Latest Contributions by TimSpivey

Without resorting to html editing, provide a tool in the web app builder that would enable changes to text typeface, size and color in the "Branding" header area Thanks ... View more

Hello campers - Does anybody have any tips for "promoting" web map apps, built on Arcgisonline, in search engines, aside from bribing Google/Bing/etc ? Thanks ... View more

ESRI slipped in another nasty surprise for me in Desktop 10.2.1 -   If you spend all day creating georeferencing links and plan to do some more the next day, you MUST save the links table ... saving the mxd does not store the displacement links.   This extra save table step was NOT necessary in previous Desktop versions, at least not in 9.3.1   So now I get to recreate 100+ links ... thanks Redlands     ... View more

The Federal government, in its infinite wisdom, is decreeing that we should all move to GIS.   The USGS, in its infinite wisdom, is releasing its topo maps in GeoPDF format.   ESRI, in its infinite wisdom, has not built GeoPDF support into ArcGIS Desktop.   The G-Raster program, which is supposed to be able to convert GeoPDF to GeoTIFF, cannot do it in its current version (6.3) as of today's date   Adobe Acrobat X Full Version cannot export to GeoTIFF     SO, here's what I did   Tools needed: Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Reader Virtual PDF printer such as Adobe PDF Adobe Photoshop (or a heavy-duty imaging program) ArcMap Plenty of RAM Plenty of time   For single GeoPDFs: 1 - Open USGS GeoPDF in Acrobat 1a - Print to a virtual PDF printer       - this "flattens" the GeoPDF layers, BUT strips out the georeferencing 1b - Open the new PDF in Acrobat and Export as TIFF 1c - To remove the "collar" around the topo map, crop it in Photoshop (the collar contains white border, legend, other text, and graphics) 1d - Load TIFF into ArcMAP and manually georeference using tools   To mosaic several GeoPDFs: 1 - Open USGS GeoPDF in Acrobat 1a - Print to a PDF printer such as Adobe PDF       - this "flattens" the GeoPDF layers, BUT strips out the georeferencing 1b - Open the new PDF in Acrobat and Export as TIFF 2 - Use Photoshop to mosaic multiple TIFFs, saving the master image in PSD format (Photoshop's native format)     - crop each TIFF to remove non-image areas (such as the white "collar")2a - Save final mosaic as TIFF 3 - Load mosaic into ArcMap and georeference   A Photoshop TIFF mosaic of our 270sqMI (698sqKM) county @250dpi is only 407megs; it contains 10 converted GeoPDFs   NOTE - I prefer to do mosaics in Photoshop because it has more flexibility if images need to be rotated to match edges of adjoining TIFFs (& because I've been using Photoshop since 1989 )   Finally, send Jack Dangermond a letter asking why GeoPDF is not supported in ArcGIS Desktop ... View more