Latest Contributions by CodyBenkelman

‎09-18-2015

This is not a technical problem, but a matter of licensing. Your data is in *.ecw format. ArcGIS has the ability to view the imagery in the desktop environment, but *.ecw is a proprietary format and we do not have the legal permission to publish images in that format through ArcGIS for Server. You can purchase a license to publish *.ecw from Hexagon, or you can also convert your imagery into raster tile cache and then publish that cache through ArcGIS for Server. Note that converting to raster tile cache will require disk space, but after completion you could remove the *.ecw files if necessary. You can learn more from this recording re: creating and publishing cache: Esri Training | Sharing Cached Imagery in ArcGIS

‎08-20-2015

Kevin This is an ArcPad question. See this previous post which may be helpful Arcpad Raster or try posting your question on ArcPad Cody B.

‎08-17-2015

Adam In the first release, the UAV mapping application (expected to be called "Drone2Map") will not include any analytical functionality. Future capabilities are not yet defined, but analytical capabilities (change detection / feature detection) will be part of the core ArcGIS Desktop tools. Features of the FMV add-in are a separate development, but object tracking is not planned for inclusing in the FMV add-in (at least not in the next release). The next version of FMV will have the ability to multiplex separate video and GPS streams, which will facilitate management and use of video from UAV platforms. Cody B

‎08-11-2015

The app for drone imagery is still under development, so some of this is not certain - but I will answer as best I can. 1) What are the requirements for the UAV camera and GPS/INS system ? The app should work with imagery from nearly any drone, presuming you have GPS and adequate overlap between images. See below for further details a. GPS location information (via EXIF Headers or an external file that links each image to a GPS [x,y,z] value) is required to generate good results and efficient processing. Camera orientation metadata (from INS) is not required, but if it is available, it will improve both results and processing speed. Note if you have *precise* INS data that provides XYZ and Omega/Phi/Kappa for each image, you do not need the new app - you can use the Frame Camera raster type (in version 10.3.1) immediately b. camera metadata is also required (e.g. focal length & pixel size) but these values can be approximate – e.g. a metric camera model is not required as input. There are no other specific requirements on the camera. c. A high amount of image overlap (e.g. 80% or more both along flightlines and between flightlines) is recommended for best results. If overlap is lower, the accuracy of your output products will be reduced. 2) What metadata is required to process still UAV images? Does it have to be FMV military standard? a. Metadata is listed above for still imagery. This application will not process video (in the first release), so the question of military standard FMV would not apply. If you have MISB formatted video, the free ArcGIS FMV plugin will allow that data to be ingested into ArcGIS Desktop. If you have video with GPS, but not full MISB metadata, see this post: https://community.esri.com/thread/120573 3) Is the new application going to be integrated with Mosaic Dataset/ Image Service/ ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Runtime? a. In the first release the new application will operate in a standalone mode, not directly interfaced into ArcGIS Desktop or Runtime. Future versions will increase integration. All outputs from the application will be compatible with ArcGIS, and recommended workflows (with example Python scripts) will be available for ingesting the output products (see below) into the Mosaic Dataset for efficient data management, and also for sharing via Image Services. 4) Can I do the following with the new UAV mapping application? - Create orthorectified image? Yes, orthorectified imagery will be one of the outputs - Measure a height? Height measurements will be enabled via existing functionality within ArcGIS Desktop. The new application will be intended for processing UAV imagery for ingestion into ArcGIS, but will not have analytical capabilities within the application. - Other functionalities? See below 5) According to the video, the point cloud can be produced from images. What is the output of the process? Is it LAS dataset? Is there any automatic algorithms for change detection and feature detection/others? The output point cloud will be either LAS format or zLAS format. You will need ArcGIS Desktop to be able to create a LAS Dataset to reference these or any LAS or zLAS files. As noted above, the new application will not include analysis capabilities – that functionality will remain in ArcGIS Desktop (ArcMap and ArcGIS Pro) 6) What are the time frames for the app release? Release date is not certain at this time but the application is expected to be available late this year. 7) What about working with Harris in order to create fully-capable UAV data processing solution? Esri encourages collaboration with all of our business partners, but partners typically develop their own applications to build onto the capabilities of the ArcGIS Platform. If you have requests for specific functionality, please let us know your requirements! Drones, UAVs, UAS, and RPAs

‎08-11-2015

Paul My apologies that this has not been answered. Have you found a solution? As you found, "LAS to LAS" will reproject in XY but not Z. We are working on changes but as of today we don't reproject Z values in points. If you can work with a bare earth digital terrain model (DTM) and first return digital surface model (DSM), it's easy to rescale those from meters to feet... Let me know if you need more info Thanks Cody B.

