To do this, first select the ‘add placemark’ tool to pick a selected feature (e.g. LP Field) in Google Earth.

After selection, a new dialog box will pop up with the correct latitude and longitude for selected feature. Pick a name and click ‘OK’ when finished.

A new point will then be added to the vertical places section in Google Earth as well as on the map. The user must then right-click on the point (in vertical selection toolbar) and click ‘save place as’.  Then save the point as a .kml file. (that’s .kml – NOT .kmz).  Upon completion, the transfer from .kml to shapefile (.shp) must occur next before ArcGIS can correctly read the newly created information. At this point, open any of Esri’s ArcGIS desktop apps. (e.g. ArcMap)

In ArcToolbox, select Conversion Tools> From KML> KML to Layer. A dialog box will open.  ArcGIS populates the map with the point, polygon, or line from Google Earth (notice the thumbtack, correct position and newly displayed font).

For alternative workflows or more info, check out “How do I import/export KML to ArcGIS Desktop?” and “How can I convert between KML and ESRI’s shapefile format?“.

log4net:ERROR XmlConfiguratorAttribute: Exception getting ConfigurationFileLocation. 
Must be able to resolve ConfigurationFileLocation when ConfigFile and ConfigFileExtension properties are not set.
System.Security.SecurityException: Request for the permission of type 
'System.Security.Permissions.FileIOPermission, mscorlib, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' failed.
   at System.Security.CodeAccessSecurityEngine.Check(Object demand, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean isPermSet)
   at System.Security.CodeAccessPermission.Demand()
   at System.AppDomainSetup.VerifyDir(String dir, Boolean normalize)
   at log4net.Config.XmlConfiguratorAttribute.ConfigureFromFile(Assembly sourceAssembly, ILoggerRepository targetRepository)
The action that failed was:
Demand
The type of the first permission that failed was:
System.Security.Permissions.FileIOPermission
The Zone of the assembly that failed was:
Internet
 
Unhandled Exception: System.Security.SecurityException: 
Request for ConfigurationPermission failed while attempting to access configuration section 'nant'. 
To allow all callers to access the data for this section, set section attribute 
'requirePermission' equal 'false' in the configuration file where this section is declared. 
---> System.Security.SecurityException: Request for the permission of type 
'System.Configuration.ConfigurationPermission, System.Configuration, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' failed.

Here’s one solution:

1. Download Mark Russinovich’s Sysinternals Streams App.
2. Run streams -s -d [your nant folder] to unblock the files.

Another solution is to unblock the files using Windows Explorer.

An Example in PowerShell:

PS C:\hg> hg init my-repo
PS C:\hg> cd .\my-repo
PS C:\hg\my-repo> New-Item file1.txt -type file
 
 
    Directory: C:\hg\my-repo
 
 
Mode                LastWriteTime     Length Name
----                -------------     ------ ----
-a---        10/16/2012  11:40 AM          0 file1.txt
 
 
PS C:\hg\my-repo> New-Item file2.txt -type file
 
 
    Directory: C:\hg\my-repo
 
 
Mode                LastWriteTime     Length Name
----                -------------     ------ ----
-a---        10/16/2012  11:40 AM          0 file2.txt
 
 
PS C:\hg\my-repo> hg st
? file1.txt
? file2.txt
PS C:\hg\my-repo> hg add --exclude "**2**" # This will not add file2.txt
adding file1.txt
PS C:\hg\my-repo> hg add --exclude "*2*" # This will also not add file2.txt, because we are in the same directory!
PS C:\hg\my-repo> # Create another directory...
PS C:\hg\my-repo> New-Item my-subdirectory -type directory
 
 
    Directory: C:\hg\my-repo
 
 
Mode                LastWriteTime     Length Name
----                -------------     ------ ----
d----        10/16/2012  11:45 AM            my-subdirectory
 
 
PS C:\hg\my-repo> cd .\my-subdirectory
PS C:\hg\my-repo\my-subdirectory> hg add --exclude "*2*" # This will add file2.txt.  The pattern does not match because
we are NOT in the same directory!
adding ..\file2.txt
PS C:\hg\my-repo\my-subdirectory> hg st
A file1.txt
A file2.txt
PS C:\hg\my-repo\my-subdirectory>

[ link ]

“The Google Mini has been an important part of our Enterprise Search offering since it was first introduced in 2005. It’s had a good run, but beginning July 31 we’re discontinuing the product because its functionality can be better provided by products like Google Search Appliance, Google Site Search and Google Commerce Search.”

