INTRODUCTION TO THE

ERDAS IMAGINE
WORKSPACE
eTRAINING

Introduction
Understand the basic layout of the ERDAS IMAGINE interface and walk you through how to use
common interface tools.

Software
 ERDAS IMAGINE

Data
 tm_00.img (Landsat image)

 seattle_wv-2.img (WorldView-2 image)

Transcript
0:09
Thank you for watching Introduction to ERDAS IMAGINE Workspace from Hexagon
Geospatial. In this module you will become familiar with the basic layout of the ERDAS
IMAGINE interface and see where to find commonly used tools.

0:21
This is the ERDAS IMAGINE interface. Designed with the user experience in mind, tools are
organized in dynamic tabs along an easy to use ribbon interface. Now take a closer look.

First you should understand the basic layout of the workspace. In the upper left is the Quick
Access Toolbar. This toolbar is easily customized to contain the tools you use most often.
You will see later that these tools remain available as you click though other tabs on the
ribbon.

Below the Quick Access Toolbar is the File tab. The File tab contains functions that allow you
to open layers, save layers, set user preferences and several other tools. Along the top of the
interface is the ribbon. All major functionality available in ERDAS IMAGINE can be found
along the ribbon.

1:06
Tools are organized in tabs, and as you click on a tab, new tools become available. The tabs
are dynamic and will change based on the active layer in the Contents pane.You will see this
in more detail in a minute. The Contents pane shows you all Viewers and data you have
open in the Workspace. It reports the type of Viewers open and the order the data is
displayed within each Viewer.

Below this is the Retriever pane. This pane is used to create a Shoebox file that provides
quick access to project specific data. Once a Shoebox is created and displayed in the
Retriever pane, you can use a simple drag-and-drop to load data from the Retriever to the
Viewer.
 Introduction to the ERDAS IMAGINE Workspace

1:44
Along the bottom is the Status bar. In the left and center of the Status bar, you will see
coordinates reported based on the cursor location over data displayed in the Viewer. You can
also use this to define an elevation source and report an elevation value with your coordinate
display.

Finally, use the far right to change the rotation of the data in the Viewer. In the upper right of
the Viewer is a Pushpin button. Any pane that contains a pushpin can be undocked from the
main workspace and arranged on your computer desktop to your preference.

Finally, this large area is the Viewer. There are several View types available in ERDAS
IMAGINE. The Viewer displayed here is a 2D Viewer. It is currently open, but empty, ready to
load data.

2:26
Let’s take a minute to understand the ribbon in more detail. The ribbon provides access to all
major functionally available in ERDAS IMAGINE. Tools are organized in dynamic tabs. The
tabs are organized into groups. Each group contains a set of related tools with a group name
underneath.

This highlighted group is the Edit group. Groups can be displayed in two ways, depending on
the amount of space available. Groups can be expanded as you see here, with all tools in the
group visible. Or, groups may be collapsed. A collapsed group will only show the group name
with an icon and an arrow indicating there are more tools available. Click on the collapsed
group to display the tools.

Some tools and commands have menus. A small arrow indicates a menu is available.

1. Click the tool or command to open the menu.

Now let’s open the software and see some common tools and functions.

3:21
First, you will load an image into the Viewer.

2. From the File tab, select Open > Raster Layer. This opens the Select Layers to Add
dialog.

3. Use this dialog to navigate to the directory containing your data and select the file to load.
Here, use tm_00.img.

4. Before clicking OK, click the second icon from the right along the top.

345
This icon, Set Default Data directory, sets the current data directory as the default. Each time
you open the Select Layers to Add dialog, it will automatically take you to this location. You
can use the icon to the right of this in the same way to set the default output directory.

There are two other tabs in this dialog. The Multiple tab defines how the software will treat
multiple files loaded in the Viewer. By default they are treated as Independent Files. You can
also set Virtual Mosaic so the software treats them as if they are a single, mosaicked image.
You can also choose Virtual Stack. Here, leave the default.

4:23
You will see more about the RasterOptions tab a little later. For now:

5. Click OK to load the image in the Viewer.

 Introduction to the ERDAS IMAGINE Workspace

4:29
The image is loaded in the Viewer using the settings defined in the Preference Editor. This
image, a Landsat image with seven bands and 30 meter resolution, has been loaded at a 1:1
viewing ratio with a near infrared band combination. With this display, vegetation is various
shades of red, bare ground is cyan, and water is black.

6. Right click in the Viewer to open the Quick Access menu. This menu puts common
function at your fingertips.

7. Select Fit to Frame to see the full extent of the image in the Viewer.

4:59
Now you will work with the zoom and pan tools.

