ArcGIS™ ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in - Help Documentation Page 1 of 1

1. Installing the ArcGIS™ Plug-in

1.1. Installation Options
Double-click on the executable plug-in installer file to begin the installation.

1.2. Verifying a Successful Installation

After installation, start ArcMap™ and bring up the Options window by selecting the Tools > Options menu command. Select
the Raster tab. In ArcMap™ 9.x, click on the File Formats… button to display the list of supported raster formats. Check
that .ecw, .url, .alg, .ers, and all JPEG 2000 formats (.jp2, .j2c, .jpc, .jpx, .jpf, .j2k) are listed as valid formats. In ArcMap™
8.x under Raster Format Browsing of the Raster tab, you will see a similar listing.

Next
Return to Contents

ArcGIS ™ ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in

Version 4.1
© 2008 Earth Resource Mapping

file://C:\Program Files\Earth Resource Mapping\ArcGIS ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in\ArcGIS... 5/13/2009

ArcGIS™ ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in - Help Documentation Page 1 of 2

2. Adding and Viewing ECW JPEG 2000 and ER

Mapper Images
ECW, JPEG 2000 and ER Mapper images can be added to your project like any other raster format that is
supported by ArcGIS™.

2.1. Within ArcMap™

Select Add Data… under the File menu or click on the Add Data… button.

This will bring up the Add Data dialog shown below. Select an ECW, JPEG 2000, ERS, URL or ALG raster
dataset in the list and click on the Add button.

2.2. Within ArcCatalog™

Select an ECW, JPEG 2000, ERS, URL or ALG raster dataset from the left pane category tree and click the
Preview tab of the geography pane as shown in the example below.

file://C:\Program Files\Earth Resource Mapping\ArcGIS ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in\ArcGIS... 5/13/2009

ArcGIS™ ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in - Help Documentation Page 2 of 2

You can also drag and drop images from ArcCatalog™ into ArcMap™.

2.3. ECW Example Imagery

If you chose a custom installation and selected the example ECW images, then you can perform the above
steps to check that everything is OK. By default, the example images are installed in C:\Program
Files\Earth Resource Mapping\ArcGIS ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in\ArcGIS Plug-in .

Previous | Next
Return to Contents

ArcGIS™ ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in

Version 4.1
© 2008 Earth Resource Mapping

file://C:\Program Files\Earth Resource Mapping\ArcGIS ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in\ArcGIS... 5/13/2009

ArcGIS™ ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in - Help Documentation Page 1 of 6

3. Using the ECW and ER Mapper Toolbar

The ECW and ER Mapper toolbar allows easy access to the plug-in’s information and features.

3.1. Activating the Toolbar

The toolbar should automatically be displayed after installation. If not, the toolbar can be displayed by enabling it under the
Customize dialog. Bring up the customize dialog from the Tools > Customize menu command. Select ECW and ER Mapper in the
Toolbars tab. Click on Close to finish.

Alternatively you can select View > Toolbars > ECW and ER Mapper from the menu.

3.2. Description of the Toolbar Functions

file://C:\Program Files\Earth Resource Mapping\ArcGIS ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in\ArcGIS... 5/13/2009

ArcGIS™ ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in - Help Documentation Page 2 of 6

Button Index Function Description

1 Add Remote ECW or JPEG This function brings up the Add Remote ECW or JPEG
2000 Image 2000 Image dialog where you can specify the location
of a remote ECW or JPEG 2000 file. If the URL is valid it
will be added to the project. Note that this command is
only available in ArcMap™.
2 Refresh This function is used to refresh the view window in
ArcCatalog™ and ArcMap™. The refresh command might
be needed when working with remote images over slow
network connections. The refresh is immediate. To view
the complete data for the view simply use this function
and the complete image will be displayed. This is a
highly effective way of “speeding-up” viewing of
remote images.
3 Options This function brings up the ECW JPEG 2000 and ER
Mapper Raster Options dialog. You can specify the
reading techniques and remote ECW JPEG 2000 options
used by the plug-in.
4 Help This function brings up this help documentation in the
default html browser.
5 About This function brings up the About ECW JPEG 2000 and
ER Mapper Raster Support dialog. It provides
information about the plug-in such as the version and a
link to the release notes.