‎07-26-2015

Ian no, CopyRaster will not do what you need, and the Orthorectify functionaliity in the Image Analysis Window is also not designed for the case of Drone data. See my reply to your post at Re: Georeferencing Cody B

‎07-26-2015

Ian - I responded to your other question at Re: Georeferencing You will not be able to use the simple "orthorectify" functionality in the Image Analysis Window because your data will not have RPCs. RPCs (rational polynomial coefficients) are associated with satellite imagery, but won't exist for drone imagery. I am working on a whitepaper for ingesting drone imagery into ArcGIS - see my other response and let me know if you would like further information Cody B

‎07-26-2015

Ian I can talk you through a few of your options if you can tell me more about your data and what you hope to achieve. If you go to one of your drone images copied onto your computer and view its properties, look to see if there is Latitude and Longitude information. Most drone images will provide this, listing the location of the airplane when the photo was taken. This is known as the EXIF header information, and it will be helpful for placing your images onto a map. The next 2 sections may be helpful but note this does not georeference the images - it simply creates a POINT on the map for where each photo was taken (and it's only approximate) If you have ArcGIS 10.3.1, the "Geotagged Photos To Points" tool can bring in the images using that EXIF metadata I don't recall when this tool was added to ArcGIS; if you have an older version this post has versions to add into 10.0 and 10.1 http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=1cfeb0e0b8b946239ad10552eec5a21e Presuming you want to actually georeference each image, your best options are: the "onebutton" software from Icaros - Geospatial Solutions Pix4D Mapper from https://pix4d.com/ a new tool coming from Esri later this fall for georeferencing drone imagery (check back with me in a few months). For these tools to work, you may need to change how you fly and how many images you capture. These processes require a LOT of overlap (e.g. parallel flightlines overlapping 80%, and images along the flightline overlapping 80-90%), so if you want to use this method, I can advise further. The output of these tools can be either a) an orthorectified mosaic image along with a custom digital surface model, and/or b) accurate orientation data for each image, allowing you to read the images directly into ArcGIS using the Frame Camera Raster Type (requires 10.3.1) Note none of these tools are free, so if you can't afford to buy software, see my item 3. For a small number of images, or if you cannot buy appropriate software, your only choice may be manual georeferencing as referenced above by Darren Wiens https://community.esri.com/external-link.jspa?url=http://desktop.arcgis.com/en/desktop/latest/manage-data/raster-and-images… this will be a slow process, and you'll have to put in manual control points for every image, but it can yield pretty good results. Use the ArcGIS Online imagery base map as a reference image, unless you have a better reference. Note you should NOT use the "Rectify" option in the manual georef tools, but just use "UPDATE Georeferencing" which will create an external file (*.aux.xml) to georeference the raw image. Then you should learn about the mosaic dataset, and read the images with *.aux.xml files to build a mosaic of your project area. One other option is to generate the mosaic dataset as mentioned above in 3.2. but only use a few control points on every image so the georeferencing is only approximate, then use our Block Adjustment tools (presuming you have 10.3.1) which will AUTOMATICALLY generate control points and give you a better result. I hope that is helpful - note we just did several workshops at the Esri User Conference that may be helpful to you - we can send a PDF document re: Block Adjustment tools and another re: georeferencing drone imagery using the Frame Camera Raster Type Cody B

‎04-16-2015

Hi Don sorry for the very slow response - you may have experimented and moved on by now, but I wanted to answer. We've just published a rather detailed document of best practices for Lidar at this link Image Management.. It includes a discussion of deciding sample size. For a quick answer, I typically recommend you make your bare earth DTM no finer than 4 points per cell (or 2x point spacing), e.g. if point SPACING is 1.3 meters, that would be cell size ~ 2.6 meters (thus 4 samples in your DTM cell looking at 2 dimensions). However, your *average* point spacing will not account for areas with higher and lower point density - so in heavy canopy your spacing will be more coarse, and in truly bare areas your spacing will be better than the average value. I recommend using the GP Tool "Point File Statistics as Raster" and summarize using PULSE_COUNT to get a raster map of your outgoing pulse density, and then using POINT_COUNT to get a raster showing point density - then you can see areas that might have thin coverage. (one other detail - I said "density" above but note if you summarize this raster at 2.6 meter cell size, you'll get pulses or points per [2.6]^2 square meter - so if you want an actual numeric measure of density per square meter you have to divide each value by 6.76 to normalize) I hope that helps! Cody B ...oops, I didn't scroll down so I didn't realize Jake Skinner had already answered... Thanks Jake. I also didn't answer re: DSM; that's up to you but many users go as fine as 1 LAS point per cell, just to see the maximum structure - but it'll be noisy, so I usually make my DSM and DTM the same resolution just for consistency.

