Latest Contributions by CodyBenkelman

Responding to BrandonGuo, this script should be available soon, although I don't yet have a date. I'm hopeful we will have it by next week (4/17/26). To BillFox, The oriented imagery dataset is not equivalent to the mosaic dataset. They address different requirements. In some limited cases, you can convert from a Mosaic Dataset to an Oriented Image dataset, but many of the MD properties are not supported in the OID. The MD is not appropriate for above-the-horizon view angles, 360 images, etc. which is the reason the oriented imagery schema was created. If you're asking a question, please clarify.

‎03-02-2026

Introduction This blog provides guidance for users who have existing oriented imagery catalogs created using oriented imagery classic and need to migrate to the formally supported oriented imagery dataset and oriented imagery layer format. If you are using oriented imagery today, you already understand the core concepts. This post focuses specifically on migration paths, supported options, and required changes. Deprecation of Oriented Imagery Classic was announced in January 2025, and it has now been retired with the February 2026 ArcGIS Online update. Why Migrate to the New Format? Oriented Imagery Classic was a prototype implementation of concepts for non-mapping imagery, including the oriented imagery catalog data model. However, it was never released as a formally supported product. Oriented imagery is now fully integrated into the ArcGIS system. Oriented imagery layers—which replace oriented imagery catalogs—are supported as a first‑class layer type across ArcGIS applications. Classic vs. Current Format An oriented imagery catalog (Classic – now retired) consisted of: A point feature layer defining camera locations, with feature attributes defining orientation and image metadata An optional vector tile layer showing imagery extents A separate JSON file defining layer‑wide properties These components could be shared locally or published as three separate items in ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise. An oriented imagery layer (Current – fully supported across ArcGIS) is a type of point feature layer where the point geometry defines the camera location, the feature attributes define the orientation and other key image metadata, and the layer properties define key layer-wide metadata. The data source for an oriented imagery layer can be an oriented imagery dataset, created and managed in ArcGIS Pro, or a feature service that includes an oriented imagery layer. An optional coverage feature layer showing imagery extents can be defined in the oriented imagery dataset properties, or published as an additional layer in the feature service. What’s Required to Move Forward? At a minimum, all future use of oriented imagery must be based on an oriented imagery dataset and/or oriented imagery layer. You may need to make updates to your imagery, metadata, and/or applications, depending on: Where your images are hosted How your Classic catalog was created Which applications consume the imagery The sections below walk through these decisions step by step. Step 1: Choose a Supported Image Hosting Option Before creating a new oriented imagery dataset, you must ensure your images are hosted via a supported method. Image Hosting Options Users are able to host images using one of the following supported options: Public cloud storage (for example, Azure Blob or Amazon S3), Secure feature attachments within the oriented imagery layer, hosted in ArcGIS Online or Enterprise, and Secure 3rd-party storage accessed via a Custom Data Feed (ArcGIS Enterprise 11.5 or later) Users can also host images using a local web server (such as IIS). Local files are supported directly for desktop-only workflows. Note: In Oriented Imagery Classic, secure image access in 3rd party storage was possible using a custom token server. This approach is not supported in the current oriented imagery capability. We are working on adding support for secure image hosting using ArcGIS Enterprise, which will become the recommended solution for securely hosting images once available. Image Hosting Scenarios and What to Do Images already in public cloud storage or a local web server No changes to image storage are required. You can reference these images directly when creating your new oriented imagery dataset. Images hosted as feature attachments in a Classic catalog You have three options: Start over with your local copies of the source