3.2.1. Add Remote ECW or JPEG 2000 Image (ArcMap™ Only)

Button 1 launches a dialog that accepts the URL address of a remote ECW or JPEG 2000 file to add to the current ArcMap™ project.

file://C:\Program Files\Earth Resource Mapping\ArcGIS ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in\ArcGIS... 5/13/2009

ArcGIS™ ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in - Help Documentation Page 3 of 6

Adding Images

To add the remote ECW or JPEG €2000 image to the project, first type in the URL address in the Image field at the bottom of the
window and then click Add. If the URL is valid, it will be added to the project. Additional URLs can be added one after another. To
view the most recent URLs, click on the down arrow to the right of the Image field. When typing the address, the closest match in
the recent URLs will be found and the entry will be auto-completed. You can monitor the status message on the left hand side of
the window to see what task is being processed or the status of the URL. To dismiss the dialog just click on the close button at the
top right corner of the window.

Cataloguing Images

To connect to an Image Web Server and Catalogue all available€ECW and JPEG 2000€images on that server simply type the name of
the Image Web Server to which you wish to connect in the text field€found under€Create Image Catalogue from an Image Web
Server.

The default location for the saved URL files is "C:\Documents and Settings\%CURRENT_USER%\Local Settings\Application Data\Earth
Resource Mapping\ArcGIS ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in\URLs". A directory will be created€at this location€with the name of the Image
Web Server you are connecting to (e.g. demo.ermapper.com). You can change the save location of this directory by clicking on
the "Set" button to the right of the text field. A dialog will appear allowing you to select a new location.

Once you have entered the name of the Image Web Server and set a save location (optional) click on the Get button to create the
catalogue. Once created this catalogue will contain URL files €used to access images via the ecwp protocol. The catalogue will
immediately display the list of WMS images to choose from the Image Web Server.

NOTE: You must have access permission to the appropriate Image Web Server to be able to create a catalogue of images. Only
images which are WMS configured are retrieved from the Image Web Server.

URLs

To check for existing URLs that have been added or included with the installation, click the Browse for URLs button. It will display
the following dialog:

file://C:\Program Files\Earth Resource Mapping\ArcGIS ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in\ArcGIS... 5/13/2009

ArcGIS™ ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in - Help Documentation Page 4 of 6

To provide URL support in ArcGIS™, a local file with a “.url” extension is required to store the actual URL. By default, this dialog
lists all the URLs that are located in the directory currently assigned to store the URLs (see 3.2.2. Options). To look in another
directory just click the button with the folder icon. This is useful to find URLs that you have entered previously or to share URLs
over a mapped network drive. Double click on or select and click on OK to add it to the "Image" field of the Add Remote ECW or
JPEG 2000 Image dialog. This can now be added to the project.

3.2.2. Options

Button 4 will launch a dialog allowing you to change the settings of the plug-in. The options dialog can and should be used to
enhance your plug-in performance especially when loading remote images across a slow link. Sometimes it is not necessary to have
all the data for a particular view on screen (especially when roaming and zooming), so you can vary how long you want the plug-in
to wait before it displays the information it has retrieved from a remote file. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the ArcGIS™ plug-in
continuously streams and caches image data for your particular view.

file://C:\Program Files\Earth Resource Mapping\ArcGIS ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in\ArcGIS... 5/13/2009

ArcGIS™ ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in - Help Documentation Page 5 of 6

