Migrating from Military Analyst and MOLE

Some tasks you perform in Military Analyst and MOLE can now be performed directly in ArcGIS, using native ArcGIS functionality, which means:

The following two tables describe the new (at version 10) way you can do tasks that you did in Military Analyst and MOLE prior to version 10. It is recommended that you use the new way to do these tasks whenever possible.

Military Analyst

Task in the Military Analyst extension

Task in native ArcGIS at version 10

Notes

Working with CADRG/ECRG, CIB, and DTED formats (including achieving display similar to best map set and locked map set)

Working with mosaic datasets

Use CADRG/ECRG, CIB, and DTED raster types. For details, see Data management for military data and the section below, Using DTED and RPF in mosaic datasets.

Using Geodesy tools and commands

To measure geodetic distances, click the Choose Measurement Type drop-down arrow and choose Geodesic on the Measure dialog box. For more information on this dialog box and how to open it, see Measuring distances and areas.

Working with the Coordinate tool and coordinate conversion

Using ArcMap Go To XY, Identify, and MGRS Locator capabilities

For details, see Support for MGRS in ArcGIS and the section below, Working with coordinates.

Working with the following Military Analyst geoprocessing tools:

  • Table To Point
  • Table To Polyline
  • Table To Polygon
  • Table To Ellipse
  • Table To Geodesy Line
  • Table To Line

Using geoprocessing tools in the Data Management toolbox, including

For Table To Point, Table To Polyline, and Table To Polygon, see the section below, Using geoprocessing tools and ModelBuilder.

Working with Terrain Analysis tools

Building geoprocessing models using tools in ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension and ArcGIS 3D Analyst extension

See the Terrain analysis in ArcGIS section below.

MOLE

Task in the MOLE extension

Task in native ArcGIS at version 10

Notes

Adding military symbology to your map

Adding military features to your map

  • Instead of using MOLE (custom) renderers, you now use military feature templates.
  • You can create your own feature template if the symbol you want is not in the feature templates available to you. (Many feature templates are available to you in The Military Overlay layer package. You can also get them through sharing feature templates or layers with other ArcGIS users.)
  • Having a field in your data for a 15-character symbol ID code is no longer required.

Using geoprocessing tools and ModelBuilder

Military Analyst includes geoprocessing tools that create features from tabular data. As described in the following table, a few of these tools have equivalent tools in ArcGIS. The other tools can be built by combining geoprocessing tools in models.

Military Analyst Geometry tools

ArcGIS equivalent

Table To Ellipse

Table To Ellipse

Table To Geodesy Line

Bearing Distance To Line

Table To Line

XY To Line

Table To Point

Geoprocessing model. For details, see Convert a table to points below.

Table To Polyline

Geoprocessing model. For details, see Convert a table to lines below.

Table To Polygon

Geoprocessing model. For details, see Convert a table to polygons below.

The following sections describe how to convert a table to points, lines, or polygons by combining tools in models. If you are new to geoprocessing tools and models, review these topics to help you get started: What is geoprocessing, Essential geoprocessing vocabulary, A quick tour of ModelBuilder, and A quick tour of creating tools with ModelBuilder. It is also helpful to keep in mind that geoprocessing tools in ArcGIS represent granular, single-step tools that are designed to be combined in a model or script to build larger and more complex tools and workflows. This design provides a great deal of flexibility in building your own custom processes.

Convert a table to points

You can create a model that converts a table of x- and y-coordinates to points. To make this model, combine the Make XY Event Layer tool and the Feature To Point tool. The result is a point feature class with attributes from the original table.

model of converting a table to points

If you have Military Grid Reference System (MGRS), universal transverse Mercator (UTM), or United States National Grid (USNG) coordinates, you can combine the Convert Coordinate Notation tool with the Join Field tool in a separate model to achieve the same results. The difference between these two methods is the input coordinate types. Make XY Event Layer uses northings and eastings in a projected coordinate system or latitude and longitude in a geographic coordinate system, whereas Convert Coordinate Notation uses MGRS, UTM, USNG, or other coordinate notations.

