Geospatial Technology, Web Mapping and Spatial Services
September 12, 2011 Leave a Comment
For those who still use ArcGIS, it looks like the next Service Pack [has a release date](http://blogs.esri.com/Dev/blogs/arcgis/archive/2011/09/09/ArcGIS-10.0-Service-Pack-3.aspx). The Service Pack 3 announcement [is a PDF](http://downloads.esri.com/support/documentation/ao_/10.0_SP3_Announcement.pdf) which is classic Esri.
All this goes without saying…
July 29, 2011 Leave a Comment
I can’t recall one new feature in ArcGIS 10.1 that I saw at the Esri UC a couple weeks ago, but if you need some niche feature it adds, you can join the beta.
There is only one way out…
June 30, 2011 Leave a Comment
Via mgcopping:
ArcGIS for Home Use makes GIS available to everyone. This offer is ideal for existing ArcGIS users who want to use the same powerful software at home for noncommercial personal use and for individuals who want to expand their GIS skills. However, anyone can participate in this program.
For a $100 annual fee, the ArcGIS for Home Use 12-month term license includes:
- ArcView
- ArcGIS 3D Analyst
- ArcGIS Geostatistical Analyst
- ArcGIS Network Analyst
- ArcGIS Publisher
- ArcGIS Schematics
- ArcGIS Spatial Analyst
- ArcGIS Tracking Analyst
Wow, there you go. Use ArcGIS at home for non-commercial use. That’s an incredible deal!
You don’t win friends with salad, but you do with ArcGIS for Home!
June 24, 2011 Leave a Comment
OK, I’m the first one to dance on ArcObjects grave[ref]In fact I suspect I’ll take my anti-love of ArcObjects to my grave[/ref], but others seem to like it.
… This all comes from the following fact: being a complete ignorant about ArcObjects and the ArcGIS API, I have been able to create the corresponding SEXTANTE bindings from scratch in less time than I needed to create any other bindings before. That means less time than the gvSIG bindings (an application that I knew pretty well), and way less than the OpenJUMP or Geotools ones (both of them softwares that I had worked with before, at least once).
This is basically due to the clean, well designed and perfectly documented API of ArcGIS, which, along with the additional Eclipse plugins, makes it very easy to develop new plugins and extensions for the software.
Now, let me just tell you first off. Sextante coming to ArcGIS — awesome! But the real meat of the matter here is if there is a well documented API, developers just love it[ref]No matter how crazy the ArcObjects API may be[/ref]. That is the real less for any project, proprietary or open source. Documentation matters!
In API hell, as long as there is documentation we’ll all be fine!
June 14, 2011 2 Comments
So the classic thinking is Esri can’t figure out what to name anything. You either put the Prefix “Arc” in front of something, use the company name Esri (though you’d be better at using ESRI for the classic touch) or put the phrase ArcGIS in front of any simple word. Those days of wacky are over apparently as there is now a guide to the new naming convention for Esri products.
| Name Prior to ArcGIS 10.1 | New Name |
|---|---|
| ArcGIS Desktop | ArcGIS for Desktop |
| ArcInfo | ArcGIS for Desktop Advanced |
| ArcEditor | ArcGIS for Desktop Standard |
| ArcView | ArcGIS for Desktop Basic |
| ArcGIS Server | ArcGIS for Server |
| ArcGIS Mobile | ArcGIS for Windows Mobile |
| ArcGIS Mobile SDK | ArcGIS SDK for Windows Mobile |
| Esri Data and Maps | Data and Maps for ArcGIS |
| Esri StreetMap Premium | StreetMap Premium for ArcGIS |
| ArcGIS Data Appliance | Data Appliance for ArcGIS |
| ArcGIS Mapping for SharePoint | ArcGIS for SharePoint |
Thus the key word is now ArcGIS and it may or may not be “for” something else. Because as Esri points out, “The reason for these modifications is to reinforce the fact that, regardless of where and how ArcGIS is used, it is the same system.” Natch! My favorite which isn’t listed here is the new ArcGIS for the Internet which was previously known as ArcGIS.com.
Who is ArcGIS?
November 18, 2010 25 Comments
So recently I’ve moved my work from the 9.3.x version of ArcGIS to 10. There are some really great things with 10 that make it much easier to use1, but there are some other things that I just have to scratch my head and wonder what they heck were they thinking.
I had to create a vector output from a Esri Grid last week and I did the good old Desktop equivalent of GRIDPOLY and got my shapefile. But as you’d expect, there was millions of little polygons from the grid. I did what any sane geogeek would do, grabbed the dissolve tool. A couple clicks later I’m ready to hit the run button and watch ArcGIS struggle to dissolve such a large/complex dataset. But when I clicked the run button, away went the dialog and I assumed the process crashed. So bring of the dissolve again and try it all over again. Yup, away goes the dialog and I have no idea what is going on. I go to force quick quit ArcGIS and I see its churning away on the shapefile. Hmph…
Back to the ArcGIS Desktop window and what do I see in the lower right hand corner? This bizarre feedback…
I’m sure all the ArcGIS 10 users know that thing pretty darn well. All part of the “multi-threading” that ArcGIS 10 does. But it is so counterintuitive that I wonder how many times I might have force quit ArcGIS while that thing was moving along.
