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ArcGIS Explorer 2500 discussion

MarkBockenhauer

Questions and comments in regards to ArcGIS Explorer 2012 beta and the ArcGIS Explorer 2500 release.

thanks,
ArcGIS Explorer Team

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LukePhilips

Downloaded the beta and we are off to the races. I like that the 'Check for Updates' option says that there is an update available (the older 1750 version). Where it says this is 'portable', does that mean if you do the install to a USB-stick instead of the typical C:\Program Files\ then it is 'portable'?

MarkBockenhauer

After installing to any location, you can just copy the "Explorer (86)" folder and all of its contents to any windows folder / usb location and then run the software by double clicking the e3.exe in the Explorer (86)\bin folder. You could also set up a shortcut to the e3.exe location.

Mark

DanHuber

Did we lose the option for Bing basemaps?

I uninstalled 1750 and then put the Beta on my machine, so I already had a "My Default Map.nmf." When I first launched the 2012 beta, the Bing imagery showed up properly. But after switching the basemap to "US Topo", shutting down the app, and restarting, I noticed that Bing is no longer an option. I have also ensured that I am logged into ArcGIS Online, so that should not be the problem.

I do like having the option to finally put text on the map - kudos for that.

DanHuber

Did we lose the option for Bing basemaps?

Wondering how much detail you guys are after with regards to testing the 2012 Beta. Here is an interesting one related to my previous post.

As stated above, could not load Bing base maps with AGX 2012 - the option was not listed.   So I fired up ArcGIS ArcMap (ArcView) 10.0 while AGX 2012 was also running. When I attempted to add a base map to ArcMap, the basemap opened in AGX as a new ArcGIS Layer and not in ArcMap.

Here are the details Package Layer Properties:

Name:    Basemap
Source: http://www.arcgisonline.com/sharing/content/items/71d6d656cb2a4ded8fce35982ebdff25/item.pkinfo
Type:   Layer Package
Coordinate System: WGS_1984_Web_Mercator_Auxiliary_Sphere

Name: Bing Maps Hybrid
Source:
Coordinate System: WGS_1984_Web_Mercator_Auxiliary_Sphere

So, initial problem is kind of solved, but I don't think what just happened was by design.

JoeFlannery

I just reproduced what Dan outlined. With Explorer 2012 beta open, I opened an empty/new session of ArcMap (ArcInfo). In ArcMap I went to >File >Add Data >Add Basemap... >Bing Maps Road. ArcMap grayed out for a little while and then a Basemap/Bing Maps Road layer package appeared in the TOC of my Explorer 2012 application. The ArcMap TOC remains empty. The same behavior happens with other Basemap options from ArcMap.

DanHuber

I just reproduced what Dan outlined.

Joe,

Did you also notice the same issue I was having - where the BING base maps where no longer listed as an option?

JimSibbald

In ArcGIS Explorer Desktop 1750 there were Expansion Packs (Data Access, Fonts and Projection). The Projection Expansion pack allowed the use of CUSTOM Transformations (set up using PEOBJEDITHOME) which included the OSTN02 NTv2 transformation which is the most accurate for UK. This worked well in ArcGIS Explorer for Desktop 1750.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]15626[/ATTACH]

At ArcGIS 10.1 this NTv2 transformation was included in pe.dll, therefore there is no need for PEOBJEDITHOME and the transformation has a FactoryCode of 5339, however as with most NTv2 files the user requires to download the .gsb file from Ordnance Survey. In ArcGIS Explorer for Desktop 2012 Beta although the pe.dll is 10.1 there is no OSGB_1936_To_WGS_1984_7 transformation present (presumably due to the .gsb file not being present).

[ATTACH=CONFIG]15625[/ATTACH]

Will there be a Projection Expansion Pack for ArcGIS Explorer for Desktop 2012 which will allow the use of the NTv2 transformation?

GDT1750.png

GDT.png

JoeFlannery

Correct, Dan. I see no Bing background products/options in the Basemap gallery of Explorer 2012 beta.

