During the development of ArcGIS Pro, the Performance Engineering Team at Esri has been testing ArcGIS Pro in virtualized environments with shareable GPU’s extensively within our lab.   ArcGIS Pro needs to virtualize well and since GPU acceleration can be shared amongst multiple virtual machines, we began to run our performance tests within virtualized environments with GPU’s.  Our test server is a  Dell PowerEdge R720, which is certified by Nvidia GRID (for a list of certified servers, please refer to Nvidia’s GRID Spec Sheet), and this server allows two GRID K2 cards to be inserted. When the NVIDIA vGPU Manager is installed on the server and drivers are installed in a VM, users have the ability to configure VM’s to use shareable GPU’s.  For more information regarding architecture and configuration, please refer to the Nvidia Grid vGPU User Guide.

The shareable vGPU becomes an option when configuring a VM for XenDesktop or VMWare Horizon View and there are various vGPU profiles which the user can choose to deploy.  These vGPU profiles allow the user to control how much frame buffer is allocated out of the physical GPU frame buffer to the VM.  This in turn determines how many VM’s can use the shareable vGPU.   The following table describes the different vGPU profiles for the Nvidia GRID K2 further:

Test Results:  Optimal vGPU Profile

The Performance Engineering Team ran a series of tests in order to determine the most optimal vGPU profile for ArcGIS Pro. The test results are as follows:

• K280Q:  Starting with the highest performing but lowest density profile, the K280Q test provided the benefits of having the entire GPU and greatest frame buffer (4GB), however it lacked scalability since it’s limited to only 4 virtual desktops with two K2 cards in the hypervisor.
• K260Q:  The K260Q profile, which assigns 2GB of frame buffer, also produced good performance and user experience (UX) but only offered a maximum of 8 users (4 per K2 card).  Since our test resultds for this profile were within the acceptable threshold, we believed there was more room for growth and we concentrated test efforts on the K240Q profile.
• K240Q:  This profile lowers the frame buffer to 1GB while increasing the maximum density of VM’s on the two K2 cards to 16 VM’s and offered good performance.
• K220Q:  We also tested the highest density profile, the K220Q, but since the frame buffer is limited to 512MB, the 3D user experience was poor and the performance was slow due with too little virtual RAM (VRAM) .  This profile may be more suitable for users who use simple 2D data.

Overall, the K240Q profile provided the best performance metrics as well as the greatest density of VM’s on the shareable GPU.

Test Results:  VM/GPU Density

Once we determined the most optimal vGPU profile for ArcGIS pro, we wanted to further identify how many VM’s can the hypervisor support using the K240Q profile without significant performance degradation?   Specifically, can users expect to achieve the fullest density (16 VM’s) of the K240Q profile on the two K2 cards?

The short answer is no, in most cases users will find that the Hypervisor host will run out of CPU resources when scaling out to maximum density of 16 VM’s and rendering performance within the VM’s will be degraded.  Our test findings found that when XenServer or VMWare ESXi/Horizon View is installed on a Dell R720, the server can support 10-12 VM’s (with 6vCPU allocated) using 3D data and still achieve optimal performance within the ArcGIS Pro Virtual Desktops.

However, 2D users (with 4vCPU allocated) on the K240Q profile can expect higher density and may achieve maximum density (16 VM’s) if user interactions include simple workflows and data.  These test results and a detailed look at our test methodology will be published in an upcoming whitepapers which will be specific to each virtualization vendor; Citrix, VMWare and Microsoft, as well as VDI solutions, such as Horizon View and XenDesktop, while also exploring XenApp.

The Esri Development Team invites you to participate in a moderated and recorded Usability Study of 3 specific areas of ArcGIS Pro: Geodatabase Management, specifically schema design and data modeling, Map Layout, and 3D Editing.

Who we’re looking for:

• Existing ArcGIS for Desktop or current ArcGIS Pro users in the above mentioned areas
• Users of Esri Solutions (Local Government, Water Utilities, Land Records, Defense, Forestry, Hydrology)
• Users with varying degrees of experience who set up geodatabase schemas and model data, edit data, and design map layouts

In total, we’re looking for 30 testers.

How it works:

Our goal for this study is to assess the usability of the map layout, the 3D editing, and the schema design and data modeling functionalities of ArcGIS Pro; we want you to test our software, we’re not testing your ArcGIS skills.

To consider you as a usability tester, we require that you are registered and approved by your employer to attend the 2015 Esri User Conference and complete a pre-screening questionnaire—details below. Your time in the test lab is about 40 minutes.

Your test session will be recorded and observed by one or more members of the Development Team.

Click here to sign up.

We thank you in advance for your time and look forward to meeting you in San Diego.

by Kenneth Field, Senior Cartographic Product Engineer

Typography is one of the most important elements in map design. Successfully lettering your map includes the selection of typographic elements, deciding what to include, what to omit, how to portray your type and then where to position it. There are a good many cartographic conventions that help us in making these decisions such as using size to create a hierarchy of importance amongst the features you label, using color and style (e.g. italics) to denote certain features such as water and positioning labels so they don’t conflict with other symbols. Lettering your map is often called a ‘necessary evil’ because labels don’t really exist in the real world – yet they are fundamental to how we recognize and describe places on our maps. With ArcGIS Pro, lettering your map just got a whole lot easier so let’s take a look at some of the new and improved capabilities you can use to help you make beautiful maps with well-honed typography.

The first thing you’ll notice about how we’ve rebuilt the labeling features for ArcGIS Pro is there’s a labeling tab on the ribbon itself. Once you select a feature layer, the tab becomes active and you can apply all of your basic settings for the layer on the ribbon. The second thing you’ll notice is the speed with which labels are re-styled. Labeling is responsive in Pro because it occurs in another thread separate from the UI and also separate from other drawing. There’s also a Label Class pane but more of that in a moment.

