topic Re: MapService drawing lost custom element in ArcGIS Enterprise Questions

MapService drawing lost custom element

lunlee — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 10:06:48 GMT

Hi everyone,
    I have a annotation feature layer using a custom element.The custom element is supported by a DLL file.I registered the DLL file by microsoft .net 'regasm' in command line,and ArcMap displays the custom element as I expected.
    So I decided to publish the .mxd file to ArcGIS Server 10.1.When I preview the map,the custom element disappeared.I think it's must be the custom element that causes the problem.Anyone can help me to figure this out?

    lun li.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]19697[/ATTACH]

Re: MapService drawing lost custom element

PeterYurkosky1 — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 20:24:05 GMT

Can you give us more details? Are any of the following called when you open the Preview window?

Your element's constructor

Your IElement.Activate implementation

Your IElement.Draw implementation

If so, is your code throwing an exception?

Re: MapService drawing lost custom element

lunlee — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 23:53:30 GMT

Can you give us more details? Are any of the following called when you open the Preview window?

Your element's constructor

Your IElement.Activate implementation

Your IElement.Draw implementation

If so, is your code throwing an exception?

hi,peter:
    Thank you for reply!
    I'm afraid I can't give you details about codes.I just only have the DLL file.
    What I can tell by now is that in ArcMap Service Preview Window,the map is drawing from a msd file,which is a different format from mxd file.I guess the msd file may not be able to use the custom element DLL file.

    lun li.

Re: MapService drawing lost custom element

PeterYurkosky1 — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 13:53:51 GMT

I see. Can you zip up the .dll and send it to me? Can you also give me a quick tutorial on how I might see the element draw in ArcMap? I'll see why it refuses to draw.

Re: MapService drawing lost custom element

lunlee — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:28:43 GMT

I see. Can you zip up the .dll and send it to me? Can you also give me a quick tutorial on how I might see the element draw in ArcMap? I'll see why it refuses to draw.

Hi,peter:

I've sent you a private message with data and file download link.

Re: MapService drawing lost custom element

PeterYurkosky1 — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 14:35:16 GMT

Yes, the .msd (an optimized map document format) does not draw elements (or anything else, including layers) the same way an .mxd does. It's an optimized format that stores objects (maps, layers, symbols) completely differently from the .mxd. The optimized anno layer is silently skipping your elements when it draws in the Preview window. It loads fine, but since it's not an Esri element, we can't convert it to the new format. Nor do we expose some means by which you could do that conversion yourself. And there isn't any way to publish a non-optimized map service to a 10.1 server; we only support the optimized format.

Re: MapService drawing lost custom element

lunlee — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 23:24:20 GMT

Yes, the .msd (an optimized map document format) does not draw elements (or anything else, including layers) the same way an .mxd does. It's an optimized format that stores objects (maps, layers, symbols) completely differently from the .mxd. The optimized anno layer is silently skipping your elements when it draws in the Preview window. It loads fine, but since it's not an Esri element, we can't convert it to the new format. Nor do we expose some means by which you could do that conversion yourself. And there isn't any way to publish a non-optimized map service to a 10.1 server; we only support the optimized format.

Well,This is not a very good news.So, do we have any other ways to let ArcGIS Server 10.1 display these custom element?
Our orgnization need to upgrade ArcGIS Server to 10.1 to benifit from new features . And we have a lot annotation layer using custom element.

Thanks!
lun lee

Re: MapService drawing lost custom element

PeterYurkosky1 — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 14:19:23 GMT

I would write some conversion code to convert your custom element to a group element containing standard text elements (and whatever else you need to draw). If you can draw your anno as a group element in ArcMap, it will draw in a map service.

Re: MapService drawing lost custom element

lunlee — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 05:21:41 GMT

I would write some conversion code to convert your custom element to a group element containing standard text elements (and whatever else you need to draw). If you can draw your anno as a group element in ArcMap, it will draw in a map service.

Hi peter:
I've been busy on other stuff these days.Sorry to reply so late.Would you send me the conversion code?I shall try it out.
Thanks for your help!

lun lee

Re: MapService drawing lost custom element

PeterYurkosky1 — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 13:11:29 GMT

I meant, you should write some code to convert all the separate pieces comprising your custom element, and insert them into a group element. From what I saw of your element, it's nothing more than some line graphics and text.

Re: MapService drawing lost custom element

TiCrossman — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 13:15:59 GMT

Hello Pete,

We, too, have a problem with annotations that do not draw in a map service. The anno looks fine in ArcMap. (I know the rendering engines are different.) In your last response above, Pete, you mention that you noticed the annotation elements in question had nothing more than some line graphics and text elements. In our annotation, each piece of annotation is made up of one or more rectangular graphics and one or more text elements all then put into a GroupElement and stored in an annotation feature. The problem is that some annotation draws (or only parts of individual pieces draw) and some doesn't, and it is not clear what the cause is. I have been testing various annotation configurations, and I am beginning to suspect a graphic drawing order effect and/or a limit on the number of component GraphicElements/TextElements inside a GroupElement that the map service can handle. Do you have any information or ideas to offer about possible limitations or drawing order requirements or idiosyncrasies that a map service has? Thank you, Pete--or anyone else who might assist--I very much appreciate any help I can get with this tricky and frustrating problem.

Cheers, Ti

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ArcGIS Server 10.1
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Re: MapService drawing lost custom element

PeterYurkosky1 — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:13:10 GMT

Ti, if you could zip up an example that I can try out, I'll take a look at why it doesn't draw. Send me a private message.

Re: MapService drawing lost custom element

TiCrossman — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 17:24:32 GMT

Thank you, Pete. I will send you a personal message with samples shortly. After our investigation I will post the results here.

Ti

Re: MapService drawing lost custom element

TiCrossman — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 19:47:56 GMT

Great thanks to Pete Yurkosky for his investigations -- a truly valuable man. Here are the results:

Due to a bug, the ESRI optimized map service in 10.1 cannot handle nested groups, i.e. GroupElements within a GroupElement. Our signage annotation, with which we have had the non-drawing problem, in most cases is made up of grouped subsets of graphic shapes and text boxes, all grouped together in a single, enclosing GroupElement for storage in the annotation feature. The map service will ignore GroupElements within the overall GroupElement; therefore, if a piece of annotation consists entirely of subgroups all grouped together, then the subgroups are ignored, and the annotation doesn't draw at all. If there are both ungrouped and grouped elements in the annotation feature, only the ungrouped elements will draw. Pete found a simple code fix for this bug and will be registering it to be fixed in the next release (read 10.2).

Thanks again to Mr. Yurkosky.

Cheers,

Ti Crossman
GIS Analyst
Grafton Technologies, Inc.
Newburyport, MA