images, or Download the images (see here) and re‑upload them as feature attachments when publishing the new oriented imagery layer, or We will make a Python script available soon that can read and reformat published Oriented Imagery Classic layers in place. You can check back here for updates when that becomes available. Images hosted securely If you need to host images in a secure 3rd-party storage in the near term, use a Custom Data Feed in ArcGIS Enterprise to access imagery and metadata. Refer to the Custom Data Feed documentation for configuration details. Unless you need the flexibility of a custom data feed, Esri recommends migrating to secure image hosting using ArcGIS Enterprise (mentioned above) when it becomes available. Step 2: Create a New Oriented Imagery Dataset Esri strongly recommends returning to your original source data to create a new oriented imagery dataset. Use ArcGIS Pro to run the Create Oriented Imagery Dataset geoprocessing tool to create an empty dataset, then run Add Images To Oriented Imagery Dataset to populate the metadata. Your input to the Add Images tool depends on how your Classic catalog was originally created. If Your Classic Catalog Was Created by Reading EXIF/XMP tags in each image Provide a list of image URLs, file paths, or a local folder Image names are not required Images must be accessible (for example, public cloud storage) When you run Add Images To Oriented Imagery Dataset, the tool will read the EXIF & XMP metadata and populate required fields automatically. If Your Classic Catalog Was Created from a CSV table of metadata Create a new table formatted for the oriented imagery dataset Your original table (if available) should be reusable as a starting point If needed, export the attribute table and point geometry from the Classic catalog Recommendations: Follow the field names in the current oriented imagery schema (some field names from Classic have changed) Use separate values for the orientation angles (heading/pitch/roll or omega/phi/kappa) in the table instead of the legacy CamOri string where possible Verify geometry and orientation values before publishing If Your Classic Catalog Used an Image Service or Mosaic Dataset as the source Image services are not supported as an image hosting option. If you used a mosaic dataset, you may use it as a data source to build a new oriented imagery dataset. You must still choose a supported image hosting option for the underlying images. If you do not have access to the original mosaic dataset, you can start from the beginning, or export the attribute table and point geometry from the Classic catalog. Step 3: Building Coverage and Publishing Once your dataset is populated: Run the Build Oriented Imagery Footprint geoprocessing tool to generate a coverage layer Use the Generate Service From Oriented Imagery Dataset geoprocessing tool to publish an oriented imagery layer to ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise If hosting images as attachments, upload images during publishing. If referencing cloud storage or web servers, no image upload is required. Step 4: Update Client Applications and Web Apps Once new layers are published, all client applications must be reviewed and updated. Any application referencing Classic catalog URLs must be updated. Experience Builder If your app uses the Oriented Imagery Classic widget, it must be rebuilt using: Oriented Imagery Viewer widget, or The Sidebar or 3D Viewer Instant App templates available in Experience Builder within the Online/Enterprise portal The Classic widget has been removed from Experience Builder with the February update to ArcGIS Online. Special Cases Oriented Imagery Catalogs Created with ArcGIS QuickCapture If your catalogs were generated by ArcGIS QuickCapture, refer to this blog to use QuickCapture designer to update your existing Classic layers to the current oriented imagery format. Features Not Yet Supported The following features are not yet supported in oriented imagery datasets and layers, but are planned for later in 2026: Video files as source data Superimposing images in a 3D scene If these capabilities are critical, refer to this blog for options to continue using Oriented Imagery Classic in the short term. Final Recommendations Test migration workflows with a small subset of imagery first. If you no longer have your original images, perform thorough validation before deleting Classic catalogs or services. Update documentation and user instructions once new layers are live.

