MBTilesViewer

I also created this bare bones MBTiles cache viewer to view the tile cache in MBTiles format. This application does not do much, just display the tilecache on a map. To view a MBTiles file, just fire up the viewer and start dragging and dropping MBTiles cache files on to it. You can drag and drop multiple MBTiles cache files at the same time if needed. And also, you can create MBTile caches with the TileCutter. The viewer was created using the ESRI WPF map control. If you would like to see this viewer do more, let me know 🙂

MBTilesViewer can be downloaded here.

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TileCutter update – With support for OSM and WMS map services

I just added support for creating MBTiles caches for WMS map services and also to download OSM tiles into the MBTiles format. MBTiles cache for WMS map services would improve map rendering performance, but why did i add support for OSM tile sets? Well, they will come in handy for disconnected/offline use cases. So, here are some usage examples

ArcGIS Dynamic Map Service:

TileCutter.exe -z=7 -Z=9 -x=-95.844727 -y=35.978006 -X=-88.989258 -Y=40.563895 -o=”C:\LocalCache\ags.s3db” -t=agsd -m=”http://server.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/I3_Imagery_Prime_World_2D/MapServer”

WMS Map Service 1.1.1:

TileCutter.exe -z=7 -Z=9 -x=-95.844727 -y=35.978006 -X=-88.989258 -Y=40.563895 -o=”C:\LocalCache\wms111.s3db” -t=wms1.1.1 -m=”http://sampleserver1-350487546.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com/ArcGIS/services/Specialty/ESRI_StateCityHighway_USA/MapServer/WMSServer”

WMS Map Service 1.3.0:

TileCutter.exe -z=7 -Z=9 -x=-95.844727 -y=35.978006 -X=-88.989258 -Y=40.563895 -o=”C:\LocalCache\wms130.s3db” -t=wms1.3.0 -m=”http://sampleserver1-350487546.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com/ArcGIS/services/Specialty/ESRI_StateCityHighway_USA/MapServer/WMSServer”

OSM:

TileCutter.exe -z=7 -Z=9 -x=-95.844727 -y=35.978006 -X=-88.989258 -Y=40.563895 -o=”C:\LocalCache\osm.s3db” -t=osm -m=”http://tile.openstreetmap.org”

And always just type “TileCutter -h” for usage information.

Want to customize the parameters with which the maps are being generated? Just use the “-s” command line option ans specify the setting in a query string format.

TileCutter.exe -z=7 -Z=9 -x=-95.844727 -y=35.978006 -X=-88.989258 -Y=40.563895 -o=”C:\LocalCache\ags.s3db” -t=agsd -m=”http://server.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/I3_Imagery_Prime_World_2D/MapServer” -s=”transparent=true&format=jpeg”

Also, if some of the tile requests result in errors, the level, column, row and error message information would be logged into a text file in the same directory as the MBTiles cache.

And now, for the best new feature of TileCutter, the program does not store duplicate tiles. That is, if the area you are caching has a lot of empty tiles in the ocean etc, the MBTiles cache created by TileCutter will only store one tile for all those duplicated tile images. Should help save disk space 🙂

TileCutter can be downloaded here

ArcToSQL2008 – An ArcCatalog Command to export FeatureClasses to MS SQL SERVER 2008

I had written this tool 3-4 months ago and it had been sitting on my machine waiting to be wrapped with an installer project. I finally got around to building a setup and deployment project for it and it is ready to distribute. The tool can be downloaded below

Once installed, you should be able to open the “Tools -> Customize” dialog in ArcCatalog

Under the “GeoSpatial.NET” Categories, the “ArcToSQL2008” command should be available. Drag the command to any of the toolbars.

Select the FeatureClass you want to export to the SQL Server 2008 database and click the “ArcToSQL2008” button on the toolbar. The dialog below should pop-up. Enter the name of the SQL Server 2008 database server and click connect. The Database drop-down will get populated with all available databases on the server. Select a database from the list and enter the name of the table that you want the FeatureClass exported to. Click OK. The FeatureClass will get exported and a message box should pop-up when the import is completed.

Some highlights of the tool:

• Exports FeatureClasses in a Projected Co-ordinate System as SQLGeometry in SQL 2008.
• Exports FeatureClasses in a Geographic Co-ordinate System as SQLGeography in SQL 2008.
• Any errors that occur during the export are logged in a log file found under in the install directory.
• The tool is built using a broader GIS framework that should enable developers to customize the export process to their liking. I still have a little bit of house cleaning on the code for the broader GIS framework. I will post when it is all done. Hopefully that will be real soon. Contact me if you want to look at it sooner…

Things left to do:

• Better UI showing the progress of the export operation.
• More flexibility to the export operation by allowing the user to select the fields to be exported.
• The export operation can be made faster by using the geometry builder classes to construct the SQLGeometry and SQLGeography objects. I took the shortcut for now and just parsed out the geometries from WKT strings.

Please let me know if you find any bugs in the tool using the “contact me” link on the right pane of this blog.