Datamine Discover KB - Images

How do I change a projection for a layer which is misregistered (without changing coordinates)?

kbadmin — Thu, 22 Feb 2024 03:38:56 GMT

Occurrence

Vector objects such as Lines, Polylines or Polygons have been digitised into the incorrect projection. In this case, reprojection does not work, as the object coordinates will change (move). For
example the vector object may have been created in the incorrect UTM Zone, or the wrong projection was selected during import and registration of the file.

How can this be modified without recreating the objects/registration?

Solution

For vector data you can use this tool that you can install by going to Home>MapInfo Marketplace, and find CoordsysChanger and install it.

http://mapinfomarketplace.precisely.com/product/4d68d42c-7d5a-40c8-ab37-56c005176049

For rasters or surface grid images, simply use Table>Raster>Modify Image Registration, and select a new Projection, or edit control points. Note that editing control points may cause errors, which ought to be fixed through rectification.

For points, you can firstly save the coordinates using DISCOVER>Projections>Updates Coordinates. Then simply delete the map, using Table>Maintenance>Table Structure and un-ticking Table is Mappable, and then re-create the points.

My image appears blurred

kbadmin — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 05:25:41 GMT

Occurrence

When I open my grid or raster image and zoom in, the pixels appear blurred and smoothed

Solution

This is controlled by MAP>Map Options>Smooth Images.

Simply set this to None.

This will only change the current front map window, if you wish to change all new map window's default setting, navigate to Pro>Options>System>Styles.

How do I reproject my data?

Josh Knight — Fri, 19 Nov 2021 07:21:42 GMT

MapInfo and Discover provides a number of different Reprojection Utilities, depending on the type of data to be transformed. Each of these tools will create a copy of the data in the specified output projection, typically with a default _reproject suffix added to the input file name. These tools are invaluable (for example) for ensuring all datasets are in the same Coordinate Reference System (projection).

Note: After reprojecting when you open in back in the map window, it will appear in exact same location. This is due to Mapinfo being a GIS system that reprojects on the fly. It will only appear in a different location when opened in a non-GIS program.

Vector data (i.e. points/polylines/polygons)

This is shown in the layer control with an icon -

There a numerous ways to reproject these -

1. Standard MapInfo way is to go to Home>Save>Save Copy As. Then on the save dialog, click the projection button and choose the new projection.

2. Use the Discover>Reproject>Reproject Coordinates. This uses the Discover projection engine with explicit NTv2 support. (note this doesn't support NativeX tab files).

3. Use the DISCOVER > Reproject > Multi-Table Reproject tool. This allows the current projections of multiple vector tables to be displayed and reprojected, either as new tables, or overwriting the existing tables.

Note with all of these methods only change the spatial vector data in the map. They do not update any coordinates in the browser table for say points. There ...

How do I clip my data to a polygon region?

kbadmin — Wed, 02 Sep 2020 00:36:15 GMT

Discover provides a number of tools to clip your map data to a area within a selected polygon -

1) Vector layers - QUERY>Map Object>Vector Clip
2) Images - IMAGES>Images Tools>Clip Image
3) Surface Grids - SURFACES>Utilities>Clip

Some raster images and raster grids may also be clipped with RASTER>Operations>Clip

How do I add a custom projection to MapInfo and Discover

kbadmin — Tue, 27 Aug 2019 00:10:24 GMT

Occurrence

I've added a custom projection line to my MAPINFOW.PRJ but it does not appear in the select projection dialog box's list.

Solution

If the projection is not appearing in MapInfo Pro, it will need to added to the default MAPINFOW.PRJ file located in -

C:\Program Files\MapInfo\Professional (64-bit)

C:\Program Files (x86)\MapInfo\Professional (32-bit)

Note that these are read only locations, so you will need to copy the file to your desktop, edit it, and then copy back to overwrite with the changes.

If it is still not listed check the format is exactly correct by copying the exact formatting -

"--- Custom name ---"
"Projection name", x, x, x

You should also use DISCOVER>Projection Editor to create the custom coordinate system string.

If using Discover 2017 Update version or later, you only need to update the 1 PRJ file. Other PRJ files are kept in sync. Also there is a new Projection Editor tool to add custom projections, and update both files.

If you wish to share the same PRJ file on a network drive for all users, this can be set using the MapInfo Workgroup directory setting in PRO>Options>Directories.

On older versions, Discover's reprojection tools and Discover3D use a separate projection file (to MapInfo Pro) which you will need to copy and paste the custom projection lines into It has the identical format as the Mapinfow.prj file..
It is located at-

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Encom\Common\Projections\Encom.prj

Discover 2019 - opening workspaces containing certain ECW files crashes

kbadmin — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 03:30:04 GMT

Occurrence

In Discover 2019, opening certain ECW files crashes MapInfo Discover. These opened previous versions.

