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A Few More Free Toolsets For ArcGIS



Another in a series of posts on free toolsets for ESRI products. Today’s sets comes from Valery Hronusov, author of such useful paid tools as SuperOverlay (a stand-alone program for creating tiled raster image datasets for Google Earth), and KMLer (an extension for ArcGIS that exports data in KML format). The free tools are only for ArcGIS, versions 9 and higher.

First is TypeConvert, which is completely free right from the start. The list of features (taken from the website) includes:

  • Polygon <-> Polyline <-> Points
    Converts one type feature class to another type feature class
  • To ConvexHull and To envelope
    Converts feature class into convex hull or envelope.
  • To centroid
    Create a new point feature class with all attributes from the center points (centroids) of the features in the current layer.
  • To segments
    Convert polyline or polygon feature class to polyline feature class, consisting of lines segments of an initial feature class.
  • From graphics
    Convert graphics elements of the active map into features.
  • Remove duplicates
    Remove duplicate features from the current layer.
  • Stratification
    Stratify current layer, classified by categories or quantities, to set of layers according the current legend.
  • Divide segments
    Add points to long segments of current feature class.
  • To *.bln
    Export feature class with 2-dimensional geometry (polyline, polygon) to blanking file (*.bln) for use in Surfer.
  • To Google Earth
    Exports the feature class to KML for use in Google Earth.
  • Next is Isoliner, which comes in a 7-day demo version for all the features, but some features stay free even after the demo period is over. The free features include:

    • 2D Kriging
    • 2D Feature Kriging
    • Interpolation By Raster
    • Convert Raster To Points
    • Convert Objects To 3D
    • Random Grid Points (2D, 3D and ellipse)
    • Slider Analyst (for calculating attribute densities and relations)

    There are also trial versions of all of the paid products, but only SuperOverlay really falls into the category of “cheap” tools consistent with this blog’s title at $20 :). Visit the Google Earth Library for many examples of the kind of tiled raster image overlays it can create for Google Earth.

    Addendum: Valery writes to say that KMLer standard is also “cheap” at $20. And there are flash demos for many of his products on his website if you scroll down on the product page.


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