By default, ArcGIS Pro is set to use Maplex labeling engine which gives you direct access to its rich features through the Labeling tab (you can switch to the standard labeling engine should you prefer). Any changes you make on the Labeling tab update in the map…no more delving into multiple dialogs! On the labeling tab you can access and modify features for all labels, or by label classes you specify. You can also change label properties for multiple label classes at a time if you have to apply the same change across multiple label classes.

The labeling tab allows you to change the visibility range of your labels for the selected feature as well as choose your font and change its appearance (weight, color, underline, italics…all the usual properties). The font selection drop-down shows you the typeface of each font. You also have direct access to the basic label placement options (pre-sorted for your feature type) as well as controls for pausing label drawing and viewing unplaced labels.

The labeling tab will give most people direct access to all of the common tools you need to begin the process of lettering your map. For some, this will be enough to perform the labeling tasks they require and it’s also a useful way to take a first cut at labeling to see where you’re going to have to deal with positioning issues or conflicts a little more carefully. For those wanting greater control over their labeling it’s a small step to open the door to more advanced functionality by opening the Label Class pane.

Panes are a fundamental new way to work with your maps in ArcGIS Pro and the Label Class pane shows why they are going to transform your ability to work with your maps. Panes automatically dock to the side of the application’s window and allow you to modify different settings which either update the map on-the-fly or which simply require you to click Apply once you’ve changed your settings.

There isn’t scope to go into every single detail of the labeling options in the Label Class pane here so let’s just focus on a few of the new ways in which you can work with labels using the options in the Label Class pane.

In addition to the font name, size and style you can now set a Text Fill Symbol which treats the text as enclosed polygons that can have fills and strokes. There are some preset options such as gradient fills or solid fills with an outline, or you can select from any other polygon fill color, pattern or style you wish, including picture fills and complex multi-layered symbols. The following example has a simple linear gradient fill applied along with an outline.

Halos are also supported but you can now go beyond simply using halos to mask out underlying features by applying some transparency to the halo fill and outline. The following example shows the label with a gradient fill, a thin grey outline and a halo that has a white fill with 60% transparency and a white halo outline with 85% transparency.

We’re not for one minute suggesting that labeling needs to be as complex, ornate or gaudy but the principle of labeling in ArcGIS Pro is simply that you have complete flexibility to design labeling effects simply and rapidly. This is particularly useful when dealing with the way in which labels print across the top of imagery so you can rapidly see how different effects look and which will be optimal for your map.

Prefer shadows?

Or maybe add a callout with a background fill?

There’s plenty more options to control the look and feel of your labels including leader lines for callouts and the ability to control the gap (padding) between the feature and leader line.

You can also go a little crazy and use the Text Fill Symbol option to apply some custom styles to your labels. How about a fashionable rainbow colored offset look, with metric kerning, inside a semi-transparent balloon callout (all with a heavy nod to irony)?

Labeling in Scenes is also supported with the same flexibility except by default labels in a Scene will billboard and rotate automatically as you move around a Scene. Here’s an example where we’ve positioned the label about 100m above the feature in the scene (by modifying its elevation properties) and added an extruded symbol to act as a leader line. The label sits centered on the point feature and will rotate around its y axis as you navigate the Scene.

These examples are deliberately extravagant purely for the purposes of this blog but all of these ways to style your typography gives you the ability to control every aspect of labeling for streets, rivers, areas, points and all of your other standard geographical naming requirements.

The Formatting options give you further control over word spacing, letter spacing, letter widths, line spacing and flip angles as well as check boxes to control how ligatures and kerning are handled. You can also draw glyphs as geometry and extrapolate baselines. The final example above includes a smaller line spacing setting for instance.

Position, fitting strategy and conflict resolution are also handled on the Label Class pane. Placement options abound as do ways in which you can modify the position of your labels to add an offset in point size or even as a percentage of the maximum offset. You can also specify how the offset is applied either from a simplified symbol, the exact geometry of the feature or the exact symbol outline. Rotation can be applied as a specified angle or from an attribute in your data, with alignment against that angle also capable of being specified as straight, horizontal or perpendicular. There are numerous options for configuring the fitting strategies and how labels behave when they reach certain limits. Perhaps you want to have your labels abbreviate automatically, or stack, or reduce in size? You may want to remove duplicate labels or create a buffer around the label to protect it from graphical conflicts with other labels and features and specify feature weights to ensure certain label classes draw in advance of others.

What we’ve looked at so far is how to style labels that you control from the labeling tab or the pane settings, concentrating on one label per feature. You can also access Label Expressions in the Label Class pane which gives you additional flexibility and scope to configure labels from multiple attributes and style and position components of your labels independently. You would use Python, VBScript or JScript Logic to code your expressions. You might create a label style that has the first letter capitalized regardless of how the text string is stored in your attribute field. You could format the label using ArcGIS Pro formatting tags which are special characters for changing the appearance of all or part of your labels.

For instance, the following labels are derived from a single attribute field but sized according to another attribute field value and colored according to yet another attribute value. We’ve simply used label expressions in ArcGIS Pro to control each characteristic of the label to give us a proportional symbol map where the labels themselves act as literal symbols. They go further though and we’ve used label Expressions to effectively encode three different pieces of information into the label creating a multivariate symbol. The label itself gives us the actual value (a percentage in this case), the size of the label shows us how many people voted and the color emphasizes the strength of vote. By thinking creatively about how you can use labels you can go beyond simply using them to name features. They can become the features themselves.

You can see how this map looks here in ArcGIS Online with scale visibility set to modify the number of labels you see at different scales.

