Category: Thoughts

Looks like 3Dconnexion would like to get their product working with ArcGIS.

An update from 3Dconnexion? our devices do not work today with ArcGIS or other ESRI products. That being said, we would love to integrate support into these applications and are willing to do the work. We will be supporting NASA World Wind and expect to ship that solution within the next three months.

Sincerely,

Ziva Nissan
Sr. Product Marketing Manager
3Dconnexion, Inc.

I’d buy one in a heartbeat if I could use it with ArcScene and ArcGlobe (let along ArcGIS Explorer).

Looks like World Wind users won’t have to wait long though.

Believe me it is still in alpha stage, but if you’d like to see what PGS 2.0 will look like click below:

http://zhun.pair.com/spatiall/planetgs/

Believe me it needs some work. I still need to get the cron working so that it builds automatically, but when that gets figure out, the old site goes away. You’ll notice ALL the old feeds that were removed are now back in and it seems impervious to the Blogger spam attacks. Plus it has a nice Archive page so you can see what happened in the past.

I know it is slow because of all the feeds in it as it is dynamic as opposed to the previous static html page. I’ll get that squared away over the weekend.

**Update: **Sean has an updated scrubber Greasemonkey script ready to go.

Looks like there is a new version of ArcGIS Explorer available (Build 350).

New Features:

• Keyboard navigation while using track line or track polygon in the measure and create notes tasks
• Vertical altitude (elevator) navigation has been added.
• New Unit options for the Position Status bar: MGRS and U.S. National Grid
• Improved functionality for Go To Location: support for MGRS, USNG and decimal degrees. In addition, the ability to Create Results of the location
• Clouds, stars, atmospheric halo are map properties of each map and are stored in the .NMF rather than properties of the application
• Set Home Server restarts ArcGIS Explorer automatically

Fixes:

• Once the globe is pivoted and flying has started, the zoom in key functions correctly
• When the most recent click is on the application’s title bar or is not on the map, focus remains on the map
• Scale thresholds are honored for local shapefiles
• Add Content for KML can be added via URL
• Once added to the map, KML files are listed in the correct order in the Contents
• ArcGIS Explorer can open a .NMF file containing a globe service with group layers
• The application disables the “->” button when the “custom tasks” heading is selected
• LayerResult appears in the correct layer order
• Polyline and polygon length properties have been corrected

Fixes to the ArcGIS Explorer SDK for .NET (Build 350):

• Calling GetSymbolNames(esriE2SymbolType.Unknown) no longer gives the error ‘Value does not fall within the expected range’

Chad has some details over at his blog. I’m still waiting to get my hands on it, but it looks like I’ll have to wait a little bit longer.

A reader named Mike writes in the 3DConnexion post to say that the SpaceNavigator does not work with ArcGIS.

I have not been able to get the SpaceNavigator to work in any ArcGIS Software (ArcScene, ArcGlobe)

Bummer, but I guess it saves us from buying one.

Since I know most of the people reading this site are on windows, you’ll be happy to know that Quantum GIS 0.8 now has the Windows package built and ready to be downloaded. Make sure you use the torrent if possible. The Mac OS X Universal build is also available (torrent).

Boy, after almost two weeks of vacation I’m exhausted and ready to go back to work. OK, maybe not. 😉

Might be a good time for an open thread. Mark Fennell sent me a link to a project he’s working on called Wings. Simply put, it is a Flash game built on Google Maps imagery. You are an eagle, soaring over the world. You can also use lat/longs to pick any area you wish by using the following URL:

http://www.markfennell.com/flash/wings/index.php?latitude=33.4253&longitude=-111.9352&zoomlevel=0

Oh and how about Boise State? My wife is still in shock (she’s a Sooner). I couldn’t be happier as I love to see West Coast teams beat up on the eastern teams.

Gary Sherman announces on the QGIS developer blog that the open source desktop GIS QGIS 0.8 has been released. The average QGIS user will have to wait a couple days though:

At present this is primarily a source release for those that want to build QGIS. Packages for most Linux distributions, Windows, and Mac OS X are being assembled and should be available in the next few days.

Keep an eye out on the QGIS 0.8 download page for the package releases (Windows, OS X, etc).

For those who have forgotten why QGIS 0.8 is an important milestone, here are a few of the new features:

• WMS support
• Improved vector and attribute editing
• Improved measure tools with area measuring
• Attribute searching
• New legend structure
• Refactoring of API to allow the use of QGIS libraries in mapping applications
• Improved MapServer export tool
• Vector layer transparency and antialiasing
• GRASS support in all platforms
• Enhanced GRASS support and toolbox commands
• Enhanced vector editing, including copy, cut, paste, snapping and vertex editing
• Shapefile/OGR layer editing

Some screen shots of the windows version:

I see Sean updated his Planet Geospatial Scrubber Greasemonkey script. This is a great resource for those who don’t like some feeds showing up in Planet Geospatial You might not be interested in Google Earth, so you could block all Ogle Earth and Google Earth Blog posts from showing up. Just download Greasemonkey and then edit the PlanetGS Scrubber to include these URLs. Then they will never bother you again. Sean has excellent instructions inside the script (right click and download the script to your computer, then edit it in your favorite text editor).

I never got to post it, but NASA Worldwind 1.4RC was released on December 23rd. I think Chad has been bugging me to post about it for a couple of days, but I’ve been kind of oblivious to his proding. 😉

Since we all love to know what is new, here is the “What’s New” list:

• Plugin: Movie Recorder (added avi xport)
• Plugin: Place Finder Loader (Supports more geocoders)
• Plugin: Satellite Tracker
• Plugin: Virtal Earth, downloads Microsoft local live data (must be loaded from the plugins menu, then activated by clicking the toolbar icon)
• Plugin: Improved WMS browser with GetCapabilities support
• Data: New NRL data
• Data: WFS placenames and boundaries
• Core: New accurate sunshading
• Core: Support for 3D models
• Core: Atmosphere (Improved with atmospheric scattering)
• Core: Added widget support
• Widget: New scalebar
• Widget: Time controller
• Widget: 3D compass widget
• Installer: Removed background
• Installer: Mars, Moon, SDSS icons removed
• Installer: .Net 2.0 check
• Installer: Added command line tags NODOTNET, /NODX, /NOMDX) to skip detection of .NET, DirectX 9.0c, and Managed DirectX, to skip checks respectively.

The bug list for RC2 is here.