GeorgeDurkee

Just fiddling with Beta now. Looks great: loads much faster; excellent addition of map text; also seem to have solved ability to print popups and shapes on maps (for some reason, with 1700 & 1750 I was unable to have drawn shapes and their popups show when I went to print or Copy to Clipboard. This was true on a number of machines I used).

I seem to be in some strange loop for Add Ins, though. When I go to Resources > Add Ins, it asks if I want to restart to load one. Not sure what it's loading, but restart doesn't end the popup. I've got:

Add Ins Online
File WithCoordinates
Raster Georeferencing
Create or Add GeoTagged Images

I'm also unable to remove any of them.

I also had a third party Add In developed for search and rescue. I can't install that, though it worked on build 1750.

Workaround is to keep 1750 on my machine. Can I then use 2012 beta off a USB?

Thoughts and comments welcome

Thanks!

George

CraigBeech

Noticed that the Beta version is for 32-bit. Are there any plans to release a 64-bit version? We have done a lot of customization using the Add-in functionality within version 1750, will it still worj in 2012?

Regards,
Stefan
ssteenekamp@ppf.org.za

HarryBowman

Installed the beta last Friday.

Background: I have used the previous version only a little, so there is a decent chance I am using it suboptimally and the performance issues I see are a result of user error.

Use case: We have data in shapefiles representing streets in the USA and Canada. Supporting these feature classes and shapefiles are extra tables about maneuvers, etc. The data is stored centrally and is read only. I am evaluating ArcExplorer Desktop as a potential replacement for the couple copies of ArcView 3.3 the field collection guys use to study some tricky intersections. They load up the appropriate shapefile (usually half a million to a million streets) in AV 3.3 very quickly and the guys zoom to their intersection and use a combination of Identify, symbology, and occasionally relates to figure things out. We'd like to move off AV 3.3 before it stops working with some version of Windows. We'd also like to eventually move the data to geodatabase.

Here's what I've tried: keeping the data in central shapefiles, local shapefiles, local filegeodatabase, local layer package.
Here's what I've seen: ArcExplorer draws the shapes very, very slowing, spending a large amount of time telling me it is "streaming." I can start AV 3.3 and look at the data in the same time I am waiting for the data to render. The field guys will never accept this performance hit. In just a little looking, I was also not able to figure out how to handle the user need to look at other tables by relate. I didn't spend much time on it, though, because the slow drawing was a total deal breaker.

I assume I am doing something incorrectly, but if the performance difference is unavoidable, I think our guys will want to stick with AV 3.3 - it is familiar and fast.

What am I doing incorrectly?

MarkBockenhauer

When I attempted to add a base map to ArcMap, the basemap opened in AGX as a new ArcGIS Layer and not in ArcMap.

So, initial problem is kind of solved, but I don't think what just happened was by design.

Dan,

It certainly was not by the initial design... For ArcGIS Explorer 2012 we did work to "separate" ArcGIS Explorer desktop from ArcGIS Desktop, this is what allows it to run off of a USB, a side affect is that for shared file types, things like layers and layer packages that can be opened in ArcGIS Explorer, ArcGlobe and ArcMap, we do not have a real clean file association solution. So, we made the decision that if ArcGIS Explorer is running, it takes the file association. This is something we will continue to look at, when double clicking in windows explorer or opening content from the ArcGIS online webpage we can't really control which Esri app will get the common file type, but when opening from an application (opening basemap in ArcMap) we should be able to direct it to the correct application. This could be a future SP fix for ArcMap.

Mark

MarkBockenhauer

Did we lose the option for Bing basemaps?

I do like having the option to finally put text on the map - kudos for that.

Esri is phasing out the complimentary use of Bing Maps in its ArcGIS products. The final version of ArcGIS Explorer 2012 as well as other Esri products will be "Bing Ready", which will allow you to input a Bing Maps key that you obtain directly from Microsoft. After you input the key you will be able to use Bing maps as you did previously.

Mark

MarkBockenhauer

Noticed that the Beta version is for 32-bit. Are there any plans to release a 64-bit version? We have done a lot of customization using the Add-in functionality within version 1750, will it still worj in 2012?

