It’s Here – ESRI UC 2010!

The ESRI International UC 2010 is underway!!

It's very clear from the Plenary Session that GIS is moving into the cloud computing arena, with both ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Explorer Online being offered. Cloud computing and Software as a Service (SaaS) will however both be covered under one of my Technology posts.

It this point I just wanted to highlight some of the ESRI and ArcGIS information that users have access to. It's funny but it's been a long time since my last trip to the US, and there are a few things that I had forgotten - The choice you have is amazing, the portion sizes are very generous and in general this leads to a good value for money deal.

To a certain degree the same can be said for access to some of the information and resources for ESRI. Some of the useful free sites are:

1. Recent ESRI Conference Presentations and Proceedings
   
2. ESRI GIS Bibliography
   
3. ESRI Resources Centres, and ArcGIS Resource Centres
   

And remember if you can't find what you are looking for at any of the ESRI sites, a Google search can quite often lead to some great alternate information.

New ESRI Service Packs Released

For those of you who are not ready to make the switch to ArcGIS and ArcPad 10, Service Packs for both ArcGIS 9.3.1 (SP2) and ArcPad 8.0 (SP4) are now available for download from the following links:

• ArcGIS 9.3.1 SP2
• ArcPad 8.0 SP4

News sparked wild celebrations in the streets of Spain early this morning.

GPS Enabled Cameras

In the last 12 months there have been a flurry of GPS enabled cameras released on the market. The Samsung ST1000 led the way, offering 12.2 megapixels of photo quality with 5x optical zoom, inbuilt GPS, Bluetooth and WiFi.

Geotagged photos from the ST1000 are easily viewed with programs such as Picasa, Pictomia, Facebook, etc. RIA Mobile GIS include a complimentary copy of the RIA Location Extractor tool with camera purchases; this tool extracts photo locations out of the EXIF image header information into a CSV file, which can be added to a desktop GIS as an event theme.

Users looking for a rugged solution have the option of the proven RICOH 500SEW cameras. Additionally there are a number of PDA options with integrated cameras, including the GETAC PS236 (3MP), Trimble Nomad 800GLC (2MP) and Pidion BM170 (3MP).

Contact RIA for more information on any of these units.

ArcPad Drawing Speed

One of the major enhancements in ArcPad 10 is "Improved Performance", in particular, drawing speeds. I thought I would do some quick comparisons between versions 7.1, 8.0 and 10.0 to see just how significant these improvements were.

Process
I set up a simple applet which zooms around the map in ArcPad to various pre-defined extents, logging the drawing times of each layer in the map. My map had 5 (AXF) layers in total:



The pre-defined extents were selected at random locations, each at different scales. After zooming in to a small area, I forced ArcPad to zoom back out to the full extent to make sure that it was forced to re-draw as many features as possible. The tests were repeated 5 times for each version of ArcPad.

The tests were performed on a virtual machine, running Windows XP (3GHz processor, 768Mb RAM).

Results:
The results from the tests are shown below. ArcPad 7.1.1 times are shown in blue, 8.0.3 in red, and 10 in green. Times are shown in milliseconds, and represent the total time taken to draw all 5 layers (averaged over the five tests).


So, the good news is there is a definite decrease in drawing times in version 10, particularly when zoomed out to full extent. Interestingly the drawing times for Area 1 were quite high, and in most cases, higher than the full extent. Upon inspection, it turns out the around 90% of the features lied within Area 1. The table below shows the feature counts in each layer, at the different zoom extents:


If you would like a larger graph or more detailed figures, or just want to find out more about the testing that I did, leave us a comment.

Mobile GIS Trend 1 - Other OS's

Although historically evolving from a number of operating platforms, with the inception of ArcGIS, ESRI has predominantly focused on supporting the Microsoft Windows environment for their Desktop and Mobile products.

With regards to the Mobile GIS arena Windows is the dominate OS for Laptops, UMPC's and Netbook's, and Windows Mobile/CE is the dominant OS for PDA's and Rugged Handheld devices.

ESRI has this side of the market covered with it's existing ArcPad and ArcGIS Mobile offerings.

The mobile area in which Windows is lacking behind the competition is the Smartphone market. In this sector Windows has actually lost market share, whilst in comparison both Apple iOS (iPhone & iPad) and Android OS have substantially increased their market share.

ESRI is now aiming at solutions to cover both these platforms with mobile product offerings:

ArcGIS for iOS

• The ArcGIS for iOS Application is a free application that can be downloaded from iTunes. It allows you to share maps from ArcGIS Online, and use tools to search, measure, identify and query data. (At a later stage it will also include a range of other functions).
• The ArcGIS API for iOS enables iOS developers to build custom applications that leverage of the capabilities of ArcGIS Server.

