Latest Contributions by MichaelBranscomb

Dana, Thanks for suggestion. Unfortunately at this point I don't think this functionality is likely to be in 1500. One of the reasons it hasn't been in 900/1200 is that map scale isn't really relevant in 3D and traditionally ArcGIS Explorer has been a 3D application. However with the inclusion of 2D from 900 onwards, I agree, it would be a nice feature to have. Perhaps the scale value display / drop down / button could be disabled or hidden when in 3D mode? I'm just trying to decide how to handle the 3D situation in my Zoom to Map Scale Add-In before I post it. Current plan it to tilt the obersver view back to 90 degrees (looking directly downwards) then zoom to the specific scale. However in 3D it will always be an approximation. Alternatively I could jsut disable the Add-In while in 3D mode. Your feedback would be appreciated on this. Regards Mike ... View more

Dana, You can zoom to predefined scales via the "Zoom To" drop down on the ribbon. Zooming to user specified or arbitrary scales is unfortunately only possible via the API - which means you would need to develop an "Add-In" to do this. I have actually developed a prototype Add-In which offers this functionality: it's in the form of a Gallery Add-In which can be added to the ribbon via an Application Configuration - for example to appear on the Home tab in the Map group. I will investigate making the prototype a little more robust and posting it on our "Labs" area on ArcGIS.com (unsupported Add-Ins from the Explorer team). Alternatively feel free to try this yourself - take a look at the ZoomtoMapScale on the MapDisplay class: http://resources.esri.com/help/1200/arcgisexplorer/componenthelp/index.html#/_/000300000414000000/. Regards Mike ... View more

Simon, There are a couple of fixes in ArcGIS Explorer 1500 (due out in the summer) relating to the behaviour of online content when working in a disconnected environment - hopefully these will resolve the issue you are seeing. If you plan to frequently work in a disconnected environment then you might want to take a look at this help document which describes the additional setup you should consider for this scenario. When working in an offline mode ArcGIS Explorer will still consume CPU as you navigate the map/globe because it is still trying to work out what tiles to draw/request from the local cache on disk - and if they're not in the local disk cache then request from the server (at which point it will obviously take account of the disconnected status). ArcGIS Explorer, as a free product, is supported primarily through the user forums. However, if you have an ArcGIS Server license in your organisation then you can receive technical support with ArcGIS Explorer too (i.e. because it's a client application for ArcGIS Server). Regards Mike ... View more

Srikanth, I don't think 900 supported ECW so i suggest converting to TIFF if you can. Then add these TIFFs to ArcGIS Explorer (Add Content > Raster Data). once you have added all your rasters, and you have chosen the main basemap you would like then click the ArcGIs Explorer file menu (round button) > Save As > New Basemap. The new basemap will then be available in the Basemap gallery on the Home tab of the ribbon. Regards Mike ... View more

Bob, I'm not sure you were looking for a reply from ESRI but I thought I would try to help... Users of ArcGIS Explorer can create Notes (points, lines, polygons) and set symbology for these Notes, albeit the symbology is limited compared to our Desktop GIS product. In the next release of ArcGIS Explorer due out this summer we are going to help users share these Notes with other users (Explorer users and ArcGIS Desktop users) and via ArcGIS.com.  I can't say much more than that on new functionality. For the current 1200 release a couple of users/developers have already used the free Software Developer Kit to write "Add-Ins" which export Notes to Shapefiles - see http://arcscripts.esri.com/details.asp?dbid=16759 for an example. Another example imports Notes from Explorer into ArcGIS Desktop (i.e. runs inside ArcGIS Desktop) - http://resources.esri.com/arcgisdesktop/dotnet/index.cfm?fa=codeGallery&authorID=melvanderwal. Neitrher are necessarily the ideal workflow... but if it will help you use ArcGIS Explorer 1200 in the interim until 1500 and ArcGIS 10.0 / ArcGIS.com provide you with more options then it could be an avenue to explore. Lastly I would say it's worth thinking about the Application Configurations and "Add-Ins" for ArcGIS Explorer which allow to easily create a tailored experience (e.g. custom splash screen, your choice of toolbars, custom tools, custom logo, etc) for your users - see the doc for more info: http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisexplorer/1200/en/application_add_functionality.htm. Good luck and hopefully we can help you get the most from ArcGIS Explorer. Regards Mike ... View more

