems Forum
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Angie Cope, AGSL
Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2006 4:11 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: MAPS-L: Plea for GeoExpress Help

-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        Plea for GeoExpress Help
Date:   Wed, 29 Mar 2006 16:09:19 -0600
From:   Ann Runyard <[log in to unmask]>
To:     maps-l



Hello All,

With the increase of MrSID digital orthophotos coming in from government
institutions we have had to break down and admit that we need software that
will allow us to:

a)Clip the MrSIDs to study area
b)Translate to GeoTIFFs to reduce file size c)Retain the georectification
(.tfw world file) and projection

After researching this situation I have found that LizardTech/GeoExpress
with MrSID is the solution to our problem, although a very expensive
solution.
Unfortunately, the free download is longer available and the trial version
only lasts for four hours and corrupts the georectification.

In order to fully justify paying out the money for the support and
maintenance I would appreciate any feedback from the GIS/Mapping community
regarding the MrSID to GeoTIFF problem and/or the LizardTech/GeoExpress
software usage.

Thank you all for your help.

Regards,

Ann

--
Ann Runyard
Interim Digital Spatial Data Librarian
American Geographical Society Library
UWM Golda Meir Library
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
3211 N Hartford
PO Box 399
Milwaukee, WI  53201
414-229-6282
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