Create an oriented imagery catalog

Note:

This tutorial requires ArcGIS Pro 2.3+. If you don't have ArcGIS Pro 2.3+, get a free 21-day trial.

This tutorial is written for Oriented Imagery 2.1. Earlier releases may have slightly different options or results.

Oriented Imagery is a solution for managing, exploring, and viewing imagery that isn't pointed straight down at the ground (i.e. oriented imagery). Oriented imagery supports images collected from aerial, drone, or terrestrial sensors, including oblique, bubble, 360-degree, street-side, and inspection imagery, among others. Oriented imagery collections can be viewed two ways: using the add-in for ArcGIS Pro or using an app built with the Oriented Imagery widget for Web AppBuilder. (See this example app to try it out.)

In this tutorial, you have a collection of street-level inspection images of the Esri campus that you'd like to visualize on a map. Before you can view them in ArcGIS Pro, you need to manage them in an oriented imagery catalog (OIC).

You'll use the Oriented Imagery geoprocessing tools to create an OIC for the inspection images, which you can then use to visualize and explore your imagery.

Before you get started creating an OIC, do the following:

• Download and install the Oriented Imagery add-in for ArcGIS Pro.
• Download and install the Oriented Imagery Management Tools.

Once you've done that, the image list used in this tutorial will be installed with the Oriented Imagery Management Tools at C:\Image_Mgmt_Workflows\OrientedImagery\Tutorial\EsriRedlandsCampus.txt.

Set up your ArcGIS Pro project

Set up a project in ArcGIS Pro which you'll use to create your OIC.

1. Start ArcGIS Pro. If necessary, sign in with your ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise credentials.
2. Select Map under the Blank Templates list to create a new project with the Map template. In the Name box, type OICtutorial and click OK.
3. The project opens with the World Topographic basemap already in the display. Click the Insert tab on the ribbon above the map view. Click Toolbox > Add Toolbox and navigate to the location where you installed the Oriented Imagery GP tools (C:\Image_Mgmt_Workflows\OrientedImagery\GPTool). Select ManageOrientedImagery.pyt and click OK.
4. From the Catalog pane, expand Toolboxes, then expand the ManageOrientedImagery.pyt toolbox you just added (It may take a second to load). You'll see a list of tools for creating and managing OICs.

Create an OIC

You'll create an empty OIC, add images to it from Amazon cloud storage, and edit OIC properties (if necessary). You'll then generate a coverage feature layer and convert it to a coverage map (i.e. a vector tile package file). Finally, you'll analyze the OIC to optimize it or identify problems in preparation for publishing.

1. Create an empty oriented imagery catalog (OIC) in your project.
   1. Under the ManageOrientedImagery toolbox, double-click the Create Oriented Imagery Catalog geoprocessing tool. Complete the dialog with the following values; leave the other defaults. (For the Output Geodatabase, select your project geodatabase.) The dialog should look like the screenshot below.

      Parameter	Value
      Catalog Name	EsriRedlandsCampus
      Output Geodatabase	C:\Users\<your_user_name>\Documents\ArcGIS\Projects\OICtutorial\OICtutorial.gdb
      Description	Esri Redlands campus inspection images
      Copyright	Esri

      

      Be sure not to include spaces in the name of an OIC.

   2. Click Run to create an empty OIC.

      You will see a group layer added to the Contents pane, with two feature layers added (you may need to expand the layer). The Exposure Points layer will store the GPS data and metadata of each image and identify on the map where each image was taken. The Coverage Map will show the area on the map depicted in each image.

      
2. Add images to your OIC from a public Amazon S3 bucket.

   To do this, you'll reference a text file that lists the images in the bucket, installed with the Oriented Imagery Management Tools as C:\Image_Mgmt_Workflows\OrientedImagery\Tutorial\EsriRedlandsCampus.txt.

   Note:

   If your own workflow started with locally stored images, you would first use the Copy Images to Web tool to move them into Amazon or Azure cloud storage.

   1. Under the ManageOrientedImagery toolbox, double-click the Add Images to Oriented Imagery Catalog GP tool. Complete the dialog with the following values.

      The values should match the following table.