It’s an interesting design choice for sure. I wonder if they were in a conference room and couldn’t agree if it should be a progress bar or percentage complete feedback. I can only imagine the “eureka!” moment when they came up with this design choice.
"It's like a progress bar, only better" -- Esri UI Design Specialist
No it could be the most annoying Esri status feedback since that “Cylon eye” thing that ArcView 3.x used to do. I admit, I’m not the youngest rooster in the coop and my eyesight is poor, but I feel like I have to struggle to see what the darn thing is saying. I’m not the only person who feels this way either. I’ve had about 5 emails about this in the past two weeks asking me essentially, “WTF?”.
We all know ArcGIS Desktop 10 is not multi-threaded. Before this hack2, we had that dialog with the progress bar that was usually modal in nature. Click dissolve and then go to YouTube to watch Justin Beiber videos until ArcGIS was done. Now you don’t have to worry about keeping yourself busy while running a geoprocessing task. It does slow down ArcGIS (at least heavy processing), but it is surprisingly workable. But this half-empty solution clearly leads to weird design choices.
What would work? For me, I like the percent complete feedback over a progress bar. But don’t scroll the darn thing. Just leave it up in the corner where is. If you have to have some sort of indication that something is going on, throw a throbber up there like happens when ArcMap redraws the view. That’s such a more elegant solution than this current one and it won’t make me put my nose on my screen trying to read what the darn thing is saying.
Oh and my dissolve is still running/scrolling along…
2: Now that might be a strong word, it does work pretty darn well. Let us not kid ourselves though, it is just a bandaid solution until they get true multi-threaded ArcGIS out.
November 15, 2010 5 Comments
That fun time we all wait for with releases, the Esri Service Pack. ArcGIS 10 SP1 is out and available for those who want to be cutting edge. The long list of what is fixed is here (but we all know you aren’t reading that and you’ll install anyway). Plus how many ArcIMS service packs will you ever be able to download in the future?
October 14, 2010 14 Comments
I’m sure all Esri EDN users are running in to the same problems I am with the product, licensing. At WeoGeo, I’m testing our new toolbar on many platforms and OS versions so that we know it works with ArcGIS 10. The problem is that the ArcView license included in EDN only allows you to install ArcView twice. Every time I need to switch from one VM to the other, I’ve got to go through this crazy unregister/register process just to use ArcMap. And you’d better believe I’m headed to a point where I won’t be able to install ArcView anymore because I’ve hit the install ceiling (which I’ve heard is at 999 installs).
So don’t assume that an EDN is licensed per developer because it sure isn’t. Makes you question the value of the product where licensing keeps kicking you in the shins. I have no will to fire up ArcGIS 10 anymore because of Esri licensing mess. This wasn’t a problem at 9 and I can only assume licensing was tightened at 10 so we’d all pay up. But EDN is supposed to be licensed for developers, not production and you’d think Esri would encourage me to make sure my toolbar runs on 32/64 bit XP/Vista/7. Time to cue the Price is Right losing horn…
September 20, 2010 17 Comments
ArcGIS Server - now with Legends
No GIS Professional can make a map without a legend. Probably because we create such complex maps, they can’t stand on their own. Anyway ESRI added some new features that should help us GIS Professional enter the world of Web 2.0. Key new features as I see it are:
The whole list of new and changed is available here. One day I hope to see Dojo dropped, but that’s just me.
September 13, 2010 7 Comments
Wait, what happened to 3 day weekends. I guess you get one and then you expect them all the time. Oh well…
Some interesting reading for a Monday morning:
ArcGISEditor for OSM – Randal looks at the ArcGIS Editor for OSM and concludes it is complicated, but powerful. I all Esri tools (they are “scientific” mind you) nothing is ever simple, but if you can get your hands around it, powerful results happen.
FOSS4G 2010 Final Answer – Apparently there was a Geospatial conference going on somewhere. They all kind of start blending in to each other, don’t they?
Making a Data Portal With WordPress – Content management is content management, right? (bless his heart for trying to do this with WordPress) Just goes to show that if you can hack your way around code, there isn’t anything you can’t accomplish (assuming your billable time isn’t an issue).
Gearing up for GIS in the Rockies – Time for the fall conference season to kick into high gear. Front Range GIS is a unique community who do some really great things with both proprietary and open source tools (usually in combination). Bummed I can’t go.
Why not GeoJSON? – Looks like France was good to Sean. He’s got a great post up on ESRI’s use of JSON in their RESTful API.
Oh and way to represent SEC!