With ArcGIS Pro you have a high-end map labeling capability with a rich feature set. The options for designing your labels to suit your map, your features and your individual elements are powerful. All of this functionality is available through the labeling tab or the Label Class pane and the changes are applied to your map as you work.

Bye bye nested dialog boxes. Tame your typography. Label like a Pro.

As datasets get larger it makes more sense to do your image analysis and processing where the data is rather than moving it to your personal computer. Until now, when working with an image service, you’ve had two options. If you wanted to create something custom, you’d have to access the data and then apply the processing locally. This means your computer is doing most of the work.

The other option is to apply the processing on the data on the server. The limitation here is that you can only apply processing that has already been set up by whoever it was that set up the server. In the case of the Landsat services, you can calculate NDVI and display the data as color infrared. The data comes back basically as a backdrop.

What we’ve done with the latest release of Pro is to combine these methods. So, now you can create your own custom processing and have the server do all of the processing rather than your own machine.

Here’s how you do it:

From the Data tab, click on the Processing Templates launch button. (It’s the little icon in the lower-right corner of the button.)

Then, hit the add button next to the Processing Templates input.

In the window that appears, find the function chain that you want to use. When you select it, it will then appear on the Processing Templates button under the Custom section.

We will be talking a lot about virtualization at the UC next week!

A couple of announcements:
Stop by the ArcGIS Desktop Island to talk about virtualization, see and use ArcGIS Pro in a VMWare Horizon View virtual machine served from the ArcGIS Desktop Virtualization Appliance.

The Virtualization SIG at lunch time will be sponsored (catered) by VMWare and Nvidia!

Tuesday, July 21
-Virtualization SIG
-Room 27B 12:00pm- 1:00pm
-Informal, Hear about Esri Development work in virtualization, projects, plans for future.
-Hear from Nvidia and VMWare on their support for ArcGIS, plans for the future
-Ask them questions, make contacts

Wednesday, July 22
-Demo Theater: Overview of ArcGIS Pro in Virtualized Desktop Environments
-10:30am – 11:15am – Mapping and Visualization Exhibit Hall B
-ArcGIS Pro: virtualizing in Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop
-Room 02 12:00pm – 1:00pm
-Demo Theater:Virtualizing ArcGIS Pro in VMWare View, Citrix XenDesktop/XenApp
-4:30pm – 5:15pm Mapping and Visualization Exhibit Hall B

Thursday, July 23
-ArcGIS Pro: virtualizing in VMWare Horizon View and Microsoft Hyper-V
-Room 02 12:00pm – 1:00pm

As you could tell from previous blogs ArcGIS Pro can be easily virtualized. But the hardware that is needed is different than what has been used in the past. To help provide a clear description of the hardware needed to virtualize ArcGIS Pro we designed the ArcGIS Desktop Virtualization Appliance.

Esri collaborated with Nvidia, Dell and VMWare to provide a well tested platform that can  virtualize ArcGIS Desktop, including ArcGIS Pro, in a single box.

The ArcGIS Desktop Virtualization Appliance will be at the UC. It uses VMWare vSphere 6.0, Horizon View  and Nvidia GRID K2 cards. The Appliance is based on a Dell Precision Rack 7910 and takes advantage of vGPU technology, the hardware sharing of the GPU, to achieve greater density while delivering a workstation-class user experience.

This Appliance is an excellent platform for delivering ArcGIS Desktop in a virtualized environment. For use to quickly start a proof-of-concept or integrate into an established virtualization environment, the Appliance was designed to provide a hardware platform that supports virtualization of  high-end graphics applications like Pro. Our tests confirm performance, user experience and VM/GPU density of ArcGIS Pro on this platform. The tests we used include a GPU intensive 3D test which showed the Appliance can support 12-16 concurrent ArcGIS Pro virtual machines.

The configuration of the Appliances that were shipped to the UC is common in datacenters and virtualization environments now:

• Dual Intel Xeon Processor E5-2680 v3, 2.5GHz, 12 cores
• 3.75TB SSD storage
• 256Gb RAM
• Two Nvidia GRID K2 cards

We will have two Appliances at the UC  to support demo’s and hands-on use ofArcGIS Desktop, including Pro, at the Desktop Island. Stop by the Desktop Island to see the user experience that is available when virtualizing ArcGIS Pro.  We can discuss hardware configuration, VM/GPU density and vSphere installation and configuration.

If you unable to attend this year’s UC you can reply to this blog or send an email with any questions.

ArcGIS Pro represents Esri’s strategy for creating modern GIS desktop software that tightly integrates with the entire ArcGIS Platform.  ArcGIS Pro 1.0 was first released in January as a strong tool for visualization, supporting both 2D and 3D; analysis, containing the vast majority of the Geoprocessing tools; support for multiple layouts; and sharing via packages, 2D web maps and 3D web scenes.

We have continued to listen to your feedback and to build upon the strong foundation of ArcGIS Pro. This week, Esri has released ArcGIS Pro 1.1 which has many of the top enhancements that you have asked for:

• A new SDK for .NET to customize and extend ArcGIS Pro
• A Range Slider that allows you to dissect and visually analyze your numeric data
• The ability to publish 3D scenes containing multipatches
• Layout enhancements, like guides and snapping and the ability to add extent indicators
• Support for working with Excel tables directly
• Date line wrapping allowing you to pan, edit, and work across the international date line

Additionally, there are many more enhancements in ArcGIS Pro 1.1 related to geoprocessing, imagery and raster, 3D Analyst, Network Analyst, and Workflow Manager.  Visit the What’s New in ArcGIS Pro section for more details.

