Calling External Programs

MICRODEM can use external GIS tools for some options:

Library	Function	Use in MICRODEM
Google Earth Pro for download issues in one browser (e.g. Chrome) try another (e.g. Edge).		Quick exploration of a region with reasonable imagery and easy operation. More details.
GDAL	Data format translation, subsets, merging	Used from many less common projections, and to manipulate data sets.
LAStools (read license carefully)	Manipulate lidar point clouds	Reproject LAS files with unusual projections

TauDEM
mcc-lidar
Fusion
WhiteBox toolbox
GRASS
SAGA
Orfeo toolbox
libLAS
PDAL
RVT Relief Visualization toolbox
ACOLITE	Shallow water properties, SENTINEL-2
PROJ4	Projections	MICRODEM does not use, only because we need the code to run on Android, and the conversion would be painful.

Similar general operations are done with:

These tools are designed to be called from the command line, or from scripts. To call them, MICRODEM

creates a command line with the tool name, input and output files, and required parameters. You may have options to specify the parameters.
if required (such as setting up GDAL, or sequentially operating on multiple files), the command is put into a batch file.
Where it makes sense, MICRODEM will create multiple batch files which will each process some of the input in parallel if you have multiple processors. If the operation is disk limited, as opposed to CPU limited, this may not buy any speed improvement.
Runs the command or batch file
- For operations expected to very fast, the "black window" is not shown
- For longer operations, you can track the program execution in the black window(s). You will not see any final output from the tool because the command window will close. The amount of progress shown depends on the program, and can range from nothing to very detailed.
- When the purpose of running the tool is to get information, the tool's output is redirected into a file which is then opened in a text editor.
The command is written to MICRODEM's debug log. You can get the command line, paste it into a command prompt window, and see any final output or error messages. If it is a batch file, the file will be in c:\mapdata\temp, but you must check it you start MICRODEM again.
In most cases, MICRODEM waits for the program to finish, since it needs the output top proceed. For a few cases, where the output is not needed, you can immediately resume operations in MICRODEM.

last revised 6/1/2022