ENVI Error: Tag name FORCE_ALLOW_EDIT is undefined for structure <Anonymous>

Problem

If you encounter the following ENVI Error while trying to edit an ENVI header using the Edit ENVI Header tool:

 

you are probably encountering a conflict in your ENVI installation. See below for a workaround to solve the problem.

 

Details and solution

An user can encounter the above error message when trying to edit the header of any file.

Text of the error message:
"An error was caught in the main even handler. Error: Tag name FORCE_ALLOW_EDIT is undefined for structure <Anonymous>."

The error occurs in Windows 64-bit systems, when running ENVI or ENVI Classic 5.1 with SARscape 5.0.002 installed.

It is related to a conflict between  some ENVI functionalities and  the file called "envi_sarscape_stretch.sav", located in the \Exelis\ENVI51\classic\save_add folder.

To solve the problem, temporarily move the aforementioned .sav file to a different folder. Then restart ENVI and edit your ENVI header.

This will affect your SARscape session only in case you are working on ENVI Classic. In this case, you should remember to copy the .sav file back to the save_add folder before to work with SARscape and display SARscape results in the ENVI views.

 

7/23/2014; Written by CS, reviewed by MM