ArcGIS Explorer has detected that a newer version (450) of software is now available.
Before proceeding with the download, please exit any open ArcGIS applications and the Update Available dialog box.
Note: Developers using the ArcGIS Explorer SDK that are updating to ArcGIS Explorer Build 450 are required to update to ArcGIS Explorer SDK Build 450.
What's New in ArcGIS Explorer 450
ArcGIS Explorer 450 is an update release that includes the following changes:
This release closely follows the release of ArcGIS Explorer 440. Refer to the
information below for changes and new features introduced with ArcGIS Explorer 440.
What's New in ArcGIS Explorer 440
ArcGIS Explorer 440 introduced many significant changes and enhancements. You can learn more about these changes and new features below.
ArcIMS Support Enhancements
The access and handling of ArcIMS-based services have been improved with a variety of new capabilities, increased performance, and usability enhancements. These include the following:
It is no longer necessary to toggle between Globe Services and Map and Globe Services to create or access an IMS connection. IMS and WMS connection choices now appear with ArcGIS Server connections by default, and all types of services can be opened from the list of connections displayed in the Open Content dialog.
When connecting to IMS Services you will see additional dialogs in the Open Content wizard. You can choose an imagery format that is best suited for satellite imagery and aerial photography, or one suited for vector, scanned, or thematic maps.
IMS sub-layers can now be accessed. You can choose from the available sub-layers when connecting to the IMS service by checking the box for the desired layers. Only the selected sub-layers will be included in the ArcGIS Explorer layer. The visibility of IMS sub-layers is persisted when saving and reopening a map.
Drawing performance of IMS services has been improved. Your performance will vary depending on specifics of the IMS service, the imagery format used, and the IMS server hardware configuration. In many cases IMS performance may be increased two to six times.
Rendering of IMS services has been improved, with enhanced transparency and labels display.
New Default Symbols and User Defined (Custom) Symbols
New symbols have been added to the default style set for ArcGIS Explorer. In addition to these new symbols, users can add their own custom symbols from local or Web resources.
ArcGIS Explorer 450 includes an updated symbol style set, with many new pushpins and other graphic symbols. These symbols provide billboarding capabilities, so symbols will alway remain upright and face towards the user regardless of the view perspective. The symbols will enlarge slightly on hover. The new symbols can be accessed from Symbol Properties.
The default symbol displayed when a symbol is not found in a style will be: points - red pushpin, lines - red, polygons - red.
Users may add their own point symbols by choosing from any .jpg, .png, or .bmp file. The file will be automatically sized and stored in the user's style file (My.ServerStyle), located by default at:
C:\Documents and Settings\<user_name>\Application Data\ESRI\ArcGIS Explorer\Styles
In addition to local files, symbols may be fetched from a network or internet location by specifying the appropriate network path or URL.
The following Help topic provides additional information:
Result Management Enhancements
You can select or unselect contiguous collections of results by using the <SHIFT> key. You can also add or remove results using the <CTRL> key.
Right-click the results to export the selected set to an NMF, remove them from the list, or edit their properties.
Layer Properties
Layer properties are now available to view, and in some cases, edit. Properties can be opened via the layer context menu. The properties listed, and whether they are editable, will vary depending on the layer source (e.g., local data source vs. Web service connection).
New Popup Capabilities and Popups For Features
Popup windows have new capabilities, and are now supported for features as well as results.
When links are included in popup window content, a new browser will be launched when the link is followed. Previously, the link would open in the popup window itself. This enables all of the navigation tools to be accessible for followed links.
When possible, popup windows will size automatically to the displayed contents. The maximum size of a popup window is half the screen size.
Popups now display the attributes of features stored in layers. Click on a feature to display its popup window. The style of the popup is controlled from the ArcGIS Explorer home server via an .xsl style sheet.
By default all attributes will be displayed. To select which attributes are displayed in the popup, use the layer context menu to open its properties, then choose popup content. Choices for layer popups include showing no popup window, selecting fields to display, or choosing a hyperlink.
HTML may be used directly within the popup window content. Any HTML tags may be used.
The following Help topic provides additional information:
Fly To or Move To Option Added
The user can specify whether to use Fly To or Move To as the default navigation action by choosing Tools > Options and selecting Flying To under Flight Characteristics. Fly To now replaces Zoom in the results context menu.
Fly To will use the currently specified Point-to-Point speed and Liftoff Distance properties to navigate to a new location. Move To uses an unanimated Fly To.
The following Help topic provides additional information:
Relative Pathnaming Support
Relative pathnaming is now supported as a new Data Access map property. To enable relative pathnames use the new checkbox found by choosing File > Map Properties... and selecting Map and Data Access.
Using this option any local data included in your map will contain pathnames relative to the location of the saved map.
The following Help topic provides additional information:
Display Overlay
A new Map Property has been added that allows you to choose a PNG file that can be displayed in various locations on the map. This property is useful for marking maps "confidential" or placing other logos and graphics within the map frame.
The following Help topic provides additional information:
Extended Cache Management
The ability to specify the cache refresh time interval has been extended to include all layer types. This allows you to specify a refresh rate to fetch new cache from the server, enabling automatic refresh of dynamic content. In addition, when these layers are saved in a map the cache for any time-refreshed layer is automically refreshed on open.
Improved Map Handling
When you double-click a map to start ArcGIS Explorer, and the map contains only layers, results, or tasks, the default startup map will be opened, and the results, tasks, or layers will be added to the default map.
Geocoding Improvements
A number of improvements have been made to file geocoding capabilities, including the handling of geocoding errors.
When importing addresses from text or .csv files, the limit of addresses that can be matched at one time has been raised to 200 addresses.
Address geocoding errors (non-matchable addresses) are now included in the list of results. This information can be used to verify and correct non-matchable entries.
The following Help topic provides additional information:
Resource Center Additions and Improvements
The ArcGIS Explorer Resource Center now contains additional tabs for Tasks and Results under Contents. A direct link to the ArcGIS Explorer section on ArcScripts has also been added. The Community Showcase user interface has been enhanced to streamline the process of adding contributions, and searching for and managing your submissions.
SDK Updates
The ArcGIS Explorer SDK has been updated to reflect additional functionality and changes which have been implemented with this release. Please refer to the SDK Help for details on these updates.
Other Enhancements
A slight lag when animating at high speed has been resolved, and performance has been increased. Streaming has been enabled during navigation.
The default Fly speed when traveling point-to-point is now 3x faster than before. An options setting of 1.0 is now 3x faster than in previous versions, a setting of 2.0 is now 6x faster than previous versions.
KML popups now display with leader lines pointing to the location of the placemark, and general improvements have been made to KML and KMZ handling and display.
Measure Area functionality has been added to the Measure task. Both Measure Line and Measure Area now support creating results.
The Routing and Driving Directions tasks now use the new green, yellow, and checkered flags from the new default symbols, replacing the spheres used previously.
The default angle for following along routes had been changed from 45 degrees to 33 degrees. The default follow along speed is now 10x faster.
Navigation devices from 3D Connexion are now supported. See
www.3dconnexion.com for more information on this device.
Support has been added for displaying raster fields when identifying objects in a file geodatabase.
Explorer installation files will now be placed in a folder specific to the ArcGIS Explorer version being downloaded. This change will prevent the setup files for older version of ArcGIS Explorer from being overwritten.
ArcGIS Explorer 450 Bug Fixes
ArcGIS Explorer 450 has been improved with the following bug fixes: