Take a look below to find out what's new and improved in the newest version of ArcMap.
What's new in ArcMap 10.5.1
ArcMap 10.5.1 is primarily a quality improvement release, but there is a limited amount of new functionality. This new functionality is described in the next three sections.
Geoprocessing
The Slope and Aspect tools in the Surface toolset of the Spatial Analyst extension toolbox and in the Raster Surface toolset of the 3D Analyst extension toolbox have been significantly improved in this release. New parameters have been added, there is a new capability for improved performance, and there is a change in behavior for NoData handling.
There are now two methods available to define how these tools perform their calculations. The default planar method is comparable to the way these tools have traditionally operated, where the computation is performed on a projected, flat plane using a 2D Cartesian coordinate system. With the new geodesic method, the computation is performed in a 3D Cartesian coordinate system by considering the shape of Earth as an ellipsoid.
The primary benefits offered by the geodesic method are listed here:
- This method generally produces a more accurate result than the planar method.
- These tools are capable of delivering increased performance if you have certain GPU hardware installed on your system. See GPU processing with Spatial Analyst for more details on how this is supported, how to configure it, and how to enable it.
- When using the geodesic method, the computation result will not be affected by how the dataset is projected. It will use the z-units of the input raster if they are defined in the spatial reference. If the spatial reference of the input does not define the z-units, you will need to do so with the new z-unit parameter.
The other change to these tools has to do with the way NoData cells and boundary cells are handled.
- Of the eight cells neighboring the processing cell, at least seven of them are required to have a valid value. If fewer than seven cells have a valid value, the output for that location will be NoData.
- Cells in the outermost rows and columns of the output raster will be NoData. This is because along the boundary of the input dataset, those cells do not have enough neighbors with which to perform a valid calculation.
The following are additional changes to existing tools at ArcGIS 10.5.1.
Data Management toolbox
| Tool | Changes |
|---|---|
| Append Control Points | The Geoid parameter has been to added to convert orthometric heights to ellipsoidal heights |
| Build Pyramids and Statistics | The Query Definition parameter has been added for selecting raster datasets to be processed. |
Editing toolbox
| Tool | Changes |
|---|---|
| Transfer Attributes | The new Transfer Rule Field(s) parameter sets rules to control which source feature will be used to transfer attributes from when multiple source features matched target feature(s) |
Raster and imagery
There are new product types and processing templates for Airbus and DigitalGlobe sensors.
- The three Airbus sensors that are affected are Pleiades-1, SPOT 6, and SPOT 7. These sensors now support reflectance, and display products at three geometric processing levels: primary, ortho, and projected. The reflectance product is an image that has been radiometrically corrected using sensor calibration parameters and systematic effects of the atmosphere. The display products are ready-to use images that have been color balanced for optimized color rendering.
- The four DigitalGlobe sensors that are affected are GeoEye-1, QuickBird, WorldView-2, and WorldView-3. These DigitalGlobe sensors are now distributed with the newly introduced atmospheric compensation (AComp) applied.
When using multidimensional data—such as netCDF, GRIB, or HDF—you can apply a new processing template called Multiband Composite to your mosaic dataset. This allows you to create a mosaic dataset composed of any number of bands from your multidimensional data.
You can now use Python to develop your own raster types and customize them according to the format of the metadata structure associated with your data. These custom raster types implemented using Python provide a seamless experience similar to other raster types. For more information, see Implement custom raster types in Python.
Databases
The ST_Aggr_Union SQL function is now supported with ST_Geometry in PostgreSQL.
Upgrade your geodatabase in PostgreSQL to 10.5.1 to add the ST_Aggr_Union function.
To add the ST_Aggr_Union function to your PostgreSQL database (not geodatabase), update your ST_Geometry installation.
The UUID data type in PostgreSQL is now supported as a GUID in ArcGIS software.
What's new in ArcMap 10.5
The following sections describe what functionality is new or has changed in ArcMap 10.5.
Geoprocessing
The following are new tools and changes to existing tools at ArcGIS 10.5.