Regards,
Stefan
ssteenekamp@ppf.org.za

Stefan,

Yes, a 64 bit version is planned, it currently lags a bit behind the 32 bit version, as we get the code working in 64 bit. Yes, Add-ins from 1750 will work In ArcGIS Explorer 2012. For the 64 bit version you will need to confirm that the add-ins were targetted at "Any CPU"

Mark

MarkBockenhauer

I seem to be in some strange loop for Add Ins, though. When I go to Resources > Add Ins, it asks if I want to restart to load one. Not sure what it's loading, but restart doesn't end the popup. I've got:

Add Ins Online
File WithCoordinates
Raster Georeferencing
Create or Add GeoTagged Images

I'm also unable to remove any of them.

I also had a third party Add In developed for search and rescue. I can't install that, though it worked on build 1750.

Workaround is to keep 1750 on my machine. Can I then use 2012 beta off a USB?

Thoughts and comments welcome

Thanks!

George

George,

For ArcGIS Explorer 2012 we changed how the Add-ins are handled when added to the software. As a result you will be prompted to Accept all the add-ins that you currently have installed when you run ArcGIS Explorer 2012. It is expected that user experience for adding and removing should work as it previously did. I will have to take a look and see if I can find a scenario where they are not handled properly.

It is also expected that all add-ins 1500 - 1750 should work in ArcGIS Explorer 2012. Those that do not will need to be looked at on a case by case basis. If you can send the Add-in we can take a look.

Yes, you could run ArcGIS Explorer 2012 from a USB or copied folder on a machine that is running 1750. The only issue is that the cache files created by ArcGIS Explorer 2012 will not be useable by 1750, so when running 1750 data that was cached and viewed in ArcGIS Explorer 2012, will not display in ArcGIS Explorer 1750. For basemaps you may even see an error message in regards to an "invalid layer". To correct this problem you just need to clear out all of the ArcGIS Explorer cache. (delete %tmp%\E3)

Mark

Anonymous User

Hey,

I've also tested the new beta version of ArcGIS Explorer Desktop 2012 because a client of us is using it extensively in combination with ArcGIS Online for Organizations content. Is it possible to add the new Web Feature Services hosted by ArcGIS Online or is it planned to add such a functionality? At the moment there only seems to be support for common GIS-server technologies.

I think this would be a perfect addition to reach a maximum integration between both systems.

best regards
Richard

MarkBockenhauer

Hey,

... Is it possible to add the new Web Feature Services hosted by ArcGIS Online or is it planned to add such a functionality? At the moment there only seems to be support for common GIS-server technologies.

I think this would be a perfect addition to reach a maximum integration between both systems.

best regards
Richard

We agree that this would be a great addition. However, Feature services are currently not supported. Support for these will be added in a future release, post ArcGIS Explorer 2012.

Mark

MarkBockenhauer

Installed the beta last Friday.

Background: I have used the previous version only a little, so there is a decent chance I am using it suboptimally and the performance issues I see are a result of user error.

Use case: We have data in shapefiles representing streets in the USA and Canada. Supporting these feature classes and shapefiles are extra tables about maneuvers, etc. The data is stored centrally and is read only. I am evaluating ArcExplorer Desktop as a potential replacement for the couple copies of ArcView 3.3 the field collection guys use to study some tricky intersections. They load up the appropriate shapefile (usually half a million to a million streets) in AV 3.3 very quickly and the guys zoom to their intersection and use a combination of Identify, symbology, and occasionally relates to figure things out. We'd like to move off AV 3.3 before it stops working with some version of Windows. We'd also like to eventually move the data to geodatabase.

Here's what I've tried: keeping the data in central shapefiles, local shapefiles, local filegeodatabase, local layer package.
Here's what I've seen: ArcExplorer draws the shapes very, very slowing, spending a large amount of time telling me it is "streaming." I can start AV 3.3 and look at the data in the same time I am waiting for the data to render. The field guys will never accept this performance hit. In just a little looking, I was also not able to figure out how to handle the user need to look at other tables by relate. I didn't spend much time on it, though, because the slow drawing was a total deal breaker.

