3.2. OpenEV

OpenEV is a powerful open source desktop viewer. It allows users to explore data in any of the image and vector data formats supported by the Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL/OGR), which will be introduced later in the chapter. OpenEV can be used for custom image analysis as well as drawing simple maps and creating new data. OpenEV comes as part of the FWTools package, available at http://fwtools.maptools.org.

Many users overlook OpenEV's ability to view and navigate in real time through images draped over 3D landscapes. Figure 3-1 shows an example of an image being viewed with OpenEV, and Figure 3-2 shows the same image but modified with one of the OpenEV image enhancement tools.

OpenEV is a good example of how GDAL/OGR capabilities can be accessed through other programming languages. OpenEV is built using Python, which makes OpenEV extensible and powerful because it has the flexibility of that language running behind it. The most powerful feature of OpenEV may be its ability to use Python capabilities within OpenEV; this allows access to GDAL/OGR functions and to any other Python module you need.