Web Service for Background Imagery

SMS supports the ability to obtain image data from web servers. The imagery will update as you pan and zoom and use an appropriate resolution for your current zoom level. Since you are obtaining the information over the internet, the performance of these images will be dependent upon the speed of your internet connection.

System Requirements

SMS 11.0 and ArcGIS 9.3 or above are needed for this feature.

Projection

To use web layers, the user must be in a non-local projection.

GIS Web Layers

SMS ships with several layers that can be used. Some of the layers are specific to the US and others are worldwide. The user may want to experiment with different layers as some will give better performance or quality. To find the files shipped with SMS, go to the Windows menu, go to the SMS 11.0 folder, and click on the item labeled "supporting files." This will open an explorer window to the folder that contains supporting files used with SMS. A folder named "GIS Layer Files" should appear. This folder contains the GIS web layers that ship with SMS.

In order to load the GIS layers, it's necessary to be using the ArcObjects interface inside of SMS. This is activated by switching to the GIS module and selecting the menu item, Data | Enable ArcObjects.

Zooming in to view more details

As zooming in, more of the GIS layer features such as roads, peaks, etc will be more visible (as well as their labels in some cases depending on the GIS layer opened). The more the user zooms in, the more details will appear. When zooming out, the details will become less visible.