Latest Contributions by BenChaney

Hello, I've recently upgraded to ArcGIS Desktop 10.3, but many of my colleagues are using 10.1 or 10.2.   They've let me know of this error they get when they try to open any map .mxd I've worked on: "This map document was saved using a newer version of ArcGIS."  Following the directions in the error message (see attached), I "Save A Copy" to the older file format and they are able to open the file OK. However, I've noticed that if I open the legacy copy and save it, it reverts back to the 10.3 file format. I've got two questions related to this process: 1) Is it possible to identify which version of ArcGIS a file is saved in?  I don't see it in the map document properties when viewed from ArcCatalog. 2) Is it possible to set ArcMap 10.3 to automatically or by default save .mxd files in an older version, such as 10.2? I'm new to ArcGIS, so forgive me if this is an issue that has a long history over the many version changes in the past. Thanks, Ben ... View more

Hello, Our organization is just getting started with ArcGIS.com for sharing interactive online maps and web apps.  We'd love to use the service to share information with our clients, be we can't have the map shared with "everyone" and searchable for the whole arcgis.com community.  We also don't want to require clients to log in using one of our arcgis.com organizational accounts, and the clients don't have their own arcgis.com organizational accounts either I can't seem to figure out how to securely share the web maps with our clients.  Is there any way we can create a map using arcgis.com that's accessible ONLY from a link we distribute? We're currently using google maps and would love to move away from that, but without this basic feature it's impossible. I'm aware that one way to approach this would be to run our own arcgis server / portal, but currently that's not an option for us. Any advice or assistance would be greatly appreciated. ... View more

Hello, I work at a transportation consulting firm that works over a large geographic area with dispersed offices. We'd like to develop a database of the locations of our projects, so that we can easily find relevant past projects when starting new work. I'm trying to figure out if this is something we can do using arcgis online. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. What I'd like would be a feature service that includes polygons for each project, with attributes for an identifying number and some other information. It would need to be collaborative, so that anyone in the company can contribute features. Ideally, I'd like to create a simple form that others in the company could access through a webpage to submit project info.  This page would use a "draw on the map" input to create shapes, and have some fields for the attributes. Separately, I'd like to have a map with all features on it that could be queried by users. I'm familiar enough with collecting features into a feature service using ArcGIS Collector on mobile, and displaying the results on a map or using the service layer in ArcMap. However, there are a few items I'm unsure about: 1) Is there a web-based method for collecting features? (something simpler and more error-resilient than editing a map through the arcgis online interface) 2) Could it be used without logging into arcgis online? 3) Could it be embedded in another webpage, possibly on an intranet? I'm not sure if this functionality is something that's currently available in arcgis online, or if it would require arcgis server, or if I should be looking outside the esri universe. Thank you! ~Ben ... View more