What Happened to Expressview for Mac? (Snow Leopard)

[jcgray49]

Am I missing something on Lizardtech's site? I have not been able to locate the MrSid Express Viewing program for Mac. It appears that they only have the program (plug-in) for Windows.


I am running "Snow Leopard" and cannot view my sid file. Do we Mac user have any other options including the purchase of a viewer?

TIA,
JGray

[rparker]

We no longer offer an ExpressView Browser Plug-in for Mac. It may be possible to find an older version of the plug-in elsewhere, but it is not officially supported.

[jcgray49]

I would sincerely appreciate any type of direction where I can locate a MrSid file viewer for my Macbook Pro. Purchase or otherwise.

Once you go Mac.....you won't go back!

Thanks for any help you all can provide.

JGray [/quote]

[rparker]

This is an official forum and it's not an officially supported product, so I can't really recommend anything specific, but you might be surprised what you can find in the search results if you do a search for the "ExpressView Browser Plug-in for Mac".

If you do find an older version, please understand that there is no support for this product at all.

[jcgray49]

Hmmmmm......just ready to add Windows 7 to my Macbook Pro via Boot Camp and noticed that the Lizardtech viewer does not list Windows 7 as being compatible with it's ExpressView Viewer.

[ngllgn]

Hmmmmm......just ready to add Windows 7 to my Macbook Pro via Boot Camp and noticed that the Lizardtech viewer does not list Windows 7 as being compatible with it's ExpressView Viewer.

I have only just discovered this forum, hence the tardy post. :idea: I think there may be a way to view MrSid files on Mac Snow Leopard, starting from this URL.
h_t_t_p://w_w_w.photo-mark.com/notes/2008/no ... gis-files/

It is a somewhat laborious process but produces fantastically detailed geo-referenced maps. I have followed the process only on a PPC Mac with Tiger 10.4.11 and it worked a treat. I have yet to try it on my very new Intel Mac with Snow Leopard 10.6.6.

[bridgman]

We no longer offer an ExpressView Browser Plug-in for Mac. It may be possible to find an older version of the plug-in elsewhere, but it is not officially supported.

Is the Lizard following the trail of the dinosaur? OK, that's a bit rude, but you've parked Apple users on the curb. In 1994, that might have been understandable, but that OS is no longer just for graphic designers and trust-fund brats. I'm sure you have an understandable business reason for this policy, but y'all have become established as part of the Internet infrastructure as far as viewing mrsid media via browsers is concerned.

LizardTech is listed on U.S. government sites as a go-to resource for access to this type of media, so I'll help y'all out, as a volunteer.

Any time I see a reference to Mac compatibility for mrsid media in the .gov space or on mapping vendor sites, I will send that site's admin a note that they should now warn off Apple users.

BTW, so far every site I've found purporting to have a legacy download of the old ExpressView for Mac is only pointing back to your download page.

[rparker]

I understand your frustration. I am adding your comments to our bug and feature tracking system to add to the requests for this product.

I found a link to "ExpressView Browser Plug-in for Mac 3.4.0" on the second page of a Google search, offered via ftp.gov.ab.ca

Here is the link they offer:
ftp://ftp.gov.ab.ca/srd/air/airphoto/Mr ... ssView.zip

Although it may be what you are looking for, I can not officially guarantee the software; as indicated above it's not offered or supported by LizardTech.

I hope this information helps.

[bridgman]

Thanks for your reply, Robert.
As a heads-up to this forum's readers, the Canadian government link referenced above indeed promptly downloads a version of ExpressView, but one that is not recognized by latter-day Macs. (Mine is on v10.5.8)
The only Macs that can view MRsid files via browsers are old Macs.

That settles the ExpressView question.

So, are there non-browser applications in existence, compatible with Macs (for reference, "Mac" is a nickname for Macintosh, which is made by Apple, Inc., of California) made by someone, somewhere that will open these taxpayer funded U.S. government files?

[norbertsf]

Ok,

As a company that doesn't support development of software for the company (Apple) that is at the moment the most valuable company in the world next to Exxon...doesn't make sense....

But, I just downloaded "TNTatlas 2011". It reads .sid files and more. Running on OSX 10.6.8

h_t_t_p://w_w_w.microimages.com/products/tntatlas/index.htm

It runs under X11 on the mac automatically. And its Free.

Norbert