FIMPORT -- Import Foreign File

Transfers all the image, and auxiliary information from a source file to a newly created PCIDSK file. All GDB supported file types may be imported.

See Also: LINK, GDB, FEXPORT, PYRAMID

PARAMETERS

FIMPORT is controlled by the following global parameters: 

Name     Prompt                                  Count     Type
FILI     Database Input File Name                1-64      Char
FILO     Database Output File Name               1-64      Char
DBIW     Database Input Window                   0-4       Int
POPTION  Pyramid Options: NEAR/AVER/MODE         3-8       Char
DBLAYOUT Data Layout: PIXEL/BAND                 0-64      Char

FILI

Specifies the name of the GDB supported file to be imported to PCIDSK format. 

 EASI> FILI="houston.tif"

FILO

Specifies the name of the PCIDSK file to be created. FILO will be created automatically. Please specify a filename. 

 EASI>FILO="houston.pix"

DBIW

Specifies the image window to be read from input image channels and bitmaps. This window is not utilized for vector layers. 

 EASI>DBIW=Xoffset,Yoffset,Xsize,Ysize
 EASI>DBIW=                     | use entire image

POPTION

Specifies the type of resampling to use when computing the overview levels.

Thematic image overviews such as classification results should be computed using MODE, while continuous tone images, especially radar images, should be computed using AVERAGE. Building overviews using AVERAGE or MODE can be significantly slower than computing them using nearest neighbour resampling. If the nature of the image is not known, or if the speed of preparing the image overview is important, then NEAREST should be selected. 

 EASI> POPTION = "AVERAGE"      | Perform resampling by averaging.

DBLAYOUT

Specifies the layout of the image data on the new PCIDSK file. 

 EASI>DBLAYOUT="PIXEL"          | Pixel interleaved
 EASI>DBLAYOUT="BAND"           | Band interleaved
 EASI>DBLAYOUT="FILE"           | File interleaved
 EASI>DBLAYOUT="TILED"          | Tiled, default tile size, no compr.
 EASI>DBLAYOUT="TILED JPEG"     | Tiled, with JPEG compression
 EASI>DBLAYOUT="TILED256 RLE"   | Tiled, with RLE compression and
                                  256x256 pixel tiles.
 EASI>DBLAYOUT=                 | defaults to BAND
The choice of layout is primarily based on performance. BAND interleaved stores all the data for one band together, and gives superior performance when not all bands are being accessed at all times. PIXEL interleaved stores data the data for all bands at a particular pixel together, and may give somewhat improved performance when all bands are being utilized at once. FILE interleaved is similar to BAND interleaved, but the image channel data is stored in external files (one file per band).

Tiled files have the image organized in many square subimages, and can be much faster to access when only a subarea is being extracted, such as in file viewing. Tiling is also the only format which supports compression formats, with the default being no compression. JPEG compression is a lossy compression, and is normally suitable for continuous images such as airphotos. RLE (Run Length Encoding) compression is lossless, but will only give good compression for images where long sequences of pixels have the same value, as typically happens in pseudocoloured, or thematic images.

The default is BAND interleaved, but all layouts are equally acceptable to the full EASI/PACE system.

DETAILS

FIMPORT is used to import all the data contained in a GDB accessible file format into a newly created PCIDSK file. Georeferencing, LUTs, PCTs, and vector data are also imported, in addition to image data.

When FIMPORT is run, the input file (FILI) is analysed, the type is detected, and a PCIDSK file is created. Then all the image and auxiliary data is copied over to the PCIDSK file.

Only file formats supported by the GDB library may be imported with the FIMPORT program. See the GDB topic for more information on supported file formats.

If the imported file contains image channels, FIMPORT will generate overviews (pyramids) in order to accelerate later image viewing. By default nearest neighbour sampling is used, but this can be changed using the POPTION parameter. Generation of overviews can be disabled by setting POPTION to "OFF", saving a little disk space, and accelerating the import progress. The PYRAMID program can be used at a later time to add overviews to an existing file.

The DBLAYOUT parameter can be used to control the image organization of the resulting PCIDSK file.

The FIMPORT program is very similar to the LINK program, but will work with all GDB supported files, not just some as LINK does. On the other hand, FIMPORT creates a duplicate copy of the image data while LINK does not.

FIMPORT will generate detail lines indicating the imagery size, number of channels, and any auxiliary information copied over.

EXAMPLE

The user wishes to import a CCITT 3 compressed TIFF bitmap. 

 EASI> FILI="houston.tif"
 EASI> FILO="houston.pix"
 EASI> RUN FIMPORT
The user imports a subwindow of a large radar image. The overview pyramid levels are built with block averaging rather than the default nearest neighbour resampling to make the resulting overviews easier to interpret. 

 EASI> FILI = "/cdrom/scene01/imag_01.dat"
 EASI> FILO = "rocky_sub.pix"
 EASI> DBIW = 0,1800,3000,3000
 EASI> POPTION = "AVERAGE"
 EASI> DBLAYOUT =                       | Defaults to "BAND"
 EASI> RUN FIMPORT
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