3D Analyst toolbox
New tools
Changes
| Tool | Changes |
|---|---|
| Change LAS Class Codes | There are three new parameters added to this tool: Processing Extent, Processing Boundary, and Process entire LAS files that intersect extent. |
| Multipatch Footprint | The Grouping Field parameter has been added for combining multipatch features so that they contribute to the same footprint polygon. |
Analysis toolbox
New tools
Cartography toolbox
Changes
| Tool | Changes |
|---|---|
| Merge Divided Roads | The Road Character Field parameter has been added to help classify the character of road features in complex or unusual arrangements. These values help the tool to refine the assessment of candidate feature pairs for merging. |
| Simplify Line | A new simplification algorithm, WEIGHTED_AREA, works by first identifying triangles of significant area for each vertex. Those triangles are then weighted by a set of metrics to compare the flatness, skewness, and convexity of each area. The weighted areas guide the removal of their corresponding vertices to simplify the line while retaining as much character as possible. This tool can now operate contextually by taking into account barrier features, beyond which input features should not be simplified. The Input Barriers Layers parameter has been added to support this. Contextual processing can exceed memory when working with large datasets. This tool can be run by partition with the Cartographic Partitions environment variable. Topology handling has been improved in this tool significantly. Topology errors will not be produced by this tool. |
| Simplify Polygon | A new simplification algorithm, WEIGHTED_AREA, works by first identifying triangles of significant area for each vertex. Those triangles are then weighted by a set of metrics to compare the flatness, skewness, and convexity of each area. The weighted areas guide the removal of their corresponding vertices to simplify the line while retaining as much character as possible. This tool can now operate contextually by taking into account barrier features, beyond which input features should not be simplified. The Input Barriers Layers parameter has been added to support this. Contextual processing can exceed memory when working with large datasets. This tool can be run by partition with the Cartographic Partitions environment variable. Topology handling has been improved in this tool significantly. Topology errors will not be produced by this tool. |
Data Management toolbox
New tools
Changes
| Tool | Changes |
|---|---|
| Analyze Control Points | The Maximum Overlap Level parameter has been added to limit the number of overlapping images used to analyze the control points. |
| Append Control Points | There are two new parameters added to this tool: XY Accuracy and Z Accuracy. |
| Apply Block Adjustment | There are three new parameters added to this tool: Input DEM , Z Offset, and Control Point Table. The input DEM adds an elevation layer to the mosaic dataset. The z-offset sets the vertical offset used to adjust the elevation layer. The input control point table will have the same adjustments applied to it as the solution table adjustments. |
| Build Seamlines | There are two new computation methods to help you build your seamlines: Voronoi and Disparity. There are also three new parameters that help sliver removal: Minimum Region Size, Minimum Thinness Ratio, and Maximum Sliver Size. |
| Compute Block Adjustments | There are two new transformation types to adjust your mosaic dataset: rational polynomial coefficients (RPC) and frame camera. If either of these two new transformations is used, you can also specify the Image Accuracy parameter. This parameter helps the system determine if additional processing is needed before applying the transformation. |
| Compute Control Points | The Image Location Accuracy parameter has been added. This parameter takes in an accuracy level of the images to determine which algorithm should be used to compute the control points. |
| Compute Tie Points | The Image Location Accuracy parameter has been added. This parameter takes in an accuracy level of the images to determine which algorithm should be used to compute the tie points. |
| Configure Geodatabase Log File Tables | At 10.5, geodatabases in PostgreSQL and SQL Server use temporary tables for log files, which is more efficient than creating permanent tables in the database. Therefore, running this tool on geodatabases in PostgreSQL or SQL Server no longer changes log file table behavior. |
| Consolidate Map | The Preserve SQLite parameter has been added. |
| Convert Coordinate Notation | The Exclude records with invalid notation parameter has been added. |
| Create Mosaic Dataset | There are new raster types that ArcGIS 10.5 now recognizes: ADS, Deimos-2, DubaiSat-2, GF-4, Jilin-1, and KOMPSAT-3. |
| Import Tile Cache | The Overwrite Tiles parameter has been added. |
| Migrate Storage | You can use this tool to migrate curves, point IDs, and other CAD-related data from a related table to a column directly in the business table of a feature class in a geodatabase in SQL Server. Data created between ArcGIS 10.3.1 and 10.4.1 used a related table to store this information. Moving the information to a column in the base table can improve performance, especially for parcel fabric datasets. |
| Register with Geodatabase | You can now register views with the geodatabase using this tool. Additionally, the tool allows you to define the field to use for an ObjectID and to define spatial properties for the table or view if a spatial field is present. |
Editing toolbox
New tools
Network Analyst toolbox
New tools
Changes
| Tool | Changes |
|---|---|
| Find Closest Facilities | There are four new parameters added to this tool: Output Routes, Overrides, Output Network Analysis Layer, and Save Route Data. |
| Find Routes | There are five new parameters added to this tool: Output Routes, Output Network Analysis Layer, Time Zone for Time Windows, Overrides, and Save Route Data. |
| Generate Service Areas | There are two new parameters added to this tool: Output Network Analysis Layer and Overrides. |
| Solve | The Overrides parameter has been added. |
| Solve Location-Allocation | There are three new parameters added to this tool: Output LocationAllocation Analysis Layer, Overrides, and Output Route Analysis Layer. This tool now outputs TRUE_LINES_WITH_MEASURES. |
Space Time Pattern Mining toolbox
New tools
Changes
| Tool | Changes |
|---|---|
| Create Space Time Cube | Hexagons have been added as one of the aggregation structures. |
Spatial Analyst toolbox
New tools
Changes
In the Distance toolset, performance and accuracy improvements have been made to the Cost and Path distance tools. These changes increase processing speeds, especially for larger datasets. The internal algorithms used for distance accumulation, horizontal and vertical factors, and source characteristics are now more precise, and the resampling of the cost surface input that was previously done by nearest neighbor is now done with bilinear interpolation.