– http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/spring-cleaning-in-summer.html

Today I found out that C:\Program Files (x86) is not always the best choice. In fact, it just wasted about 3 hours of my afternoon. Stupid folder!

Error: Failed to connect to the specified server. Underlying DBMS error[ORA-12154: TNS:could not resolve the connect identifier specified. No extended error]

This error can be caused by having parentheses in the ArcGIS installation path. You will see this error in ArcCatalog when trying to connect to an Oracle database with the Oracle 10.2.0.1 32-bit client on a 64-bit machine.

If the ArcGIS installation path has parentheses, the Oracle 10g 32-bit client (version 10.2.0.1) will fail.

More info here: http://support.esri.com/es/knowledgebase/techarticles/detail/31875

Source: Wikipedia

If you want to use awesome vector graphics from sites like Maki and The Noun Project from within ArcMap, you’ll need to convert the SVG files into EMF files.

ArcMap can read both Enhanced Metafiles (EMF) and Bitmap (BMP) files for generating Picture Marker Symbols, but bitmaps don’t scale well like vectors. EMF is a file type that can retain the V part of Scalable Vector Graphics. This keeps the file size relatively small no matter how much area on screen the image covers. As a bonus, layers using EMF symbols will perform better than if they use BMP.

So… How do you convert a bunch of SVG files into EMF?

- ImageMagick?
- IrfanView?
- XnView?
- NConvert?

Nope, I recommend either Inkscape or svg2emf, both of which can be called from the Windows command line and scripted for a large batch of files:

1. Install the awesome and open source Inkscape or svg2emf. Note: svg2emf needs Java Runtime Environment (JRE) to work but Inkscape doesn’t.
2. Run the script below.

@ECHO OFF

:: This script converts SVG files to EMF.
:: The resulting EMF files will contain vector data - they are not rasterized during the conversion.
:: For Inkscape help, see http://inkscape.org/doc/inkscape-man.html
:: For an alternative to Inkscape that works just as well, see http://code.google.com/p/svg2emf/
 
SET converter=C:\Program Files (x86)\Inkscape\inkscape.exe
SET source_folder=c:\temp\icons
SET destination_folder=c:\temp\icons

:: Use this option if you want to convert a single folder ...
for %%i in ("%source_folder%\*.svg") do "%converter%" "%%i" --export-emf="%destination_folder%\%%~ni.emf"

:: Use this option if you want to convert a folder and all subfolders (recursion) ...
:: for /r "%source_folder%" %%i in (*.svg) do "%converter%" "%%i" --export-emf="%destination_folder%\%%~ni.emf"

First, a few facts about SQL Server logins, users, principals, schemas, and roles. If you already know this stuff, you can skip down to the next major section:

Logins, users, principals, schemas, and roles, oh my!

1. A login an entity that can gain access to the server. By server, I don’t mean the machine or the web server on the machine, I mean the ‘SQL Server Instance’.

SQL Server security is has two security realms: the server and the database. Logins give you access to the server and they come in two different flavors: Windows Authentication mode or SQL Server and Windows Authentication mode. Since logins gain access to the server, they also define permissions across the whole server (across multiple databases).

NOTE: Server level permissions like “ALTER ANY CREDENTIAL” AND “VIEW ANY DEFINITION” are the permissions assignable to logins.

