Shape Files

Basic Requirements

  • Only polygon shapefiles are supported.

  • All polygons must be contained in exactly one layer.

  • Shapefiles should not contain curved geometries.

  • The Polygon(s) should not contain self-intersections or duplicated vertices.

  • Shapefiles must be in the same coordinate system as the SURE project - if one or both of the coordinate systems is local, SURE will print a warning

SURE will save a copy of the shapefile internally and modify the internal copy before being able to work with the provided shapefile:

  • If the shapefile contains open geometries, SURE will connect the last point with the first one - if this leads to an invalid polygon SURE will issue an error

  • If the geometries of a shapefile are tagged as curved geometries but the geometries are rectilinear, SURE will perform a lossless conversion to linear-type geometries.

Area Shapefiles

Area Shapefiles define the region of interest of a project. If provided, SURE uses this shapefile to select only the images that view the region of interest. Thus, preventing the processing of unnecessary areas, which can decrease the total processing time and required storage. This shapefile can be specified during project initialization or from the Advanced Configuration window before processing. Refer to

In order for SURE to work with Area Shapefiles it may have to do additional modifications:

  • If the Area Shapefile contains 3D geometries SURE will convert them to 2D geometries by ignoring the Z-component

  • If the Area Shapefile contains geometries that touch or overlap, SURE will create the union of those geometries

Waterbody Shapefiles

Waterbodies are known to be challenging surfaces for image-based reconstruction that can yield cumbersome artifacts. As the name indicates, Waterbody Shapefiles are meant to describe water surfaces and are used in SURE to interpolate points based on the vertices of the shapefile polygons. This shapefile can also be specified during project initialization or from the Advanced Configuration window before processing. We highly recommend the use of Waterbody Shapefiles, especially if large waterbodies are present in the project area.

Note: As best practice Waterbody Shapefiles should be 3D shapefiles. Alternatively, if a 2D shapefile is provided a Beta feature will approximate the Z-component of each polygon vertex and convert an internal copy of the shapefile to 3D.

Correction Shapefiles

Correction shapefiles work similarly to Waterbody Shapefiles but are meant to describe all other types of surfaces and they must be 3D shapefiles. Correction Shapefiles can be introduced in three ways:

  • If available prior to processing they can be specified through the Advance Configuration window

  • They can be created and used within the SURE Editor (visit Editing Tools for details)

  • If produced from an external source after processing with SURE, they can be used through the 2.5D tool

Note: If a Correction Shapefile and a Waterbody Shapefile overlap, the Correction Shapefile will be used for interpolating points in the area of overlap.