New Features in TNTgis 2021

General System Changes

• In Job Processing improve loading of jobs referencing a large number of files. This speeds up the loading of each job and reduces overhead that can affect other jobs running at the same time.
• Speed up loading of saved settings in various processes. This is particularly noticeable when working with database tables having thousands of fields.

Display

• Add "Balanced Contrast Enhancement Technique" (BCET) Parabolic and Cubic methods for contrast enhancement.
• Improve match to average original color when applying Automatic Color Palette generation on category / class rasters.
• Simplify settings for stereo anaglyph glasses.
• Clarify operation of "Rename Layer" operation.
• Prevent selection of empty table for Style-by-Attribute.
• Bing Maps – All TNTgis Pro licenses that are authorized for version 2021 will continue to have access to the Microsoft Bing Maps layers during 2021. This includes earlier versions of TNTgis once version 2021 is installed and activated.

WebGIS Assemble Geomashup

• Support grouping of overlay layers.
• Support mutually-exclusive sets of overlay layers.

     Geomashup – Google Maps

• Layers that are combined into one multi–layer group are shown in the sidebar as one layer. User can access sub–layers and corresponding controls by opening the folder.
• Support inclusion of parameter in URL to set initial map extents. This allows the same mashup to be linked from multiple source pages with different initial views from each.
• Support URL parameters to search and zoom to a feature.
• Add control in the sidebar for exclusive groups. A "Show" drop down menu lets the user select what set of layers to show. Only layers in the selected exclusive group are shown in the map and legend.
• Escape search query text before submitting search.

Database Editor / Operations

• When combining tables a message will now be displayed if two field types cannot be merged, such as number with text, date and text, etc. The name of the first conflicting field will be listed.
• Automatically expand text fields as needed to accommodate largest input text.

Image Classification

• When a color palette is Saved by auto–color–map the raster layer will be set and saved to use the saved–as palette name. The previously created (or saved–as) result raster will get the new palette(s) created by the Auto Color Palette generator, and the last–saved one will be used for the results raster if it is later viewed in the Display process. However, if you subsequently "Save" the classification Results, the default palette name will be used, and only that palette will be included with the newly–saved result raster.
• In various "supervised" methods, handle case of not having enough samples for a class to compute statistics. The resulting raster will generally have no output cells of that class.
• When processing ungeoreferenced input rasters, the cell size (if any) will be set for the resulting output rasters.
• When select new input clear the previous training set if it is not coincident in both size and georeferenced location.
• Automatically remove previous training–set layer when open or create new training set.
• In Select Area right–mouse–button menu, options that alter the training raster are now disabled unless "editing" is enabled.
• Add ToolTips to Confusion Matrix display to show whether a column or row applies to the Result or Compare–to raster. Also added ToolTips to column headings in main window.

"Raw" Photo Import

• The ability to import from "raw" (proprietary) camera formats is now available. This appears as RAW–PHOTO in the import (raster) format list.
• Supports 700+ cameras with raw photo formats from Canon, Casio, Fuji, Hasselblad, Kodak, Konica, Leaf, Lieca, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Pentax, Phase One, Polaroid, Ricoh, Samsung, Sigma, Sinar, Sony, and others.
• An interpolation option is provided to control how the raw Red/Green/Green/Blue Bayer Pattern is processed into aligned RGB images. Options are Linear, Threshold–based Variable Number of Gradients, Patterned Pixel Grouping (default), and Adaptive Homogeniety–Directed. There is also an option to perform no interpolation and import the raw Bayer Pattern pixels either as a single 16–bit grayscale raster or separate Red / Green1 / Green2 / Blue rasters.
• Note, there is no defined set of file extensions used by raw photo formats, so all extensions will be listed when selecting files to import. The process will determine if the file is readable when selected.

General Import / Export

• When importing TIFF / GeoTIFF with embedded pyramid tiers, if the "None" option for Pyramid is chosen then the embedded tiers will no longer be copied. When linking with this option, the embedded tiers will still be linked, but no additional lower–resolution tiers will be created in the link file.
• Importing X–Y–Z to Raster will now allow raster size as small as 2x2. Also will now report specific error messages for raster too small, large, no points read, or coordinates out of range (when using option to treat X/Y as column/row).
• Shape Import now handles case of having associated database with no defined fields.
• Shape Export now allows export of "date / time" fields. Field will be exported as "date" only, since the associated DBF format does not directly support a date+time field.