Simon, The File Geodatabase format offers the best performance for local datasets. For datasets that will be read-only you can also compress the Feature Classes in a File Geodatabase thereby improving performance even further. Using File GDBs also reduces the storage and if you do use the compression reduces the volume significantly (obviously depending on geometry type, unique attributes, etc). Before compressing though you should confirm that each Feature Class has the optimum spatial index (there's a "Recalculate" button on the properties dialog) plus add an attribute index to any attribute field used for rendering / symbology. Then compress if you don't plan to edit that dataset. You can also use Layer Packages - internally these use the File Geodatabase format to provide the best performance but also include the rendering information, and are easily shareable via ArcGIS.com too. Regards Mike ... View more

We do not expect the 1500 release to have any issues with ArcGIS Desktop. Unfortunately a few users have reported problems with 1200 and ArcGIS Desktop despite extensive testing of the products in a variety of combinations in multiple environments prior to release. Regards Mike ... View more

Here is a link to download aerial photo data for Montana, MrSID format with a world file.  displays fine in ArcMap, but not in ArcGIS Explorer.  Should be able to use this directly as a raster file in Explorer. Here is a link http://www.nris.mt.gov/nsdi/orthophotos/naip_2009.asp?MapNo=36 Aerial photos are in Montana State Plane Nad83, I have explorer in the same datum. I can confirm that this SID image (2045.sdw), with the SDW world file (2045.sdw), works fine in the next release of ArcGIS Explorer without any need for modifying the data in ArcGIS Desktop. Regards ... View more

Defining projections for datasets is unlikely to be functionality we would add because ArcGIS Explorer is primarily designed to be an application for consuming content authored / published by GIS users, where you would expect elements like the spatial reference to be defined. However, raster datasets (in contrast to vector data) often get shipped around without any spatial reference information so there could be a case for this. If you would like to see this functionality added please put forward the idea at http://ideas.arcgis.com/ Regards Mike ... View more

Eugene, Thanks for the clarification - I'll discuss with the Explorer team to see if there's anything in the existing API or new in the 1500 API that would allow someone to write a custom Add-In to do this. Unfortunately all the functionality for the next release is already decided so I don't think it's something we'll be able to include in the application out-of-the-box but I'll check. Regards Mike ... View more

Peter, I'm not sure why this issue is occuring but my next suggstion would be to delete your local ArcGIS Explorer layer cache. This can be done from within ArcGIS Explorer by clicking the Explorer button / pearl in the top left corner then selecting Advanced Options. See http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisexplorer/1200/en/options_advanced.htm for more information. To do this outside the application, the cache goes into your temporary files under a folder called "E3". To easily find it you can type %temp%\E3 into the address bar of Windows Explorer. Then just select and delete the folders. Regards Mike ... View more

Kayla, Do you save the credentials when you create the ArcSDE connection? (save username and password). I believe this should resolve the issue. In the next release of ArcGIS Explorer due in the summer we are making it much easier to reconnect to broken data sources. Regards Mike ... View more

Joseph, Please can you provide a little more information about what you are trying to achieve? Would you like other users to see actual map updates (e.g. new layers added or layers removed) or are you talking about the same layers in the map but the actual data changing? If it's the former, then that's a little tricky as the application does not know when the map has been udpated... but you could write an Extension Add-In which polls a map located on a server and when it's updated then display a message to the user asking whether they want to open the most up to date map (see http://resources.esri.com/help/1200/arcgisexplorer/conceptualhelp/index.html#/creating_a_custom_extension/00020000003p000000/ for more info). In the case of the latter, which is a more common request, you should right click on the layer you want to display updates for then choose Properties and click the Source Data menu. On this dialog you can set the refresh interval for the layer (most frequent is 1 minute). Regards Mike ... View more

Ted, Unfortunately we cannot go into too much detail about what's new in the next release of ArcGIS Explorer (1500) - http://blogs.esri.com/Info/blogs/arcgisexplorerblog/archive/2010/05/19/a-virtual-city-look-ahead-arcgis-10-and-arcgis-explorer-1500.aspx. However what we've been focussing on is fixing as many as possible of the issues people have reported using 1200 plus working on sharing content and integration with ArcGIS 10 and ArcGIS.com. It's a really exciting release and should be available shortly after ArcGIS 10 is released. Regards Mike ... View more

Greg, Please can you provide some more information on the issue you're having. Regarding case sensitivity, both http://sampleserver3.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services and http://sampleserver3.arcgisonline.com/arcgis/rest/services should work in ArcGIS Explorer online. Regards Mike ... View more