CATALYST Professional v3.4.0 (Win & Linux)

Description

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CATALYST Professional 3.4.0 – Remote Sensing, Photogrammetry & Earth Observation Software

🛰️ CATALYST Professional 3.4.0 is a professional desktop suite for remote sensing, photogrammetry, and Earth observation. Process optical and SAR satellite imagery, digital-frame and pushbroom aerial photography, and historical airphotos in one environment. Build accurate orthophotos and mosaics, extract DEMs, classify land cover, detect change, run InSAR and polarimetry, then automate the whole pipeline with Focus, OrthoEngine, and a Python API.

Version 3.4.0 (released 12 June 2026) adds new satellite and SAR sensors, a faster PIX file structure, longer offline licenses, and production bug fixes. CATALYST is a PCI Geomatics brand. The desktop product was previously known as Geomatica.

Ideal for mapping agencies, satellite operators, defence and intelligence teams, utilities, mining and environmental consultancies, universities, and photogrammetry production shops.

 

🌍 Why teams choose CATALYST Professional

• 🔬 Built for scientific image processing, not generic mapping-only GIS work
• 📡 Optical + SAR in the same desktop stack
• 🗺️ Production orthorectification, mosaicking, and DEM extraction
• 🤖 700+ algorithms you can run interactively or script in Python
• 🛰️ Support for 50+ satellite sensors plus aerial and historical airphoto workflows
• 🪟🐧 Native Windows and Ubuntu builds

CATALYST Professional sits beside CATALYST Enterprise (high-volume automation) and CATALYST OnBoard / INSIGHTS (cloud and data services). Professional is the interactive desktop environment where you prototype, QA, and produce deliverables.

✨ What’s new in CATALYST Professional 3.4.0

🛰️ New sensor support

3.4.0 expands ingest and processing for current and upcoming Earth observation missions:

• 🌈 Open Cosmos Hammer — hyperspectral imagery
• 📡 Open Cosmos PLATERO
• 🇺🇸🇮🇳 NASA/ISRO NISAR — dual-frequency SAR mission support
• 🛰️ SI Imaging Services SpaceEye-T
• 🛰️ Spacety
• 🇪🇺 ESA Sentinel-1C and Sentinel-1D
• 🌐 Maxar WorldView Legion — ISDF concatenated items in XML

These additions keep production lines current as new constellations and SAR platforms reach operators.

⚙️ Processing, mosaics, DEMs and file format

• 💾 PCIDSK (PIX) TileV2 is now the default tile structure. Testing showed better performance and smaller output files on large rasters. TileV1 is still available in the PIX export options if you need the older structure.
• 🧭 GDAL PCIDSK driver updates improve projection detection and NoData handling.
• 🧩 Mosaic Tool preview automatically refreshes extents and trims imagery using the associated vector file.
• ⛰️ Airphoto DEM extraction improves water-body detection and elevation estimation (Enterprise jobs).
• 📐 DEM Extraction supports epipolar generation from Pleiades Neo tri-stereo (Enterprise).
• ✂️ Mosaic from Orthos accepts separate inputs for cutline import methods (Enterprise).

🔑 Licensing and offline work

• 🎓 Commuter license checkout now lasts up to 6 months — sized for an academic semester, field campaigns, or air-gapped sites.
• 💻 Command-line support for offline Commuter and Air-Gapped license deployment, so admins can script installs instead of clicking through the GUI.

🐛 Bug fixes in 3.4.0

• 🪲 Data ingest crash when loading Wyvern Dragonette scenes
• 🏷️ Incorrect SPECLASS values during SuperView NEO ingest
• ⚠️ MAP algorithm execution error
• 🎨 Smart GeoFill copied the full image instead of the clipped area
• 🖼️ Pansharpening could not find the matching multispectral file on Beijing-3 MS scenes
• 🔒 Enterprise UI no longer exposes sensitive account details

These fixes matter on production desks: fewer crashed ingests, cleaner mosaics, and more predictable pansharpening and classification metadata.

🧰 What you can do in the suite

👁️ Focus

The main visualization and analysis workspace. Load 100+ formats through PCI GDB technology, stack layers, edit rasters and vectors, run classification, extract features, and execute short Python scripts without leaving the viewer.

📐 OrthoEngine

The photogrammetry workbench: geometric correction, GCPs and tie points, block adjustment, orthorectification, mosaicking, DEM extraction, and 3D review. Trusted when survey-grade geometry matters.

📡 SAR, InSAR and polarimetry

See through clouds, measure change, and fuse radar with optical data. Workflows cover SAR ortho, interferometry, polarimetry, and compact polarimetry. Phase unwrapping with INSUNWRAP requires the third-party SNAPHU package copied into the `thirdparty\snaphu` folder.

🧠 Image analysis

Turn pixels into information with supervised and unsupervised classification, object-based image analysis (Object Analyst), atmospheric correction (ATCOR on eligible bundles), pansharpening, change detection, and feature extraction.