Convert a table to lines

The Military Analyst Table To Polyline tool built lines from a table of vertices and other attributes. You can achieve this same result in ArcGIS by stringing together this sequence of tools: Make XY Event Layer, then Feature To Point, followed by Points To Line. The options for a Line field and Sort field allow you to group the vertices into separate lines and organize the vertices in a different order (the default order is the row sequence in the table).

model of converting a table to lines

Convert a table to polygons

Making a Table To Polygon equivalent is exactly the same as Table To Polyline (described just above), but at the end, you add the Feature To Polygon tool. This gives you polygon features as the output instead of polylines.

model of converting a table to polygons

Using DTED and RPF in mosaic datasets

Users of Military Analyst DTED and RPF catalogs will likely want to move their data to mosaic datasets because of the advantages mosaic datasets have to offer. There are two ways to move this data to mosaic datasets: using a Military Analyst catalog as the source for a referenced mosaic dataset or reloading the original source files into a new mosaic dataset. The second method is the recommended one. While the first option, creating a referenced mosaic dataset from the existing catalog, may seem like the easier task, it will limit your data management options later. For example, you will not be able to build overviews or add functions at the raster level. To create a referenced mosaic dataset from a DTED or RPF catalog, right-click the catalog and click Create Referenced Mosaic Dataset.

The second option, creating a new mosaic dataset from the original source DTED or RPF files, is not difficult and is the recommended method. Mosaic datasets are designed for multiresolution rasters and work well with DTED, CADRG, and CIB. The process for creating and adding military data to mosaic datasets is outlined in the following paragraph. For details, see Creating and adding military data to mosaic datasets.

First, create a mosaic dataset using the Create Mosaic Dataset tool. Next, add DTED, CADRG, or CIB to the mosaic dataset using the Add Rasters To Mosaic Dataset tool. This tool loads an entire folder or nested folder hierarchy into a mosaic dataset. If you have folders in different locations, you can use several Add Rasters To Mosaic Dataset tools together in a geoprocessing model and run the whole set as a single process.

You should consider the coordinate system of your source data. It is highly recommended that your data be in a projected coordinate system instead of a geographic coordinate system. Mosaic datasets make this easy because you do not have to project your source data. The mosaic dataset can have a different coordinate system than the source data. So, for example, if your source CADRG is in a geographic coordinate system, the mosaic dataset used to display it could be in a projected coordinate system.

Available from the ArcGIS for Defense and Intelligence group on ArcGIS.com are desktop application templates that can help you create basemaps from CADRG and CIB formats, such as the Scanned Maps template and the Imagery Basemap template. These templates include a geodatabase schema, tools, sample data, and documentation to get you started building basemaps from CADRG, CIB, and other mosaic datasets.

Terrain analysis in ArcGIS

All the Military Analyst tools for terrain analysis use tools available in ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension and ArcGIS 3D Analyst extension. Like the Table To Point and Table To Polyline tools discussed above, the terrain tools in Military Analyst simply chain tools together to form a workflow, or geoprocessing model. You can build the same functionality using these tools. As a side note, the tools found in ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension and ArcGIS 3D Analyst extension assume that you are working in a projected coordinate system. It is highly recommended that your source rasters for elevation data be projected when used for analysis purposes. The easiest way is to load the elevation rasters into a mosaic dataset and set the mosaic dataset to a projected coordinate system as explained in the previous section.

Radial line of sight

At the core of the Military Analyst Radial Line Of Sight tool (RLOS tool) is the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension Viewshed tool. Viewshed takes one or more observer points or observer polylines and returns a raster showing areas that are and are not visible to the observers. The RLOS tool in Military Analyst adds the ability to interactively add observer points before running Viewshed. You can create the same behavior in ArcGIS using a geoprocessing model that strings together a feature set, which interactively adds points from the map, then the Viewshed tool. Additionally, Military Analyst RLOS uses Raster To Polygon to output polygons instead of a raster. This model shows which areas are visible to observers you add by clicking the map.

