DataLink for ArcGIS

Licensing and prerequisites

The Datalink for ArcGIS is a licensed feature. Please contact Geocap sales for information on how to obtain a license. To verify for yourself if you have this license you may examine the license file and look for the feature called gis.

The Datalink for ArcGIS is only available in the 32bit version of Geocap. You will also need an existing ArcGIS 10.x desktop license to be available on your machine.

The Maritime Zones plugin in turn requires the Datalink for ArcGIS plugin and the Shelf module.

To load the ArcGIS datalink plugin:

1. Click Tools, then Options
2. In the Options dialog select the Plugins page
3. Check the Datalink for ArcGIS button
4. Optionally, check the Maritime Zones button to load the Maritime Zones plugin.
5. In the ArcGIS Version field choose the version of ArcGIS that is installed on your machine.
6. Click the OK button to close the dialog
7. The checked plugins will be loaded

When the ArcGIS datalink is loaded you will find several GUI elements from ArcGIS Desktop embedded in the Geocap user interface. These include:

• The Table of Contents
• The ArcMap 2D view
• Standard ArcGIS Desktop toolbars

If these controls are hidden they can be accessed using the View or Windows entries in the main toolbar.

General Usage

All tasks described in this section require that the Datalink for ArcGIS plugin has been loaded, which was described in the previous section. Using the embedded ArcGIS components such as the ArcGIS toobars will not be explained in  detail, since the user is expected to have basic experience with ArcGIS desktop software.

When managing ArcGIS data in Geocap you often have a choice whether to use the embedded native ArcGIS controls or the existing Geocap project manager along with the standard Geocap 3D display:

• You may add ArcGIS data to a Project. This data can only be visualized in the standard Geocap 3D window.
• You may also add data in the native ArcGIS Table of Contents control. This is the same control that is found in ArcMap and is used to contain your map and map layers. This will typically be docked on the left in the main Geocap window similar to a project. Data in the Table of Contents can only be displayed in the ArcMap 2D display.
• The native ArcMap 2D display is created in a dedicated tab called "GIS". You may also Access this using the Windows menu.
• If the Table of Contents is not visible it can be accessed by clicking the View menu and then Table of Contents.

The following image shows the Table of Contents control along with a Geocap project.

Some limitiations apply in how the ArcGIS controls and the standard Geocap controls work together.   

• Data can be opened either in the Table of Contents or in the Geocap project manager
• Data in the Table of Contents can only be visualized in the ArcMap 2D window.
• Data in the project manager can only be visualized in the Geocap VTK window.
• Data in the project manager that reside in a geodatabase in a Geocap project can be transferred to the Table of Contents using cut and paste.
• Data in the Table of Contents can not be transferred to the project manager.

Viewing ArcGIS maps in Geocap.

To load an ArcGIS map document file (.mxd) into the ArcGIS Table of Contents:

1. Click File then Open. Click the File entry in the submenu.
2. In the file dialog select the *.mxd filter
3. Open the Map Document map
4. Cilck OK to close the file dialog
5. To view the map in the table of contents, click View and Table of Contents
6. To view the map in the map view click Windows and ArcMap
   

You can also open a map document file using the Open toolbutton in the ArcGIS toolbar.

To load an ArcGIS map document file (.mxd) into the Geocap project manager:

1. Create a new project or open an existing one
2. In the project toolbar click the Add Data Source toolbutton
3. Click Add Data Source
4. On the connection dialog choose a user friendly name that describes the map file. This is optional.
5. In the Datasource field choose ArcMap Document
6. Click the Browse button to select the mxd map file
7. Click Connect
8. A map node will be created in the project. This is a link to the existing mxd file. No data is copied.

To visualize map data in the table of contents:

1. Click View and select Table of Contents
2. Check the map layers that you wish to view
3. Click Windows and then ArcMap
4. The map data is shown in the ArcMap 2D view

To visualize map data in the project manager:

1. Select a layer that is not a group layer.
2. Right click on the layer node 
3. If the layer is a feature layer click Display Features
4. If the layer is a raster layer click LOD Grid Display
5. If the VTK graphics window is not visible click Windows and then click the entry corresponding to the active graphics window.

Connect to an ESRI Geodatabase

There are two ways to access an existing geodatabase in Geocap.

1. Click the '+' toolbutton in the standard ArcGIS Desktop toolbar. This will add ESRI data sources to your map in the Table of Contents, including data from a geodatabase.
2. Add a connection to the geodatabase from the Geocap project manager.