I assume I am doing something incorrectly, but if the performance difference is unavoidable, I think our guys will want to stick with AV 3.3 - it is familiar and fast.

What am I doing incorrectly?

You aren't necessarily doing anything incorrectly, but you may be able to get a better user experience by trying the following:

1. Make sure your coordinates system of the map matches the coordinate system of the data, if possible. Projection on the fly is always slower than drawing in the coordinate system of the data. From the file menu (ArcGIS Explorer icon upper left) Click map properties and 2D coordinate system, specify the coordinate system of your data. Also, when working with a lot of features your going to get better performance working in 2D, rather than 3D.

2. Use a Display range. In ArcGIS Explorer on the appearance tab you can set the Minimum scale at which the data draws, the data won't display when zoomed out beyond the specified scale (or if using ArcGIS Layers, Layer packages, ArcGIS Explorer will honor visibility settings stored in the layer). You can specify a display range that ensures the data only draws when zoomed in close. This narrows the extent of the data fetched for display and improves performance. Make use of another layer that draws fast (like an ArcGIS Explorer basemap) so that your users have a point of reference for where they want to zoom in, but only draw the large dataset when zoomed in close.

Mark

HarryBowman

You aren't necessarily doing anything incorrectly, but you may be able to get a better user experience by trying the following: [various good tips]
Mark

I was able to get good performance with the shapefiles by turning off all the basemap imagery and using some hollow polygon features for the USA, Canada, Counties and points for cities to orient. And the search by Lat Lon made finding the location pretty easy. With no basemap and the map in the data's coordinate system, shapefiles were fast enough. File GDB of the entire country, even when very much zoomed in, was very slow. The File GDB has a spatial index managed by ArcGIS, so I don't know what's wrong.

Is it possible to label features or look at tables and do relates in ArcGIS Explorer - I have a feeling that the answer is no, from the documentation, without custom code. If that's the case, our guys will probably stick with AV3.3 until it dies - it can do everything they need, and the data is still shipped to us in shapefiles.

It's a toss up for them, though - they'd also like to have the imagery behind the streets. Right now, that's done with KML export and Google. We'd prefer to avoid that.

HarryBowman

I ran the routing tool to drive from one place to another in town. I noticed that when I clicked on the map to get my origin and destination, the flags were not added. Nothing was added until I generated directions. I think it would be better to place the flags first. When I double clicked my origin in the the Directions in the ToC, the map centered on the origin, but it zoomed way out, so that the entire rout was less than a fifth of the map extent. Why? That's pretty much opposite of what I would have expected.

AchilleasDrosos

I have 36 users working with 1750 and today i updated a few to beta 2012.

I use the previous - next addin (PreviousNextExtent.eaz) and every time i open beta 2012 the software asks me if i want to install it.

I cant get rid of some useless for my users buttons through Application Configuration Manager eg add overlay text and map text

I get some problems during navigation.

and for the end a little request: I would really like to have the date of the bing maps imagery i see.

JamesNyberg

Does the 2012 Beta work with the 1750 SDK? I cannot seem to build an add-in with the 1750 SDK. It looks like the MakeEaz MSBuild task cannot find the ESRI.ArcGIS.Utilities.Compression assembly. I tried copying both the SDK and assembly files to both "Explorer" and "Explorer (x86)" bin directories, and registering the Compression assembly, but I still get the FileNotFound exception during my project build.

Attached is the error.

MakeEaz_Exception.txt.zip

HarryBowman

I still haven't found a good way to get our big (46 million record) feature class to draw quickly in ArcGIS Explorer, even when zoomed in. In ArcMap at the same scale, things draw fine.
On the other hand, poking around the documentation, the contributed add-ins, and the SDK has turned up support for labeling, opening non-geometry tables, showing related records, and joining. A combination of third party and home coded add-ins should allow the software to handle what we could do with ArcView 3.3.