What’s Coming After Pro 1.1
We envision that at the end of this year, we will release ArcGIS Pro 1.2 with even more capabilities including:

• Strong KML support
• The ability to publish and use vector tiles
• Mobile Map Packages for deployment on all your devices
• Additional 3D Web Scene capabilities
• Data Driven Pages
• Animations, Charts and Graphs
• And more Geoprocessing tools

There are also plans to improve integration of analysis with ArcGIS Online, both with tools and information sets, and for a number of new analysis capabilities and tools including:

• Improved suitability analysis
• Cost distance analysis
• Space time anomaly detection
• Empirical Bayesian Kriging (EBK) for multi- variant analysis
• Enhanced projection support

The ArcGIS Pro releases coming later in 2016 will focus on support for some major solutions including Utility Management, Parcel Management, and Transportation and Pipeline (Linear Referencing).  We will also continue to enhance our cartographic, imagery, and analysis capabilities.

The ArcGIS Pro adventure is just getting started, so look for the notification inside of ArcGIS Pro to update to ArcGIS Pro 1.1. If aren’t currently using ArcGIS Pro and you haven’t had a chance to try it out yet, visit www.esri.com/pro for a free 60-day trial.

On Friday, July 17^th, many ArcGIS Pro users saw a small window pop up on their computer screen. It announced to them, and to the world that a new version of Pro is available to download. I often find myself avoiding the seemingly endless software updates. Usually, I’m in the middle of a task, I don’t want to restart or close the app, and my version works just fine the way it is. However, as a typical update-avoider, I have to tell you that this update is worth the short interruption.

As soon as you click to start your download of ArcGIS Pro 1.1, you gain access to the newest version of the most modern GIS desktop software created by Esri. Pro 1.1 is packed with enhancements you’ve been asking for, along with capabilities and tools that you never knew you needed.

Though ArcGIS Pro is a desktop application, it is tightly integrated with the entire ArcGIS Platform. When it was released in January 2015, it gave you new tools to visualize your data in 2D and 3D in a single app, create breathtaking maps, perform advanced Geoprocessing, and share your creativity and imagination with the world through packages, 2D web maps, and 3D web scenes. It was a fantastic start, but at Esri, we knew we could do more for you. You gave us feedback, and we listened.

Our developers have been hard at work since Pro’s debut, and each team created new features and enhancements that are available for you in Pro 1.1. You can find them all in the web help, but a few of the exciting updates are:

A new SDK for Microsoft.NET to customize and extend ArcGIS Pro.

The 1.1 SDK will spark your creative side and allow you to push Pro beyond the basics. You can customize the user interface to make your work match your needs, interact and share ideas with other users in the GitHub online community and ArcGIS.Com and really stretch Pro to its limits to accomplish your tasks. Install the ArcGIS Pro SDK for Microsoft.NET directly from Visual Studio to get started!

A Range Slider that allows you to dissect and visually analyze your numeric data.

Using the interactive, on-screen range slider, you can quickly direct attention to different areas of interest within your data. Pro 1.1 puts these tools into your hands to explore your data and watch your project come to life. This video shows an example of the range slider at work, using range definition queries to explore a building one floor at a time.

The ability to publish 3D scenes containing multipatches.

Multipatch features are 3D objects composed of a connected series of triangular patches. They add visually exciting 3D volumetric content to your scene by representing natural, manmade, or even purely analytical 3D features. The most common example of multipatch data is buildings, but you can also convert other symbols like extruded shapes, cars, and bus stops, into multipatches to publish them to a web scene. In Pro 1.1, you can start with 2D data, like simple building prints, easily visualize them in 3D and publish stunning 3D content and share it with the world. You can see examples of published web scenes with interactive 3D views and multipatches on the Living Atlas.

Layout enhancements, you can now add guides, use snapping, and the add extent indicators.

These enhancements help streamline your workflows and create consistency throughout your layout projects.

Support for working with Excel tables directly.

The seamless interaction between Pro and your Microsoft Excel files allows you to quickly update, edit, and interact with your data and readily visualize it on a map.

Date line wrapping allowing you to pan, edit, and work across the International Date Line.

Your projects are no longer restricted by the edges of a map!

Pro 1.1 gives you seemingly endless options for creativity and ingenuity with spatial data. Whether you’re using big data for creating maps, extending the app with our new SDK for .NET, designing tasks that make your work more efficient, or simply searching for a way to tell your story, you can do it all with Pro.

There are so many reasons to click that button, update Pro, and start exploring. With the power of Pro 1.1, you will find yourself uncovering hidden stories in your data, finding solutions to your mapping challenges, and maybe even adding symbols to a 3D building upside down in outer space. I can’t wait to see what Pro 1.1 inspires you to create!

We’ve come a long way from Gutenberg’s printing press. Communicating your message is easier and faster today than at any point in history. Within minutes, you can publish a blog or build a website. Also within minutes, you can make maps for the world to see and have everything hosted in the ArcGIS Online cloud. Now you can just as quickly and easily communicate in 3D like never before using scenes. Scenes are like 3D maps but with additional controls for viewing location and lighting controls to deliver rich 3D experiences to broad audiences. You can share scenes with anyone using a modern web browser – no plug ins or logins required. You can also embed scenes in your websites or incorporate into Story Maps.

Across all industries ArcGIS users are communicating in 3D to:

• Visualize within the context of the real world
• Present information with more realism and remove interpretation
• Communicate with non-technical audiences
• Drive more informed decisions faster

Below is a collection of new scenes that illustrate the power of communicating in 3D. Explore and gain inspiration from this collection and others found in the Living Atlas of the World.

