arcgis 10 ... 2011

Alamak ... so long since I updated this blog ... busy with work (and riding). happy new year old and new readers (hopefully still interested) ... wishing everyone healthy, prosperous and peaceful new year.

Before 9.3 (and turbo 9.3.1) settled in ... we have ArcGIS 10. I wasn't too impressed with the speed of this release (see how fast Arc10 service pack 1 released) ... its better ESRI really test and debug thoroughly ArcGIS software before actual release. Release should be in 3 year cycles ... not 2 releases in a year ... very disruptive and unproductive for technical ppl like us. A lot of precious man hours wasted updating service packs and re-installing ... job security for some consultants (and ESRI developers) I suppose. Also it really doesn't help if hardware, graphic card and RAM needs serious upgrading for Arc10 ... if the release was planned properly large agencies can budget and plan hardware refresh better (don't say I didn't warn about the hardware spec upgrade for Arc10).

Arc10 has new features long overdue ... mainly the new editing environment (templates, toolbar, mini-toolbar), selections and snapping. I really think all this should have been featured in Arc92 ... I was promoting these features from my earlier blogs too ... editing was really bad in comparison to AutoCAD and Microstation. ArcPy and Python in Arc10 looks promising ... especially since it can interact with ArcMap interface better now ... am not too sure how it will replace the popular VBA but its in the right step. Python still has to communicate with COM classes to make things run in ArcMap ... so am not too sure how much faster scripts will run. Map Navigation and the new display accelerator does a good job too ... not really that impressive because other software packages have it already ... its about time ArcGIS caught up ... the display refresh and white end-corners when panning / moving has always been a thorn for ArcGIS.

I've not really looked at other stuff yet. Will keep you folks updated ...