Using Google Maps with ArcMap 10

[dluns2003]

I am a college student using the evaluation version of ArcMap 10 for a project.

I would like to pull in Google Maps imagery into my ArcMap 10 maps. I understand that this can be done, but my question is: how? I'm a beginning ArcMap user and a lot of the Help items I've read through seem to be dead end: that is, I follow the directions on how to add tools, but the tool I am told to add isn't where the Help article says it should be... is it because I have an evaluation copy?

Can anyone direct me to a newbie-friendly, step-by-step instructions on how to do this? Or, can anyone point me toward a free source of detailed aerial maps that ArcMap can work with directly? I've found some USGS maps but they are all far too large scale to do me any good- I need to see individual buildings in some detail, well enough to get a decent measure of their footprint in square feet.

[jcrough]

On your Add Data button just choose "Add Base Map" amd you can add Bing Maps to your display.

[rleclair]

Daniel - Google Base map imagery is a much requested addition to the Base Map gallery and has been added to the ArcGIS Ideas webpage. It's currently marked as "Under Consideration." You can vote for this idea at: http://ideas.arcgis.com/ideaView?id=087300000008GlnAAE

Hope this helps!

Robert LeClair
Esri-Denver

[spk578]

I think it would be worthwhile finding out what the pros and cons are when comparing Bing maps and Google maps...in my opinion Bing maps work just fine (although both have small errors of accuracy and Bing Maps are of low resolution in areas outside of highly populated regions like Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia) however, Google as a brand has captivated the market for world coverage of aerial imagery and alot of qustions on this forum as ask how can I use it Google Maps in ArcMap?

But does Google really have 'better' imagery? or system?

Cheers,

[ForrestE]

If you need aerial imagery in the USA, I suggest using the USDA NAIP images. They're available from the NRCS geospatial data gateway. http://datagateway.nrcs.usda.gov/

It's pretty decent stuff.

[tbwester]

Most people are familiar with google maps and thats why they want to use it. In the United States Bing imagery is superior, since they use digital globe 30cm imagery for the entire country while Google uses 1m imagery more often (especially rural areas).

dluns - the easiest way is just to use the basemaps provided by esri, which are already built into arc10.

[spk578]

Equally, if your not working within the USA...similar differences can be found with Google.

Imagery with Bing for Iraq and Iran is not so good (only getting imagery to 1:60000) but surprisingly Google Maps is excellent where even in the rural Zagros mountains I can see individual outcrops and camp sites.

It all depend on what you want and where and researching where the best free data is and utilising it (just make sure you reference where the data has come from!)

[mkerr]

I think it would be worthwhile finding out what the pros and cons are when comparing Bing maps and Google maps...in my opinion Bing maps work just fine (although both have small errors of accuracy and Bing Maps are of low resolution in areas outside of highly populated regions like Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia) however, Google as a brand has captivated the market for world coverage of aerial imagery and alot of qustions on this forum as ask how can I use it Google Maps in ArcMap?

But does Google really have 'better' imagery? or system?

Cheers,

A colleague at work just now pointed us to the following article comparing Bing to Google, giving the edge to Bing:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/25832...te_images.html

mk

[bFlood]

Arc2Earth Data Services allows you to bring Google imagery into ArcMap (we are a Google OEM partner) It now supports layout view and projections, and the monthly subscription price ($49/m US) is reasonable for small or large projects.

more info: http://arc2earth.com/services/data-services

[KEvringham]

Has a solution been found to this? Bing maps are nice but quite frankly just having the most up-to-date map is whats important (at least for my projects). Google maps currently has the most up to date satellite picture by several months (or in the birds eye view on Bing by over 7 years) over Bing.

[johns]

Another factor to consider is licensing. From Google Earth:

"If your business is looking to use Google Earth for any external purpose, you will need to license Google Earth Pro. Examples of external use include using imagery from Google Earth in reports and presentations or otherwise creating materials that will be displayed or distributed outside of your organization."

Often, however, the Google imagery for the US is from the NAIP program, which provides free county wide mosaics through the USDA Data Gateway, and often many state GIS sites will have that imagery (and others) available in different tiling formats for downloading, or in their own WMS services. GIS servers, such as the one at apfo.usda.gov also serve up NAIP imagery. ArcGIS online also has numerous imagery sources including NAIP.