Save to Mr. SID format

[Glenn Pope]

I had this wish posted before the apocalypse of the forum :veryevil: , so I will just repost it.

I would like to have Raster Design save to a Mr. SID formate for images.

I have asked why they don't and was told that it increase the cost for raster design because of the license for the format. But I would pay extra to have it built in. And I think a lot of people would. Especially in the Civil/GIS field. We have aerials that are 45mb or more. In Mr. SID, they would be more like 9mb.

[MHultgren]

If you want to use a compressed format, you can download a free "Lite" version of ER Mapper compression utility. I think it has a upper limit of 50 MB for the free version, It will let you compress the image and even generate a world file for you as long as you have the image located correctly to begin with. Do a Google search for LizardTech or ECW image compression.

[Glenn Pope]

Thanks for the suggestion. I've started playing with the free ER Mapper. It seems to work pretty good. Got a 31mb aerial down to 12mb with really do difference in quality 8-)

Here is the link to the program for anyone that is interested.
Free ECW Compressor (http://www.ermapper.com/downloads/download_view.aspx?PRODUCT_VERSION_ID=152)

[nashz1]

I couldn't agree more. Many people would like to be able to write to .sid format.

The Autodesk argument that it would cost more to license may be true, but so little has been added to Raster Design, it is about time we were provided something for our upgrade cost.

It would also be nice if publishers of data (such as the federal NAIP imagery program) would provide images in formats other than mrsid so that more people could use them. Lizardtech feels it has a lock on compressed image formats and charges an arm and a leg for software to be able to manipulate images. Is JPEG2000 an option?