‎03-02-2026

If you're a user of oriented imagery, you may (or may not!) have noticed that the viewer behavior and location in the 2D Map viewer changed with the recent release of ArcGIS Online (26 February 2026). The viewer is now more flexible and easier to use - let us know what you think! In the previous version, users had to select the oriented imagery layer in the Table of Contents which would make the oriented imagery icon appear in the "action bar" on the right hand side of the map; then users would have to click on the icon to activate the oriented imagery search to call up the viewer. With the latest release of ArcGIS Online, oriented imagery layers behave like other layers. Once the layer is added to the Table of Contents, the user can simply click on the ellipsis (3 dots) in the layer to call up the oriented imagery viewer. You'll also notice that the oriented imagery viewer appears in the center slot of the map, so now it's more flexible in terms of size and shape. There are more changes and new features in oriented imagery in this release of ArcGIS Online - stay tuned for another blog (to be linked here) soon!

‎02-05-2026

This blog is a follow up to previous notifications that the classic, community supported add-in version of oriented imagery will be retired soon. Deprecation was announced in January 2025. The classic capability will be officially retired in February 2026 at the next release of ArcGIS Online. IMPORTANT: Note that when the next update for ArcGIS Online goes live later this month, the classic widget will be removed from Experience Builder. Organizations with an active application using the classic widget should consider following the workflow here to download a copy of their application. Refer to this blog for further discussion of options for updating Experience Builder applications. For organizations with implementations of oriented imagery classic that do not include Experience Builder, additional resources regarding migration options will be published soon. (This blog will be updated with links)

‎02-03-2026

Yes to your first question - We are working with Mapillary to release a new version of their service in the proper format for the "integrated" oriented imagery schema, but we don't have a firm release date. When that service is live, apps built on ExperienceBuilder will need to be updated with the new widget. Depending on your needs, you may need to consider the method listed as "host it yourself" above to ensure uninterrupted service. We are working to publish new resources soon (blogs here on Esri Community) to advise users regarding the various options for migration from oriented imagery "classic" to the "integrated" version. I sent you DM - if others reading this have urgent needs, please let us know. Cody B.

‎01-21-2026

It looks like an interesting concept, but I don't know if we've seen any data with this flight pattern previously. Are you able to share your images with us, to allow us to test? Please also share the Drone2Map processing report. Which drone was used? I would expect that Drone2Map *could* process this, but it may require a drone that includes metadata about the image orientation angles. Without that orientation data, the software will assume the images are all aimed at nadir, and attempt to find matching points in images that are adjacent in (x,y) but aimed in opposite directions. I'll ask our development team if a new configuration could make this work better. Thanks Cody B.

‎11-20-2025

The latest version of ArcGIS Drone2Map is now available! All current users should upgrade via your MyEsri self-service portal (or work with your system administrator, as appropriate for your organization). Refer to this detailed blog https://esriurl.com/D2MwhatsNewBlog where you can read about all of the improvements and new features. Example of a Gaussian Splat for rendering a 3D scene Note: You'll want to be sure to review the hardware requirements at https://doc.arcgis.com/en/drone2map/latest/get-started/arcgis-drone2map-system-requirements.htm, and also note MyEsri will show a second download for Deep Learning libraries which are required for creating Gaussian Splats and also for automated Control Point detection.

‎07-31-2025

YolGol The Oriented Imagery Catalog has been deprecated and will be retired relatively soon. https://community.esri.com/t5/oriented-imagery-blog/announcing-deprecation-of-oriented-imagery-quot/ba-p/1578015 Have you read about the version that is integrated into ArcGIS, now referred to as Oriented Imagery Datasets (if used locally) or Oriented Imagery Layers (when published to ArcGIS Online or Enterprise)? For the integrated version, the input metadata table is documented here: https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/help/data/imagery/oriented-imagery-table.htm The images can remain in their original folder as long as you're working locally. If you're intending to share the OI Layer via the web, the images must be in a web accessible location (http address) and the path in the OI table must be correct. Cody B

‎06-08-2025

Bruce could you please start a new post and tell us clearly and completely what you need help with? ArcGIS Flight does not create orthomosaics so I assume you must be asking about Site Scan or Drone2Map? The original post above referred to processing multiple separate drone flights into orthomosaics, and then seeking to combine the orthomosaics. Is that what you're seeking? You mention "distortion" but did not provide any details (screenshots?) of what you are seeing. Cody

‎05-16-2025

A new version of ArcGIS Drone2Map is now available in MyEsri, and we encourage everyone to upgrade. This release includes a number of improvements to the overall processing, providing increased quality in True Orthos, reduced processing time, and reduced file sizes for the 3D products (published to the ArcGIS Online/Enterprise, or used locally). For users with multispectral sensors, you can now create True Orthos! And if your projects include water bodies that have presented a challenge in the past, we think you’ll love the simpler water body mask available in this new version. 5 band multispectral imagery, showing different band combinations. Imagery courtesy of USGS These are just some of the highlights for the latest version of Drone2Map. You can see more detail in the What’s New blog, and check out our What's New video to see these new enhancements! You can find a complete listing of new features in the online Help, including a list of specific issues which have been addressed.