1) Visualize New Developments http://arcg.is/1LkC5TN

Over half the world’s population now lives in cities. Cities are dynamic ecosystems constantly changing to meet growing demands of urban populations. This scene illustrates a fictitious urban development project in the City of Portland, Oregon USA, and provides a means of visualizing proposed new developments within the context of the existing built environment. You can use scenes like this to communicate changes in a more realistic way with decision makers, stakeholder, and the public. Learn more about creating your own 3D city

2) The Field Neighborhood Park Shadow Impact Study

Story Map: http://arcg.is/1SLhV6f

The impact of shadows on public spaces is becoming an important regulatory topic as cities become more vertical. This story map describes a fictitious story of a city planner conducting a shadow impact study to help enact zoning regulations to ensure future developments do not create afternoon shadows on a new park. The analysis shown is part of a new 3D Cities workflow, which provides step-by-step instructions, tools, and sample data for conducting shadow impact analysis. The workflow calculates analytic information required in shadow impact regulations (e.g. net shadow increase) from cities like San Francisco, Boston, and Toronto.

3) Geodesign: Design for a Complex World

Story Map: http://arcg.is/1BFa7QB

Urban and regional planners use geodesign to envision better futures for communities and drive powerful decision making. Bringing geography to the planning process gives you context for anticipating trends and helping people make highly informed choices about their communities. This Story Map illustrates the 3 steps to getting started by combining the power of GIS with smart 3D city modelling to facilitate data visualization, scenario impact simulations, and storytelling.

4) Palm Beach County 3D Bathymetry

Story Map: http://arcg.is/1fRexdP

Web Scene: http://arcg.is/1h3hnwH

3D is not just about cities and buildings. This scene incorporates near shore bathymetric data captured from LiDAR down to 100 feet of depth. 2D polygon layers are overlaid to identify unique features such as coral reefs, areas where sand was dredged to replenish the beach, and areas of interesting benthic habitat. Using Story Maps are a great way to communicate your message and ensure your audience sees and understands your scene the way you intend. For more on incorporating your scene into a Story Map see this blog article: Using 3D web scenes in Story Maps redux.

5) Pictometry 3D Scene http://arcg.is/1ghCtaG

Pictometry is a leader in providing high quality photo textured 3D models. This scene combines Pictometry’s 3D buildings for San Francisco and Philadelphia with Esri server-based 3D streaming technology to deliver a rich 3D experience to the desktop and the browser without a plug in. Combine these two ingredients with your existing GIS layers to communicate across your organization.

6) Montreal, Canada Scene http://arcg.is/1U4izOu

This scene is an example of 3D city, containing like elevation, basemap, and 3D buildings. These layers form the foundational base layers for future work with other operational and analytic layers. This scene uses a ready-to-use 3D terrain layer and basemap hosted by Esri. The buildings are provided as open data through the City’s Open Data Portal [French] in GML format. The data were transformed into a geodatabase using tools and documentation provided on in the 3D Cities “Import and export CityGML data” workflow.

7) Berlin, Germany Scene http://arcg.is/1JbGrYU

This scene is another example of a 3D city. Similar to the Montreal scene the building data are provided through an open data portal and transformed into a geodatabase using CityGML conversion tools. Unique to the Berlin, Germany Scene is a high resolution terrain elevation layer added to the scene. The default 3D terrain provided in the ArcGIS Online web scene viewer includes 30 meter elevation data for the Berlin area. The City of Berlin provides an open 2 meter elevation layer, which was added to the scene to increase elevation accuracy and ensure the 3D objects align well with the terrain.

8) 3D GPS Activity: 33KM Bike Ride http://arcg.is/1HFIUuK

Sometimes scenes can just be about having fun. This web scene maps data from my bike GPS computer in 3D. Those who participate in human powered activities like cycling, running, or hiking understand that physical exertion increases when traveling uphill. Many sports activity apps will map your route and provide separate graphs for speed, heart rate, etc. The purpose of this scene is to combine all those elements in one place to better understand the interplay of heart rate, speed, and the terrain, and explore techniques for visualizing the data.

Back in July, ArcGIS Pro 1.1 was released which included the brand new ArcGIS Pro SDK for .NET.  We are pleased to announce an update to the existing ArcGIS Pro 1.1 SDK for .NET which adds support for the Visual Studio 2015 IDE.  With this update, Visual Studio 2015 Professional, Enterprise, and Community Editions are now supported, in addition to Visual Studio 2013 which continues to be supported since our initial 1.1 release.

Developers using the Visual Studio 2015 IDE can now download the ArcGIS Pro 1.1 SDK via the Visual Studio Extensions and Updates feature, just like with Visual Studio 2013.

The ArcGIS Pro SDK for .NET is based on the add-in extensibility pattern and with it you can leverage modern .NET features and patterns such as Task Asynchronous Programming (TAP), LINQ, WPF Binding, and MVVM to write integrated 2D/3D add-ins.

The SDK was discussed in some Esri blogs earlier this year, namely in a What’s Coming post in April and in a When Should You Use the ArcGIS Pro SDK post in May.  Both are helpful in understanding some key concepts, and the May post also includes links to helpful DevSummit 2015 technical sessions.

For more information about learning and trying out this exciting new SDK, there are some great resources available online, including:

• A wiki page with key concepts, installation information, requirements and resources
• An extensive FAQ page
• A growing list of community samples in C# and VB
• An API Reference Guide
• The GeoNet ArcGIS Pro SDK Group

We look forward to hearing from you about your experiences with the ArcGIS Pro SDK, and what you and your organization are building.  As always, you are welcome to submit your ideas at the ArcGIS Ideas site.

Stay tuned for more updates on what’s coming at the 1.2 release!