I think the thing that might get people interested in converting - maybe - is the integrated support for imagery. Right now the flow goes the other way - export shapefile to KML and load it up in a Google product.

I've uninstalled the beta so that I can test out some extensions that run on the released version.

JoeFlannery

Harry:

Have you considered caching your vector data on ArcGIS for Server and sharing that map service with your end users? That is how we solved a similar issue with a very large parcel polygon data set. It's super fast!

Anonymous User

Esri is phasing out the complimentary use of Bing Maps in its ArcGIS products. The final version of ArcGIS Explorer 2012 as well as other Esri products will be "Bing Ready", which will allow you to input a Bing Maps key that you obtain directly from Microsoft. After you input the key you will be able to use Bing maps as you did previously.

Mark

Can you expand on this a little more? Will this be like the 9.2/9.3 days where you had to install Bing maps as an extenstion (virtual earth if i remember), which required registering with Microsoft and ESRI? Where are we to obtain a bing maps key in the future and where are we to input this key to gain access to Bing Maps. My agency already has a Bing Maps key but other people might want to know some details on this.

Anonymous User

Just installed the beta and noticed the same atrocious symbology. Will there be ANY improvements to symbols in the 2012 release? As described to me once, the symbols in Explorer are way to "cartoony" and need to be more professional looking. There should be more of an option other than "use layer packages or use .lyr files". layer packages seem to have less functionality than directly adding shapefiles. Users can't change colors or mess with popups from a layer package. So if somebody wants different colors for something they have to go back to the source to get a new layer file.

If the symbols won't be changed at least make it easier to install and use symbol or style packages from ArcGIS Desktop within Explorer. Or even allow users to download symbol packages or esri fonts. Something. But either way something has to be done with the symbology.

MarkBockenhauer

Can you expand on this a little more? Will this be like the 9.2/9.3 days where you had to install Bing maps as an extenstion (virtual earth if i remember), which required registering with Microsoft and ESRI? Where are we to obtain a bing maps key in the future and where are we to input this key to gain access to Bing Maps. My agency already has a Bing Maps key but other people might want to know some details on this.

This is the URL to obtain a key from Microsoft. http://www.bingmapsportal.com/

There is no registration with Esri, the ArcGIS Explorer 2012 final version will have an option for entering in a Microsoft key to enable the use of Bing Maps data.

MarkBockenhauer

Just installed the beta and noticed the same atrocious symbology. Will there be ANY improvements to symbols in the 2012 release? As described to me once, the symbols in Explorer are way to "cartoony" and need to be more professional looking. There should be more of an option other than "use layer packages or use .lyr files". layer packages seem to have less functionality than directly adding shapefiles. Users can't change colors or mess with popups from a layer package. So if somebody wants different colors for something they have to go back to the source to get a new layer file.

If the symbols won't be changed at least make it easier to install and use symbol or style packages from ArcGIS Desktop within Explorer. Or even allow users to download symbol packages or esri fonts. Something. But either way something has to be done with the symbology.

There are no plans to add or change the symbology in ArcGIS Explorer 2012. In regards to points you can add images to use as symbols. http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisexplorer/2012//en/dialog_manage_my_symbols.htm#

Anonymous User

There are no plans to add or change the symbology in ArcGIS Explorer 2012. In regards to points you can add images to use as symbols. http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisexplorer/2012//en/dialog_manage_my_symbols.htm#

I'm sorry but in my opinion that is an unacceptable solution. People shouldn't have to search for or manually select jpgs or png images to get decent symbols. Why is it so hard to include some basic styles and allow for selection similar to ArcMap or even the basic symbology in ArcPad? Having the ArcPad symbology would be a huge improvement. For such a big release there doesn't seem to be much improvement. I guess I'm stuck with .lyr files. Curious if you guys even listen to users/customers? I remember seeing many posts in the forums about Explorer Desktop symbology and there is no plan to improve it even after all that feedback.

CameronWallace

I have a user who has the Beta, but needs the ESRI fonts... they tried to install the 1750 font pack but no go. I've got some layers built... and we need to keep the symbology consistent.

Thanks

Cam

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