ESRI International User Conference 2007, d2, d3, d4 + Wrap Up Updates!

Well there wasn’t much information that came out the ESRI International User Conference 2007 for days after the plenary so I thought I would share some of the information that we received from a few of our team that was at the UC.

Zorko who is one of our consultants in our Professional Support Team has written up an awesome technical update of some of the sessions he went to.

VISUALIZATION WITH ARCGLOBE

• Use ArcGIS Online to download template documents. These may have higher resolution imagery available than default ones, at least for USA.
• There is a façade tool from ArcScripts (id 14040) that improved 3d building display
• Use layer properties to have multiple displays of 3D data (no texture, low resolution texture, hi resolution texture)
• www.mayang.com/textures is free resource for download of various textures
• ‘3D graphics’ is a new toolbar at 9.3
• KML will have separate toolbar at 9.3
• ‘Find nearby’ tool will utilize ArcGIS web services
• Use ‘Cache deployment wizard’ to manage and deploy cache

LABELING, ANNOTATION EDITING AND TEXT PLACEMENT

• Straight option for polygon labeling is using longest axis of the polygon

ARCSDE CONFIGURATION AND UPGRADE STRATEGY

• We were given handout sheet with steps for upgrade (client and server, PC and Unix)
• Unicode support is enabled by default in 9.2. If not needed turn it off
• High precision allows storage of 4 503 599 627 370 000 geodatabase units (exact number)
• If using application server connection upgrade clients first
• If using direct connect upgrade simultaneously
• KB 31494 discusses support for 32 and 64 bit ArcSDE

MOBILE GIS USER GROUP MEETING

• Windows Mobile 6 comes in 3 flavors:
• Standard (no support for touch screen, 2 tier security)
• Professional (support for touch screen, 3 tier security, includes Remote Desktop Mobile client)
• Classic (for PDA, non smart phone, etc)

SILVERLIGHT RUNS ON LINUX

ADVANCED MOBILE BUILDER

• Calculate value tool is designed for model builder, can use code block
• ‘Merge Branch’ tool should be used in combination with precondition property to complete if/then
• Use !shape.area! statement in BLOCKED EXPRESSION to get access to area of features in a shapefile without adding and populating new field
• Probably there was more but I got sick and had to leave…

ARCGIS SERVER ADMINISTRATION, CONFIGURATION, TUNING AND OPTIMIZATION

• ESRI’s recommended connection type is direct connect (open to discussion IMHO)
• For dynamic map services:
• Use minimum number of required layers
• Hide unnecessary fields
• Use simple or character marker symbols
• Use EMF instead of BMP for symbol fill
• Use integer fields for symbol values instead of character values
• Use ESRI_Optimized style (>50% speed increase)
• Use annotation instead of labels
• Build indices on fields
• Use label weight and label priority sparingly
• Avoid special effects on text (halo, background, etc)
• Avoid text with 60+ size
• Avoid Maplex
• For cached services set number to number of CPUs or Cores + 1
• Simplify data (generalize) and models
• Us in memory data for geoprocessing (models)
• If you have more than 4 threads per SOC process use high isolation
• For polled instances use 2-4 instances per CPU or core
• Citrix NetScaler can boost up network performance
• Have at least 2 GB of RAM per CPU or core
• Reduce number of services per server
• Use NAS, RAID and fast SCSI disks
• Use Server Statistics in ArcCatalog for investigation of possible issues
• Use Microsoft’s Fiddler for investigation of HTTP communication (www.fiddlertool.com)
• On XP disable Simple File Sharing
• Use web stress tools like MS application Test Centre or Jakarta’s Jmeter

MANAGING DISTRIBUTED DATA WITH GEODATABASE REPLICATION

• Replication can be used with other data distribution techniques like Mobile ADF
• You can replicate specific version, dataset of features
• 3 replication types are
• Check In / Check Out – parent must be ArcSDE
• One way – can be simple of full (support for networks and topologies)
• Two way
• YOU MUST HAVE WRITE ACCESS TO DATA
• All data must be registered as versioned
• All data must have GLOBALID column
• All data must be in high precision
• For terrains, only components are replicated, not the terrain itself
• Metadata is replicated this is in the works for 9.3
• Connected synchronization – both GDBs are on the network, can send changes both ways or one way
• Disconnected synchronization – messaging done by user, gdbs are not on the network
• Send acknowledgment messages to reduce amount of information sent, also helps cleanup of data
• Replica reconcile policies
• Favor database
• Favor import – apply imported value
• Manual – user must resolve conflicts
• Use Synchronize Changes GP tool for automation
• For schema changes
• Field dropped – skips the field
• Apply schema before synchronization
• There is new feature class, replica footprint created by geoprocessing tool. It includes replica properties
• Changes in 9.3
• Extending replicas to file and personal gdb
• Support for XML files over 1 GB
• Improved logging in case of unsuccessful synchronization

ADVANCED CARTOGRAPHY IN ARCGIS

• Check samples in developer kit to create your own geometric effects
• New at 9.3
• Greater selection handles
• More keyboard shortcuts
• Dialogs to convert units of measure
• WYSISWG for editing representations
• Disperse markers symbols GP tool

ENTERPRISE GEODATABASE TUNING TIPS AND TRICKS

• Client’s responsibility
• Better workflow design
• Better geodatabase design
• Optimized ArcObjects code design
• Optimized MXD
• Testing
• Understanding the technology
• Remote SDE install – for unsupported database
• Remote SDE install, CPU clock is the key, RAM is secondary
• Check PERMISSION_CACHE_TRASHHOLD keyword for SQL server at 9.2
• Use SP2 for SQL Server 2005
• Use built-in database roles like db_datareader (reduces time for reading of system tables)
• Sde commands use single precision
• User can control logging mode – ERRLOGMODE keyword
• T- time stamp
• C – computer
• Read KB 25159 about TCPKEEPALIVE setting

As you can see this is really good information for those that were not at the UC, so thanks for this Zorko. Zorko’s blog can be found here: http://zergone.blogspot.com/. It includes a bundle of other information along with pictures which can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/ZergOne/KiwiNight, http://picasaweb.google.com/ZergOne/UCDay23, com/ZergOne/ESRIUCDay1 href="http://picasaweb.google.com/ZergOne/ESRIUCDay1" mce_href="http://picasaweb.google.com/ZergOne/ESRIUCDay1">http://picasaweb.google.com/ZergOne/ESRIUCDay1.

So I think that covers everything you needed to know as to to what content was shown in some of the sessions