2. A user is an entity that can gain access to a database. Users need access to the server before accessing a database, so they are mapped to logins by an SID property that both entities hold. As you can see, the terminology of logins and users should not be used interchangeably: Logins are for security of the server realm and users are for security of the database realm. Thus it’s possible to create orphaned users when they get out of sync with the logins on the server. If you move a database from one server to another, the users in the database will be orphaned until you remap them to valid logins on the other server.

NOTE: Database level permissions like “CREATE TABLE” and “BACKUP DATABASE” are the permissions assignable to users.

3. A principal is any entity that can be granted a permission. Since the logins and users we discussed above can be granted permissions, they are also principals. SQL Server has 6 types of server principals and 7 types of database principals, listed below:

4. A schema is simply container of objects, such as tables, views, stored procedures, etc.

5. A role is a security principal that groups other principals. SQL Server provides nine fixed server roles, such as sysadmin and serveradmin.

Back to ArcSDE

Now that you know the very basics on SQL Server Security, let’s get back to your choice of setting up an SDE Schema geodatabase or a DBO Schema geodatabase.

Multiple versus Single

In the screenshot above you’ll see that the SDE Schema can support a multiple spatial database instance, DBO does not, and multiple is better, right? Well, not so fast…

Beginning with version 9, ArcSDE started supporting both multiple and single models (prior to 9, you could only use multiple). Now that ArcSDE supports a single database model, the multiple model (though still supported) has been deprecated.

What’s the difference between them? In the multiple database model, the ArcSDE Admin’s user schema would sit in its own database called SDE. Meanwhile, user-defined data, like feature classes, raster tables, and nonspatial tables, would reside in other databases. It’s called a multiple model because multiple SQL Server databases are used to make one ArcSDE geodatabase. The single model puts everything in one database.

Note that you can still have multiple geodatabases on the same machine even if you opt for the (recommended) single model. SQL Server supports multiple databases within a single SQL Server instance. If you want to create more than one geodatabase when using the single spatial database model, just create them as separate SQL Server databases. Use the ArcSDE post installation wizard to create each one. (Run it multiple times.)

SDE versus DBO Ownership

If you create an SDE Schema geodatabase, it’s going to be owned by a user named “sde”. If you create a DBO Schema geodatabase, it’s going to be owned by the “dbo” user that ships with SQL Server. There’s no difference in the performance or functionality between the two types of geodatabase schemas, but they do have different security implications. Your choice is going to depend on how you administer databases.

DBO

If your server is not configured to support “SQL Server and Windows Authentication mode”, a Windows account named “sde” will be required to login as “sde”. The sde user can login as a Windows user or a SQL Server user, but only if mixed-mode authentication is turned on. Some people don’t want mixed-mode enabled. For them, DBO is easier to setup: no dedicated Windows account required.

Another reason to use DBO is that multiple Windows logins can map to the dbo user. You can make any user an SDE admin by adding them to the sysadmin or db_owner role. Each admin will have permission to perform ArcSDE tasks such as compress, and with Windows authentication, they can use their standard network username and password to do it. People tend to write down the sde password if they don’t use it everyday. Reusing Windows credentials can be more secure.

SDE

If the server needs to restrict SDE administrators to certain databases and not others, an SDE Schema will provide that. Unlike the dbo user, which usually has server-wide access to all databases, the sde user can be restricted to just a handful of permissions within a specific database. Thus, the SDE administrator for an SDE Schema geodatabase can be someone without the sysadmin or db_owner role. If you don’t want wide-spread permissions for geodatabase admins, use SDE Schema. The POST installation wizard will give “sde” only the minimum permissions it needs.

Well, that’s a LOT of words to explain one small configuration, but it’s an important choice with security implications you won’t know unless you understand both ArcSDE and SQL Server security. Hopefully you understand them now. Good luck!

Which one should you choose?

1. If you plan to install a single instance of SQL Server on a database server, it should be a default instance.
2. Use a named instance when you plan to install multiple instances on the same machine. A server can host only one default instance.
3. Any app that installs SQL Server Express should install it as a named instance. This will minimize conflicts when multiple apps are installed on the same machine.