Latest Contributions by danan

Dana, Apologies for the delay in posting this - I hope to have the Add-In hosted in the ArcGIS Explorer Labs group on ArcGIS.com shortly but for now I have simply posted the Add-In straight to ArcGIS.com: http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=dd68c3836cb24d6d9d5030f6837e61a2. Feel free to send any feedback on this Add-In to mbranscomb@esri.com. Regards Mike Thanks Mike. Any chance you could roll in a display of the current 2D map scale (regardless of whether one wants to zoom to a predefined scale or not)? ... View more

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 Thanks Mike. I didn't realize 2D mode was only available from 900 onward. As best I know, the majority of our users will be in 2D mode (what their default map will be set to). My personal opinion would be to do exactly what you suggest--if a precise map scale is irrelevant or misleading in 3D mode, then disable it. Or, if it's possible with the add-in, pop-up a warning to the user when first entering, or switching to, 3D mode, e.g. "Map scale in 3D mode is an approximation only. Do you really want to view the map scale?" with a sub-option of "don't ask me again." ... 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/. Thanks Mike. Please post here, if you don't mind, when you get the add-in posted. In the web help for Zoom To, I see 6 predefined map scales. They have names but no indication of the exact map scales (e.g. 1:24,000 etc) http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisexplorer/1200//en/index.html#layer_properties_source_data.htm 1. World   2. Continent  3. Country 4. State/Province 5. City 6. Street Nor do I see any indicator of what scale I'm zoomed to at any given moment. While this might work for a web app, it seems like a significant deficiency in a desktop GIS app. One reason is because of the resampling behavior. If I don't zoom to the specific scales of the tiles in a map cache, those tiles will get warped and there will be a loss of image quality (and with that, labels may become difficult to read). Are there any plans, in AGX 1500 or beyond, to: #1 Expose the particular map scale one is zoomed to (as in ArcMap) #2 Provide a mechanism for zooming to a particular, predefined set of scales (e.g. not the 6 name-only scales that exist out of the box) #3 Allow users to zoom to a specific scale In my opinion, these three simple items should be core and not add-ins (or 1 and 3 at least). It may not be important in a web app for a user to know what map scale they're at, and it's probably irrelevant for a user to specify a particular map scale to zoom to (since what will display is "hard coded" to the particular service(s) being used). But for anyone wanting to do "real work" in ArcGIS Explorer, I'd expect they'd want to have #1 and #3. Thanks. Dana ... View more

Anyone else here ever done this? ... View more

I'm not sure which version of Terrashare support what functionality. ISAT project files are a general part of all the Intergraph photogrammetric projects. If your organization is using ISAT for its AT then they will have these ISAT project files, which can be used with or without Terrashare. The ISAT files define the parameters and the location of the files. if the location of the files have changed it can be easily edited by search/replace in ISAT files. Yes the system is very scalable. Certainly more CPU is used in relation to the serving of pre-cached tiles, but the CPU usage is still relatively small as only the requires pixels (1 screen full are processed). Even with orthorectification and pansharpening this is <1sec on a core. IE A single 4 core system could serve easily 24 concurrent users. (Assuming each users zooms about 1 every 6 seconds). This is a relatively conservative number and is dependant on things including the format of the data. Best is to try it out. The system can be easily scaled by increasing the CPU. Areas of higher interest can also be pre-processed. IE you can specify areas of interest that are likely to be hit more often and pre-generate the orthos in these areas, so increasing the performance. It is possible that your organization wishes to continue doing the orthorectification with a specific product that meets their certification requirements. When these orthos are created they can be used in place of the OTF orthos. If mosaicking can color correction is done this can be added to the same service. IE the grade & performance increases over time. If you wish to have a cached background image just for visualization then yes you can use an Image Service in an MXD and cache this. You can cache the complete service or use on-demand-caching. IE cache is created in advance for the most popular locations and then cache is generated as required when the first users pans to a specific location. Thanks Peter. Is pointing Image Server to a file server the only way for Image Server to consume Terrashare imagery? e.g. is there any way for Image Server to make a client connection to Terrashare Server? Or for an MXD / MSD to make a client connection to Terrashare directly? ... View more

My mistake.  Once I added my PC to the Service Editor Allow list in IS Server Manager, I was able to proceed: http://resources.esri.com/help/9.3/arcgisimageserver/help/index.htm#managing_the_image_servers.htm ... View more

Once I was given write access to the directory, that particular error went away. However, now I'm getting a new error: [INDENT]The current application is not licensed. Please specify a server where the license information is available[/INDENT] Strange because the Image Server software authorization process on the server went fine, e.g. I get "You have authorized the following features: imageserver" What might be wrong? ... View more

Thank you Peter for the detailed and very helpful response. I learned our Photogrammetry Unit is running "Terrashare Server and Advanced Server 2.3.1" by the way. Not sure if this helps or hinders what we'd like to do. Are these Terrashare product versions sufficient for the general workflow(s) you mentioned? Also want to make sure we're ok with the Image extension for ArcGIS Server 9.3.1 (we wouldn't be switching to V10 for quite a while). The big advantage being in the time between image acquisition and use is reduced and no additional storage is required.  It really does sound like an amazing product. But how scalable is it? I'm sure it functionally does what it does very well, but what's the performance like when you have 100 to 1,000+ concurrent users accessing Image extension Image or WCS services with data being processed on-the-fly? Any good white papers, presentations, or docs on the subject? Finally, can I use the Image extension to create cached map services? The majority of our user base probably won't need to perform raster analysis with raw pixels. Rather, they need to consume imagery as a backdrop--so "snapshots" are fine. ... View more

We have TerraShare also so I'm very interested in the answer. Since Image Server reads directly from the physical files as does TerraShare, why would you want TerraShare as a middle tier unless you are referring to serving the raster backdrops? If Terrashare could directly serve WMS map services, that would be one less server to stand-up (we don't currently use Image Server). Although it's an interesting idea to point Image Server directly at the same raw imagery. Wonder if there would be contention issues. We don't need to perform raster analysis. Just need the imagery for basemap purposes. I'm trying to determine what specific Terrashare product and version our Photogrammetry Dept uses. Seems there are many variants of "Terrashare" (Advanced, Server, Web, Raster, etc) as there are many "ArcGIS" products (Desktop, Server, etc). Which Terrashare product and version do you have? ... View more

There is no official date for retiring the old services. It may happen at the end of 2010. We will certainly post announcements on the blog in advance of taking anything down. Molly Thanks Molly. ... View more

Any official statements from ESRI how long the old Standard Map Services (http://server.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services) with 4326 spatial reference will be available? Thanks, Richard I too would like to know when the old, WGS 84 / 512 x 512 services will be retired. I recall ESRI saying they would remain up for 6 months after December 2009. So, ESRI, are you still on track for retiring the services sometime in June 2010? IMHO, the ArcGis Online Blog ought to be updated with this information. ... View more