🐍 Automation and integration

Prototype in Focus or Modeler, then scale with EASI and the Python API. Access hundreds of plug-and-play Earth observation algorithms and build end-to-end pipelines you can rerun on every new scene.

📦 Bundles (typical packaging)

• 🟢 Essentials — viewer, interactive editing, generic photogrammetry, ortho toolkit, mosaic tools, 300+ algorithms, Python API
• 🛰️ Satellite — satellite ortho suite, DEM extraction, pansharpening, Object Analyst, ATCOR, 500+ algorithms
• ✈️ Aerial — airphoto and ADS ortho suites, historical airphoto processing (HAP), DEM, Object Analyst
• 📡 SAR — radar ortho suite, polarimetry / compact polarimetry, DEM, Object Analyst
• 🏆 Complete — Satellite + Aerial + SAR, 700+ algorithms

Exact module lists depend on your entitlement. Ask for the bundle that matches the imagery you actually process.

💻 System requirements for CATALYST 3.4

Official specs last updated July 2026 for version 3.4:

Component	Minimum	Recommended
🖥️ Operating system	Windows 11 or Windows Server 2019 / 2022 (64-bit only); Ubuntu 22.x or Ubuntu 24.x
🧠 Processor	Intel or AMD 4 cores, 2.0 GHz+	Intel or AMD 8 cores, 3.0 GHz+
💾 Memory	8 GB RAM	32 GB RAM
🎮 Graphics	24-bit card, 1280×1024, 256 MB	Dedicated GPU with 1 GB+ RAM
💽 Disk	5 GB free for software + demo data	250 GB HDD/SSD for OS and software; project storage extra. Enterprise-grade SSD recommended

📌 Notes

• Windows 10 and Ubuntu 20 support is retired. Last Ubuntu 20 release was 3.1.2.
• Below recommended RAM the software pages heavily to disk and slows down.
• Set the Windows page file or Linux swap to at least 1.5× installed RAM.
• Installers: Windows 64-bit, Ubuntu 22, Ubuntu 24. Demo data is a separate download.

💡 Interesting facts

• 🏛️ PCI Geomatics has shipped geo-imaging software since 1982. CATALYST is the current brand; Professional is the successor to Geomatica.
• 🚀 NISAR support in 3.4.0 arrives as NASA and ISRO’s dual-frequency SAR satellite becomes a major open data source for deformation, ice, and ecosystem mapping.
• 🎓 The 6-month commuter license was added so universities and field teams can check out a seat for a full semester or campaign without staying online.
• 📦 Switching default PIX tiling to TileV2 is a rare low-level format change: smaller files and faster I/O on large ortho and mosaic jobs.
• ☁️ Licensing moved to cloud entitlements from 3.0 onward (OrgAdmin dashboard, commuter and air-gapped tools), while the processing engine stays on your workstation.
• 🧪 The same algorithm library that powers the desktop product is used in CATALYST Enterprise and edge/on-orbit processing — desktop work can become a production pipeline later.

✅ Who should buy 3.4.0

Choose CATALYST Professional 3.4.0 if you need:

• 📐 Survey-grade orthos and mosaics from satellite or aerial imagery
• 📡 Operational SAR / InSAR, not only optical RGB viewing
• 🧠 Classification, change detection, and object-based mapping
• 🐍 Repeatable Python or EASI workflows instead of one-off clicks
• 🆕 Current sensors: Sentinel-1C/1D, WorldView Legion, NISAR, Open Cosmos, SpaceEye-T, Spacety, Pleiades Neo, ICEYE, and more

It is not a replacement for a full enterprise GIS (cadastral editing, network analysis, cartographic map books). It is the specialist engine you use when the pixels, geometry, and radar physics have to be correct.

📥 Get CATALYST Professional 3.4.0

Download the current build for Windows 64-bit, Ubuntu 22, or Ubuntu 24 from the official CATALYST site. Grab the demo dataset if you are evaluating workflows. For InSAR unwrapping, add SNAPHU after install. Active support agreements can pull 3.4.0 from the Customer Center; trials go through CATALYST sales.

CATALYST Professional 3.4.0 — remote sensing and photogrammetry software for satellite, aerial, and SAR production. Ortho. Mosaic. DEM. Classify. Automate.

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⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Production remote-sensing desk, not a toy GIS

CATALYST Professional 3.4.0 is what we use when the job is orthos, mosaics, DEMs, and SAR—not another general map editor. Focus and OrthoEngine still look dated next to ArcGIS Pro, but the geometry, sensor support, and algorithm library are serious. Version 3.4 added NISAR, Sentinel-1C/1D, WorldView Legion XML, and PIX TileV2; mosaics and pansharpening are more stable than in 3.2.

Python automation is the real multiplier: prototype in Focus, then batch the same 700+ algorithms. Commuter licenses up to six months help the field and university seats. It wants RAM and an SSD; 8 GB minimum is optimistic.

If you live in satellite and aerial production, this is a 5-star specialist tool. If you only need vectors and basemaps, buy something else.