Fledermaus External Data Dock

External Data Dock

External Data Dock

The external data dock allows the connection to external projects for easier loading of data. The supported project types are QPS projects, folder and ArcGIS Geodatabase (requires the FMGIS add-on) 

Add 

This option allows you to connect to a supported project. Use the drop down menu to select the type of project from QPS Project, Folder, or Arc Geodatabase.

Refresh

This option allows the user to refresh the connection, this will check for new data in the folder and add it in the lower section. 

Refresh Icon

Loading Surface Data from External Projects

Once a connection has been established to the project the available files will be displayed in the window. To load the data to the scene Right Click on the required file and select Add to Scene

Add to Scene Option

Loading Ungridded Data from External Projects

Using the Add to Scene option will add a trackline for each selected line and will load a point cloud for each individual line

Create surface from Points will launch the Data Gridding wizard and will allow the files to be added to a surface file. 

Create Surface from Points

Add Arc Geodatabase

In order to use the Arc Geodatabase tools you will need a Fledermaus 8 FMGIS license as well as an ESRI license. You will also need to install ArcGIS Desktop version 10.1 and above, as well as the same version of ArcGIS Desktop Background Geoprocessing 64bit.

Using the Add Arc Geodatabase option will add an ArcGIS geodatabase connection tab to the External Data window. Once the Arc tab is added, you can connect to an exisiting ArcGIS geodatabase or create a new file or folder geodatabase using the Add button. The Refresh button will manually refresh the geodatabase connection to display the latest contents of the geodatabase. If you open a scene with a geodatabase, clicking the Refresh button will re-connect to the geodatabase.

Arc Geodatabase Connection Tab showing a connection to a File Geodatabase.

Clicking on the Add button will open the Create/Open an ArcGIS Connection window. There are options to Connect to an existing ESRI Geodatabase or Create a New ESRI Geodatabase. Select an option and then select the type of ESRI database connection, Folder and File Geodatabases are supported at this time. Finally select the Path and filename where the geodatabase is or will be stored. This will add the Geodatabase to the Arc window.

Create/Open an ArcGIS Connection window

To transfer files from the Arc geodatabase to the scene, right click on the feature or raster and select Add to Scene or double click on the feature or raster.

Transfer a file from an Arc Geodatabase by right clicking on the item.

Depending on the type of item you select in the Arc Geodatabase, you will have different options available for importing the object in the Options section. For example if importing a raster object, you can change the type in Fledermaus 8 using the Load as: drop-down menu. The output Coordinate System can also be changed here to match the Scene or Project.

Transferring a Point Object from a File Geodatabase (left). Transferring a Raster Object from a File Geodatabase (right).

You can remove a geodatabase from the window by right clicking on the geodatabase and selecting Remove... Removing a database will not delete it. You can also Delete objects from the geodatabase by right-clicking on the object in the geodatabase and select Remove... This will permanently delete the object from the geodatabase.

More details on transferring Fledermaus 8 files to an ESRI geodatabase are found in the Fledermaus Export to ArcGIS Dialog.