Latest Contributions by MichaelBranscomb

Hi, Unfortunately it's not possible to create Add-ins based on control beyond the ones currently supported in 1500 (button, gallery, dockwindow, extension, combobox, checkbox). We'll bear in mind your request for future releases. I also recommend submitting your suggestion at http://ideas.arcgis.com. Re the Analysis drop down window - this is a Gallery Add-in, although it's an internal extension of it which allows additional menu items at the bottom. However - you can get quite a lot of flexibility in the Gallery by implementing different behaviour based on what gets clicked, adding other images/text as separators. See this Add-in for an example: http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=b2814df318ad4b3482cf05ce62db1967. Cheers Mike ... View more

Hi, To add a Layer Package to ArcMap you just need to double click the .LPK file. To give you a little more info on this - there's an application called the ArcGISFileHandler.exe which is associated with the various ArcGIS-related file types (e.g. .LPK) and this small application will determine what ArcGIS application to open... or alternatively what ArcGIS applications are already running. You can find this app at - C:\Program Files\Common Files\ArcGIS\bin\ArcGISFileHandler.exe. Double click the app to launch a small dialog which lets you choose various options. Regarding data packaging - to package ArcSDE based data you will need the data expansion pack. Cheers Mike ... View more

Hi, ArcMap has two different rendering modes - the first is the default rendering of the whole map image after an action. The other is when a "basemap" layer iscreated and then any layers in that basemap are enabled for seamless panning. It is this latter behaviour which is the approach taken in ArcGIS Explorer. Because the map images are streamed in and run through the enhanced drawing pipeline which enables the seamless panning, the time taken to fully render the same area of map can end up being slightly longer but the additional time is generally not noticeable and overall it's a better experience for the user because there is always content on screen and there is no whitespace. You'll also find that when revisiting the same area the time taken to render the map is usually negligible because the data has been cached locally. To ensure the cache is re-used you should save the Explorer map document you are working with. Regarding your performance questions for future releases - the goal of every software release is to improve performance whilst enhancing functionality. The developers are always looking for ways to optimise the code/architecture and the work currently being undertaken will see advances in this area. Regards Mike ... View more

Hi, Good suggestion - noted. You might also like to post it at http://ideas.arcgis.com/. Regards Mike ... View more

Ben, When debugging the code are there any errors / messages? Regards Mike ... View more

Hi, Disabling the advanced visual effects is one of the main ways recommended by Microsoft to boost the performance of Windows 7 (see http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Optimize-Windows-7-for-better-performance). To provide the best user experience, even in 2D, we would always want to switch to the Basic theme. If you're developing an Add-in for ArcGIS Explorer which is going to be deployed to a wider audience but you do not know in advance what their machine spec will be, then the switch to the Basic theme definitely makes sense. Having said that - feel free to propose the idea at http://ideas.arcgis.com Cheers Mike ... View more

I have the same problem.  None of the stock basemaps render when selected.  I get error message "The basemap contains one or more invalid layers."  I uninstalled and reinstalled, checked firewall, nothing works. Do any of the other functions which use ESRI services work? e.g. Find, Directions, etc? If not then it is likely to be a connectivity issue between your PC and the ESRI server. In most cases this is a proxy server or corporate firewall configuration issue. If it's just the basemaps which are not working - you should also try clearing the cache. Regards Mike ... View more

The layer for the bing base maps appears in the contents window and yet the screen is blank. This is only occurring on one machine. Internet connection is fine. Opened the application one day to see everylayer in map was broken and then the base map vanished when fixed. What gives? Justin, You could try clearing the cache: click the Explorer button > ArcGIS Explorer Options > Advanced > Delete All Caches. Regards Mike ... View more

Ryan, Regarding the services on http://kgs.uky.edu/arcgis/rest/services/ (or http://kgs.uky.edu/arcgis/services for Explorer) the actual URL that the service is running on is http://kgsblade1/arcgis/services which I can't access externally so I suspect this is a network/redirect problem - possibly along the lines of http://blogs.esri.com/Dev/blogs/arcgisserver/archive/2010/07/23/Why-don_2700_t-some-of-the-links-work-in-my-ArcGIS-Services-Directory_3F00_.aspx ... or maybe it's an internal network thing. The AZStateGeo service I find the same as you - I can't add directly to Explorer but I can add via the "ArcGIS Explorer" link from the REST HTML endpoint. The CAFaultActivity service seems to work fine for me. We'll look into the AZStateGeo service. Regards Mike ... View more

Hi, I'm not sure how practical it is to have the project build process automatically update an ncfg but you could build another workflow to achieve this. The NCFG is simply a zip file within which Add-ins are in an "addins" folder so it would be relatively straightforward to update one programmatically. Regards Mike ... View more

Peter, Many thanks for the sample data - unfortunately I am unable to reproduce the problem with this specific data on ArcGIS Explorer 1500 final. We do however have some other sample data with which does exhibit the problem. Regards Mike ... View more

Hi, We've taken a look at the KML - it seems that the complexity of the file means it simply consumes a lot of memory, whether you try it in Google Earth or ArcGIS Explorer. What you'll need to do (even to make the file useable in Google Earth too) is split out the single monolithic KML file into some individual KML files which you can add to get at the data you really want. We've done this here to test it works - I could email them to you if you want to email me on [email protected] (the zip files are too large to upload on the forums). Regards Mike ... View more

Christopher, Many thanks for your feedback - we'll consider it for inclusion in a future release. You can also submit your ideas online at http://ideas.arcgis.com/ideaList?c=09a300000004xET&category=ArcGIS+Explorer Regards Mike ... View more

Hi, There was a blog post on bundling files with Add-ins - which uses the 'Content' build action: http://blogs.esri.com/Info/blogs/arcgisexplorerblog/archive/2009/09/17/tip-for-add-in-developers-how-to-bundle-files-in-an-eaz-file.aspx. However, the cache folder is within the Add-ins folder under the user profile - e.g. C:\Users\mbranscomb\AppData\Roaming\ESRI\arcgis explorer\Addins\Cache. Therefore you can get to this location in .NET: e.g. The following code: string path = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData); Returns: "C:\\Users\\mbranscomb\\AppData\\Roaming" Regards Mike ... View more

Hi, The KML is initially added to the Contents Window but there's obviously an error either within the KML file or with our reading/interpretation of that KML file. I'll pass it on to the KML team for them to take a look at. Regards Mike ... View more