ArcGIS Pro 1.1 Patch 1 (1.1.1) is now available for download from My Esri. ArcGIS Pro version 1.1 must be installed prior to installing this patch. If ArcGIS Pro 1.1 is already installed on your machine and you have kept the default option to be notified when an update is available, you will see a notification message appear inside the application that tells you the 1.1.1 patch is available for install. For more details on how to apply ArcGIS Pro software updates, check out the following blog: How to Apply ArcGIS Pro Software Updates. For the issues addressed in 1.1.1, please see the list here.

The next full release planned for ArcGIS Pro will be version 1.2 currently scheduled for Q1 2016.

Have you ever wondered how to explain what GIS is all about to your family and friends? Are you wondering what in the world to give these same family and friends as gifts this Christmas? Well, here is one idea for your consideration.

The ArcGIS Book: 10 Big Ideas about Applying Geography to Your World is a publication from Esri Press that lets GIS professionals like you help loved ones understand the amazing work you do every day (and even lets them experience it firsthand!).

Available at your favorite online or brick-and-mortar bookseller, the full-color, handsome print edition looks great on a coffee table and invites interest and questions. Pick it up and browse, then go to a computer or tablet device and link to the free companion website to see the interactive examples come alive. For those who catch the GIS bug, there are even free ArcGIS trial software and real world tutorials to complete the ultimate GIS holiday immersion.

This year, give the gift of GIS.

The New Year is just around the corner, and with it, the Esri Developer Summit in Palm Springs, scheduled for March 8 – 11, 2016.

The ArcGIS Pro SDK Team has put together a very comprehensive line-up of technical workshops to help you get up to speed with the .NET Pro SDK at Dev Summit.  This year the team will also be offering a two-day pre-summit hands on training course, March 6 – 7.  If you’re looking for a great opportunity to get introduced to the Pro SDK directly from the Pro SDK Team, this is the place to be.  Plan to bring your own device and get ready to learn.  Register early as there are only 45 seats available for this hands-on training course.  Just register for Dev Summit and then you can register for the pre-summit course.

Here’s a quick take on the Pro SDK offerings at Dev Summit 2016:

Pre-summit Hands-On Training:

.NET Pro SDK Workshop – at the Hard Rock Hotel

March 6–7, 8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.

This two-day hands-on training course will introduce you to the fundamentals of using the ArcGIS Pro .NET SDK to customize and extend the application. With this 64-bit native .NET SDK, you can create add-ins to automate existing processes and to include new capabilities that you design and write. This set of APIs exposes to .NET developers core aspects of ArcGIS Pro: 2D, 3D, sharing, integration with ArcGIS Online, Geodatabase, Geometry, Editing, Layouts, and more. The APIs are asynchronous and support multi-threaded programming. This course assumes that you already have at least a few months experience using ArcGIS Pro and developing Windows applications using Visual Studio.

One-hour Technical Sessions offered during Dev Summit:

ArcGIS Pro SDK for .NET Programming Patterns
Learn how to write add-ins for ArcGIS Pro. We introduce the ArcGIS Pro SDK for .NET.  We cover declarative programming with DAML and the Pro UI Elements. We delve into Pro’s new asynchronous APIs learning how to use async and await and Pro Framework’s QueuedTask.

ArcGIS Pro SDK for .NET:  UI Design and MVVM
Learn how to write Add-ins for Pro with advanced user interface components. We focus on MVVM and integration of WPF to write compelling UIs with Pro. We also cover multi-threading considerations when developing UIs in Pro.

ArcGIS Pro SDK for .NET:  Editing and Geodatabase Integration
Learn how to write construction and editing tools in Pro. We customize both the DAML and code-behind to integrate custom construction tools into the Pro Editor and layer Create Feature templates. We introduce edit operations for creating and modifying Geodatabase features.

ArcGIS Pro SDK for .NET:  Animation and Map Exploration
Learn about the camera for 2D and 3D and 2D and 3D selection with Map Tools. The second half of the session introduces the new Animation API for Pro.

ArcGIS Pro SDK for .NET: Integration with ArcGIS Online
Learn how to write ArcGIS Pro add-ins that take advantage of Pro’s integration with Portal and ArcGIS Online. Use EsriHttpClient and Json.Net to search and retrieve Online items such as map services, feature services, and web maps and add them to your project. We cover item uploading as well.

We look forward to seeing you in March.  In the meantime, we encourage you to check out the many SDK resources available, like the Pro SDK wiki on GitHub and familiarize yourself with the concepts, FAQ page, ProGuides, ProSnippets and many community samples.  This will help you make the most of your time in the Dev Summit Pro SDK workshops.

 Happy Holidays from the Pro SDK Team!

Bringing holiday cheer with ArcGIS Pro and the Pro SDK.

Music credits:  Emmy Rossum, “Carol of the Bells”, http://www.emmyrossum.com

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sometimes a simple idea leads to something quite fascinating. Since its publication in 2013 I was inspired by Louis Spirito’s Baseball’s Many Physical Dimensions poster. The poster shows the relationship between the 30 Major League Baseball ballparks in the USA and provides a fascinating picture of how their spatial dimensions differ. Positioning them in the same imaginary location at the same scale was a great way to juxtapose each ballpark and create something visually interesting and informative. So how might this approach work for other sports? How, for instance, might it work for football (a.k.a. soccer) where the pitch markings at first glance appear consistent with one another?

Despite the apparent regularity of the markings on a football pitch they do in fact differ considerably in overall size because pitch length and width can vary within certain minimum and maximum dimensions. Then there’s the orientation as pitches can align to any point on the compass. The question, then, was…what happens if you map the 92 pitches of English and Welsh professional football clubs accurately and then overlay them? Would it create something interesting? Would most pitches be the same size? Would they overlay neatly or not? The result proved fascinating and the way in which the eventual map produced used remarkably simple techniques in ArcGIS for Desktop.

