A new
ArcView extension for geologists and hydrologists
If
you have ever tried digitizing a geology map into GIS, chances are
you have had to struggle with how to capture and symbolize strike-and-dip
symbols. These are the symbols used to depict the angle and direction
in which rock layers dip into the ground. Each little symbol packs
a lot of information: the type of "contact" the rock layer makes with
the surface, the direction of the layers (known as the strike angle,
and sometimes also depicted with text), and the angle of dip.
I am pleased
to announce that I have created a new ArcView extension, called Strike-n-Dip,
specifically designed to help capture and symbolize these symbols
in ArcView. The extension is easy to use, comes with a manual and
help file, and can be ordered by phone or online. The extension costs
only $75. I pay for shipping. You can even download a full working
version from my Web site at www.elroi.com/strike-n-dip.
Features
The
extension will automatically create a specialized Strike-n-Dip point
shapefile to store these symbols. It will prompt you to create a list
of contact types, which you can then use to assign to each symbol.
You
can enter the strike angle in azimuth or bearing and distance, or
the extension will automatically compute it for you. It will even
convert from one type of angle notation to the other for you.
When you
use the extension to assign a legend for the shapefile, the legend
will be automatically associated with the shapefile. After that, any
time you or anyone else uses the shapefile in ArcView, whether or
not the extension is installed, the same symbols will be assigned
to it.
You
can digitize symbols from a digitizing board, from a scanned and georeferenced
map image, or simply by eyeballing it on the screen. Since the symbols
are applied, rotated, and scaled as you add them, you get immediate
feedback as to whether a symbol was entered and attributed correctly.
When
it comes to plotting these symbols out on a map, the Strike-n-Dip
extension allows you to specify which angles to annotate (strike,
dip, neither, or both). It then places them on the map offset correctly
as you would expect to see them on a hand-drawn or CAD geology map.
The
extension comes with a form that allows you to determine your preferences,
such as whether your maps depict the dip angle to the right or left
of the strike symbol, 
and
whether you prefer to enter strike angles in azimuth and bearing angles.
These preferences are remembered by the extension from one session
to the next.
Download
it today
The Strike-n-Dip
extension is ready to be downloaded at www.elroi.com/strike-n-dip.
Once you receive it, simply e-mail sales@elroi.com
with a request for an evaluation license, or you can download the
request form and fax it back.
Please
try the Strike-n-Dip extension for ArcView - I think you will like
it!
David
Maguire is the Director of Products at ESRI. To User Conference goers,
he is the serious guy with the funny British accent up on stage on
the first day. To ESRI employees, he is the only guy who shows up
to trade show booths in a suit and tie while they are snappily dressed
in golf shirts. But to most ESRI users he is an unknown. You should
probably get to know him - he is, by most accounts, the number 2 man
at ESRI, Jack's right hand man. ESRI-who-dislikes-labels would probably
shudder at this description, but let's face it. Hand picked by Jack
in 1990 to lead the British office of ESRI, David moved to Redlands
in 1997 and is now part of the team of four or five people who are
ESRI. So, what does David Maguire have to tell us about the near future
of ESRI software? This is the first part of an interview David granted
me in April.
About
ArcInfo 8 and ArcObjects
Q:
Tell me about the new components in Arc-Info 8 - what's so special
about them?
A:
[ArcInfo 8] is the biggest GIS project ever undertaken, inside ESRI
or anywhere else. Arguably the biggest COM project ever undertaken;
in terms of COM objects it is, if not in terms of people and lines
of code. What's distinctive about ArcInfo 8 is the granularity of
the technology. If you look at Microsoft Office, it's a collection
of ten to twenty large applications with COM interfaces off them;
whereas ArcInfo is actually a collection of about 800 components with
interface software off them. So the granularity is an order of magnitude
different. [Old] ArcInfo was one of those monolithic systems. There
was Arc, Arcplot, Arcedit and Grid, so there were four parts to it,
each of which had a whole bunch of commands. If you looked at the
Arcplot command reference it was over 2,000 commands. Whereas ArcInfo
8 is a collection of about 750 to 800 individual objects, each with
requests which are assembled together through an application framework,
which is the ArcCatalog and the ArcMap and the ArcToolbox.
Q:
These objects, ArcObjects, are they going to be the basis for all
future software development at ESRI?
A:
We haven't put all of our eggs into a single basket. ArcObjects is
built using COM technology from Microsoft. We're well aware that in
parallel with developments in COM there is also a very strong market
and technology lobby to support Java, Java Beans. So we're also building
technology based on enterprise Java Beans. Much our strongest, best
developed, and largest technology endeavor has been to build COM components
to build our software; but in parallel with that we're also working
on building Java code; that's really what's at the heart of our Internet
strategy.
