Are there any dynamic map applications that cost less than $500 per year?

[KaraUtter]

Many inexpensive mobile map applications, like Avenza,  are great, aside from the non-dynamic aspect - you can't click on elements to see attached documents, photos or more details (unless you have added the pin yourself, and even then it is very limited) and when you zoom in /out the static nature of the map leaves much to be desired on the interactive-front.

Interactive mobile map applications such as Collector or Carry Maps all ask for $500 per device/user per year. This can be costly if you only wish to reference data and not input data, but the dynamic nature and scalability of the applications is what field techs prefer and what makes field work easier overall.

Does anyone know of any map applications like Collector or Carry Maps that is less expensive than $500 per user per year that will integrate with shapefiles from ArcGIS Desktop?

[KaraUtter]

We have a county that is 3,700 miles squared, can I have an offline basemap with high resolution imagery that is this large in Explorer?

[MarkBockenhauer]

You will be able to.  The current release does not support raster in a Mobile Map package, but we should have a release within the next two months that will.  The size will be limited to the available storage space on your device.

[KaraUtter]

Thank you so much for all of your help on this, Mark!

Do you think the issues with image attachments will be resolved by the time the raster base map imagery is implemented a couple of months from now?

We have 473 MB of sketches.

We have 55,000 images at 6.25 GB, however only about 6,000 of these attach to the parcel data - so maybe 1 GB of images (very rough estimate).

[MarkBockenhauer]

What is the average size of the Sketches and Images?

it is the individual size of the attachment that can be problematic.

For example a feature with 18 attachments with each attachment being between 100 k to 2.5 mb a combined total of 21 mb worked fine.

I have experienced issues with individual attachments that are 40mb in size and multiple attachments of that size for a single feature.

[KaraUtter]

I have taken a random glance at photos from different folders for our images and find that they could be anywhere from 2 mb to 45 mb for a single image - and most parcels that have images have multiple. So the size of them might be an issue?

[KaraUtter]

Is the size issue being actively worked on by developers?

And do labels show up in Explorer? They do not (yet) in Collector and this is an important feature to have.

[MarkBockenhauer]

Yes, attachment issues are being investigated and labels display.   The Beta version of the next Collector also supports labels.  https://community.esri.com/community/gis/applications/collector-for-arcgis/blog/2017/09/06/the-auror... 

[KaraUtter]

Mark, is the new version which supports raster basemap imagery out, yet? 

[MarkBockenhauer]

Kara,

Unfortunately, not yet.

We are currently wrapping up Explorer releases for Android and IOS that we are planning to have available in the Play and App Store in April or early May.   With regards to imagery the next Explorer release will support Tile Packages (.TPK).  These can be created with the "Create Map Tile Package" geoprocessing tool in ArcGIS Pro.  You wll be able to use this tool to convert your imagery layers to the Tile Package format, and use the Tile Package as a basemap in your map.

With regards to Esri World Imagery Basemap.  Work is being done for ArcGIS Pro 2.2 that will allow you to take portions of the Esri World Imagery Basemap offline.   This will allow you to create Mobile Map Packages for offline use that contain Esri World Imagery.  ArcGIS Pro 2.2 will be released this summer.

Mark