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ArcGIS

ArcGIS software covers a wide range of sophisticated GIS (Geographic Information System) tools. It can be used in desktop, server, web and mobile environments.

CSC organizes ArcGIS software consortium for Finnish universities and universities of applied sciences. The members of current consortium are listed at the end of this page.

To the members of ArcGIS software consortium these products are available (for details see the license agreement Appendix A):

  • ArcGIS Online
  • ArcGIS Pro and Desktop.
  • ArcGIS Enterprise
  • ArcGIS Drone2map, NEW 2022
  • Esri CityEngine
  • ArcGIS Monitor
  • ArcGIS Hub Premium
  • ArcGIS Developer Subscription
  • ArcGIS Premium Apps
  • Virtual Campus courses
  • Finnish road and street dataset by Esri Finland. It is meant for routing and geocoding. This dataset is based on Digiroad, but includes several corrections and enhancements.

Most of the software products are available for unlimited number of users. ArcGIS may be used for teaching, research or in limited amounts for administrative work. Use for commercial purposes is forbidden. Software may be installed to the computers of the consortium member university and computers of personnel and students and may be used at home or during field work according to the user terms. The more detailed terms of use can be found from ArcGIS site license agreement.

ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Pro

All old ArcGIS Desktop users are encouraged to move to ArcGIS Pro, because active development of ArcGIS Desktop has stopped.

Installation

License

ArcGIS products need to be authorized. Licensing options for consortium members:

  • Named users, main option for ArcGIS Pro, not available for ArcGIS desktop. The user must have home university's ArcGIS Online account with personal ArcGIS Pro license. Ask this from your home university ArcGIS Online administrator.
  • Concurrent licenses from CSC license server, main option ArcGIS for Desktop, but also available for ArcGIS Pro. Ask your home university's ArcGIS contact person for address of the license server and the port numbers to be opened. Help: ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Desktop.
  • Single use licenses, for ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS for Desktop, only for university personnel. Single Use license does not need internet connection, so useful for example during field work. Single Use licenses are always valid until end of the calendar year. Single Use licenses are available from University's contact persons.

Note

CSC license server is available only from FUNET (Finnish Universities) network. When working outside the FUNET network, for example at home, you should first connect to your university network (VPN).

Borrowing concurrent licenses

ArcGIS Educational site license includes also possibility to borrow licenses for 100 days. With a borrowed license it is possible to work without Internet connection or outside of FUNET network.

License is borrowed with ArcGIS Administrator or ArcGIS Pro:

  • Always borrow the base product ArcGIS Desktop or ArcGIS Pro, only Advanced level is available.
  • All extensions need to be borrowed separately, you are free to choose which ones you need. Especially with ArcGIS Pro make sure you borrow all the extensions you need. It is not possible to add extensions to already borrowed base product.
  • Licenses borrowed at the end of year are always returned on 31th of December, because annual license renewal.
  • Returning borrowed license does not work with ArcGIS Pro. License is automatically returned at the last day of borrow.

ArcGIS Server

It does not use license server and needs a registration code for installation, these are available from University's contact persons.

ArcGIS Online

ArcGIS Online is a platform for making and sharing maps, applications and spatial data. ArcGIS Online is available for consortium members - each university may have up to 5000 users and use 50 000 ArcGIS Online -credits per year. For joining ArcGIS Online ask your University's ArcGIS contact person.

Guidelines for the ArcGIS Online administrators:

Virtual Campus

Virtual Campus includes a wide selection of Internet courses about GIS, the focus is on ESRI tools and technology. A lot of Virtual Campus courses are free, in addition consortium members have access to all courses of types Web Course or Training seminar.

For participating in a Virtual Campus course you need an ESRI Global Account. For courses with a fee, you also need to be added to consortium's ArcGIS accont, ask for it from CSC.

Performance tips for ArcGIS desktop software

ArcGIS in CSC's computing environment

  • ArcGIS desktop tools ArcGIS Pro and ArcMap are available only for Windows operating system, which makes installing them impossible in CSC's supercomputers and very difficult in cPouta cloud, which has limited support for Windows.
  • ESRI provides a wide range of server products for large scale spatial data analysis. These ArcGIS server products usually support Linux operating system and can be installed to cPouta.
  • For running ArcPy scripts in CSC computing environment, the best option is to install ArcGIS Server with ArcPy to cPouta. ArcGIS Server ArcPy might be slightly different than ArcGIS desktop ArcPy. The installation instructions can be found from GitHub.
  • ArcGIS Python API is available in Puhti as module arcgis-python-api. The module is based on ESRI's arcgis_learn metapackage and includes also packages for deep learning. See ESRI's ArcGIS Python API samples for ideas and code examples. Some parts of ArcGIS Python API require logging in to your home organization's ArcGIS Online. ArcGIS Python API was installed on Puhti using Tykky's conda-containerize functionality, using this ArcGIS Python API conda environment file.

Contact

  • Each university has its own ArcGIS contact person, for students and personnel she/he is the first point of contact.
  • CSC, GIS-coordinator: servicedesk@csc.fi
  • The technical contact person of the consortium member university has the right to contact Esri-helpdesk in technical questions.
University Contact person
Aalto university Pekka Karppinen
University of Helsinki helpdesk at helsinki.fi
HAMK Esa Lientola
UEF Sonja Kivinen
University of Jyväskylä Juha Alioravainen, Anssi Lensu
Karelia AMK Antti Lajunen
Lapin AMK lisenssit at lapinamk.fi
Kaakkois-Suomen AMK Pertti Kilpeläinen
Novia AMK Stefan Heinänen
University of Oulu Lauri Aho
TUT, Tampere AMK it-helpdesk at tuni.fi
University of Turku Elina Kasvi
Åbo Akademi Mårten Hedman

Manual

Last update: November 3, 2023