ArcGIS Excalibur is a web-based imagery application that modernizes and enhances image-based workflows through intuitive experiences. These experiences enable you to search for, discover, and work with imagery in fully integrated workflows for image analytics and exploitation.

For more information, see What is ArcGIS Excalibur.

Prior to installing ArcGIS Excalibur, you need an ArcGIS Enterprise 10.7 or later base deployment with ArcGIS Image Server authorized with ArcGIS Server. You can install the base deployment on one or more machines, any of which can be physical, virtual, or cloud machines.

Different versions of ArcGIS Excalibur work with different ArcGIS Enterprise versions. The compatibility is as follows:

• V2.3.1—10.9, 10.9.1, 11
• V2.3—10.9.1, 10.9, 10.8.1
• V2.2—10.9, 10.8.1, 10.8
• V2.0-2.1—10.8.1, 10.8, 10.7.1
• V1.2—10.8, 10.7.1, 10.7
• V1.1—1.1.1 - 10.7.1, 10.7
• V1.0—10.7

For more information on hardware and software requirements, see ArcGIS Excalibur system requirements.

Download ArcGIS Excalibur from My Esri by logging in with your Esri account that is associated with your customer number. ArcGIS Excalibur should be installed on the machine where Portal for ArcGIS is installed.

Once ArcGIS Excalibur is installed, an authorization file must be obtained and authorized.

For more information on installing and authorizing, see Install and authorize ArcGIS Excalibur.

ArcGIS Excalibur is a premium application and requires a separate portal license file. You must have a Creator or GIS Professional user type with the appropriate roles before an ArcGIS Excalibur license can be assigned to you.

For more information, see System requirements or Assign members an ArcGIS Excalibur license.

No. ArcGIS Excalibur is not available in ArcGIS Online and is only available in ArcGIS Enterprise 10.7 and later.

No. ArcGIS Excalibur does not support customization using an API.

No. Anyone who wants to discover, analyze, report, and efficiently disseminate image-derived information to consumers can use ArcGIS Excalibur. Users include all-source analysts, imagery analysts, and imagery and geospatial managers in industries such as national security, emergency response, local and federal government, humanitarian relief, and public works.

You must have your environment properly configured and the proper privileges to publish hosted imagery. If you have the proper environment and privileges, you can begin publishing imagery by accessing it through the home page or at any time on the side navigation menu under Publish Imagery. For more information, see Publish hosted imagery.

You can obtain an imagery web service URL through any of the following:

• The Content tab of your Enterprise portal—You can search My Content or My Organization's Content for the layer type imagery layer.
• ArcGIS REST Services directory (for example, https://<host.domain.com>/<webadaptor>/rest/services)—Many services defined as an ArcGIS Image Server Service denoted by (ImageServer) can be a supported service.
• Your organization's GIS administrator.

For more information on using imagery web service URLs, see Explore an imagery web service.

Ensure that your Search Settings filters and map extent is set to properties and a location where imagery exists for the selected imagery service layer in the Catalog Layer Switcher located in the lower corner of the catalog search map.

If no layers are available in the layer switcher list, a message appears stating such. To populate the Catalog Imagery Layer Switcher list, click My Available Imagery in the Results panel to enable imagery service layers of interest for use in the imagery catalog search.

Image focus view is available on images that have sensor transformation information, such as rational polynomial coefficients (RPC) or frame cameras. Not all image services contain imagery with this sensor information.

For more information on the image focus view, see Use image views.

Images may not display in the Image Catalog when Toggle Image is enabled or in the Imagery Exploitation Canvas in the Map Focus Panel due to a visibility scale range set on the image service. Try zooming in closer on the image footprint to get the image or set of images to appear.

The Measurement Tool dynamically reads in the metadata and capabilities set on the image service. The measurement options available will depend on the imagery service layer you are working with.

Project tools are only available when you open an imagery project in the imagery exploitation canvas. The Collect Observations tool is only available when you open an observation imagery project.

For more information on creating an imagery project, see Create an imagery project.

Yes, an observation layer requires a specific schema to be used in an observation imagery project. When creating an observation imagery project, you can choose to select an existing observation layer that meets the required schema or create a new observation layer that will automatically add the required schema to the new layer.

For more information on an observation layer, see Select observation layer.

Imagery projects can be shared with your organization or can be left private during the guided workflow when creating an imagery project. At ArcGIS Excalibur 1.0-1.2, imagery projects are saved in a folder called Excalibur Imagery Projects in My Content. Any imagery project created after version 1.2 will be created in a folder based on the name of the imagery project. You can change the share setting for your imagery projects in the portal.

Yes. User settings are stored and saved with your portal identity allowing you to access the ArcGIS Excalibur application on different machines in different locations while maintaining your customized experience.

Yes. ArcGIS Excalibur uses ArcGIS and its information model to consume and create content that can be applied to other ArcGIS applications. In particular, content created in an imagery project is written to a hosted feature service and can be used in other applications such as Map Viewer and ArcGIS Pro and web applications such as Operations Dashboard for ArcGIS and Insights for ArcGIS. You can also use exported views from the imagery exploitation canvas in ArcGIS StoryMaps templates.

Yes. You can view and work with imagery that is nonquery-enabled. Although these types of image services do not support cataloging capabilities, you can still visualize this imagery in the exploitation canvas while using the many tools available to work with the image service.

Yes. You can save markup in the imagery exploitation canvas as a base project and refer to it later. To learn more about saving your markup in canvas, see Save markup to a project.

You can add or remove an existing observation layer or create a new observation layer through the imagery project details. For more information about observation layers, see Add an observation layer to your imagery project.

Yes. You can continue your work in Excalibur while your hosted imagery layers are publishing. You can monitor the progress of your imagery through the App Notices. For more information, see Publish hosted imagery.

No. You can apply as many search settings as you like when you save your query. For more information, see Search by saved search query.

Yes. Your observations need to be in the same layer to use the Batch Edit Observations tool. For more information, see Batch Edit Observations tool .

Ensure that you are searching for your coordinate in your image extent. If you search for a coordinate outside your image extent, you get an error. For more information see, Capture a coordinate.

To create a GeoEnrichment definition in your imagery project, the following criteria must be met:

• You must be the project owner or the portal administrator.
• You must have a point observation layer in your imagery project.
• You must have a polygon context layer in a web map added to your project.

For more information, see Enhance an imagery project with GeoEnrichment definitions.

Yes, you can add any layer to your imagery project to use as an observation layer. You also have the option to add system-managed fields to populate information about the image when an observation is collected. For more information, see Manage system fields and settings.

The Detect Change tool is disabled if the image service is nonquery-enabled, a WMS, or a WMTS layer. A minimum of two selected images are required to run the tool. For more information, see Detect Change tool.

The Download Source Imagery option is only available if the image service has download capabilities enabled. For more information, see Export Image tool.

Yes, your JSON file must be properly formatted to successfully create an imagery project. You can find the format for projects with a single focus image layer and projects with observation layers in Upload an imagery project definition file.