‎05-16-2025

HasKan You need to provide more context and details to enable people to help. What ArcGIS data, stored where, shared by whom? ArcGIS Online Living Atlas? Community shared data? Your own data? Image Server? Enterprise? Cody B.

‎04-20-2025

hello Matt 1) re: the "source/derived" model, be SURE you use the "Table" raster type when merging source MDs into the Derived. If you use "raster dataset" it can cause performance problems. 2) re: overviews, there's no single answer (depends on # datasets, display scales etc.) but in your case I would probably recommend overviews on the source MDs but not on the derived. That is, unless you're sure your users *always* want to see the drone imagery on top, in which case you could also create overviews on the derived MD. You'd need to rebuild them every time you add a new drone mosaic to the drone MD - that would be true for the drone MD as well as the derived composite mosaic, if you *do* want them on the derived MD. 3) when you said "My source drone MD currently doesn't have overviews and also displays fine unless you zoom out to 1:36,112. At which point, it disappears", creating overviews on that source MD should fix that. 4) You may already know, but the MinPS and MaxPS fields in the MD control when the associated layer is made visible. https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/help/data/imagery/mosaic-dataset-attribute-table-pro-.htm and if you read the section on "Cell Sizes" in this doc https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/help/data/imagery/source-derived-and-referenced-mosaic-datasets.htm you'll find some advice. Note that with mosaic datasets of mixed sources and resolutions, the automated tool (Calculate Cell Size Ranges) isn't always able to make the right decisions, so you may have to manually decide the desired visibility of each drone mosaic (? all the same?) and set them manually in the Source MD. If you use the Table raster type, the MinMax PS should be copied over. 5) Last, if you want to use the MDCS scripts to make this automated and repeatable (recommended), the "Preprocessed orthos" example fits your situation. See https://www.esriurl.com/preprocessedorthos and look for the Try It Out tab Cody

‎04-18-2025

It's difficult to advise without seeing your configuration, but here are some suggestions: 1) if you aren't familiar with https://esriurl.com/imageryWorkflows , that site provides a depth of knowledge I advise for anyone working with imagery in ArcGIS 2) I'd recommend you implement the Source/Derived mosaic dataset model to maintain your imagery over the long term. The base layer of 2024 aerials would be in one source MD, and you can add new drone flights into a "drone update" MD. If you have multitemporal drone flights over the same site it would take additional configuration advice, but if you want all the drone flights in the "new/on top" layer it should work well. 3) If you'll be doing ongoing updates I'd strongly encourage you to use the configurable scripts to (semi)automate this process. That would enable you to rebuild your mosaics easily if anything got corrupted or misconfigured. 4) I'd recommend that you add a new field into the MD's to define which you want on top - in the ImageryWorkflows we talk about a "best" field but you may choose a different field name. You'd use Mosaic Method = By Attribute and point to that ("best") field in the Derived mosaic, then ensure that your "best" field values are calculated to ensure lower numbers for images to appear on top. In simplest terms, the base layer aerials could be "best=2" and drone layer "best=1" but if you want to order everything by date, you could calculate "best = (January 1, 2999) - acquisition_date" to ensure newer datasets have lower values. (This may be confusing - in this last statement I'm assuming you'd have a different "best" value for every record in the drone mosaic) One other comment - although the mosaic dataset and image service are a dynamic data structure (can change which image is on top) remember the overviews are static - they show the state of the mosaic (at the scales they cover) when you create them. Thus overviews are appropriate on the source MD for the base aerials layer, and depending on the size of your individual drone mosaics you may want to rebuild overviews on the drone mosaic layer each time you add a new drone flight, then just ensure the drone mosaic has a "best" value lower than the base aerials mosaic as referenced within the Derived MD. If any of that isn't clear, let me know. Note the "Source/Derived mosaic dataset model" is a specific configuration with important methods - if you're not familiar with it, review the workflows site before proceeding. Cody