On COM,
Java, and everything...
Q:
Please elaborate on the different technologies you are implementing
now.
A:
My thinking on this is that ESRI has really got three major things
going on right now. We've got attempts to build high performance interactive
desktop and client server GIS; that's our COM technology for ArcInfo
8 and other, associated products. Our second technology strategy is
harnessing the power of the Internet in GIS We've been doing two things.
We've been building an Internet-based infrastructure and also building
some services and clients that work inside that infrastructure. That's
our enterprise Java Bean technology, and ArcIMS is the principal product
which expresses our work in that area. And then the third effort is
server-centric GIS That's pulling together the work from ArcSDE and
also some of our Arc-IMS stuff.
So I think
in the long term I'd really see ArcIMS as being an infrastructure
or glue, which allows us to glue distributed users and remote systems
together in an enterprise using HTTP and XML as a messaging system
to allow those two systems to communicate efficiently.
Q:So
you're saying that ArcIMS is all Java?
A:
It's all Java. We've built Java infrastructure for interfacing to
Java servers and servlet technology which runs on the server side
and supports request brokering and interfacing to other systems. And
we've built enterprise Java Beans which run on the client side to
create Java applets or in fact a Java-based standalone application
which runs on the desktop.
Q:
There has been a lot of hype about Arc-IMS - how much of it is real?
A:
ArcIMS is a product out of the box, it's an integrated solution allowing
someone to build a complete scalable Internet GIS system. Our role
is to build a generic application which most people can use out of
the box; and to support extensibility for people who want to go beyond
that or to do things in different areas, in different ways. To me
the really exciting thing about this is that we've already started,
and this will be a big push for us in the next twelve months as we
integrate this all together. So that you will be able to have, for
example, ArcView 8 on the desktop, talking across the Internet to
an ArcIMS server, which is running ArcMAP at the back; and the whole
thing will work together.
On ArcInfo
8.0.2 and 8.1
Q:
Wait! ArcView 8? Tell me more about the upcoming software releases.
A:
ArcInfo 8.02, which includes ArcSDE 8.02 as well [is currently shipping].
We fixed well over 500 bugs, added better internationalization support
for double byte character support and things, we ported to Windows
2000, and we did a few other bits and pieces that were never quite
ready for 8.01. In a separate conversation, David confirmed that some
pretty serious performance issues existed in version 8.0.1 when it
comes to handling coverages, and assured me that these have been addressed
in version 8.0.2.
The next
big ArcInfo 8 effort is ArcInfo 8.1. The goals of this project are
twofold. One is that we want to enhance the platform to support some
more fundamental data types. This would include geocoding, linear
referencing (dynamic segmentation), and also making some more extensions
to the geodatabase to support improved object based editing and some
other things. Another case in point would be ArcSDE ported to work
on Informix and DB2. And the image stuff, too, [will be] in SDE.
We want
to co-release [extensions] with 8.1. GeoStatistical Analyst should
be out earlier, with 8.0, as will ArcFM Water. And then at 8.1 we
also plan to add the next generation of 3D Analyst and the next generation
of Spatial Analyst. The idea is to merge together Grid and Spatial
Analyst; and to merge together TIN and 3D Analyst. These will be supersets
of the pairs of systems based on our COM technology and integrated
completely with ArcMap and ArcCatalog. That will ship this year. Definitely.
Next time:
the future of ArcView and much more
My goodness,
I've been busy! Since the last newsletter I have started helping ISSI
Consulting, Inc., a successful government environmental consultant,
with their work at the U.S. Air Force
Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Currently, I am involved
in database and ArcView and IMS applications design.
I am pleased
that Adams County, Brighton,
Colorado, has chosen to extend my training contract. I am training
the GIS staff to use Arc-Map to create a brand new County Atlas.
Across
the country, in Newark, Delaware, I have been assisting Fiscal
Associates with some ArcView-based software they have created
for market analysis.
In the
mining industry, I have began assisting Peabody's
Powder River Coal Company, in Gillette, Wyoming, with migration
strategies to ArcInfo 8. ArcMap offers them exciting opportunities
to upgrade existing applications and link them to new database.
Back in
Denver, Colorado, I have been assisting Telsoft
Corporation with staff augmentation, to support some of their
ongoing MapObjects projects.
Finally,
I have began an exciting project with The
Orton Family Foundation, of Rutland, Vermont. The producers of
a new ArcView-based suite of software, called CommunityViz, the foundation
supports smart development in small communities. Together with The
Carta Group, Ft. Collins, Colorado, and Allpoints
GIS, Boulder, Colorado, I am developing training materials, user
manuals, and workbooks.