Index Option Description Default Value

1 Remote Image Display Applies to the timeout (in seconds) on remote 2
Speed URL reads. The selected value means that the
plug-in will immediately stop reading remote
data when the timeout is reached every time a
remote image is retrieved, resampled or
refreshed. Use this option to increase the
delivery speed of images accessed via the ecwp
protocol (both ECW and JPEG 2000 images). Use
faster settings in conjunction with the refresh
button to obtain more data. This is particularly
useful when a user wishes to roam, pan and zoom
an image and is less concerned with image
resolution. Clicking the Refresh button on the
plug-in toolbar will cause more data to be
downloaded.
2 Wait for All View Data If this option is selected, instead of reading a Unchecked
group of blocks, each individual block is read
(fixed size). This offers a reading technique that
will be slower but may be more reliable or work
better in some cases. This option will also display
the raster as it reads the blocks.
3 Display Performance This changes the block size used when reading. 2 (Middle)
(block size adjustment) This can make viewing, printing or saving faster,
particularly when viewing a sub-section of a large
image. If the view is not too large, the plug-in
will read the blocks in groups.€ In this case, the
smaller the block size, the more efficient the
raster request and hence it is displayed faster.
4 Draft Quality Output If viewing remote ECW or JPEG 2000 images over Unchecked
a slow network connection, the view may take a
significant time to download. If this option is
selected and the zoom level is greater than 1:1,
the plug-in will sub-sample the data by a factor
of 2. This means that the data can be displayed

file://C:\Program Files\Earth Resource Mapping\ArcGIS ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in\ArcGIS... 5/13/2009

ArcGIS™ ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in - Help Documentation Page 6 of 6

faster (potentially 4 times faster) when roaming

and zooming and then display at normal quality
when zoomed in to 1:1.
5 Show Progress Bar If viewing remote ECW or JPEG 2000 files over a Unchecked
slow network connection, the view may take a
significant time to download. If this is the case
and this option is selected, a progress dialog will
be displayed.
6 Set Cache Memory Ordinarily you do not need to be concerned with Unchecked
the image caching functionality of the ECW &
JPEG 2000 plug-in. However under certain
circumstances (i.e. when using a terminal server
running several instances of ArcGIS on one
machine) you may need to adjust the caching
capability of the ArcGIS plug-in. This is, by
default, automatically set to 25% of the available
RAM for each instance of ArcGIS running. If you
wish to run several instances of ArcGIS on the
same machine you can drop the cache value to a
minimum of 5% (maximum 25%). To do this check
the ‘Set Memory Cache’ tick-box and adjust the
slider to the required amount of image caching.
7 URL Path When adding a remote ECW or JPEG 2000 image C:\Documents and
Settings\%CURRENT_USER%
to ArcMap™, local .url files are created which \Local
contain the location of the ECW or JPEG 2000 Settings\Application
file. These files are stored in this directory and Data\Earth Resource
Mapping\ArcGIS ECW JPEG
can be added to the project like any other raster
2000 Plug-in\URLs\
format.
8 Default Settings Sets all options to default (options are not saved, N/A
and the dialog is left open).

Previous | Next
Return to Contents

ArcGIS™ ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in

Version 4.1
© 2008 Earth Resource Mapping

file://C:\Program Files\Earth Resource Mapping\ArcGIS ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in\ArcGIS... 5/13/2009

ArcGIS™ ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in - Help Documentation Page 1 of 1

4. Accessing Individual Commands

If you need to access individual commands included with the plug-in to customize ArcGIS™,
bring up the Customize dialog by going to the Tools > Customize menu command, then click
on the Commands tab. Under Categories, select “Earth Resource Mapping” and the
available commands should appear in the Commands pane on the right hand side. You can
assign shortcut keys to each command by clicking on the Keyboard… button. You can also
drag individual commands from the right-hand Commands: pane onto an existing activated
toolbar.

Previous | Next
Return to Contents

ArcGIS™ ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in

Version 4.1
© 2008 Earth Resource Mapping

file://C:\Program Files\Earth Resource Mapping\ArcGIS ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in\ArcGIS... 5/13/2009

ArcGIS™ ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in - Help Documentation Page 1 of 3

5. Useful Hints and Tips

5.1. General
• Make sure you have installed the latest service packs and necessary patches for ArcGIS™
to provide optimal performance. These can be found at http://support.esri.com

• Using ArcGIS™ to mosaic numerous ECW JPEG 2000 or ER Mapper images is slower than
displaying a single larger image. For best results, use ER Mapper to create your large
mosaic (tile and color balance), save the result to an ECW or JPEG 2000 file and then use
it in ArcGIS™.