8. From the Quick Access menu click the Open Layer icon.

9. Select a high resolution image from the data directory.

10. For this example use seattle_wv-2.img.

11. Click OK to load it in the Viewer.

This image is a WorldView-2 image with eight multispectral bands having a resolution of 1.66
meters and a panchromatic band with 0.5 meter resolution. This has a much higher resolution
than the Landsat image, so you can see much more detail.

12. From the Extent group on the Home tab, click Fit to Frame to see the full extent of the
image.

5:35
Easily zoom in and out of the image using your mouse wheel.

13. Scroll forward to zoom in and backward to zoom out. There are also zoom tools available
in the Extent group on the Home tab.

14. Activate the Zoom In tool and move the cursor to the Viewer.

15. Draw a box around an area to zoom in.

16. Activate the Zoom Out tool and draw another box in the Viewer to zoom out.

6:02
The zoom in and out tools each have a drop down arrow with additional options, including
zoom in or out by two or zoom in or out by a defined amount. The Previous Extent button will
step you backwards to the last zoom level and view extent.

17. Use the zoom thumbwheel in the Scale and Angle group to interactively zoom in and out
of the image.

6:29
You can also pan the image in multiple ways.

18. Select the Pan tool from the Extent group. You can use this tool with a simple click and
drag to move around the Viewer. With this tool active, you can also click once in the
Viewer to start virtual roaming. Your cursor will turn into four arrows.

19. If you are at full extent, zoom in. Move your mouse in any direction to roam though the
image.
 Introduction to the ERDAS IMAGINE Workspace

20. Click again to turn off the virtual roam.

Your middle mouse button can also be used, without activating the Pan tool, with a click and
a drag to move throughout the Viewer at any time.

7:02
Now let’s load multiple Viewers. Here you have the Landsat image loaded in a 2D Viewer.

21. From the Window group, click Add Views to expand the menu and select Display Two
Views. A second Viewer is added to the workspace. You can also see the second View in
a Contents Pane.

22. Click inside 2D View #2 to make sure it’s the active Viewer.

23. Then, from the Quick Access Toolbar, click the Open Layer icon.

24. Change the File of type to All Raster Formats.

7:38
The File of type acts as a filter, only showing files with the defined extension in the File
Chooser window. By selecting All Raster Formats, all raster files are visible.

25. Select seattle_wv-2.img and open the Raster Options tab.With this tab, you can change
the raster display type, band combinations, and a few other options.

26. Select Fit to Frame, and click OK.

The image is loaded into the Viewer at full extent. Often, this is the preferred method for
loading an image into a Viewer.

8:10
27. To change the User Preferences, select File > Preference.

The Preference Editor has multiple categories listed in a tree structure on the left. After a
category is selected on the left, the individual preferences are listed on the right. The default
category is User Interface and Session.

The first preferences listed are the default data and output directory which you changed
earlier. Notice the dots that are added both the tree structure and next to the preferences,
indicating a change has been made to the default setting.

28. Expand the View category and select Viewer.

29. Add a checkmark next to Fit to Frame.

30. Click Save and close the dialog.

8:49
Now to add a second image to Viewer #2.

31. From the Quick Access Toolbar, click Open Layer. For this example, select tm_00.img.

32. Use Raster Options to uncheck Fit to Frame.This will ensure you remain at the extent of
the WorldView image.

33. Click OK.

34. In the Contents pane, click and drag seattle_wv-2.img above tm_00.img to bring it to the
top of the Viewer.
 Introduction to the ERDAS IMAGINE Workspace

9:19
35. In the Extent group, expand the Scale menu and select 1:100,000 to set the scale.

36. Click inside Viewer #1 to make it active.

37. From the Extent group click Fit to Frame.

38. Change the band combination of this image by selecting the Multispectral tab. In the
Bands group, each of the color guns used to display the image can be seen.

39. Change the layer next to Red to 5, Green to 4, and Blue to 3.

9:52
It is easy to see that changing the band combination highlights different features in the image.
This band combination, known as TM False Natural Color, helps identify different vegetation
types, and differentiates snow from water and bare ground from urban development.

40. Change the band combination back to the original display.

41. In the Contents pane, select seattle_wv-2.img to make it the active layer.

42. In the Bands group, use the Sensor Type drop down to select WorldView-2
Multispectral. With a sensor defined, predefined band combinations are available.

43. Select TM-Style False Color IR.

You will now see a display like the Landsat image.

10:43
44. To save the session, select File > Save As > Session. The session file will save the
entire workspace, including open Viewers, data, and view extents.

45. Provide the session with a name and click Save.

46. In View #2, use the small X in the upper right to close it.

47. From the Home tab, select Clear View in the View group to clear all data from the
Viewer.

11:15
Thank you for watching this eTraining module from Hexagon Geospatial. For more eTraining,
please visit hexagongeospatial.com/eTraining.