Census Data - Shapefiles

Census data are now available as Shapefiles. Take a look at the TIGER®, TIGER/Line® and TIGER®-Related Products page for links to products. What is a TIGER file? It stands for: Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing system Some history and general information on the future of the TIGER file can be found here: http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/future/future_tl.html

Developer Summit Sessions - links

Real quick - here are the pages for information on the Developer Summit sessions: March 17th Preconference Seminars: http://www.esri.com/events/devsummit/sessions/preconf_seminars.html Technical Sessions: http://www.esri.com/events/devsummit/sessions/tech_sessions.html

What is this Developer Summit anyway?

Never heard of the Developer Summit? Not sure what to expect? Why would you want to go? I have never been, but some of my clients have, and they all rave about it. Lots of information and time and effort focused on the GIS developer. Tips & Tricks, peeks ahead, a ton of knowledge shared and a fantastic learning opportunity. Sounds like a winner to me. Check out this podcst for more information.

Need Some Cash? ESRI's ArcGIS Server Code Challange

One month left in the second annual ArcGIS Server Code Challenge which is part of the Developer Summit . Your code sample needs to be turned in before 5 PM on Feb 29th. And there is some good cash on the line! $15,000 for first place, $7,500 for second and $2,500 for third. That's some nice walking around money. Wondering what has been done? Check out the Code Challenge blog where you can review entries. If this is all of them there aren't many yet - all the more reason to get your code in - pretty good odds!

Sun to Aquire MySQL, Open Source Database

You have probably heard about this one already, but just in case. Sun Microsystems is buying MySQL. For $1 billion in pocket change. The deal should be finalized by Q4 2008. Here's a press release: http://www.directionsmag.com/press.releases/?duty=Show&id=20623&trv=1 Or here, from the source: http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/pr/2008-01/sunflash.20080116.1.xml I love this quote on Henri Bergius' blog - "Billion dollars, quite a deal in the free software space." The MySQL blog space has a lot of information on the deal. I found the quick list of Sun stats very interesting. I had not know that Sun is considered the world's largest contributor to Open Source.

New Feature in ArcGIS Explorer Build 440

One nice feature added to ArcGIS Explorer at Build 440 is the ability to expose sub-layers from an ArcIMS Service. No longer are you forced to use all or nothing - which could often make you not want to use it at all. So if you are interested in just adding a single layer of interest from an ArcIMS Service that has 10 (or whatever) layers in it, in the past you may have lost the data of interest in all the other noise. Now you can dig deeper in the service and just pull up that single layer that you want to publish to your globe. There is a posting about this with more detail on the ArcGIS Explorer blog. ----------- Among the new capabilities in Explorer 440 is the ability to choose from sub-layers published in ArcIMS services. In previous versions of Explorer the connection would be to the default IMS service layer, and you were not able to access and control individual sub-layers. Read More...

Crashing Issues with New Build of ArcGIS Explorer

Saw this post today:

We've noted a couple of complaints about ArcGIS Explorer 440 crashing on startup, when earlier releases worked just fine. We've been able to determine that the cause is the graphics card driver, and have found that a driver update normally solves the problem. If you're experiencing trouble on startup, check for an update for your graphics card.

A thread on the Explorer Discussion Forum, and post by Mark Bockenhauer, provide additional details.

Creating Fill Symbols with Feeling - ESRI Mapping Center

New post on the Mapping Center that I thought you might be interested in. It's all about creating fill symbols that are interesting and better depict the real data. ------------------ Depicting natural areas such as vegetation or complex hydrography such as swamps and estuaries can be accomplished by merely using solid green fill and blue fill symbols. However, such symbols are arguably bland, and certainly do not convey relative density, ruggedness, or texture Marker fill symbols can create many effects, ranging from replacing many of the old bitmap patterns on topographic maps to very modern styles of symbology. For example, click on the image to see a more detailed PDF of this map and notice the trees (green random dot fills) have two densities, depicting heavily wooded areas versus scattered trees. The yellow polygon with green dots represent agricultural fields on this map. In both cases on this map, using random dot fills provides more flexibility in using those shades of green and yellow. By varying the color, density, and size of dots, we can create easily distinguishable variation in our symbols, allowing many different classes of vegetation to be shown, while letting the background color represent major types of vegetation To seed your exploration of working with random fills, download the RandomFill.style file that we put together. Several different approaches to random fill symbols are contained within the style. The easiest way to build a marker fill symbol is to... Read More...