Solution

This issue was resolved in the Discover 2019 Update.

What data formats and file types can I import?

kbadmin — Fri, 14 Dec 2018 02:34:54 GMT

Discover and MapInfo Professional can import an extensive range of industry standard and 3rd party data formats.

The attached PDF (bottom of the page) list all supported formats under the following categories, and for each format details the location of the required import tool.

Tabular and Vector data (including databases, contour files, text files, GIS formats such as Shape and geopackage etc)
Raster Imagery (such as aerial photography, SPOT imagery, company logos, etc)
Gridded Surfaces (such as digital elevation models & geophysical grids, multibanded remote sensing data such as LANDSAT) - requires a 3D license for 3D visualization and processing
Drillhole & Trench data (such as collars points and downhole survey, downhole assays and wireline LAS logs) - requires a 3D license for 3D visualization and processing
GPS Data (such as GPX)
3D Vector Data (such as DXF of mine plans and drives, ore grade shells) - requires a 3D license for 3D visualization and processing
3D Resources Models (such as 3D vectors or block/voxel models, geophysical inversion models such as Magnetic or EM targets) - requires a 3D license

A range of additional formats can be imported using MapInfo's TABLE>Universal Translator (which is based on Safe Software's Feature Manipulation Engine (FME)).

How do I clip my data down to a selected polygon or region boundary?

Josh Knight — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 01:04:25 GMT

Discover provides a number of tools that allow you to clip or cut your datasets down to selected regions/areas. An example would be to provide subsetted datasets to government organisations for lease relinquishment reports, or to a joint venture partner.

The tools are data type specific, i.e. vector, image or grid data:

Vector Data

(e.g. point, polygon or polyline data, such as soil sample or drillhole point locations, surface geology regions, traverse lines and track polyline data)

Use Discover's QUERY>Map Object>Vector Clip tool. This requires the user to select one or more bounding regions/polygons (e.g. the sub-blocks to be relinquished) before running the tool.

Raster Data (e.g. airphotos, landsat imagery)

The Images menu has a Clip Image tool. This provides 2 methods for defining the clip region/area:

1. Select one or more bounding regions/polygons (e.g. the sub-blocks to be relinquished) before running the tool. Within the tool, enable the 'Clip outside polygon' option, and ensure that the 'Polygon Table * Selection *' is selected

2. Within the tool, select the table containing the polygonal areas to clip the image to. All polygons in the specified table or selection will be used for clipping.

Gridded Surfaces

(e. ...

How can I display a raster image on a drillhole vertical cross section?

kbadmin — Fri, 06 Oct 2017 00:57:21 GMT

It is possible to display a raster on a Discover cross section, however, it will require the registration of the image to the cross section coordinates.

Please note that Discover cross sections are only in 2D space in a non-earth meters projection. See the related articles for more details.

The the process is the same as you would register any other image, i.e. use Discover>Images>Rectify Image.

All you will need to do is have both your unregistered image file open in MapInfo along with the Section you want to register from.
The Rectify Image tool will allow you to register control points on the image which relate to control points on the registered cross section.

When you are registering the image for the cross section do this in Non Earth (Meters) coordinate space as the cross section window is located in Non-Earth (Meters) coordinate space

Also if you save the image in the section folder, and prefix the file name with the section .e.g. "Section1_Image.tab", it will then automatically open/close with the Section Manager and other section layers.

What is the difference between registering a raster image via MapInfo Pro versus MapInfo Discover?

Josh Knight — Fri, 15 Apr 2016 01:41:10 GMT

Two methods are available within the MapInfo Pro and MapInfo Discover product suite to register raster images in real-world coordinates.

The process of registering an image involves associating map coordinates, usually X and Y, with corresponding pixels on an unregistered image.

MapInfo Pro Image Registration

Table>Raster>Modify Image Registration…

The MapInfo Pro registration process will register points on an image with the assigned X and Y values, and locate as defined by the specified projection. This process is satisfactory if no distortions or rotations exist in the unregistered image file.

However, if you are using an image which is skewed, stretched or distorted e.g. from scanning, the image registration process within MapInfo Pro will not adjust the image to accommodate localised distortions.

For example, if there is significant error (pixels) in the registration points, this indicates the image does not match and requires warping to correctly match the desired map registration points.

What difference does this make and what are the consequences of a distorted image to
my map?

The difference this makes to a mapper window can be dramatic, depending on the amount of distortion or rotation, following the registration of a distorted image. You may observe considerable distortions in vector layers located in the mapper window. This is due to the mapper window manipulating the coordinate system grid around the distorted registered image. As a consequence the vector layers will be located in the correct coordinate space, but will appear either distorted or incorrectly orientated, and the raster image may also shift as you zoom/pan.

