export photos from collector

[GisMapping]

Hello, we are trying to use arc collector in the field to mark waypoints and take photos at each waypoint. We are having difficulty when it comes to exporting photos as when we export as a .jpg the photos do not have any identifying information and are given strange names so we can't associate the photo with the waypoint. We are taking hundreds of photos a week so this gets to be complicated. Ideally we want to be able to take a point, attach a photo, add photo description then export photos and descriptions for cataloging in the office. I have looked for other programs that work with arc to collect georeferenced photos but haven't had any luck. Thanks.

[Katie_Clark]

We do pretty much this exact same workflow at my job. We've settled on creating a "photo key" by joining the Feature Class and the "_ATTACH" table and copy/paste the attribute table into Excel, which we can use to associate notes etc with the various photos.

I tried modifying the script used to export photos to get a more descriptive name directly from the export, but didn't have any luck. However, I'm still a Python newbie so someone else might be more help, if that workflow is possible. 

Would love to hear if anyone else has other recommended workflows for this!

[GisMapping]

Thanks for answering. I am very new to this process and was tasked with creating it so what do you mean "_attach" table? I am learning/building the maps as I go so I don't have a good understanding of how photos are attached or how collector works.  

[Katie_Clark]

When you export the feature layer that was used to collect the data as a File Geodatabase (FGDB), you'll notice that the output contains the spatial data as well as related tables:

So, add the feature layer and _ATTACH table to the map (in ArcMap or ArcGIS Pro) and join the Feature Layer to the _ATTACH table based on REL_GLOBALID and GlobalID

Then copy and paste that attribute table into Excel and format it the way that is most helpful to you. Hope that helps to clarify! 

[GisMapping]

okay thank you! That makes more sense haven't gotten to that step quite yet (still setting up maps for collector) but the screen shot is very helpful  

[Katie_Clark]

Perfect! Good luck with everything! 

Also, you may have already done this, but just a tip - I highly recommend enabling creation and editor tracking for the feature layer. Makes data management much easier down the road!  

[BrandonH]

I was able to find this script that shows you how to modify it to customize your attachment names. I used it on Survey123 submitted pictures. I created a model that joins the survey table to the attachment table then again to a sql table containing the naming field I wanted. Then you run the 'table to table' geoprocessing tool to imbed the joined data. After that, you can run the script to export the pictures to wherever you want. Hope this helps. Happy mapping.