Ubikcan wonders why ArcReader requires such a powerfull PC to work. Simple, it is pretty much full blown ArcGIS minus all the features. I’d expect ArcExplorer to be much easier on the systems than ArcReader. Still, the point of a reader program is that you don’t need a full blown GIS system. If ArcExplorer supports PMF files, I’d say Reader is pretty much dead anyway.
Tag: esri
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The ArcGlobe Text Toolbar — Label in ArcGlobe
Link – Labeling in ArcGlobe: The ArcGlobe Text Toolbar
Ever wanted to label a layer in ArcGlobe? The recently updated “ArcGlobe Text Toolbar” allows an ArcGlobe user to label any FeatureLayer with true 3D text. Labels are transparently persisted to an external GLM file (eg myGlobeDocument.glm). The toolbar also extends the ArcGlobe animation framework. Text can be animated over time and space. Other properties such as color and azimuth can also be animated.
I think ArcGlobe has been ignored over the years for many reasons (some valid, others aren’t), but now with Google Earth taking off, many GIS professionals are taking a second look at ArcGlobe especially since ArcReader 9.2 9.1 will support Globe documents removing the requirement for ArcView or greater. I wish I had a better laptop than I did because I can’t really run ArcGlobe well with this really poor video card.
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Finding a Giant Squid with the ESRI Hurricane Disaster Viewer?
Link – My giant squid
OK, its not really a giant squid, but frankly I can’t really tell what it is either. JM has a couple ideas and any of them could be it. My choice is that it is a Navy CH-46, but I’m not going to bet any money on that.
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ArcExplorer’s “ace in the hole”
If I was the Program Manager of ArcExplorer, I would be calling CNN/MSNBC/Fox News/ABC News/CBS News/etc right now and show them a demo of ArcExplorer with some of the great ArcWeb services ESRI has. ArcWeb has better imagery, better weather layers and better road network than Google Earth has and I’m sure many of these news organizations would love to have all this out of the box, rather than rely on a KML/KMZ file from some server in Russia for their hurricane tracking. I would do just about anything to get the ESRI logo in the lower right corner of the TV screens while people are amazed both ArcExplorer and the ArcWeb services on top of that. ESRI only has to point to the years of experience serving up ArcWeb as to how valuable it can be to news organizations.
If leveraged correctly, ArcWeb will be the reason why ArcExplorer will be a success. It won’t be easy, but the choice of services from ESRI has got to be a great marketing tool.
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Reading Material for a GIS Professional
Just a little something for me to read while traveling back east next week, twice…
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EDN Search Improved
Link – EDN Search gets a tune-up
Brian says that EDN search has been improved. Honestly though, I can’t recall how the old search worked because I’ve never used it (I just don’t like the interface at ESRI’s support site). As a developer though I’m glad they have gotten this working because anything that causes me to go to EDN is a good thing as the only value to EDN right now is the software. If you work for a company that already has all the licenses, EDN doesn’t give you anything more than you already have. Now that the search is working, maybe we’ll see some more enhancements such as an improved ArcScripts and maybe more ESRI posted code samples to play with.
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Better Than Buying an Ad
I’ve been critical of companies uploading commercial products into ArcScripts, but now they are uploading the same file more than once. Sure they use the excuse of German vs. English to give them reason to upload the file twice, but we all know they shouldn’t be doing it anyway and it says that you can’t upload demo software to the site so I can only conclude they did this for commercial reasons. I mean, why pay for an ad on a website or GIS magazine when you can put it right on ESRI’s site. And a trip to their website, you quickly see that their site runs so slow. Moving the downloads to ESRI’s servers should help with the speed. Why pay for your own bandwidth when ESRI can host the file for you?
The first screen when you upload your file you see the following.
Even if you are color blind, I assume these companies can read. The only conclusion is they are marketing their products using a service from ESRI, that has a goal of allowing GIS professionals to freely share programs and scripts they have created so that others can benefit. No wonder most of us don’t like using it anymore.
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Jeff Archer – ArcGIS Server Product Manger
In case you don’t already subscribe to his RSS feed, Jeff Archer posted a small bio about himself and how he ended up as the Product Manager for ArcGIS Server. I’ve never met Jeff as unfortunately our workload hasn’t included much ArcGIS server beyond a few projects, but if you do use Server you should definitely bookmark his blog as I’m sure he’d be a great resource to any ArcGIS questions or any wish list items you’d have.
I have one big wish Jeff, combine ArcGIS Server and ArcIMS into one product. Two server solutions just confuses the marketplace. Much like ArcView became the “low end” of ArcGIS Desktop, ArcIMS would be the entry to ArcGIS Server. It seems silly to at least me as a developer to keep them split anymore.
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Art Haddad Gives an Update
Link – Been a while…
Art’s been really busy and that can only mean good things for end users. He’s thrown up a big post about what he’s been up to, what we can look forward to at ArcGIS 9.2 and he’s even asked his team to start blogging more about ESRI, ArcGIS and AJAX/.NET. There are 15 bullet points about spatial controls for ESRI server products and yes Art, that did wet my apatite. I’m hopeful EDN will become a great tool with the release of 9.2 because as it stands right now it is a little sparse. And I’m also glad to hear that Art’s still working on that ESRI developer conference.
Thanks for the update Art, I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on the new ADF.
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Export to KML Extension for ArcGIS 9.x
Link – Export_to_KML_V10
Export to KML is an extension developed for ArcGIS 9.x by the City of Portland, Bureau of Planning. The extension allows ArcGIS users to export any dataset in “keyhole markup language” [KML] format for viewing in the free Google Earth data viewer. Any point, polyline, or polygon features, in any defined projection, can be exported. Features can be “grouped” by an attribute for creating categorical symbology in Google Earth. Features can also be exported as 2-dimensional features, or “extruded” by an attribute (or, in the case of true 3D features, by z-value).
Kevin Martin over at the City of Portland Bureau of Planning just uploaded a new extension to export any dataset to KML.
One problem with all these great tools for KML export is that they have all chosen to use the Google Earth icon on their toolbar. Kind of makes it hard to remember which one is which huh?