In the Distance toolset, a new source characteristic parameter, Direction of Travel, is available for the following tools:
- Cost Allocation
- Cost Back Link
- Cost Connectivity
- Cost Distance
- Path Distance
- Path Distance Allocation
- Path Distance Back Link
In the Math toolset, the Conditional toolset, and the Local toolset, all tools (except for Combine) have been updated to use Raster Functions internally. This update yields performance improvements when the output is to raster formats other than Esri Grid, such as TIFF or geodatabase raster format.
Spatial Statistics toolbox
Changes
| Tool | Changes |
|---|---|
| Optimized Hot Spot Analysis | Hexagons have been added as one of the aggregation structures. |
Mapping
Publishing
When you publish a feature service, the Allow update of true curves property is now enabled by default. Additionally, you now have the option to restrict editors to only update true curves in feature services using a client that is capable of creating and editing true curves.
You also have the option when publishing a feature service to automatically insert NaN m-values when the client editing geometries in the feature service does not provide an m-value. You are blocked from editing feature services that contain m-enabled layers from certain clients, such as ArcGIS Online and Portal for ArcGIS. If your layer does not need the m-values, you can enable the Allow geometry updates without m-value property on the feature service to automatically insert a NaN value.
Data
Geodatabases
Register views with the geodatabase
The Register with Geodatabase geoprocessing tool has been extended to allow you to register views. When you register a view with the geodatabase, the geodatabase stores view properties such as which field to use for an ObjectID and information about spatial attributes. This improves performance when you add the view to a map, because ArcMap does not have to prompt you or query the contents of the view to discover this information.
You can also create metadata for views registered with the geodatabase, since metadata is stored in the geodatabase.
Registered views can be included in maps you publish as query-only feature services.
Log file tables in geodatabases in PostgreSQL and SQL Server
When you use an ArcGIS 10.5 client with a geodatabase in PostgreSQL or SQL Server, log file tables are created as temporary tables. These temporary log file tables are created per user, so there is no resource contention for multiple connections made by the same user, and the tables are automatically deleted when the client session ends. Use of temporary tables also improves performance, as data inserted into temporary tables doesn't have to be written into the database transaction logs.
ArcGIS 10.5 clients will always use temporary tables for log file tables in PostgreSQL and SQL Server; therefore, geodatabase administrators no longer need to alter log file table settings for geodatabases in these two databases. Note that ArcGIS 10.5 clients will ignore any log file changes made using the Configure Geodatabase Log File Tables tool.
New storage method for geometry attributes in geodatabases in SQL Server
At ArcGIS 10.5, feature classes you create in a geodatabase in SQL Server that use Geometry or Geography storage will store attributes such as pointIDs, multipatches, and parametric entities (true curves) directly in the business table. Prior to ArcGIS 10.5, this information was stored in a side table that joined with the business table. This join could cause poor performance if the side table contained lots of geometry attributes. This decreased performance was often noticed while working with parcel fabric datasets for example.
Feature classes you migrate from the SDEBINARY storage type to Geometry or Geography storage will also use this format.
If you created your Geometry or Geography feature class or migrated data to Geometry or Geography storage prior to 10.5, you can run the Migrate Storage geoprocessing tool to move the geometry attributes into the business table and take advantage of performance improvements.