ArcGIS for Android

• A solution for Android doesn't exist yet - But it's coming!! According to the ESRI 2010 Conference Q & A. It will apparently include both an Application and API similar to the iOS offering.

Over the coming months it is going to be interesting to watch the uptake of the new Windows Phone 7 OS to see if this again alters the Smartphone market. There are some interesting times ahead.

Mobile GIS & Spatial Trends

Technology appears to be evolving at an ever increasing rate, and this is enabling a number of interesting developments.
I'll endeavour to write a series of posts highlighting some of these trends and developments, as they relate to the Mobile Technology, ESRI Software and Spatial arenas.
(The frequency of these posts will depend somewhat on when time permits!)

In the interim, an insight into where ESRI is heading, is the annual ESRI UC Preconference Q&A. Take a look, some of your questions may be answered.

ArcGIS 10 Released

In all the excitement of the past few days we almost forgot to mention that obviously along with the release of ArcPad 10, ArcGIS 10 has also been released!

ArcPad 10 Released.

ArcPad 10 has now been released! Download from the following link

ArcPad 10 Released Next Week

ArcPad 10 is due to be available for download next week. This will tie in with the upcoming ArcGIS 10 release (conveniently 2 weeks before the ESRI User Conference). For those of you interested, below are some of the key features in the latest release of ArcPad:

• Improved performance
• Better camera and photo experience
• Support for ArcGIS Online Map Services
• Dynamic Quick Capture Toolbar
• Enhanced ArcPad Data Manager for ArcGIS 10

For more information, see http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcpad/whats-coming.html.

Stay tuned for some reviews once we have seen the final release!

ArcPad 10 Coming Soon

ArcPad 10 is set to be released in late June 2010. Key features include improved user performance and support for ArcGIS Online Map Services. For more information see http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcpad/whats-coming.html

RIA Hardware Bundles

It's getting towards the end of the financial year again, one of the busiest times of the year for hardware and software purchases.

The RIA Mobile GIS website now lists some of the most popular hardware bundles available; this can be accessed via the Common Hardware Bundles link from the RIA homepage or see here

With the Australian Dollar starting to dip against foreign currencies, now could be the opportunity to make those purchases that have been sitting on the back burner. Contact us for the latest pricing and advice.

Contact RIA for all your Mobile GIS needs.

Removing hyperlinks from MS Word

Ever wanted to remove all hyperlinks from a MS Word Document? The easy way to do it is to select the text that you want, then press and hold ctrl and shift, then hit F9.

Nothing at all to do with mobile GIS I know, but it made me excited!!!

Remote Display for Windows Mobile

When using Windows Mobile Devices it can sometimes be extremely useful to display, and view, the Windows Mobile (Pocket PC) screen from your PC or Laptop.

Currently there are 2 alternate applications, that we're aware of, which provide you with this functionality:

1. Windows Mobile Developer Power Toys - This is a suite of tools designed to assist with the development and testing on a Windows Mobile device. Please note that the Power Tools are NOT a Microsoft Supported Product.
2. MyMobiler - Is a freeware application designed for Windows Mobile remote display.

Please ensure that you follow all instructions when setting up and using either of these applications.

RIA Mobile GIS cannot be held responsible for any damages, or issues, resulting from the implementation and/or use of these applications.

Listing Domains

Here is a handy little Python script which lists all the domains in a GeoDatabase, then exports each to a table within that GeoDatabase.

import arcgisscripting

gp = arcgisscripting.create(9.3)

ws = "c:\\temp\\test.gdb"

desc = gp.describe(ws)

print "Domains in '%s': " % ws

domains = desc.Domains

for domain in domains:

print domain

gp.DomainToTable(ws, domain, ws + "\\domain_" + domain , "CODE", "DESCRIPTION")

To run the script:

1. Open up a Python Editor, such as PyScripter or PythonWin
2. Copy the above code to a script file
3. Make sure there is a tab before the print domain, and gp.DomainToTable(... lines (it doesn't seemed to include tabs properly in the blog posts).
4. Update the ws variable to the GeoDatabase you wish to analyse
5. Click run

Notes:

• The output tables are named "domain_XXX" where XXX is the name of the domain
• Each of these tables have two fields: one called CODE, which lists the code and a second called DESCRIPTION which lists the description.

ArcPad and Application Builder Training

Time to put your learning hats on! RIA have just scheduled two more training courses for Melbourne in May:

• Using ArcPad (18 May)
• ArcPad Application Builder (19 May)

Note: Course dates have been rescheduled from the original dates.

For further details on the courses, as well as the other courses that we offer, please visit the Support and Training page of our website.

To register your interest, download the appropriate form below, and return to us ASAP.

• Using ArcPad Registration Form
• Application Builder Registration Form

Be Quick: Numbers are limited and early bird discounts apply!