OpenEV is an
open-source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...
geospatial toolkit and a
frontend to that toolkit. OpenEV was developed using
Python and uses the
GDAL
The Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL) is a computer software library for reading and writing raster and vector geospatial data formats (e.g. shapefile), and is released under the permissive X/MIT style free software license by the O ...
library to display
georeference Georeferencing means that the internal coordinate system of a map or aerial photo image can be related to a geographic coordinate system. The relevant coordinate transforms are typically stored within the image file (GeoPDF and GeoTIFF are examples) ...
d images and
elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § ...
data. The application also has image editing capabilities and uses
OpenGL
OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics. The API is typically used to interact with a graphics processing unit (GPU), to achieve ha ...
to display elevation data in
three-dimensions.
History
The original version of OpenEV was developed by Atlantis Scientific (renamed Vexcel) as a prototype viewer for the
Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure.
Its development was supported by the
Canada Centre for Remote Sensing GeoConnections program and J-2 Geomatics (
Canadian Department of National Defense). The goal was to create a free, downloadable, advanced
satellite imagery viewer that allowed users to work interactively with
CGDI data.
Vexcel, Inc. was acquired in May, 2006 by
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...
and left the software to Mario Beauchamp and a team of developers. OpenEV has since been used by
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...
's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States.
Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA ...
and the
American Museum of Natural History. It was also the base for the
CIETmap software, which is now developed also by Mario Beauchamp.
Supported data
OpenEV supports numerous
raster and
vector
Vector most often refers to:
*Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction
*Vector (epidemiology), an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism
Vector may also refer to:
Mathematic ...
formats such as
shapefile
The shapefile format is a geospatial vector data format for geographic information system (GIS) software. It is developed and regulated by Esri as a mostly open specification for data interoperability among Esri and other GIS software products ...
s. Since it uses the
GDAL
The Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL) is a computer software library for reading and writing raster and vector geospatial data formats (e.g. shapefile), and is released under the permissive X/MIT style free software license by the O ...
library to display images, it supports the same formats.
See also
*
Geospatial Data Abstraction Library
References
External links
* {{sourceforge, openev
Free software programmed in Python
Free GIS software
Software that uses PyGTK
Remote sensing software