ArcGIS Explorer 2500 discussion

[MarkBockenhauer]

Questions and comments in regards to ArcGIS Explorer 2012 beta and the ArcGIS Explorer 2500 release.

thanks,
ArcGIS Explorer Team

[CameronWallace]

I have a user who has the Beta, but needs the ESRI fonts... they tried to install the 1750 font pack but no go. I've got some layers built... and we need to keep the symbology consistent.

Thanks

Cam

[MarkBockenhauer]

I'm sorry but in my opinion that is an unacceptable solution. People shouldn't have to search for or manually select jpgs or png images to get decent symbols. Why is it so hard to include some basic styles and allow for selection similar to ArcMap or even the basic symbology in ArcPad? Having the ArcPad symbology would be a huge improvement. For such a big release there doesn't seem to be much improvement. I guess I'm stuck with .lyr files. Curious if you guys even listen to users/customers? I remember seeing many posts in the forums about Explorer Desktop symbology and there is no plan to improve it even after all that feedback.

Nathan,

Yes, we do listen to users and customers.  In a future version of ArcGIS Explorer (post 2012) their likely will be changes to the available symbols and the user experience for working with them.  We have thousands of enhancement requests and software ideas in our database; often the requested enhancement is the most important issue for the person that submitted it. We are well aware that when we do not address an issue, the person that submitted it will be disappointed, and we do not take this lightly. Our users' needs are important to us too! We have the challenge of prioritizing all of these requests against one another and defining a project to address the requests in a reasonable time frame.  We also have to look at the ArcGIS Explorer Desktop product and weigh whether the requested functionality is a good fit.   This is particularly true of functionality that exists in other Esri software products.  ArcGIS Explorer Desktop is not a copy of ArcMap or ArcGlobe.  ArcGIS Explorer is meant to be complimentary software for visualizing content created by ArcGIS Desktop (ArcMap, ArcGlobe, ArcScene) and ArcGIS Server.  It's primary role is to allow those who do not have ArcGIS Desktop to work with and view the content created by those who do have ArcGIS Desktop.  ArcGIS Explorer Desktops availability and price point (free download) lowers the bar for accessing / viewing ArcGIS content.

ArcGIS Explorer does have capabilities for viewing "raw data"... shapefiles, geodatabase, rasters, text files, but admittedly there is not a strong cartographic toolset for defining how this data should be displayed (ex. symbolize by attribute). At this time ArcGIS Explorer map authoring is focused on assembling content that has already been cartographically rendered (ArcGIS layers, Services, Web Maps).   As ArcGIS Explorer evolves the functionality and user experience in this area could change.

Your enhancement requests are important to us and will be considered as we continue to enhance existing software and create new software products.
We do have requests for specific symbols and symbolsets in our user requests database.

Thanks,
Mark

[MarkBockenhauer]

I have a user who has the Beta, but needs the ESRI fonts... they tried to install the 1750 font pack but no go. I've got some layers built... and we need to keep the symbology consistent.

Thanks

Cam

Cam,

I think this might work for your case.  Install 1750, install the expansion pack.  Uninstall 1750, but leave the expansion pack on the machine and install ArcGIS Explorer 2012.   With the final 2012 release the 2012 expansion packs will also be available.

Mark

[MarkBockenhauer]

Does the 2012 Beta work with the 1750 SDK?  I cannot seem to build an add-in with the 1750 SDK.  It looks like the MakeEaz MSBuild task cannot find the ESRI.ArcGIS.Utilities.Compression assembly.  I tried copying both the SDK and assembly files to both "Explorer" and "Explorer (x86)" bin directories, and registering the Compression assembly, but I still get the FileNotFound exception during my project build.

Attached is the error.

No, the 1750 SDK will not work with ArcGIS Explorer 2012.  With the final release we will have an ArcGIS Explorer 2012 version of the SDK.
Until then, you can develop add-ins with ArcGIS Explorer 1750 and use those Add-ins with ArcGIS Explorer 2012.

Mark

[MarkBockenhauer]

I have 36 users working with 1750 and today i updated a few to beta 2012.

I use the previous - next addin (PreviousNextExtent.eaz) and every time i open beta 2012 the software asks me if i want to install it.

I cant get rid of some useless for my users buttons through Application Configuration Manager eg add overlay text and map text

I get some problems during navigation.

and for the end a little request: I would really like to have the date of the bing maps imagery i see.

We did change the way add-ins are handled by ArcGIS Explorer.
For ArcGIS Explorer users with Add-ins that update to ArcGIS Explorer 2012;
When ArcGIS Explorer 2012 starts for the first time a prompt will be shown to install each Add-in that is on this system.  Once accepted on future starts of ArcGIS Explorer 2012 the add-in prompt should not occur.  I assume that you have accepted the add-in, but you are still prompted to install it when you start ArcGIS Explorer in subsequent sessions.

Yes, we identified a problem with the Add text button and application configurations.  It will be fixed at final, thanks for bringing it to our attention.

What kind of problem do you see during navigation?

Mark

[BarryWere]

Is it just me or does the Analysis Buffer tool crash Explorer Beta when it is run for other users too?

Thanks

Barry

[MarkBockenhauer]

Is it just me or does the Analysis Buffer tool crash Explorer Beta when it is run for other users too?

Thanks

Barry

Yes, the buffer analysis tool is not functioning correctly in the beta release, and it does crash.  It will be fixed for the final release.

Mark

[JeffJacobson]

I noticed that in the Beta install directory there are now arcpy and Python directories.  What are those used for?

[RobertHeitzman]

Should the 1750 Data Access Extension work with the beta?

[BarryWere]

Is this a couple more bugs?
1 The vertical exaggeration setting does not work. In fact the vertical scale is so small that the 3D option is virtually useless. It used to work on the previous version of Explorer.

2 When I removed the My Default Map.nmf file and added only a single Map layer the start-up time went from 27 secs down to 8 secs.  That was very impressive.
a. As I added more layers it got slower. Then I added 40 GPX files. That made it VERY slow.
b. With around 40 GPX files turned on the performance on pan and zoom is VERY slow. Almost unusable.

Is there a way to improve this performance?

Thanks

Barry