ArcPad 7.1 Now Available

ArcPad 7.1 and ArcPad Application Builder 7.1, the latest versions of ESRI's mobile GIS software for data collection and field mapping applications, are now available. New features and capabilities in ArcPad 7.1 increase mobile productivity by providing field-based personnel with the ability to capture, store, update, and analyze geographic information more accurately and efficiently. ArcPad easily integrates with desktop and server GIS technologies, allowing field edits to be incorporated into a geodatabase through disconnected editing. Data input from GPS receivers, range finders, and digital cameras is also supported to increase reliability in the field data collection process. ArcPad 7.1 introduces a much-anticipated, out-of-the-box solution to view and edit features and related tables in the field. The ArcPad Data Manager extension for ArcGIS Desktop makes it easier to manage mobile GIS project deployments. In addition, a new StreetMap extension is included in ArcPad 7.1 at no additional cost. Read More... Download an evaluation copy

Choosing Color Ramps and Displaying for Hillshade Rasters

Dec 26 2007 post on the ESRI Mapping Center. Using ArcMap to symbolizea hillshade raster layer (the output of the Spatial or 3D Analyst's Hillshade tool) is pretty straightforward, and the default symbology (black to white ramp) doesn't look too bad. In fact, if your hillshade layer is the only layer in your map, and if you don't mind not seeing some of the details that have been visually absorbed into the darker tones, the default symbology is okay. To be fair, the default symbology for hillshades is useful for much more than just terrain depictions, so it's good to know what might be helpful when depicting terrain with a hillshade. The image to the left is an example of a hillshade using the default color ramp.

In most cases a hillshade will not be the only layer in your map, so you need symbolize it so it works as the backdrop to other more critical information in the foreground of your map. Generally, as you add more information to your map, the lighter the darkest color of the hillshade should be. Here are some examples:

Read More...

Two Opportunities for GIS Students

ESRI is again offering their Summer Internship Program for GIS related work experience. Also, the User Conference in August (4th - 8th) will again be staffed with a number of students picked via the Student Assistantship Program. Read some about these opportunities here, or follow the links above to each specific program.

The Latest ArcNews Online Is Now Available

Just a note that the latest issue of ArcNews Online (Fall 2007) is now available. This issue covers topics such as the new ArcGIS Business Analyst Server, National Land Parcel data, a report on the GIS response to the wildfires in California in October 2007, and much more. Enjoy.

Two ArcGIS 9.2 post SP4 Patches

In case you might have missed these post-SP4 patches... Reconcile patch Help patch

World's Fastest Geocoder

Appistry Demonstrates World’s Fastest Geocoding Solution at GEOINT 2007 Symposium ESRI ArcGIS-Based Geocoder Running on Distributed Platform Powered by Appistry Achieves 40,000 Geocoding Transactions per Second San Antonio, Texas (GEOINT 2007 Symposium) October 22, 2007 – Appistry today demonstrated the world’s fastest commercially available solution for high-volume geocoding at the GEOINT 2007 Symposium in San Antonio, Texas. Geocoding is the process of resolving geographic place names, addresses or other data to geographic coordinates or geocodes, and is a foundational process for both commercial and government users of geospatial data. The demonstrated solution utilizes Appistry Enterprise Application Fabric (EAF) to provide scalability and reliability for a geocoding application based on the industry-leading ESRI ArcGIS 9.2. The geocoding application was developed in hours using ArcGIS, and designed to run on a single computer. Appistry EAF allowed it to be quickly and easily scaled-out across 16 dual-CPU servers. “With the explosion in available geospatial data, the ability to quickly manipulate it in high volumes has never been more crucial,” says Chris Cappelli, director of sales, ESRI. “Appistry’s ability to take ArcGIS-based processes and easily scale them across many computers creates exciting new opportunities for organizations that depend on geographic information.” Presented with 1.5 million randomly selected US addresses distributed across 50 states, the distributed solution bulk-coded the addresses in just over 30 seconds. The average rate demonstrated was in excess of 40,000 geocoding transactions per second. Moreover, because the system’s geocoding performance scales linearly as additional computers are added, it is capable of meeting any level of demand. Read more (GIS User)...