      Parameter	Value
      Input Oriented Imagery Catalog	EsriRedlandsCampus
      Input Type	ImageList
      Image List	C:\Image_Mgmt_Workflows\OrientedImagery\Tutorial\EsriRedlandsCampus.txt
      Default Parameters: Imagery Type	Inspection Frame Camera

      Note:

      Choosing the appropriate Imagery Type under Default Parameters will autocomplete the dialog with default values.

      
   2. Click Run.

      Once complete, you'll see exposure points on the map over the Esri Redlands campus. (You may need to zoom in to the green dot on the map to see all the individual points).

3. Edit the properties of your OIC using a geoprocessing tool.
   1. Under the ManageOrientedImagery toolbox, double-click the Properties GP tool.
   2. Select EsriRedlandsCampus as the Input Oriented Imagery Catalog. You'll see the property values for the OIC.
   3. Scroll down to MaxDistance and change the value to 80.

      Don't change the names of any of the values in the Property field. A full description of all the valid properties can be found in the documentation.

   4. Click Run to update properties.
4. Create coverage features, which represent the coverage of each image on the map.
   1. Under the ManageOrientedImagery toolbox, double-click the Create Coverage Features GP tool.
   2. Select EsriRedlandsCampus as the Input Oriented Imagery Catalog.
   3. Under Coverage Feature Options, select From each exposure point and dissolve.
   4. Click Run.
   5. When complete, turn on the visibility of the Coverage Map layer in the Contents pane (if it's not visible already).

      You'll see a coverage polygon in light green showing the which areas of the map appear in at least one image.

      In your own workflow, if the polygon(s) look incorrect at this point, you can use the Properties tool to change the property values before re-running the Create Coverage Features tool. The following fields will affect the coverage area of each point: CamHeading, CamPitch, CamRoll, HFOV, VFOV, AvgHtAG, FarDist, NearDist, and OIType.

5. Create a coverage map, which is a vector tile package file of the coverage features created in the last step. (A vector tile is a more efficient way to show the coverage area.) This will be uploaded to ArcGIS Online when the OIC is published.
   1. Under the ManageOrientedImagery toolbox, double-click the Create Coverage Map GP tool.
   2. Select EsriRedlandsCampus as the Input Oriented Imagery Catalog.
   3. Click Run.
6. Analyze your OIC to see if you need to optimize or fix anything.
   1. Under the ManageOrientedImagery toolbox, double-click the Analyse Oriented Imagery Catalog GP tool.
   2. Select EsriRedlandsCampus as the Input Oriented Imagery Catalog.
   3. Click Run.
   4. Once the tool has completed, click View Details for more information. It should complete without any warnings, but if not, follow the steps recommended in the warning you receive to resolve the issue.

   Note:

   The Analyse Oriented Imagery Catalog tool will identify issues that should be resolved before publishing the OIC and make recommendations for resolving them. It won't automatically fix the issues identified in the warnings; you'll need to identify and carry out the appropriate course of action.

Publish your OIC

Publish your OIC (and coverage map) to ArcGIS Online or your ArcGIS Enterprise portal so it's available to view in ArcGIS Pro or an Oriented Imagery app.

1. Publish your OIC to ArcGIS Online or your ArcGIS Enterprise portal.
   1. Under the ManageOrientedImagery toolbox, double-click the Publish Oriented Imagery Catalog GP tool.
   2. Select EsriRedlandsCampus as the Input Oriented Imagery Catalog. The tool will autofill the fields based on the way you configured the OIC initially.
   3. If you want, you can select an optional portal folder name in which to store your OIC.

      You can't create a folder from here; it must exist in your portal before publishing.

   4. Leave the rest of the default values. Click Run.

      Note:

      If there is a previously published OIC with the same name in your organization, you'll also have the option to Publish All – Overwrite.

Your OIC is now available in ArcGIS Online or your ArcGIS Enterprise portal—view the OIC with either the Oriented Imagery add-in for ArcGIS Pro or an app built with the Oriented Imagery widget for Web AppBuilder.

To get started with the ArcGIS Pro add-in, open a new ArcGIS project, select the Add Data dropdown, select Add Oriented Imagery, and double-click the OIC you just created to add it to your map.

On the Oriented Imagery tab, choose Select OI Location. click on the map (somewhere with coverage) to open images that depict that point in the Oriented Imagery viewer.