• View the ECW JPEG 2000 or ER Mapper image at 1:1 zoom (dataset resolution) for faster
display as no sub-sampling is required by ArcGIS™. The ArcGIS™ command Zoom to Raster
Resolution is useful for zooming to 1:1.

• The larger the view window, the longer the time required to display the ECW JPEG 2000
or ER Mapper image.

5.2. Raster Options in ArcMap™

In ArcMap™ you can change the display properties of the raster layer to improve the display
times and appearance of the ECW, JPEG 2000 or ER Mapper images. Two settings of interest
are resampling and display quality. Setting the re-sampling to Bilinear will improve the
visual appearance, and changing the Display Quality will also influence the display times.
This has a similar effect as the Smoothing option in ER Mapper.

file://C:\Program Files\Earth Resource Mapping\ArcGIS ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in\ArcGIS... 5/13/2009

ArcGIS™ ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in - Help Documentation Page 2 of 3

To access the above dialog, follow these steps:

1. Add€the€ECW JPEG 2000 or ER Mapper file into ArcMap™

2. Select the Display tab on the left hand contents pane

3. Right click on the layer name (under the Layers heading)

4. Select Properties… from the drop down menu

5. The Layer Properties dialog will appear as shown above. Set the options to the match the
above screenshot.

Note: For ECWP remote images, you may prefer to set the Display Quality to Coarse as this
will increase the viewing speed.

Previous | Next
Return to Contents

ArcGIS™ ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in

Version 4.1
© 2008 Earth Resource Mapping

file://C:\Program Files\Earth Resource Mapping\ArcGIS ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in\ArcGIS... 5/13/2009

ArcGIS™ ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in - Help Documentation Page 3 of 3

file://C:\Program Files\Earth Resource Mapping\ArcGIS ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in\ArcGIS... 5/13/2009

ArcGIS™ ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in - Help Documentation Page 1 of 3

6. Known Problems and Limitations

1) When adding a plug-in supported image I receive a warning “Unknown Spatial
Reference” and some images fail to display in their correct coordinates.

The georeferencing information is not recognized by the plug-in or ArcGIS™ and appears as
“<Undefined>”. Your image could be in a custom spatial reference that may be uncommon.
For JPEG 2000 images, it could mean that your image does not have a valid EPSG code (to
learn more about EPSG codes, visit http://www.epsg.org). The best workaround is to set the
closest possible spatial reference information using ArcCatalog™. The steps below describe
the workaround:

1. Find and delete the corresponding .aux file for the image e.g. image.aux for image.ecw

2. Bring up the Raster Dataset Properties window in ArcCatalog™ by right clicking on the
image file and selecting Properties…

3. Select the Spatial Reference heading and then click on Edit

4. Click on Select… and choose the appropriate pre-defined coordinate system that matches
the file’s original projection/datum.

5. Close ArcCatalog™, start ArcMap™ and then load the image file

6. Bring up the layer properties by right clicking on the image file, and select the source tab

7. Scroll down to the Data Source section and you will see the projection/datum information
preserved

ArcGIS™ 9.1 users please note: Unlike previous versions of ArcGIS™, version 9.1 will
completely disregard any spatial reference information in a dataset as soon as it does not
recognize the datum and/or projection (common example is WGS84/Local). This results in
images appearing in incorrect coordinates. To rectify this problem, you should download and

file://C:\Program Files\Earth Resource Mapping\ArcGIS ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in\ArcGIS... 5/13/2009

ArcGIS™ ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in - Help Documentation Page 2 of 3

install ArcGIS 9.1 Service Pack 2.

