Setting Up a Tile Job

To create a new Tile job, you can do one of four things:

• Right click in the Project Manager and select Transformer>Tile

• Go to File>New>Transformer>Tile

• Click on the button on the tool bar.

• Right click on an existing Transform or Mosaic job and select Generate Tile Job. In this case, the output of the existing job will be used as the input image for the new Tile job.

Tile Job Settings

The Settings tab of a Tile job contains all of the required settings, which are divided into group boxes.  To properly set up a Tile job, all Input and Output settings must be filled in, and one or more tiles must be defined.  The Tiling Options section of the Tile job can be used to auto-generate tiles based on certain tiling scheme parameters, or you can manually define tiles using the Tile Preview Tool. 

Tile Job Preview

The Preview tab of a tile job displays the input image as well as the current tile definitions.  Tile definitions can be created, modified, and deleted using the Tile Preview Tool.

Input

1.  In the Image File field, specify the image to be tiled by clicking the ellipsis (...) button and browsing to and selecting the file.  Once specified, the image can be viewed on the Preview tab.

2.      In the Reference File field, specify the file containing the georeference data for the image you selected in the Image File field.  Supported reference formats include:

• Blue Marble (RSF)

• World files (various file extensions)

• MapInfo Raster (TAB)

• ER Mapper (ERS)

• Internal Referencing (GeoTiff, ECW, MrSID, JP2, CADRG, ADRG, etc.)

If the Image File does not yet have a Reference File, you will need to Georeference the image prior to tiling it.

3.      In the Coordinate System control, select the coordinate system used to georeference the image.  If you loaded a reference format that contains a coordinate system definition, such as RSF, TAB, GeoTiff, MrSID, JP2, and ECW, then the Coordinate System control should be set automatically for you.  If the loaded reference format does not automatically select the coordinate system for you, you may set the system manually.  Please see: Selecting a Coordinate System

NOTE: World Files (TFW, JGW, SDW, etc) do not contain any coordinate system information and must have their coordinate system selected manually.

Tiling Options

Scheme Settings

4.      Select a value from the Scheme drop-down list to enable the fields needed to generate tile definitions for that Tiling Scheme.

5.      The Pixels and Units choices allow you to specify values in pixels based on the loaded Image File, or in ground units of the specified Coordinate System based on the loaded Image File and Reference File information.

6.  If required for the selected Scheme, enter the Column and Row (in pixels) or East and North (in units) values of the Northwest Corner to indicate the starting point for generating tile extents.

7.  If required for the selected Scheme, enter the Width and Height values of the Tile Size to indicate the base size of the tile definitions to generate.  Any Tile Overlap values will be added to the specified Tile Size when the tile extents are generated.

8.  If required for the selected Scheme, enter the number of tiles Across and Down in the Tile Count.  These values indicate the size of the two-dimensional matrix of tile extents that will be generated.

9.  If desired, enter the Horizontal and Vertical values of the Tile Overlap to indicate how much the tiles should overlap each other.

Tile Naming Settings

10.  Select the method of Tile Numbering to use when generating tile definitions.  Each numbering scheme will generate an eight-digit tile number using the following rules:

• Column, Row generates a tile number using the tile’s four-digit column number followed by its four-digit row number.  (The tile in row 5, column 12 would be numbered 00120005)

• Row, Column generates a tile number using the tile’s four-digit row number followed by its four-digit column number.  (The tile in row 5, column 12 would be numbered 00050012)

• Sequential assigns an eight-digit number to each tile as it is generated, beginning with 00000001.  (The 19^th tile generated would be numbered 00000019)

11.  To add a prefix to the tile name, check the Use Prefix box and enter the desired text into the corresponding textbox.  The text will be prepended to the tile number when the tile definitions are generated.

12.  To add a suffix to the tile name, check the Use Suffix box and enter the desired text into the corresponding textbox.  The text will be appended to the tile number when the tile definitions are generated.

13. Click the Generate Tiles button to generate tile definitions based on the specified Tiling Options.  Once generated, the tiles are displayed on the Tile Preview Tool.

Output

14.  The Output Directory is the directory that the output tile images will be written to during processing.  Use the ellipsis (...) button to open the folder browser dialog that will allow you to choose the desired directory.

15.  The Image Format is the type of raster image that will be created for each tile during processing.

16.  The Preferences button allows you to select output reference file types, resampling methods, compression options, and processing strip size.

17.  Once all settings are in place, click the Process Tiles button at the bottom of the job panel to start the process.  The job will be validated to make sure all required input has been provided in order to process the job. While the job processes, the progress will be shown in the Process Manager panel and relevant messages in the Messages panel.