Export Operation

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Watch this video on YouTube to learn how to use this processing operation. Use the chapter indexing to skip to the detail you need.

The Export operation writes a copy of a raster to a new raster file (or files) in a designated raster format. It is primarily designed to convert (or crystallise) an MVR virtual raster into a raster file. In ProRaster Scientific, chains of virtual rasters are used to build datasets for rendering and analysis. These virtual rasters cannot be used outside of ProRaster. However, you can export virtual rasters to other raster formats, thus “crystallising” the data, and use those rasters in other applications.

MVR virtual rasters support multiple fields, bands, and events. The only other raster format that supports these concepts is the MRR format. Consequently, the export operation will either copy the input raster to a single MRR format raster file, or it will copy each band of the input raster to a separate raster file in a transportable raster format like GeoTIFF. In this second scenario, the operation creates a folder for each input raster containing folders for all the fields and events, containing each band in a separate file.

In this operation, each raster you select as input is processed individually. If you select a raster source, then each raster file in that raster source is processed individually. The Export operation supports batch processing where multiple raster inputs can be processed serially.

You can either export each input raster to an MRR format raster, or to a transportable raster format. If you choose MRR format for the output raster, then the operation will generate a single MRR output file. Use the browse dialog to specify the output filename. This file will contain all the fields, events, and bands that you have chosen to export. You will be able to use this MRR file in ProRaster and in MapInfo Pro. You may struggle to use it in any other applications as it is likely to contain multiple fields and events and these features are unsupported by the GDAL driver used to access MRR format rasters in other applications.

The alternative is to export to a transportable raster format. You can select either GeoTIFF (TIF) or Band Interleaved (BIL). In both cases, the export process will generate a single file for every band in the virtual raster. This may result in dozens of output rasters. For this reason, you must specify an output folder for your rasters. This will become the root folder for the export and each field and event will be a sub-folder of that root folder. The bands will be exported to rasters in those sub-folders.

When you select a folder, it is advisable to delete all the existing content in that folder. You can do this from the browse dialog. The name of the source raster is copied to the clipboard so that if you create a destination folder, you can paste the source name into it for convenience.

You can apply output filters including the resolution level, the event selection, and the field and band selection.

The default base resolution level is zero. Each increase in the resolution level doubles the cell size and reduces the output raster size by a factor of four. Conversely, each decrease in the resolution level halves the cell size and increases the output raster size four times. In an MVR, bands in a field may have different “natural” cell sizes. However, all bands are exported at the same cell size. For example, in satellite multispectral data the bands may have different cell sizes. The color bands are used to establish the MVR cell size, but other bands like Thermal or Panchromatic may have lower or higher resolution than this.

You can export all events or only the last “rolled-up” event. In the first case, each event is exported individually and there is no roll-up of events. In the second case, the data is rolled-up from the first event to the last event.

You can export all fields and all bands, or you can select individual fields and bands (in any combination) for export. Use the checkboxes in the tree control to turn on and off fields (and all bands in those fields) and to turn individual bands on and off.

Hit OK to execute the export. The dialog will close, and a raster processor dialog will open and display the progress of the processing operation. You can cancel the operation from this dialog if you wish.