The first task was to generate a set of pitch markings as a line feature class in ArcGIS. I used ArcGIS Pro but this job is just as easily done in ArcMap. I chose the largest pitch (Nottingham Forest’s) as the template. The external pitch lines were built using Create Feature tools to draw a rectangle. The internal lines were then added using specific lengths of line or other known dimensions such as the radius of a circle defined by Law 1 of the Laws of the Game of football. Lines were trimmed, polygons split and unnecessary construction lines discarded to leave just the pitch markings.

This set of lines were then grouped and could be copied and then positioned in place over a high resolution imagery basemap in ArcGIS Pro, zoomed into each of the 92 pitches in England and Wales. The grouped lines could then be rotated according to the correct angle of alignment for each pitch. With a bit of editing, the pitch markings are then modified to fit the specifics of the pitch in question. The key here is that editing required moving internal lines rather than just scaling all the lines. While external lines are different lengths, internal measurements are the same for every pitch. Snapping tools become incredibly useful while editing. Extraneous line segments at each corner were trimmed. Each pitch is different so each required manual editing of the pitch template to fit to the aerial imagery.

To build a graphic showing all overlayed pitches all of the 92 grouped sets of linework in the pitch marking feature class were selected and converted to graphics (this bit had to be done in ArcMap using Convert Features to Graphics). With them all selected they were then aligned horizontally and vertically (using the Align tools on the Draw toolbar) and…hey presto, they all sit atop one another, rotated around the centre spot.

The pattern is similar to what you might get with a spirograph and the uniformity was surprising as there was no dominant orientation shared by the pitches. The final poster was created in a layout in ArcGIS Pro with the overlayed graphic positioned on the left with some pitches represented in different colours to show the largest, widest, longest, narrowest and shortest pitches. Pitch polygons were also added behind the main spirographic image. These were constructed using a set of rectangular polygons for each pitch intended to mimic the appearance of striped mown grass. They were converted to graphics and aligned in the same way as the pitch markings. Each pitch was displayed at 95% transparency to create the internal pattern of the overlapping mown grass. Just to be clear what sport is being represented in this abstract way, a football image was added to the same diameter as the pitch centre circle.

For the right side of the poster, it was simply a case of adding a map frame to the layout for each pitch, in order of area size, all at scales of 1:5,000.

The use of small multiples and the addition of Ordnance Survey Open Map Local data to show the stadiums gives a sense of each pitch in isolation and in rank order from largest to smallest. The addition of the stadia shows that there really isn’t a relationship between the ‘big’ clubs and pitch size. It’s fascinating to see how some relatively minor clubs have large pitches and the game’s giants actually play on a smaller surface.

The final poster was completed with various text components to provide details of pitch dimensions and stadium miscellany, an explanatory paragraph, a pitch marking diagram and a scatter graph showing the relationship between pitch length and width. The full size poster is available as a download from ArcGIS Online here. There’s also a web version that simply allows you to use bookmarks to navigate to each of the 92 clubs here. and if you simply want to download and use the pitch marking data in your own projects then you can do so here.

This project started out as a ‘what if..?’ map experiment. Many do. It’s sometimes worthwhile re-thinking how spatial data of all types might be re-purposed in different ways to create something new and interesting. Happy map experimentation!

Want to bring your local government into the world of 3D visualization? Not sure how to derive 3D scenes from your 2D data? Think it will take too long to learn how to build great looking 3D scenes?

Today is your lucky day.  Local Government Scenes is now part of ArcGIS for Local Government. Local Government Scenes is a growing collection of configurations to quickly author great-looking 3D scenes at local government scales.

Once authored, scenes can be shared throughout your organization, providing consistent 3D views to everyone.  Scenes can be utilized for building foundational 3D views, bringing 3D capabilities to existing workflows and creating new 3D applications.

Each Scene download includes toolboxes, maps and projects to author 3D scenes in ArcGIS Pro or ArcMap.  Downloads also include sample data to practice with.

The first release of Local Government Scenes includes the Basic Local Government Scene.  Authoring this scene will give your organization a 3D view with Level of Detail (LOD) 1 buildings.  LOD 1 represents buildings as block models by extruding their footprints.  Future scenes under development will provide you the capabilities to easily publish 3D views with higher LODs.

So what are you waiting for?

Download the Basic Scene and get started.

In war zones, rockets are just one tool insurgents use to combat friendly forces (roadside bombs, snipers, and ambushes are also common). GIS aids in the predictive analysis needed to defeat these threats.

Actionable Intelligence is a new Learn ArcGIS lesson that shows you how military intelligence analysts, during their first field training exercise in California, use ArcGIS Pro to identify and locate the insurgents firing rockets at their base. In this tutorial, you will map data from a spreadsheet with information about enemy attacks and symbolize the data to better understand the battlefield. Then, using spatial and temporal analysis, you’ll discover the patterns behind these rocket launches—information your commander needs to prevent future rocket attacks.

The geoprocessing tools presented in this tutorial are based on standard Esri Commercial off-the-Shelf (COTS) technologies and commercial data. Information about the ranges of insurgent rockets were obtained from the US Army’s Worldwide Equipment Guide, December 2010, and are approved for public release under Distribution Statement A.

ArcGIS Pro was created from the ground up in order give you the best performance possible from a desktop GIS application. A major aspect of this improved performance is the ability to easily connect to your local and shared data, your co-workers, your clients, and the world. This complete connection is fundamental for the new way of implementing GIS beyond the single desktop machine and even further than a client (desktop) and server connection pattern.

This new, full implementation of ArcGIS allows you to take your work to new levels of efficiency, productivity, mobility, and collaborative sharing. The key to this connectivity is the concept of personal identity within the GIS ecosystem. This identity is created by way of Named Users within the ArcGIS platform, either on premises or in the cloud. A Named User account is how you access ArcGIS Pro and, at the same time, connect to authoritative content, and other GIS users and consumers.