2) When viewing remote ECW and JPEG 2000 images over a slow network connection,
distortion/discoloration appears in the top left corner of the image

This can be fixed by clicking the Refresh button on the plug-in’s toolbar. Setting the Wait for
All View Data plug-in option should also help.

3) The progress status remains after the image is loaded

Change the view, use the Refresh button or go back to previous extents. If the window still
remains, try selecting the blank window tab in the Windows task bar and use the Windows
Alt+F4 keyboard shortcut to close the window. The progress status can be turned off in the
plug-in options.

4) When zooming close into large raster datasets, the image appears black

This is a known problem with ArcGIS™ 8.3. Download and install the following patch by ERSI
“ArcGIS Desktop 8.3 RPF and Memory Management for Large Raster Data Patch” to fix the
problem.

5) When viewing large ECW or JPEG 2000 images in ArcMap™, there may be a long pause
between roam and zooms or getting properties

This is the result of ArcMap™ attempting to calculate statistics, and a status message appears
at the lower left corner of the window. Hold the Esc key down to cancel the statistics
calculation and continue.

6) When attempting to view ERS files, you receive message boxes indicating that the
plug-in could not determine the band number

Close ArcGIS™, delete the AUX files that are associated with the ERS files and try again.

7) ECW JPEG 2000 and ER Mapper images display at poor resolution and appear
pixilated and blocky

ER Mapper has an option to turn smoothing on, thereby removing the pixilated appearance of

file://C:\Program Files\Earth Resource Mapping\ArcGIS ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in\ArcGIS... 5/13/2009

ArcGIS™ ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in - Help Documentation Page 3 of 3

an image. A similar feature is available in ArcMap™. Refer to 5.2. Raster Options in ArcMap™.

Previous | Next
Return to Contents

ArcGIS™ ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in

Version 4.1
© 2008 Earth Resource Mapping

file://C:\Program Files\Earth Resource Mapping\ArcGIS ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in\ArcGIS... 5/13/2009

ArcGIS™ ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in - Help Documentation Page 1 of 2

7. Support and Problem Reporting

Use the information in this section to report any defects you may encounter whilst using the
plug-in.

Read the available documentation to see if your problem is already addressed. Refer to 6.
Known Problems and Limitations.

If you still cannot resolve your problem, it is always worth checking on our website to see if
similar problems have been mentioned in the Knowledge Base or Public Forums for your
product. Alternatively, there might be a newer version of the plug-in available on the
website product download section. Download this to see if it solves your problem.

If the problem persists…

For beta and release candidate products, please visit the Beta Feedback page to submit a
query.

For public releases, please visit the Request Support page to submit a query.

The summary field should be succinct, but informative as it will assist the development or
support staff to quickly decide who can best answer your problem. Example:

Good: “ECWP does not refresh fully in ArcMap” (short, but descriptive)

Bad:€€€ “Problem!!!” (tells us nothing about your problem)

Please remember that your query may be the first of it’s kind reported to us. The more you
can tell us, the less likely we will have to ask you for more details and the quicker we will
be able to provide you with an answer. Details that should be included:

• Product name and version number e.g. ArcGIS™ ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in, Version 4.0 Beta
2

• Version of software that plug-in is installed into, including patches e.g. ArcGIS 9.0
Service Pack 2

• Is the plug-in installed in the default directory? If not, where?

• Operating system e.g. Windows 2000 Service Pack 4

• System Specifications i.e. processor, CPU speed, RAM

• Exact steps to reproduce the problem

• Sample datasets and screen shots if applicable

file://C:\Program Files\Earth Resource Mapping\ArcGIS ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in\ArcGIS... 5/13/2009

ArcGIS™ ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in - Help Documentation Page 2 of 2

• Things you have tried yourself to fix or further investigate the problem

Previous
Return to Contents

ArcGIS™ ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in

Version 4.1
© 2008 Earth Resource Mapping

file://C:\Program Files\Earth Resource Mapping\ArcGIS ECW JPEG 2000 Plug-in\ArcGIS... 5/13/2009