Whether you are a seasoned GIS user or new to ArcGIS Pro, your operating of ArcGIS Pro will be improved by considering the configuration of it. Whenever I create an ArcGIS Pro project, or teach others how to, I always remember to note that – whilst you can accept the workspace defaults that Pro offers you, you do not have to! You are the operator, and you should spend a few moments considering the options you have so that Pro works better for you. ArcGIS Pro Start page including settings, templates and learning resources When you create a project, ArcGIS Pro generates a folder structure cont ..read more

The ArcGIS system contains a diverse portfolio of individual products that meet the wide needs of our customers. From a capability and technology perspective this choice is great news, from a licensing perspective it has made life a little complex. The user type model, introduced in 2018, successfully combined capabilities and apps together to align with the needs of different GIS users. We’re excited to announce that updated user types are coming to ArcGIS that expand these and simplify the licensing. Effective from June 2024, we are updating the user type license model to use six role-based ..read more

Today we are excited to announce the Beta release of our new British National Grid Terrain 3D Elevation Layer. This opens a whole new world of 3D data and experiences in ArcGIS Online. Best of all, the layer is freely available through the ArcGIS Living Atlas of The World. This service provides two significant improvements. Firstly it allows you for the first time to use Esri UK’s open basemaps within a 3D scene. Secondly it allows you to display 3D data with British National Grid coordinates without the need for reprojection, saving you time in your workflows. In this post we will explore how ..read more

Three acronyms, but it’s not as complex as it appears—thanks to work behind the scenes, you can now access features from Ordnance Survey’s National Geographic Database (NGD) directly in ArcGIS Online. With the NGD API, you can access up-to-date, authoritative OS data for buildings, land use, road networks and more. Best of all, by accessing the data through the OS’s API, you can get just the data that you want, where you want, and when you want, without having to maintain or download large datasets. How to get started: The first step is to retrieve your API key and API service URL from the OS ..read more

The use of data warehouses to store and analyse large amounts of information within organisations is growing. Many of those organisations are wanting to better understand how this can work with their spatial data and in particular, ArcGIS. ArcGIS is positioned as a system that can analyse and visualise data in data warehouses, specifically Snowflake, Amazon Redshift and Google BigQuery. ArcGIS client apps do not edit data in data warehouses. I wanted to use the Stats19 dataset around Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire and see how it could be used in Snowflake with all the various ArcGIS clien ..read more

ArcGIS Survey123 is an app dedicated to creating effective surveys for collecting your data quickly and with ease and can be shared with a wide audience. To suit your survey needs, it’s available in two offerings: Survey123 Web for quick survey creation in a simple drag and drop interface and Survey123 Connect which uses XLS forms to create surveys and can provide more advanced configurability. But which offering will suit you I hear you ask? Well, first written in 2021, ArcGIS Survey123: Web or Connect blog compares the functionality of both offerings. Since 2021, ArcGIS Survey123 has had a h ..read more

Have you ever thought about the most effective way to not only collect, but edit and update spatial data? ArcGIS Field Maps is one of our mobile offerings designed to help mobile workers perform data collection and editing, find assets and information, as well as report their real-time locations. In this blog, I will reference my first foray into the world of Field Maps Designer and specifically creating a smart form for collecting data using an example of a geological field exercise. As well as introducing what Field Maps can do, this blog will also highlight how you can personalise your data ..read more

Last year, I shared a vision of generative AI in GIS at the Esri UK Annual Conference 2023 I showed how large language models like ChatGPT can extract and categorise spatial information from plain text, how AI assistants might transform how we interact with GIS, and how AI can suggest smarter mapping styles that adapt to our needs. Finally, I showed how the next evolution of AI can automate entire workflows like creating a Story Map from the information in a blog article. This is obviously all really exciting stuff and I’m sure you now can’t wait to jump in and start using this technology for ..read more

Beautiful cartography, effective labels, elegant styles – a lot of time and effort goes into creating maps. But we shouldn’t stop at the maps we create. A well thought through app design isn’t just about making something ‘pretty’, it’s about capturing your audience’s attention, aligning with branding and considering a design that supports the map you want to share. In ArcGIS, we have a set of web app builders to ensure you are fully equipped with the necessary tools and capabilities. To understand these different app builders, I recommend watching the Configuring the right kind of app for your ..read more

Why edit a utility network? You can switch on your lights, fill the kettle, and turn on the heating thanks to complex networks distributing electricity, water, and gas to our homes and businesses. Without a good understanding of a utility network, we would quickly be plunged into darkness on understanding where maintenance is needed, ideas for modernisation would run dry, and the thought of futureproofing our infrastructure would quickly float away. If you work in the electricity sector, you’ll be aware of developments such as the need to understand the best location for electric vehicle charg ..read more