“ArcGIS Pro 2.5 Functionality Every GIS Professional Should Know” Webinar Q&A

May 22, 2020

Emilie Rabeau

Thank you to everyone who attended the ArcGIS Pro 2.5 Functionality Every GIS Professional Should Know webinar on May 13. It was a great opportunity to share some of the new productivity enhancements we have been looking forward to and showcasing new ways of working with 3D data.

You can access the webinar recording here and presentation here.

We’ve had a tremendous response to this session and some great questions from our engaged audience. We didn’t have a chance to address all questions live, so as promised we put together a Q&A that covers the group’s questions.

PRODUCTIVITY ENHANCEMENTS

The first portion of our webinar was dedicated to enhancements introduced in ArcGIS Pro 2.5 that will help you get your work done. We covered topics like the new table enhancements that allow you to search tabular data to find specific values and make specific updates to individual values. We also covered the new integration of Jupyter notebooks with ArcGIS Pro and the ability to easily schedule geoprocessing tools to run later or with recurrence. Here are some questions that came up.

Q: Can I export the model I built in Model Builder to ArcGIS Notebooks?

A: The only options include exporting a model to a Python script using the Export to Python File or Send to Python Window options under the Export button on the ModelBuilder ribbon. Both options will generate the same Python code which could then be further edited in an ArcGIS Notebook. More information is available here.

Q: Does ArcGIS Pro need to remain open in order to run a scheduled geoprocessing tool?

A: As long as all the changes to the ArcGIS Pro project are saved and the “Sign me in automatically” option is selected when using a Named User license, ArcGIS Pro does not need to be open and active at the time a tool is scheduled to run.

Q: Is chart symbology supported in ArcGIS Online for hosted feature services?

A: No, web feature layers do not support chart symbology. You can read up on the rendering issue you will encounter if you try publishing a feature layer with chart symbology as a web service. As an alternative, a feature layer with a chart symbology can be published as a Tile Layer to ArcGIS Online or Portal for ArcGIS. Chart symbology has recently been suggested on the ArcGIS Ideas GeoNet page, if this is a feature you would find useful you can upvote this post.

Q: How is ArcGIS Notebook different from Jupyter Notebooks?

A: ArcGIS Notebooks are simply Jupyter notebooks. New in ArcGIS Pro 2.5 is the ability to create, edit and save Jupyter notebooks as part of your ArcGIS Pro project with the new ArcGIS Notebooks option which is Esri’s Jupyter notebook environment. The notebooks you create in ArcGIS Pro will leverage the ArcGIS Pro Python environment which you can customize through the Python Package Manager, the Python Command Prompt or through Anaconda. Here are additional resources to check out:

Q: Will the Find and Replace tool trigger attribute rules, if they are set up?

Yes, attribute rules will be triggered! The Find and Replace tool is a table enhancement that allows you to search tabular data to find specific values and make specific updates to individual values. The Find portion of Find and Replace scans the table for matching results, while Replace changes a value. Any edits, including those made using the Find and Replace tool, that affect the geodatabase will trigger an attribute rule.

Here are great resources to get comfortable using attribute rules in your editing projects:

It’s important to keep in mind that the Replace portion of Find and Replace is intended for small, direct changing of values such as Street to Road. The Field Calculator should be used to perform an update that uses complex equations or references other fields.

Q: You mentioned the ability to set a default docking location for attribute tables, does this include my second monitor?

With new user interface options, you can define where in the application table, chart and ModelBuilder views appear when you open them. By default, table and chart views dock below the active map while ModelBuilder views show up stacked on top of the active view. Within your project options (Project > Options > Application > User Interface), you can define whether Tables, Charts and ModelBuilder views first open docked below the active map, stacked on top of the active view or as a separate floating window.

New user interface options available.

You can define where Table, Chart and ModelBuilder views are docked using new user interface options.

Since the user interface options are application settings stored in your user profile, they will be honored for all ArcGIS Pro projects.

SPATIAL DATA SCIENCE

The second portion of our webinar was dedicated to tools that have been introduced in the last few releases of ArcGIS Pro which provide new ways of analyzing spatial data. A variety of tools have been added to improve working with multidimensional data (example, netCDF, Esri Mosaic, Cloud Raster Formats), to apply space-time statistics and visualizations to your raster time series data and uncover patterns in your data with new modeling tools. Here are some questions that came up.

Q: Where can I find Spatial Data Science resources to learn more?

A: The spatial statistics resource page is a great place to go to find presentations, hands-on learning exercises or tips and tricks from the Spatial Statistics team. Bookmark this page and stay up to date on the new tools and functionalities that become available.

Q: You demonstrated new multidimensional analysis tools, where can I find the data you used?

A: Multidimensional data represents data captured at multiple times and/or multiple depths or heights. This data type is commonly used in atmospheric, oceanographic and earth sciences. Multidimensional raster data can be captured by satellite observations where data is collected at certain time intervals or generated from numerical models where data is aggregated, interpolated or simulated from other data sources.

The common storage format for multidimensional raster data includes netCDF, GRIB, and HDF. Oceanographic data is often stored in a netCDF format (.nc), weather data in GRIB format and NASA often uses HDF format to store scientific data.

The demo leveraged sample data for sea surface temperatures which was published by Esri and can be found here. It's from the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s (NCAR) Research Data Archive and contains 35 years of monthly sea surface temperature data. For an overview of multidimensional data please check this document.

It's possible to create netCDF files from any multidimensional dataset, this means it has spatial information (x,y) that also varies in depth (z) or time (t). To get started, please check out this blog post which will show you how to create a netCDF file on python from common formats like point shapefiles, tiff rasters, or comma-separated files.

3D ADVANCEMENTS

The final section of the webinar was dedicated to all things 3D. There is now greater BIM-GIS interoperability, improvements to the Pixel Editor and new 3D editing options. Here are some questions that came up.

Q: Where can Canadian LiDAR data be downloaded?

A: A few options exist to find LiDAR data to power your next project. The Canadian GIS and Geospatial Resources site provides free Canadian LiDAR data for a variety of geographies.

If you are on the hunt for Ontario geospatial data, we recommend browsing the Ontario GeoHub for a variety of raster derivative packaged products, which can be found in the Elevation category. The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) is actively developing and uploading a new full-feature Ontario Digital Surface Model LiDAR-Derived raster product to the GeoHub and should hopefully be available soon.

The High Resolution Digital Elevation Model (HRDEM) is another great resource for country-wide LiDAR data published by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan). It includes a Digital Terrain Model (DTM), a Digital Surface Model (DSM) and other derived data.

Q: You quickly demonstrated how a Shadow Impact Analysis could be done in ArcGIS Pro. Is it possible to calculate spatial shade locations to find where shade is maximized during the day?

A: Shadow Impact Analysis is a configuration of ArcGIS Pro that can be used by local governments or city planners to assess the potential shadow impact of the proposed development on the surrounding community. Shadows can be calculated for a specific time of day or aggregated over a whole day.

For example, planners and architects can use Shadow Impact Analysis to determine the additional shadow impact of a proposed development on a neighboring public park or school playground for any day in the year. Check out this tutorial to learn more about Shadow Impact Analysis and deploy your own solution.

You might be interested in new functionalities that have been introduced or enhanced with the release of ArcGIS Pro 2.5 that we didn’t have a chance to cover, you can check out the complete list here.

Thanks again for tuning in for our webinar, consider registering for one of our upcoming webinars.