The following changes in ArcGIS for Maritime: Bathymetry were released.
New at 10.3.1
Geoprocessing
There is a new toolset called Data Registration with two new tools intended for automating the process of adding bathymetry data to a BIS database.
- Define Bathymetry—Creates a properties file (.bdprops) that defines the metadata and properties for a bathymetry dataset.
- Add Bathymetry—Registers one or more bathymetry datasets described in a bathymetry dataset properties file (.bdprops) to a BIS geodatabase, where one dataset’s properties is described per properties file.
When executed one after another, the Define Bathymetry and Add Bathymetry tools perform in a similar way to the Add Bathymetry desktop tool with the difference being that the new tools can be used in a Python script or geoprocessing model.
If metadata for your organization’s bathymetry is in a consistent and predictable format, the process for loading a large volume of datasets into a BIS can now be entirely automated. First, create a secondary model or script that maps these metadata values to the applicable parameters in the Define Bathymetry tool; second, iteratively call the Define Bathymetry tool to define these values once per bathymetry dataset; and finally, call the Add Bathymetry tool once to add the collection of .bdprops files that have been created to the designated BIS workspace.
Enhancements
Certain parameter and display names of existing Bathymetry geoprocessing tools have been updated to make them consistent with one another. In some cases, you may find this requires opening and re-saving geoprocessing models that use these tools. The tools are the following:
- Extract Depths To ASCII
- Depths To ASCII
- Extract Depths
- Export Points
New at 10.3
Geoprocessing
- Reduce Point Density geoprocessing tool—Reduces the point density of a feature class of bathymetry soundings or depth points to create a shallow or deep-biased output.
- Export Points geoprocessing tool—Exports point features from a point surface model created within the Compose Surface window.
Other enhancements
- Support for point datasets was added to the Bathymetry solution. Now point datasets can also be registered with a BIS geodatabase and filtered, ordered, and saved to a surface model. At this time, only single-part point feature classes are supported.
- The Add Bathymetry dialog box was enhanced to support point datasets and to improve its usability in handling the various dataset properties and preview.
- The Advanced pane on the Manage BIS Settings dialog box allows you to skip some processes while adding bathymetry to the BIS geodatabase. These processes allow visualization of the datasets as a seamless and mosaicked surface, which you may not need if you are only interested in the filtering, sorting, and composing capabilities of the BIS geodatabase. Skipping one or more of the processes may save processing time when adding datasets to the BIS geodatabase.
- When creating a BIS geodatabase, you can specify the coordinate system that will be used.
- Datasets that are not used in any surface model can now be removed from the BIS geodatabase. This allows you to optimize the BIS by removing unused or erroneously added datasets.
- The count of datasets filtered in the Explore Bathymetry window or ordered by the Compose Surface window is added to the interface of each.