model for showing which areas are visible to observers

Linear line of sight

The Military Analyst Linear Line Of Sight tool (LLOS tool) is based on the 3D Analyst extension's Line Of Sight tool. The Military Analyst LLOS tool matches an observer point to a specific target point over a surface and returns a line feature attributed to show whether the target and which portions of the line along the surface profile are visible to the observer. The tool matches input points for observers and targets and creates the input lines that the 3D Analyst Line Of Sight tool needs. In recent versions of ArcGIS 3D Analyst extension includes a tool that will build the necessary input lines. The Construct Sight Lines tool takes point features for observers and targets and builds the lines connecting an observer to a target, which can be used by the 3D Analyst Line Of Sight tool to do the point-to-point visibility. You can create a tool like the Military Analyst LLOS tool in a model by using two feature sets to interactively add points for observers and targets. Next, take these two feature sets and use them as inputs into Construct Sight Lines. Construct Sight Lines is then linked to Line Of Sight. This model allows you to manually add points on the map for your observers and targets and determine which ones can see each other.

model to show which targets and observers can see each other

Hillshade

In Military Analyst, you can create a hillshade by selecting a tool from a toolbar and dragging a box around an area. In ArcGIS, you can use the Image Analysis window to hillshade the whole surface or even apply a color-shaded relief. The Image Analysis window can be docked so it is always available or can be tabbed with the table of contents or Catalog window so it will stay out of the way when it is not needed. To activate the window, select Windows > Image Analysis. Highlight your elevation surface. Under Processing, click the down arrow next to the color ramp, choose the black-to-white ramp, then click the Shaded Relief button. You should have a new hillshade dataset added to the Image Analysis window and table of contents. If your source elevation data is not in a projected coordinate system (see recommendations above in "Using DTED and RPF in mosaic datasets"), you still have the ability to add a z-factor to the Image Analysis window's hillshade function. In the window's options, click the Hillshade tab and enter an appropriate z-factor. If you are not sure what one to use, the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension documentation has recommendations on applying a z-factor.

Working with coordinates

ArcGIS has always been able to display, in the status bar, the x- and y-coordinates of the cursor as you move it around the map display area. In recent ArcGIS versions, you can now display the cursor coordinates as either MGRS, UTM, or USNG coordinates, as described in the following procedure:

  1. In the ArcMap table of contents, right-click Layers and choose Properties.
  2. On the Data Frame Properties dialog box, click the General tab.
  3. In the Units area, click the down arrow next to Display. Choose one of the linear units or coordinate notations, including MGRS, U.S. National Grid, and UTM, which are at the bottom of the list.
  4. Click OK to close the dialog box.

Military Analyst has a coordinate tool that helps with manual coordinate conversion. ArcGIS now has, built into ArcMap, the same capabilities as the tool, plus additional capabilities that Military Analyst doesn't have. The Go To XY tool allows you to pan, zoom, flash, or mark a location that is in decimal degrees; degrees, minutes, seconds; degrees decimal minutes; MGRS; USNG; and UTM coordinates. Click the Go To XY tool button, choose your input coordinate type from the down arrow, type the location's coordinates, then press ENTER.

Go To XY toolbar

If you work with MGRS coordinates, the MGRS Locator in the Find tool has further options to help you. From the ArcMap Tools toolbar, click the Find tool button and click the Locations tab. Choose MGRS (Military Grid Reference System) under Choose a locator. Type your location into the MGRS Coordinate box and click Find. A list of results is presented (though with MGRS you should expect only one). If you right-click the result, you can pan to that location, mark the location, or create a bookmark.

the Find dialog box

What if you have a table of coordinates that you want to convert from one format to another? If you used Military Analyst, you probably used the Convert Coordinates In File tool for this task. In ArcGIS, the Convert Coordinate Notation tool, or CCN, performs a similar function in a slightly different way. ArcGIS Convert Coordinate Notation converts coordinates between decimal degrees (DD), degrees decimal minutes (DDM), degrees, minutes, seconds (DMS), Global Area Reference System (GARS), World Geographic Reference System (GEOREF), UTM, USNG, and MGRS. However, the output will be point features with the converted coordinate format as an attribute. If you want to add the original attributes back into the resulting point features, you can chain the Convert Coordinate Notation tool with the Join Field tool in a model.

a model showing the Convert Coordinate Notation tool chained with the Join Field tool

Related Topics

8/7/2012