James Fee GIS Blog

Well I think most would agree, the 2008 DevSummit was one of the best.  There was tons of new stuff to learn about, much more attendees, more ESRI staff, better layout of the conference (the Community Center was particularly good) and better session (and more of them).  So what did I take away from the [...]

I don’t think there is anything wrong swinging by the office on the way home from the Developer Summit to pick up the 9.3 Beta disks to install tonight while I watch UCLA destroy Mississippi Valley State. My wife just doesn’t understand me but I’m happy with who I am. Lets see, I have my [...]

I’m not sure why this “blog” post is getting much traction. I see no reference to where they got that information, I see no information about what this API is going to be (you can already skin AGX). All I see is ESRI Marketing sending a small email to Directions Magazine and they posting it [...]

The ArcGIS Explorer team has released the update to build 440 that addresses some of the issues that cropped up: Fixes problems on startup that have occurred with certain graphics cards and drivers. Fixes symbol display issues that have occurred with certain graphics cards and drivers. Resolves a problem with vector lines flickering when the [...]

ESRI is about to release an update to ArcGIS Explorer. Build 450 will add no new features, but will resolve a number of graphics card related issues that we inadvertently picked up at 440 (via ArcGlobe apparently). There has been some discussion in the ESRI forums about this issue: This problem was introduced by OpenGL [...]

On Friday the Google Summer of Code Blog posted very interesting news about touchEarth created by Pawel Solyga. touchEarth, an application he developed that allows you to control Google Earth using two finger gestures on multi-touch table. touchEarth uses the Google Earth COM API to control some of Google Earth’s features, while all the multi-touch [...]

The ArcGIS Explorer Blog just announced that AGX build 440 is available: The ArcGIS Explorer Team is pleased to announce that today, at approximately 1:58 p.m. PST, the newest version of ArcGIS Explorer – Explorer 440 – was released. If the ESRI servers are your home servers, you’ll be notified that there is a new [...]

Wondering how OpenGL changes things with ArcGIS Explorer? Take a look at this YouTube video of that draws wind vectors on top of the globe that the ArcGIS Explorer blog demonstrated: You can see how some folks are quite excited about the possibilities.

Keith Fraley says: I really think there are two notable points with this release, that aren’t prehaps getting that much attention in the blogosphere You know what, he’s got a great point. Subsurface navigation is a huge deal because that is one of the biggest complaints I’ve heard about Google Earth from some clients. Of [...]

ESRI has updated the ArcGIS Explorer Resource Center. Looks nice and I see they have a new Share tab (at least new to me). There is your GIS ESRI community right there folks.

ArcGIS Explorer Build 410 is now available for download. There are quite a bit of new “enhancements” at build 410 including a new “Find Address Task” that is much easier to use. Go get the download. You can also download an ArcGIS Explorer Wikipedia Task that will allow you to explorer Wikipedia entries within ArcGIS [...]

ESRI has posted a notice saying that there will be some updates to the ArcGIS Online services: On August 9-10, 2007, the ArcGIS Online system will be updated to improve the network routing for service requests. We do not expect this to affect the availability of the ArcGIS Online services but you may experience some [...]

ArcGIS Online (and since ArcGIS Explorer uses ArcGIS Online as its source) has begun to add better imagery for Europe. [S]atellite imagery for part of Europe has now been added to ArcGIS Online. This imagery has a resolution of 2.5 meters per pixel and covers most of France and parts of adjacent countries. Look for [...]

There is somewhat of an announcement on the ArcGIS Explorer Blog about the next release of ArcGIS Explorer. In the Showcase and at the sessions we were using both the currently available public download (Build 380) and also showing one of the more recent software builds (Build 392) to highlight some of the new features [...]

UPDATE: I have no idea why ESRI doesn’t believe in permalinks so all those links below do nothing special. Sorry. I’m not going and probably most of you aren’t either so this might be your best bet as to getting an idea what might or might not be said Monday morning. ESRI International User Conference [...]

Explore the World with ESRI ArcGIS Explorer ESRI announced today that ArcGIS Explorer is available to the public. This unique lightweight application lets you not only connect directly to a variety of ready-to-use globes hosted by ESRI but also provides tasks that allow you to do more than just visualize a simple map. You can [...]

I figured I’d try Chad’s Mogadishu Refugee Migration KML in ArcGIS Explorer and see how it looks. Click for larger view While it appears that KML rendering has improved, its still not able to handle transparency. Take a look at the same KML in Google Earth. Click for larger view KML support in AGX still [...]

This has been a pet peeve of mine and its not just a problem with ESRI ArcGIS Explorer. Google has the search figured out just about perfectly. Give the user one text box to enter in their search query and return results. Microsoft’s Virtual Earth has not gotten this right yet. I don’t understand the [...]

The 1 meter imagery looks good and I can see my office clear in Tempe, AZ. Click for larger view AGX still fails the Matterhorn test though. Click for larger view

ESRI has released ArcGIS Explorer Build 380 is now available for download (or auto update from inside ArcGIS Explorer). Some of the new improvements are: New Default Map – 1m for contiguous USA with speed improvements. It looks much, much better than Build 350 and faster New Navigator – the old AGX navigation has been [...]