An example of MapInfo Pro registration can be observed in Images 1 & 2: Image 1 is an unregistered image with a rotation; Image 2 displays a M ...

Cannot process an image file using the Discover>Images module

Josh Knight — Mon, 03 Mar 2014 03:41:14 GMT

Occurrence

The Image is not listed in the selectable Images list, or when you attempt to load messages indicating 'Unsupported file format type'.

Solution

Certain image file types are not support by certain tools, such as Rectify Images does not support ECW files. Also within a file type of TIF, there are many variations and some variations such as BigTIF (>2GB) or tiled TIF files are not supported. Unfortunately there is no way to tell if it is a supported format. All you can do is attempt to open it.

You can use 3rd party freeware such as Ifranview to open unsupported formats and save as a supported format such as JPG or PNG.

Error in ERMAPPER registry entry

kbadmin — Thu, 12 Sep 2013 02:06:00 GMT

Occurrence

When I start MapInfo Professional, I receive the error -

ERROR in ERMAPPER registry entry.
Please specify BASE_PATH value in the registry.

Solution

This is due to the installation of Discover's grid handler becoming corrupt, generally when ER Mapper or other programs have been isntalled.

Reinstall Discover to repair the installation.

How do I convert an SRTM GeoTIFF image with embedded elevation data into a grid?

Josh Knight — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 06:44:43 GMT

Occurrence

SRTM GeoTIFFs often have elevation data embedded in the image file (e.g from http://srtm.csi.cgiar.org/SELECTION/inputCoord.asp).
Discover can extract this information, creating a grid that can be contoured and manipulated by the Surfaces menu (accessed via the Discover>Surfaces menu option).

Solution

Simply use File>Open>Grid Image .

Alternatively, download SRTM data in an Arcinfo ASCII format, which can also be opened directly from the File>Open>Grid Image.

How do I open an ECW/JPEG2000 in the correct projection?

kbadmin — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:37:54 GMT

Occurrence

If I simply use File>Open Raster Image�to open my JP2, J2K�or ECW image, it does not open in the correct location or projection.

How do I open it with the correct registration and projection?

Solution

To open ECW or JP2/J2K images you can use Discover>Import or Export>ECW/JPEG2000 Import.

This tool will correctly register the image, if this information is available.

It also supports opening ECWP images hosted on a ERDAS Image Web Server.

Note this does�NOT require MapImagery to be installed.

My output image does not match the position of input image

kbadmin — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 23:23:05 GMT

Occurrence

When using�Image tools such as Image Clip or Image Rotate, the output image does not match the input image location and is slightly rotated or skewed.

Solution

This is caused by a skewed or mis-registered input Image.� Simply use Image Rectify and load the existing control points, then click Apply.� This will correctly warp the image file to match the projection. See the related article on Image Rectification.

How do I digitize contours from an image?

Josh Knight — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 05:07:06 GMT

This is easily accomplished with either a mouse or a digitizing board/table.

1/. If using a digitizing board or table, connect it to the PC, and configure from within MapInfo (there are copious Help notes on doing this from within MapInfo’s help files: Help>MapInfo Professional Help Topics and Search for ‘digitize’ (US spelling)

2/. Import your image containing the contours to be digitized using Discover's Images>Rectify tool

3/. Create a new table in the same projection as this image, and ensure it has a numeric (eg Float) column called RL or elevation or similar

4/. Make this new table editable in the same mapper as your image, and digitise each contour line in turn. If digitising with a mouse, using MapInfo’s AutoNode function (press N on the keyboard) may simplyfy this process (as it auto captures nodes, rather than you having to click each node successively).

5/. As each contour line is completed, either go into the browser or use MapInfo's information button to assign the appropriate elevation value for that contour line.

6/. Save the contour table regularly.

How do I register an Image when my control points are in a different projection to the one required?

Josh Knight — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:46:00 GMT

Occurrence

For example, an old map or field control points are in latitude-longitude WGS84 (degrees) but you want to display and work with the image in UTM GDA94 Zone 55 (meters).

Solution

You will have to follow a 2 step process to produce an image in the desired projection:

1\. Rectify Image

Use the Discover->Images->Rectify Image tool to rectify the image into the projection of the known control points (e.g lat/long WGS84 from example above)

2.\ Reproject Image

Use the Images->Reproject Image to then reproject the rectified image from the its projection (WGS84 in example) to the desired projection (e.g. GDA94 Zone 55).

Note: change the default output name of the Reproject tool to a more concise name, rather than inputimage_rectified_reproject