Geometric Raster Statistics

• Add X, Y and Count values for Minimum and Maximum statistics. This will report the location of the first cell having the minimum or maximum value associated with each geometric feature. One possible use of this is to find the lowest or highest point within an area. The "count" is useful when there is more than one cell with the minimum or maximum value.
• Add buttons to turn all statistics on or off.

Image Statistics by Band

• This new process computes various overall statistics by raster / band. While many of these are available in other places, such as the histogram views, this process allows any number of input rasters and convenient selection of the desired statistics.
• General statistics include Cell Count, Minimum, Maximum, Range, Mean, Median, Mode, Standard Deviation, Variance, and Relative Standard Deviation Percentage. In addition, Gray Level Cooccurrence Matrix (GLCM) statistics can be computed, including Angular Second Moment, Entropy, Contrast, Dissimilarity, Homogeneity, Mean, Variance, and Correlation.
• Output from this process is to a CSV or text (.txt) file.

Raster Distance from Geometric

• Add ability to compute direction raster. Options for direction include Clockwise from Raster Top, Clockwise from Projection North, Counter–clockwise from Raster Right, and Counter–clockwise from Projection East.
• Now supports CAD and Shape features in addition to Vector.
• Add ability to set color spread and palette. For the direction output a "cyclic" palette can be used to produce a continuous color gradient.
• Add ability to match output to an existing reference raster.

Raster Geometric Grid

• This process has been separated from the process to Extract Terrain Points, resulting in a simplified interface for both.
• Options are now available to specify the starting and ending raster column and row for the grid.
• Now supports all numeric raster cell types.

Raster Mosaic

• There is now a "Fade at Boundaries" option for the "Mosaic Overlap" setting. Selecting this will enable the "Fading Distance" setting to determine how many cells outward from each user–defined boundary to use for fading.
• To define a boundary for each desired input, select one input image from the list and then choose the "Define Fade Boundary" tool. This tool will allow a region to be drawn by the user similar to what is used elsewhere in TNTgis. Anything drawn outside the image will simply be clipped to that image, so there is no need to try to match on all sides. In areas of overlap you can choose how the boundary is drawn.

Raster Principal Components

• Now allows an unlimited number of input rasters. As always, the practical limit will depend on the available computing resources (memory, speed, etc).
• Add "Analyze" button to compute and show statistics without producing output rasters. Often only the statistics are needed, or previewing the statistics is helpful in deciding how many components to save.
• Add control to set number of component rasters to save. Value will default to the number of input rasters.
• Add option to apply mask to output.
• Provide option to save reverse transformation array along with forward array. The transformation array can then be used in the User–Defined Linear raster combination process.
• Add (lossless) compression options for output, depending on selected cell type.

Raster Radiometric Correction

• Improve the Dark Object value calculation for the Histogram method to better locate the starting value for each band.
• Add Dark Object choices of Minimum and Contrast. The Minimum selection will use the overall minimum positive cell value in each raster. The Contrast selection will use the lower contrast limit from the most recently saved contrast table for each raster. If no contrast table exists then the minimum positive value will be used.
• Allow ASTER bands 10–14 (thermal) as input. For these bands only the Radiance will be output, since the values are not truly reflectance and will often exceed 100% relative to the at–sensor solar radiance for those wavelengths.

Raster Topographic Properties

• Add General Curvature output option.
• Will now set contrast to Normalize for Curvature outputs. This improves the automatic default display of the results because most of the values are in a narrow part of the overall range.
• Automatically determine pyramid calculation method based on output. For most outputs the Average method will be used.

Raster Trend Analysis and Adjustment

• This process has a redesigned interface for 2021. The primary operational change is that the analysis step is separate from the trend removal step. This enables the ability for the user to instantly adjust the type of model or number of coefficients without the need to re–analyze the input.
• Trend models can be saved and re–loaded. Once a model is created or loaded, it can be used to either Remove or Apply the trend to any number of rasters. Models are automatically scaled to different raster dimensions, so this should be used carefully if rasters differ in size from the ones used in creating the model.
• When removing or applying a trend to rasters, an option of whether to subtract/add, or rescale is available. Depending on the source of the original trend bias, a different choice might be needed to correctly remove the trend.
• Radial polynomial models are now supported in addition to the previous general 2–dimensional polynomial model. The user can specify the radial center (default is center of the raster). An option to automatically estimate the location based on the maximum or minimum trend value nearest to the center is also available. This is typically useful to calculate camera vignetting models.
• Trend polynomials up to order 10 can now be analyzed. The maximum order is specified before analysis and the user can then adjust to a lower order before processing the rasters.
• The user can now optionally specify a range of cell values to include in the trend analysis. This allows outlier values that might bias the results to be easily excluded.
• Predefined sampling selections for analysis are available based on pyramid tiers to speed up the processing.
• A mask can now be specified to only include desired pixels in the analysis. This replaces the limited option of using only border cells. The mask can now be optionally applied to the output, with cells excluded from the mask becoming null.
• RGB rasters can now be processed with each component having its own model coefficients.
• Trend model coefficients and other information can be saved to a text file for use in other applications or reports.
• Trend models can be saved as a raster, with dimensions matching the input raster used for analysis.
• A model scale factor can be adjusted when removing or applying the trend to reduce or increase the effect the model has.
• Job Processing is now available when Removing or Applying a trend.

