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Erdas launches its version of Google Earth

image Erdas has just announced its launch of Titan, a version that should be promising Google Earth style but with more attractive features for geomatic users.

Some time ago we took a look at Virtual Earth (from Microsoft), World Wind (from NASA) and ArcGIS Explorer (from ESRI) ... what can you expect from a company like ERDAS?

 

image GeoIM. This is instant messaging with spatial orientation, through GeoIM you can share geographic information, create folders and datasets of both images and vectors (lines, points, polygons and buildings) and map services.

 

Titan Viewer.  The viewer looks attractive, although it takes some getting used to at first. Among its interesting features is that you can create existing layers or theming with better results than those that do not exist in Google Earth.

To activate it you have to do it from the messaging panel "file / launch Titan viewer"

The formats it supports go beyond common image formats and the simple Google Earth kml, including terrain data, datasets, videos and formats such as sid, rsw, nat, rst, grd, rik, dem, gfx, hdf5 and titan_wms most associated with Erdas.

image

It is assumed that map services compatible with OGC standards, both WMS and WCS, CS-W and ECWP can be deployed; from the last batch there is a plugin for AutoCAD. What happens is that it is half taken from the hair to add them, I tried to load the layer of Andalusia of flight 1956 and he recognized me but in the usage guide I didn't find a way to deploy it ... I'll find you side

El visor It is half slow and in the background it only shows the image of GlobeXplorer, a Digital Globe company that in some privileged countries is better than Google but with little worldwide coverage ... ah, it occasionally collapses.

They promise integration of Metadata but as far as it can be seen, it is nothing more than a flat form where you can place data information but without a structured standard ... how strong!

The option to be able to be very rescued Save environments, and with a single click change to another and even to the shared environment of other users ... also drag and drop is very practical.

ERDAS calls your application Titan Client, And complements it with other applications like Geohub, Which has functionality similar to what it does TopBase Bentley's AutoDesk or Project Wise Spatial; in which complex database environments with information can be created by interconnecting different applications on the Internet or Intranet ... add Caché servers and Master Servers and they can work wonders.

Connection with other virtual balloons and GIS applications

image That is the promise, but in practice one would expect that on a viewer it could display different image services. What you have is the option to select a data or a layer and lift it in Google Earth, Virtual Earth 2D and 3D; even on applications developed under OGC standards ... a simple "open with"

Although its offer to keep it in its advertising is very reckless as shown in the image on the right by suggesting that it can be integrated not only with virtual balloons but with AutoCAD, Geomedia, MapInfo and ArcMap and ArcGIS Explorer ... we hope they do not refer to "open with"

 

Download it It costs nothing, but how bad that when registering as a user of a Hispanic country I received an email from someone who is out of the office, with the promise that when I return from his golf game I will activate the account ... unless it is urgently and want to talk to someone ... by doing it again as an American user I could access!

Some have assimilated it as Napster + MySpace + Google Earth + P2P = TITAN. For now, it seems like a good alternative for specialized geomatics ... although I had better expectations.

As they said to John the Baptist ... do we expect another? 

Golgi Alvarez

Writer, researcher, specialist in Land Management Models. He has participated in the conceptualization and implementation of models such as: National Property Administration System SINAP in Honduras, Management Model of Joint Municipalities in Honduras, Integrated Cadastre-Registry Management Model in Nicaragua, Territory Administration System SAT in Colombia . Editor of the Geofumadas knowledge blog since 2007 and creator of the AulaGEO Academy that includes more than 100 courses on GIS - CAD - BIM - Digital Twins topics.

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4 Comments

  1. the bad thing is that expectation that they have created of integration with CAD / GIS applications… the first one to do that, sure will win the prize.
    We will have to wait if it evolves, or at least challenges Google Earth so that the competition improves the qualities

  2. Well, I downloaded it, installed it and began to browse…Readyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy…When I wanted to open a KML with polygons…bye!!! The app disappeared... Every so often the connection to the server is interrupted as well. Very low resolution images of South America. I see no reason for it to work yes or yes together with the "geochat"...if the connection is interrupted - as it seems to happen often - and I close the window that warns of this, the entire Titan closes...I still can't find a reason to replace to GE. This is supposed to replace GE, right? I think it stays at "Attempt" just...
    Someone who knows it extensively, could you please make a summary - point by point - of the advantages over other virtual worlds, please? It is so slow that I don't know if I will have the patience to explore it myself ...

    Regards…

  3. An important aspect of this application is the purchase and sale of data. To do this, users can expose their own data sets, showing that they own their property, and can sell them to other users who are interested. The Titan service is left with a percentage of the transaction.

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