‎03-04-2015

Yes, a reasonably good pseudo-true color image can be generated from color infrared imagery. We have an example on our resource center that refers specifically to SPOT imagery. I'll be very brief in my reply, but let me know if you need further detail. Create a Mosaic Dataset and be sure to use the SPOT 5 Raster Type when you add the images into the Mosaic. Under Mosaic Dataset properties (ArcCatalog), go to the Functions tab, and add the Spectral Matrix function. This function will apply user-controlled weights to the available bands to generate a three-band output for viewing. This topic in our Resource Center provides advice re: specific weights to apply to generate an apparent true color image from a color infrared SPOT image: http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.2/index.html#/Spectral_Conversion_function/009t00000057000000/ Let me know if you need further detail! Cody Benkelman

‎10-17-2014

Leo To add to what Jeff said, you mention three different terms - "mosaic" tool, " 'Mosaic to New Rastertool" and "mosaic dataset". I am guessing the last one you simply meant "a dataset on disk that is a mosaic" but I want to be sure you are aware of the Mosaic Dataset which is a specific data structure in ArcGIS. If you're not familiar with it, I'd encourage you to look at its capabilities - if you just use one of the above tools to create a permanent mosaic on disk, you may find you want more control over the seamline placement, color correction, etc. whereas the Mosaic Dataset is a virtual mosaic that gives you control over all of that, plus the ability to work with pixels from any scene in the overlap regions, and the source data can be in different projections. (Just a few of MANY other features) Building a Mosaic Dataset is extremely fast - just a data structure with pointers to the data - no data is copied, reformatted, etc. Once you build a Mosaic Dataset, if you want to Export a fixed raster to disk, that's an option if desired. I hope that is helpful, although I am suggesting you change your approach - If you need to proceed as planned please clarify what is not working, and we can have a developer look at your code (I'm not any help with that) Cody B.

‎09-17-2014

"Massive breakthrough for my workflow " I like the sound of that! Let us know if you have an interesting story we can share with others... Cody B.

‎09-17-2014

Chris My apology for the delay in responding to this. I think you have confused the command line arguments when calling MDCS with the XML files for configuring the data. We'll update our doc to be more clear. If you were putting this string into the XML file, see below - the "-p:VALUE" goes on the command line. Let us know how it goes! Cody B Command Line : The command line when executing the tool should look like this. -p:Baltimore_2010$MyDataID Config File: In the config xml file the node dataset_id can have the following syntax. <dataset_id>fail_safeValue;$MyDataID$</dataset_id> Where :- fail_safeValue is a value to be used in case for some reason MDCS is unable to pass a the value from the command line to the config file MyDataID should match the variable specified in the command line. NOTE : Note the (semicolon) ; and (dollar) $ symbols. Must be followed exactly. The entire syntax (underlined above) must be within a node in the xml file.

‎08-27-2014

Did you know ArcGIS can generate contours instantaneously from your DEM? It's possible if you apply the "contour" raster function! See Help at https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/help/analysis/raster-functions/contour-function.htm Be aware that this creates a raster visualization of contours, instantaneous for the current map view - not calculated for the entire dataset. The output layer is a raster, so it still responds to the "IDENTIFY" method - this is used in a dynamic web map or app (not intended solely to be printed), and the raster contours may be more usable, more intuitive than vector contours. One area where this can be very useful is for really large datasets (e.g. world elevation) --> you don't have to spend hours/days of processing to create vector contour lines and then find out you don't like the settings. If desired, you can later create cartographic contours as feature lines by running the contour geoprocessing tool on the adaptive-smoothing DEM created by the contour function.

‎08-06-2014

Collin I apologize for the VERY long delay since you posted this question. I'll keep my response very brief but if you still need advice and information, please contact me. We are building documentation focused on Best Practices regarding managing and serving imagery (including lidar and elevation data). The starting point is this landing page http://esriurl.com/6550 which points you to detailed discussion in a Guidebook in ArcGIS Help, and also to an AGOL Group with downloadable tools to show examples for different types of data (elevation, preprocessed orthophotos, scanned maps, etc.). Cody B.

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Latest Contributions by CodyBenkelman

Re: Mosaic Dataset: publishing job didn't succeed

Re: Aerial Images

Re: ESRI UC 2015 new UAV mapping application insights

Re: ESRI UC 2015 new UAV mapping application insights

Re: changing vertical coordinate system

Re: Orthorectifying images onto DEM

Re: Raster dataset doesn't have RPCs

Re: Georeferencing

Re: LAS Dataset to Raster: How do I determine the sampling size?

Re: Spot 5 Natural color

Re: Mosaic to new raster

Re: Mosaic Dataset Configuration Script command line arguments

Re: Mosaic Dataset Configuration Script command line arguments

Raster function to generate contours on-the-fly

Re: Best Practices - Raster Catalog > Image Service

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Drones, UAVs, UAS, and RPAs