From October 2008 onward, IMAGINE Professional  and ERDAS ER Mapper share IMAGINE Professional licensing codes. This means customers purchasing new licenses or receiving licenses through software maintenance (SWM) for IMAGINE Professional and ERDAS ER Mapper can use both products at the same time on the same desktop, with one license of either of these ERDAS products.

At first glance it may appear customers will now receive two licenses for every one license. This is not correct. The customer will continue to have one license.

To help explain, let's introduce the idea of an “ERDAS Session.” An ERDAS Session begins when the customer launches an ERDAS product on a computer. Each session consumes a single license of an ERDAS product. ERDAS allows only one session per computer.

When a customer launches IMAGINE Professional or ERDAS ER Mapper, they launch an ERDAS Session. Because ERDAS ER Mapper and IMAGINE Professional use the same license codes, they also use the same session. Thus, the customer can launch both products on the same computer at the same time.

To help make this clearer, let's look at a few scenarios. Assume we have one floating license of ERDAS Professional and one floating license for ERDAS ER Mapper on a network to be used among three people.

Scenario 1:

Shirley begins an ERDAS Session by launching ERDAS ER Mapper on her computer. She then needs to use a classification tool found in IMAGINE Professional, and launches it as well (not closing her ERDAS ER Mapper tools). No problem; she has occupied one license within her ERDAS Session.

Soon thereafter, Stephanie begins an ERDAS Session by launching IMAGINE Professional on her computer. No problem, she has occupied the second (and final) license within her ERDAS Session.

A few moments later, Jessica tries to launch ERDAS ER Mapper and is denied a license by the license broker. Jessica’s problem is both licenses have been consumed by Shirley and Stephanie’s two ERDAS Sessions. Her solution is to ask Shirley or Stephanie to close their sessions, or purchase another license.

Scenario 2:

Matt begins an ERDAS Session by launching IMAGINE Professional on his computer. Soon thereafter, Chenda begins an ERDAS Session by launching IMAGINE Professional on her computer. No problem, she has occupied the second (and final) license.

A few moments later, Trey tries to launch ERDAS ER Mapper and is denied a license by the license broker. Trey’s problem is both licenses have been consumed by Matt and Chenda two ERDAS Sessions. His solution is to ask Matt or Chenda to close their sessions, or purchase another license.

So, why the change?

ERDAS is creating the next generation of desktop geospatial authoring tools. These new tools are being developed from customers’ demand of a fusion of the best of ERDAS IMAGINE, ERDAS ER Mapper, other existing ERDAS technology (desktop and enterprise), as well ERDAS' desire to introduce new technologies under development at ERDAS (not yet released). Because the fused product will have a 100% capability match at the ERDAS ER Mapper and IMAGINE Professional level, ERDAS decided to provide both tools to customers, today.

ERDAS is providing a future vision while delivering some of the capability in that vision, today. The combined licensing of IMAGINE Professional and ERDAS ER Mapper delivers the most powerful geospatial imagining offering available today. Making the change today provides ERDAS customers an opportunity to experience the power of both products, and knowing your SWM has value today and in the future.

A few benefits to existing ERDAS ER Mapper customers are:

• Expand ortho-rectification capability with many different sensor models supported in IMAGINE Professional
• Expand the raster data format support to >150 formats
• Provide robust native vector editing/attributing capability found in ERDAS IMAGINE (arc coverage & shapefile)
• Provide pathway to all of the IMAGINE add-on modules (VirtualGIS, Vector, Radar Mapping Suite, Objective, and so forth)

A few benefits to existing IMAGINE Professional customers

• Rapidly mosaic, color-balance and compress massive volumes of image data. Using the 32-bit compressor on a 32-bit OS, mosaic terabytes of imagery (limit between 1 and 5TB) Using new-64-bit compressor on a 64-bit OS, mosaic many terabytes of imagery (limit estimated above 72TB)
• All image processing is dynamic / on-the-fly; process to screen rather than process to disk
• Domain-specific workflows and wizards suitable for a range of industries and specialized applications (e.g., oil and gas)

A few benefits to new ERDAS customers

• ERDAS customers will have both ERDAS IMAGINE and ERDAS ER Mapper on the same desktop
• ERDAS customers do not have to pick between the products, making their decision easier and quicker
• No need to study both products to determine which meets their needs