Note that 10.3 and earlier clients cannot connect to feature classes that use this new type of storage.
New default raster storage type
When you create a geodatabase using ArcGIS 10.5, the RASTER_STORAGE parameter under the DEFAULTS configuration keyword is set to RASTERBLOB in geodatabases in Oracle, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server. Rasterblob provides optimized BLOB storage of raster data in the business table of the raster dataset or mosaic dataset, which reduces I/O operations and improves performance.
If you upgrade your geodatabase to 10.5, your default RASTER_STORAGE setting will not change. To take advantage of this new optimized raster storage, either change the setting under your DEFAULTS keyword or create a keyword that uses this setting and specify the new keyword when creating or copying raster datasets or mosaic datasets. For information on changing or creating configuration keywords, see Alter configuration keywords.
Note that ArcGIS client versions prior to 10.5 cannot open raster datasets or mosaic datasets that use rasterblob storage. If your 10.5 geodatabase will be accessed by older ArcGIS clients that need to work with rasters, change the default RASTER_STORAGE parameter in the geodatabase to BINARY (PostgreSQL or SQL Server) or BLOB (Oracle).
Synchronize open_cursors settings for geodatabases in Oracle
10.5 geodatabases in Oracle contain a stored procedure—sde.gdb_util.update_open_cursors—that allows you to synchronize the open_cursors value you have set in Oracle with the setting in your geodatabase.
ST_Transform functionality expanded for ST_Geometry data in PostgreSQL
The ST_Transform SQL function in PostgreSQL now takes a second SRID as input to allow you to convert data between two different geographic coordinate systems.
End of support
You cannot create or use locators in geodatabases using ArcGIS 10.5.
ArcGIS no longer supports creating datasets that contain Oracle SDO_GeoRaster. You can still view SDO_GeoRaster data in older geodatabases, but you cannot create new datasets that contain SDO_GeoRaster fields using an ArcGIS 10.5 client.
Raster
The Block Adjustment window has been updated with new tools to help you adjust your mosaic dataset. There are also four new geoprocessing tools to help with your ortho mapping projects: Build Stereo Model, Compute Camera Model, Generate Point Cloud, and Interpolate From Point Cloud.
There are three raster functions available to perform on-the-fly processing on rasters: Key Metadata Function, Rasterize Attributes Function, and Zonal Remap Function.
The following raster types and sensors are supported, starting with the ArcGIS 10.5 release: ADS, Deimos-2, DubaiSat-2, Jilin-1, and KOMPSAT-3.
Geocoding
Address locators stored in geodatabases are no longer supported and will not appear as inputs to tools or be visible in ArcGIS 10.5 or later. Locators can also no longer be created and saved to geodatabases.
Quality and performance improvements have been made to the address locator styles.
You can now create an address locator that supports searching alternate city names in addition to alternate street names.
Editing
Parcel editing
The Check Parcel Fabric command validates the topological integrity of the parcel fabric. The command identifies data corruptions such as out-of-sequence parcel traverse lines, parcels that are not closed, and invalid dimensions. At ArcGIS 10.5, the Check Selected Parcels command is available to check a selection of parcels instead of checking the whole fabric.
Extensions
Network Analyst
At 10.5, new and improved functionality is available in ArcGIS Network Analyst.
The following new and enhanced functionality is available when you use Network Analyst 10.5:
- The Route Analysis layer now includes a LocationType field that allows you to specify which stops are way points that should be routed through but not described as stops in directions.
- The Solve Location-Allocation geoprocessing tool has been updated to output TRUE_LINES_WITH_MEASURES, which shows the shortest route along the network between the demand points and the facilities to which they are allocated. The output route lines include measures to identify travel times or distances at any point along the way.
- A new tool has been added to the Network Analyst toolbox: Generate Origin Destination Cost Matrix. It generates a matrix containing travel time and travel distance for multiple origins and destinations, and ranks destinations based on minimum time and distance required.
Spatial Analyst
At 10.5, a change has been made to the default output raster format for tools in the Spatial Analyst extension.
The location and name you give to an output raster determine the format in which it is created. In previous releases, when the output location was a folder, the default output format was the Esri Grid raster. The default output format (to a folder location) is now a TIFF raster. If you are overwriting the default name with a name of your choice, include the .tif extension to create a TIFF raster dataset. Without the extension, an Esri Grid raster will be created.