How to manage really large GeoTiFF files??

PIX4Dmapper PIX4Dmapper Questions/Troubleshooting
1

Hello

I have been able to figure out just about everything with all the online help but i have some questions about file sizes and what programs i should use and or if i need to be changing any settings.

I flew roughly a 1000ac property, with close to 3000 photos. If I do not change the resolution when I blend and export the tiff is around 6GB. I have not been able to find anything that can open a tiff this size.

I am wondering what others are doing with these large files?

Are you importing them into something and making manageable tiles for viewing?

Are you just lowering the resolution until you can open it? which I do not see the point because then it would not be much better than google earth…

It has to be a file size issue because i don’t have a problem with smaller properties, or this one when I lower the resolution before I blend and export.

This may be a stupid question but I have done my dues in searching for an answer and cannot find one anywhere…

Any help would be very appreciated!!

2

Hi

When we have large Geotiff outputs, we tend to work only with the tiles and not with the complete Geotiff. Otherwise we use FME to convert the tiff into ECW which is about 3 times smaller with same quality. I just don’t know if there is any freeware out-there to make this conversion and of course you need to be able to read ECW files (what Autocad and Geomedia, that we use, can).

Best regards.

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3

I use Global Mapper. I’ve significantly reduced the file size (50:1) of the Ortho and you could not tell a difference on engineering drawings produced with AutoCAD at a drawing scale of 1"=60’.

4

Hi, please how I can reduce size of tiff with FME? Thanks.

5

I have a follow up question.  What is the largest size geotiff Pix4d will create/write to disk?  I have a large project coming up and I know the final product is likely to exceed 8gb and the client wants a complete mosaic not tiles.

It would be good if you could create an ecw with PIX4D 

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6

Hello everyone,

Very interesting comments.

  • The tiles can be found here: project_name\3_dsm_ortho\2_mosaic\tiles
    They are a good alternative for big orthomosaics.
  • You could also work on smaller projects (divide the big project into smaller ones)
  • You could use a processing area (in case there are parts of the model that are not interesting for you)

@Andrew: The size of the file that can be written depends on the hardware (RAM and hard disk). I ve seen several big Pix4D orthomosaics of 2-4 GB.
I would not recommend you to process such a big project. The output will be very heavy and not easily manageable. 
More information about the resources that are mainly used for step 3: Hardware Components Usage when processing with Pix4D

Hope it helps :slight_smile: