Tag Archives: Mapping
Using Stamen and MapBox tilesets as basemaps in ArcGIS.com
In his recent blog entry Adding tile layers to your web map, Chris Whitmore explained how the March 2013 enhancement to ArcGIS Online supported the addition of a range of new file types to web maps. Chris described the approach of adding tile layers to web maps which allows you to use web-accessible map tiles from a server directly using a URL request from the browser. In this blog entry I show you how this approach can be used to integrate Stamen and MapBox tilesets in your ArcGIS Online web maps.
Design principles for maps using statistical data
On Thursday afternoon 6 September 2012, the 150 seat Lecture Theatre 2 at Victoria University of Wellington’s Pipitea Campus was full to overflowing with policy analysts, people who work with statistics and spatial data, students and people interested in a presentation which explored the design principles for statistical mapping. Continue reading
Using ArcGIS for sports analytics
By Damien Demaj, Cartographer The statistical component of sport has always provided a fascinating way to analyze performance and success. This might simply be the final score, but for some sports, such as football, baseball, cricket, golf and tennis, meaningful … Continue reading
Mapping and Imagery blog posts
By Aileen Buckley, Mapping Center Lead, and Simon Woo, Raster Product Engineer
With the update to the ArcGIS blogs as a result of creating a single blog that reflects ArcGIS as a system, you can now find more easily useful map-related information in posts from some of the other teams.
In this blog entry, we point out a number of posts that have been published on the Imagery blog that may be of interest to the Mapping Community. And conversely I note a number of Mapping blog posts that may be useful to the Imagery community. These blog posts will now appear if you search in either the Imagery or the Mapping category.
Invalid Geometry Check Explained…
What exactly does Data Reviewer’s Invalid Geometry check find? Before I provide an answer, let’s explore how invalid geometries are introduced in your geodatabase in the first place. Typically loading data from shapefiles or CAD files can introduce invalid geometries. When data is migrated into an enterprise geodatabase using the simple loader invalid geometries such as empty, null, and no envelope will be filtered. However, if you’re using a third party data migration tool, all features including invalid geometries could be migrated. Similarly, when importing data into a personal or file geodatabase all geometries will be copied over. While the Check Geometry geoprocessing tool reports such geometry problems, it only works on shapefiles and personal or file geodatabases, and not on enterprise geodatabases. That’s where Data Reviewer’s Invalid Geometry check is helpful.
The check returns features that meet one of the following conditions:
1. Nothing
2. Empty
3. Has an empty envelope
4. Not simple
Save, Share and Quickly Apply Map Settings
When it comes to map production one of the most common challenges is to manage all of your organization’s mapping standards. Esri Production Mapping’s views helps address this challenge. With views you’re able to save your data frame and layer properties to the geodatabase and apply them at any time in ArcMap. This ensures production staff are utilizing the latest and greatest map settings defined by your organization, and promotes standardization and consistency across your map products.
Auto-Complete Polygon vs. Production Difference Polygon Tool
One of the most common problems that can occur when working with vector data is maintaining coincidence.
Maintaining coincidence between adjacent polygon features is important when modeling real word information in a GIS. There are a number of tools in ArcGIS 10 for Desktop that allow users to edit and create features that share boundaries, thus helping to eliminate gaps, slivers, and overlaps.
Managing your Data Driven Pages in Product Library
Previous blog posts have introduced you to data driven pages and product library but referred to them as separate, standalone tools. In this blog I’d like to show you how to use product library to manage your data driven pages. Now you might be asking why I would want to store my data driven pages in product library. Remember, product library helps you enforce and standardize your map production processes by centrally managing all of your production related information such as business rules, documents, workflows, and spatial information. By storing your data driven pages in product library you can take advantage of product library’s capabilities such as search, history tracking, check-in and check-out capabilities, permissions, and so forth.
In the following steps I’ll walk you through a basic workflow for importing and managing a US State map book in product library.
1. In ArcCatalog, create a new file geodatabase.
2. In ArcMap, add the Production Cartography toolbar and click the Product Library window button.
A Spatially Enabled Document Management System
We all know managing spatial data, map products, and documents are critical to the success of any GIS work being performed. When producing many versions of your map documents and outputs, current databases and file systems are not well equipped to simultaneously manage these. And it can be a daunting task to manage changes to these files, including knowing which version is the latest and being able to access historical versions if necessary. Also, conflicts may arise when files are not centrally managed which can compromise a schedule or budget, introduce unnecessary risks, and jeopardize the success of your work. Typically, you would use the geodatabase for spatial data storage and management, SharePoint for document management, and maybe a file server for your map product management. If you’re looking for one tool that could do all of these and more, you are reading the right blog post!
New Light Gray Canvas Basemap
A couple of nice additions to the ArcGIS basemap gallery were made last week. For more information checkout this post on the new Light Gray Canvas basemap on the Mapping Center blog.
Here’s a post on the Desktop blog with more information on accessing the new basemap in ArcMap
