Civil 3D - Handling Large Aerials?

[vaughan.giles7AGEV]

Hi everyone,

Once and for-all I am looking at the handling of aerials, or rather what is the BEST file format as well as post-processing / re-saving / combining...etc. that can be used to speed-up the performance of aerials within Civil 3D.

• What are the pros and cons of different raster file formats?
  • e.g. tiff .jpg .jp2 .sid .ecw.....etc.

• What software do you use and how (e.g. Global Mapper, ARCGIS...etc.):
  • To reduce aerial size
  • To increase performance

I've seen examples for example that can save proprietary file formats like MrSid (.sid) files, which are supposed to perform very very well, however I don't like the idea of having to rely solely on propitiatory data and there has to be a better way of handling aerials.

What are some of your experiences?

Thank you for your time.

[fcernst]

XREF.. then XCLIP only what you need for Civil 3D

[vaughan.giles7AGEV]

Not really the answer I was hoping for, I'm focusing on the file types, sizing and methods for producing faster, lighter aerials.

[rl_jackson]

In general, I use Sid files as they are freely available, and our GIS Department has ArcGIS to create custom Sid files if we have multiple images but want to reduce file size / area of interest. We also have Lizardtech so that we can create custom aerials from our drone lidar flights, it's probably the best compression tool for handling images that I know of. I rarely ever use the other formats you pointed to due to their file size in most cases.

[vaughan.giles7AGEV]

Yeah I've been wanting to trial the .sid format, but their GeoExpress tool from what I understand is not the cheapest out there (is it $5,000 a year I hear?)

...can't create the .sid files from ArcGIS without their software / license either.

[fcernst]

If you want to change the wavelet compression using a wavelet transform .. then LizardTech.. but then you will start getting back to resolutions like a jpeg.. no bueno

[Joe-Bouza]

There is no free lunch.

resolution = file size. 
As @fcernst  suggest, XCLIP

[DBreisch]

We are running Civil 3d 2024 and ran into issues when we purchased a County data set of aerials that were processed as ECW format with 4-bands. Apparently the software cannot properly handle 4-band image. We were lucky that the 3rd party that flew them was willing to reprocess them with 3-bands.