‎04-06-2025

Kph_1818 Esri has several options for processing drone imagery - http://esri.com/drone2map (mentioned above) will run on your laptop. Or, if you'd prefer to process in the cloud, you should consider Site Scan (see https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/products/arcgis-reality/products/site-scan-for-arcgis) Both of these are able to process imagery captured by DJI drones, and you can use the DJI flight controller (if that is what you mean by "the DJI drone flying pattern"?) but you can also use Esri's free drone flight control app, http://esriurl.com/ArcGISflight which helps ensure good quality image capture in the field. Let us know if you have more questions Cody B.

‎03-23-2025

Giuseppe it is hard for us to advise if we don't fully understand your configuration. The mosaic dataset can be used for a wide range of configurations, e.g. to mosaic multispectral imagery from multiple satellites across the entire world, or to manage multiple years of preprocessed orthos covering the same region, with most recent appearing on top, or manage and share multiresolution elevation datasets (or many other examples). I would encourage you to spend some time reading http://esriurl.com/imageryWorkflows and specifically the many options in https://doc.arcgis.com/en/imagery/workflows/resources/using-mosaic-datasets-to-manage-imagery.htm I would first make a zipped copy of your geodatabase just in case something goes wrong. If you break the MD you can delete it and restore your original. You cannot "overwrite" images in a mosaic dataset - every image is a unique record, with path and filename to the source image. You can remove images by selecting them in the attribute table and then right click on the MD in Catalog and select "Remove Rasters" You should also delete the overviews if the images you're removing contribute to them (If you have a nationwide mosaic and you're only removing images for one small region, you may not need to delete all overviews) Then you can add the new rasters, presumably build footprints for them (unless they're simple tiles aligned with the SRS of the MD), make sure the new images are appearing at the right scales, and then rebuild overviews. But my advice may be too simple depending on what else is in your mosaic dataset, and how you have its properties configured. See the URLs above for more information. Cody

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My Ideas

Latest Contributions by CodyBenkelman

Re: How to Migrate Oriented Imagery Catalogs to Oriented Imagery Layers

How to Migrate Oriented Imagery Catalogs to Oriented Imagery Layers

New Release of ArcGIS Online - Are you looking for your oriented imagery viewer?

Oriented imagery classic will be retired soon!

Re: Time to transition from the Oriented Imagery Classic widget for Experience Builder

Re: Circlegrammetry and ArcGIS Drone2Map

Drone2Map v2025.2 has been released - Download now!

Re: How to Add Non-Geotagged Images to an Oriented Imagery Catalog Using a Schema Table

Re: Multiple Stitching and Aligning of True Ortho Images

Drone2Map v2025.1 is now available for download!

Re: Accessing ArcGIS programmatically

Re: Overlaying drone true ortho images on top of aerial imagery

Re: Overlaying drone true ortho images on top of aerial imagery

Re: Get started with drone imagery in ArcGIS

Re: Replace images in a Mosaic Dataset

How to Migrate Oriented Imagery Catalogs to Orient...

New Release of ArcGIS Online - Are you looking for...

Oriented imagery classic will be retired soon!

Drone2Map v2025.2 has been released - Download now...

The Value of Thermal Infrared Imagery in Mapping/G...

User Community for Geospatial Authorities (UCG)

Esri Forestry Group (EFG)

UCG-WG2 Remote Sensing and GeoAI

Elevation Data

Drones, UAVs, UAS, and RPAs