Hexagon’s ERDAS APOLLO team is excited to announce, in close collaboration with the Luciad team, the final phase in a five-year plan for integration and consolidation of Hexagon’s ERDAS APOLLO and LuciadFusion geospatial server platform technology.
From small things, even napkins, big things grow!
In 2018, sketches on a napkin eventually turned into plans for project codename: Torus. The first step to integration started with incremental updates in v2022, including a new shared Studio web administrator, new Geoprocessing Server and new user web client known as Catalog Explorer. These updates put us on the path toward the substantial v2023 changes.
Making the switch
Our v2023 release includes our largest departure from the old platform by, in many cases, replacing the underlying server platform. This consolidation both vastly simplifies and modernizes the ERDAS APOLLO architecture, but most importantly injects and retains many of the ERDAS APOLLO unique workflows, such as:
- Data management through virtual folder hierarchy
- Super-charged raster delivery pipeline to enhance format coverage, speed and display quality through use of the Geospatial Spatial Modeler technology
- Enhanced user experience from simplified deployment and configuration tools to user-friendly visual styling editors
- Metadata parsers, management and editing tools
- Integrated security control at the data level through internal security or delegation to external security providers
- Updated OGC API implementations of Records and Processes to support advanced Catalog and Geoprocessing workflows
- Redesigned and renamed Data Extraction Service (previously known as the tongue-twister Clip-Zip-Ship)
This release is the largest product change in over a decade. We stayed true to our geospatial data roots by combining compelling features gained from LuciadFusion including strong 3D mesh, point cloud, terrain and BIM workflows. ERDAS APOLLO previously only partially covered these features.
Licensing and feature availability
Along with the technology platform changes, v2023 also introduces feature availability changes. These changes offer many more capabilities by moving core features into lower tiers or introducing completely new features for no additional charge. Customers of all types will be pleasantly surprised with all the new features to play with!
| ERDAS APOLLO | V2022 | V2023 NEW |
| Professional | Geoprocessing | Geoprocessing
Data Extraction Service (DES) NEW Maritime standards NEW Aviation standards NEW |
| Advantage | Clip Zip Ship (CZS)
Catalog Vector Vector database Raster Point cloud catalog CAD AOI notification Catalog Explorer Web administration Metadata parsers and editor OGC WMS, WCS, WMTS, WFS(T), GML and KML REST API |
Point cloud catalog and visualization NEW
Panoramic imagery NEW 3D Mesh NEW BIM NEW Defense standards and symbology NEW CAD Vector database OGC 3DTile NEW HSPC NEW LTS NEW Download service NEW |
| Essentials | Features provided by APOLLO Core | Catalog
Vector Raster Security AOI Notification Catalog Explorer Web administration Metadata parsers and editor Raster and Vector Style Creator NEW OGC WMS, WCS, WMTS, WFS(T), GML and KML ECWP OGC API Records NEW REST API |
ERDAS APOLLO and LuciadFusion are still available separately, with the Luciad platform being ideal for developers and system integrators with advanced customization or development needs. For higher level user product needs, ERDAS APOLLO v2023 is your perfect on-ramp to gain the best of both worlds using higher user level REST APIs and user interfaces.
Pixel serving with ERDAS APOLLO Core (EAC)
ERDAS APOLLO Core (EAC) remains an integral part of the ERDAS APOLLO history. EAC still offers industry leading performance and cross-platform support focused solely on terapixel sized geospatial image delivery. EAC v2023 remains available and includes some smaller bug fixes and platform upgrades. Over time, the functional capabilities from EAC will increasingly become part of the main ERDAS APOLLO installer.
We look forward to closing this gap, but in the meantime, we have you covered whether you move over to the full ERDAS APOLLO or remain one of our happy, long-standing EAC users.
We are excited to see new and existing customers start adopting the new release. For existing customers, please contact your Hexagon representative to plan any migration. Due to the number of changes, careful planning and evaluation will be required. For all details about the latest ERDAS APOLLO release, take a look at the release guide.