Some users have let us know that while this new model greatly appeals to them and they are implementing it, they would like to have additional options for licensing ArcGIS Pro. We always listen to our users, and because of this feedback, we have created more options for you to license ArcGIS Pro.

With the release of ArcGIS Pro 1.2, licensing administrators and licensed users can choose how they access their software. Some of the new options include concurrent licensing using a license manager and the ability to lock a license for use on only one machine. This familiar licensing model matches what you have been using with ArcMap, and you can still login with your Named User credentials to use ArcGIS Pro in conjunction with your ArcGIS implementation, either on premises or in the cloud. For more information please watch this video:

If you would like more information on ArcGIS Pro or would like to try it free for 60-days, visit: www.esri.com/pro

While your laptops, desktops, and servers are not running ArcGIS 10.4 yet, you can get a not-so-sneak peek at the documentation for ArcGIS 10.4 right now. Last week we updated the ArcGIS for Desktop and ArcGIS for Server websites to incorporate help for the upcoming release. We recommend you view the following topics in preparation, or review the help topics in general.

Switch between 10.3 and 10.4 topics

Of course, you’re not working with 10.4 yet. And even after its release, it may be some time before you’re ready to upgrade. You still need quick access to documentation for ArcGIS 10.3x. The Other versions dropdown is here to help. You’ll find it located just below the topic title.

When viewing a specific help topic like What’s new in ArcMap, you can use the Other versions dropdown to switch over to this topic’s 10.3x counterpart. If that topic was not available at the 10.3 or 10.3.1 releases (perhaps it’s about new functionality or it was added in response to user feedback), the Other versions dropdown will still appear but the switch for 10.3 will be disabled.

When you switch versions, you remain in the context of the selected version as you move around. You can browse to other topics in that tab, search, and even move to help topics under other tabs. The version resets to 10.4 when you navigate to the Home tab, open a version-agnostic page such as Pricing, or when you end your browser session.

If ArcGIS 10.4 is really far into your future, you may want to add these links to your bookmarks. They open the help with the 10.3 version selected:

• ArcMap 10.3x & its extensions – http://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/10.3/main/get-started/
• ArcGIS 10.3x for Server – http://server.arcgis.com/en/server/10.3/
• Portal for ArcGIS 10.3x – http://server.arcgis.com/en/portal/10.3/

Note: There are a few cases in the ArcMap documentation where what you see when you switch between 10.3 and 10.4 differs. The 10.3x ArcMap documentation includes System Requirements and Quick Start Guides for the entire ArcGIS platform and some other Esri products, even though this content is not exclusively about ArcMap. It also includes the ArcGIS License Manager Guide which is a component shared by the entire ArcGIS platform, not just ArcMap. For 10.4, the ArcMap documentation only includes the system requirements and quick start guide for ArcMap;  this information for the full ArcGIS platform is provided separately. The ArcGIS License Manager Guide is also provided separately. Here are the direct links for your reference:

• ArcMap 10.4 system requirements and quick start guide
• System Requirements (All ArcGIS) – updated for 10.4 release
• Quick Start Guides (All ArcGIS) – updated for 10.4 release
• ArcGIS 10.4 License Manager Guide

Why make these changes?

Historically, we’ve done a poor job connecting documentation for previous releases to documentation for our most recent releases. This means you might google for information about the Buffer Tool and end up reading a topic written for ArcGIS 9.3! Much of the topic may still be valid for your version of ArcGIS, but parts have probably changed significantly over the last five releases. Of particular concern is that when you’re looking at the 9.3 help topic, you can’t discover and get to the latest help topics in any straightforward way. The “Other versions” dropdown begins to address this issue for ArcGIS 10.3, 10.4, and future releases. Over time, we will also add some connections between the documentation for older releases and the latest release. However, because of structural differences, versions prior to 10.3 will not be accessible via the “Other versions” dropdown.

Other changes are being made to ensure that when you use Google or Bing to search for ArcGIS information, the most recent help topics appear near the top of your search results, not the ones we published seven years ago. We began this effort with the 10.3 release when we began to use human-readable filenames and logical URL patterns for the various parts of the ArcGIS help. As noted above, for 10.4, documentation that targeted the full ArcGIS platform was moved so that it no longer exists under the ArcMap-specific folder. We also made some less noticeable URL path changes that further defined these logical patterns and structures. These URL patterns help search engines understand our content structure better; and we think they make sense to humans too!

-          ArcGIS Documentation Team

¹ Documentation and resources for ArcGIS Pro, the newest app in the ArcGIS for Desktop family, can be found at http://pro.arcgis.com. The changes noted above are not applicable to the ArcGIS Pro content.

The Esri Development Team invites you to participate in a moderated and recorded GIS Experience Study of the ArcGIS Pro SDK.

Who we’re looking for:

• Existing ArcGIS Developers
• Users with varying degrees of experience

…who customize the user interface to streamline workflows and extend built-in functionality to accomplish unique tasks using the ArcGIS Pro SDK.

In total, we’re looking for 12 committed testers.

How it works:

Our goal for this study is to assess the testers’ user experience with the ArcGIS Pro SDK; we want you to test our software, we’re not testing your GIS or SDK programming skills.

To consider you as a SDK usability tester, we require that you are registered and approved by your employer to attend the 2016 Esri Developer Summit and complete a pre-screening questionnaire—details below. Your time in the test lab is about 40 minutes.

Your test session will be recorded and observed by members of the Development Team.

Click here to sign up.

We thank you in advance for your time and look forward to meeting you in Palm Springs.