Rig Camera Alignment & Exposure Balancing

• The operation sequence for this process has now been changed so that computing the alignment is now done as a specific action on a selected frame. The user must therefore compute an alignment, or use a previously computed one, before running the process on all the frames. This provides the user with a way to review the alignment via the Image View.
• Alignment profiles may now be saved and reused. Alignment profiles will be saved "per–camera" based on both the camera Make/Model (chosen from menu) and serial number (if available) so the set available to select from will not include alignments done for other cameras.
• Add option to output zero–valued input cells as 0, 1 or null. Typically the result of this process is used in software other than TNTgis and cells with a value of 0 are often treated as null.
• In the Image View, allow band combinations without having done alignment first, for comparison or estimate of initial inter–band shifts.
• The user can now select to include/exclude frames by altitude range. This is helpful to easily exclude frames that are acquired during ascent / descent.
• The user can now choose whether to prompt for the output folder location or automatically determine from the input.
• A ToolTip is now shown when hovering over the include/exclude checkbox to indicate that more choices are available on the right–mouse–button menu.
• When a mismatch in the number of files by band is detected, the message now provides more information to help the user diagnose the problem. Information shown includes the number of files expected, the number of files found, and the file search folders and patterns used.
• The in–process Help button now provides a link to the corresponding tutorial on the MicroImages website.

Terrain Path Analysis

• Can now set a threshold for change percentage. If the new path is not longer than the previous, but not shorter than it by the percentage specified, the processing will automatically stop. The user also has option to stop at any time to retain the last computed path.
• The last iteration is now drawn in a different color to help visualize the progress.

Terrain Extract Points

• This process is now separate from the process to generate a mesh (Raster to Geometric Grid).
• A table is now created that specifies the type of each generated point (local minimum, maximum, etc).

SML Script Editor

• The main script editor has been redesigned to use a toolbar instead of menus for most editing actions. This makes it much easier to use and avoids multiple steps to access frequently–used operations.
• There are now choices (buttons) for both Save and Save–As. This eliminates the need to prompt for the save location every time the file is saved.
• There is now a "Reload" button to immediately reload the script in the editor, usually after changing the saved script file with another tool, such as an external text editor. In addition, an Auto–Reload setting can be turned on to detect such changes and reload automatically. The user will be prompted to confirm if edits have been done and not already saved.
• Search and replace features are now available.
• When saving an "encrypted" script, a message will be displayed in the Encryption Options window reminding the user to save a non–encrypted copy for future editing.
• When a syntax error in the script is found using "Check Syntax" or "Run", the cursor will be automatically positioned on or near the related line in the script editor window. The window will automatically scroll if needed to make the line visible.
• Line numbers are automatically adjusted in messages when preprocessor statements are used.
• The text "insertion" cursor is now bolder, making it easier to find in a large script. In addition, the "blinking" of the cursor will automatically stop after a few seconds if the cursor has not been moved in order to reduce distraction.
• When editing a "query" script, the Insert Field window now shows the field type.

Scripting / SML

• Add PRINCOMPSTATS.GetCorrespondence to get corresponding correlation between Input rasters and Principal Components.
• Add FocalCount function to return the number of valid (non-null) cells in the focus area. This is useful for analyzing the relative validity / weight of other statistics.

Miscellaneous

• Raster Apply Contrast – Add BCET Parabolic and Cubic methods.
• Raster Resample / Reproject – Copy database to output if has unsigned–integer cell type and using Nearest–Neighbor resampling. This is typically used to copy a class table to the resulting raster.
• Raster Viewshed – Allow Up and Down Angle values to be equal to allow for very narrow field–of–view calculation.