Tag: arc2earth

  • Arc2Earth Offers ArcToolbox Integration

    Link – Arc2Earth Update – ArcToolbox Integration

    One feature that I wanted to point out specifically is the integration of A2E into the ArcGIS Geoprocessing subsystem. Essentially, this will allow the A2E exporter to be called directly from scripts (Python, VBScript etc.), Models, the CommandLine or directly from ArcToolbox. My favorite right now is the Model integration, there is just a myriad of geospatial analysis that be accomplished. Likewise, the time savings from the automation can be pretty significant. So now the final step can be to create a KML or KMZ file for consumption of the results directly in GE.

    I love this. You can perform analysis on your datasets and then send to users who don’t have ArcGIS. Export to KML becomes as easy as exporting to a e00 (well actually easier). I’ve written so many AMLs in my life that I even today continue to use AML (and Python) for scripting many of my analysis tasks. Rather than adding the output to ArcMap and generating a PDF to show others the results, I can just send them the KML and let them view it in Google Earth. Sweet!

    KMLExporter GPModel

  • Jason Posts Some Screen Shots of Data From A2E

    Link – Z Lots

    Here is a shot of some data that A2E is capable of rendering. I had the data scrambled so it shouldn’t make any sense, but if the data were accurate, it would represent sales prices for various master planned communities and planned area developments in maricopa and pinal counties with z values representing these prices as percentages in height.

    Take a look at the screen shots he posted and tell me you aren’t excited about A2E? On top of all this we’ll get to see the Exporter API that Brian will allow developers to use in any ArcGIS application. The possibilities are endless with A2E and it should solidify Google Earth as a GIS viewer.

  • Brian Flood Talks About Arc2Earth

    Link – Arc2Earth – ArcGIS to Google Earth Conversion

    Here’s a quick update on the GE/GIS conversion front. While there is still work to be done, significant progress has been made on the ArcGIS to Google Earth converter which is now known as Arc2Earth. While there are several other KML converters out there, Arc2Earth is different in it’s scope of conversion. Instead of just raw data, A2E leverages the fact that the ArcGIS platform is a great authoring environment for traditional maps. In addition to data, it also includes cartography, renderers, labeling, feature identify functionality, ad-hoc graphics, as well as other MXD specific features that help enrich the user experience exported to the KMZ file.

    Brian has a detailed post on Arc2Earth which should make converting maps made in ArcMap to Google Earth much easier. I’m very impressed with the user interface Brian has and it should allow just about anyone to share their maps via Google Earth. I can see this totally blowing up since there is no good tool from ESRI to share ArcMap documents. Google Earth will become the default free viewer for GIS and Arc2Earth could become the tool to make that happen. Great work Brian!

    Bflood kmz