Loading Microsoft Bing Imagery and Road Network into ArcGIS 10

This tutorial will explain how to load Microsoft online Bing imagery and Road Network into ArcGIS 10.

ESRI manages a series of ready-to-use basemap layers that you can add directly to your map for free.

They are called ArcGIS Online basemaps and they’ve been available since version 9.3.1.  At version 10, however, you can access them directly with no need to register or download links.

The basemaps include aerial imagery used by Bing Maps, Street Map data, USGS topo maps, relief maps, and more.

Instead of having your data floating on white background, you can add basemap layers and create the professional and interesting maps with saving lot of time

With version 10 you can directly add basemap without registering or any alternates download links.

1)    Start ArcGIS,

2)    Go to File menu bar, select Add Data, Select Add Basemap.

3)    Or directly from Add Data Button which include a dropdown menu with the option to Add Basemap

4)    Add Basemap window will show the Basemaps types.

5)    Out of that we will choose Bing Imagery.

6)    It will be added in TOC (Table of content) as like the layers

7)    The map of the world appears with Bing data loaded, you can pan, zoom this database

8)    Now you can use these for plotting, adding geo-referencing features, for adjusting scanned maps, and many other numerous productions.

There are a few things to be aware of when using the ArcGIS Online basemaps.

·         You must have internet connection in order to access online basemaps.

·         You cannot download the data and save it on your system.

·         The basemaps are free to use for internal non-commercial uses; commercial use requires a license you can purchase from ESRI directly.

v  If you are using ArcGIS 9.3.1, you need to get a free bing Maps license from ESRI for more info click here