To create a connection to a geodatabase from the project manager:

1. Create a new project or open an existing one
2. In the project toolbar click the Add Data Source toolbutton
3. On the connection dialog choose a user friendly name that describes the geodatabase. This is optional.
4. In the Datasource field choose File Geodatabase
5. Click the Browse button to select the .gdb directory containing the database
6. Click Connect
7. An object will be created in the project that denotes the database connection. 
8. Right-click the connection object and click Refresh
9. Links to the geodatabase database will be shown as child objects. No data is copied.

To create a new geodatabase in the project manager:

1. Create a new project or open an existing one
2. In the project toolbar click the Add Data Source toolbutton
3. Click Create ArcGIS File Geodatabase
4. The database creation dialog pops up. There are two alternatives for the location of the new geodatabase:
   1. If you create the database inside the project directory the geodatabase will and relative path names will continue to work even if you change the location of the Geocap project
   2. If you create the database outside the project it can more easily be shared by several projects or other applications, but the database can no longer be accesed by the project if the project is moved offsite.
5. Choose the database location and name and click OK
6. The geodatabase is create on disk and a new database object is created in the project manager.

To create a new feature dataset in the geodatabase:

1. Right-click on a geodatabase link in the project manager, then click New and Feature Dataset.
2. The new feature dataset will be created.

Visualizing data in a geodatabase.

To visualize data from a geodatabase in the Table of Contents:

1. Check the geodatabase item in the Table of Contents.  The data will be displayed in the ArcMap 2D window.
2. If necessary locate the ArcMap window in the Windows pulldown meny in the main toolbar.

To visualize data from a geodatabase in the project manager:

1. Locate the database connection object in the project and expand to locate the data that you wish to view. This must be a feature class or a raster, which are the currently supported types.
2. Right-click the data object 
3. For a feature class click Display Features. For a raster dataset click LOD Grid Display
4. The data will be displayed in the VTK 3D window. If necessary locate the window in the Windows pulldown meny in the main toolbar.

Examing data properties and attributes

Most of the data objects in the project manager geodatabase and the Table of Contents can be examined by right-clicking on the object and clicking the Properties entry. In addition, attributes of feature classes and feature layers can be examined by clicking the Open Attribute Table entry in the right-click menu,

When opening an attribute table in the Table of contents the table and the ArcMap view will have two-way selection notification similar to that found in ArcMap.

Data conversion

This section describes the various options for transforming data from the native Geocap VTK format to ArcGIS formats, as well as how to copy data onto map documents. The supported conversions are:

1. VTK Polydata to an ArcGIS feature class in the geodatabase
2. VTK Image data or grid to ArcGIS raster dataset in the geodatabase
3. Copy geodatabase data to the map in Table of Contents using drag and drop
4. Copy map layers to the Table of Contents in a running ArcMap application using drag and drop

More conversions may be added in the future. Note that  seismic data and point cloud data conversion is not supported.

To copy VTK data into the geodatabase:

1. Right-click the VTK dataset that you wish to copy.
2. Locate the geodatabase object in the project that you wish to copy into
3. Right click the geodatabase object and click Paste
4. A dialog will pop up showing you various options for tranforming the VTK data to a corresponding ESRI data format. Which conversion dialog is shown depends on whether the VTK data format is a raster dataset or polydata. If the source dataset is VTK Polydata the dataset will be split into two feature classes, one for points and for the the cell geometry. You may choose one or both. In most cases you will also choose to flip the Z values, which is default.
5. Geocap will try to determine the ESRI spatial reference that corresponds to the one in the source dataset. If you think the chosen suggested spatial reference is wrong you may browse and select one of the standard ESRI spatial references.
6. Click  OK to perform the conversion and close the dialog 
7. The result data will be found in the project  under the geodatabase connection.

Note: You cannot paste into a feature dataset in the geodatabase.

How to create a new layer from geodatabase data in the project:

1. Right-click the feature class or raster dataset in the geodatabase connection in the project manager.
2. Right-click the top-level dataframe node in the Table of Contents.
3. Click Paste
4. A new layer will be created in the map in the Table of Contents.

How to copy layers from the Geocap Table of Contents to ArcMap:

1. In the Geocap Table of Contents click the layer that you wish to copy
2. Drag and drop the layer onto the Table of Contents in a running ArcMap Application

How to create a group layer in the Table of Contents:

1. In the Table of Contents right-click the top Level dataframe Object or an existing group layer.
2. Click New Group Layer.
3. The New Group layer will be created.
4. Right-click the New Group layer in order to create subgroups.