When I open GeoTime, Excel crashes or I get error in Excel > GeoTime Configuration Menu

The problem could be that you are running an english version of Excel but the region settings for your computer are configured for another language.  Install the “Multilingual User Interface Pack” for version of Microsoft Office.


ArcGIS 9.2 is installed on my maching and will not allow the GeoTime extension to load.

If client does not have 80+ ESRI.ArcGIS.* entries, the procedure below should solve:

Data is loaded into GeoTime from one of two sources: ArcGIS 9.2 and/or Excel (XP/2003/2007).  Both the GeoTime ArcGIS extension for ArcMap and the GeoTime Excel Toolbar require that Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0 is installed before GeoTime. 

In addition to .Net 2.0, the ArcGIS extension requires ArcGIS's .NET Support.  Here are instructions for getting this up and running:

  1. Ensure any previous version of GeoTime is uninstalled
  2. Install Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0 - you can find the installer on the ArcGIS install DVD in the DotNet20 folder
  3. Go to Control Panel -> Add Remove Programs...
  4. Find the ArcGIS Desktop entry and click "Change"
  5. When the ArcGIS installer dialog pops up, select "Modify"
  6. Ensure that the ".Net Support" component is installed to your hard drive (screenshot below)
  7. Click Next and finish the installation
  8. Reboot if prompted
  9. Install GeoTime v4.0

Once GeoTime is installed, you must enable the extension in ArcGIS and turn on the toolbar: 

  1. Start ArcMap
  2. Go to Tools -> Extensions
  3. Check "GeoTime Extension for ArcGIS"
  4. Go to View -> Toolbar
  5. Turn on the "GeoTime Extension for ArcGIS" toolbar

Importing Excel date/time format seems to add “0” in front of time where it is 1:40PM.

Ensure that when you are choosing the column for date/time in your configuration that you hit the "Format" button.  This will allow you to specify arbitrary date/time formats (by entering format strings like yyyy/MM/dd H:mm:ss).  Here's a guide to getting hours working in the format you need:

h --> hours on a 12 hour clock, one or two digits (1-12)
hh --> hours on a 12 hour clock, always two digits (01-12)
H --> hours on a 24 hour clock, one or two digits (0-23)
HH --> hours on a 24 hour clock, always two digits (00-23)

Importing Shapefiles.

We can add using GeoTime 4 and ArcTOC although an Arc license is required on the host computer.


Importing .csv’s that requires setting the date/time format does not seem to allow date/times without leading zeros.

Specifying the date as days part 1/1/1900 should work fine if you format that column in Excel as a date/time (and hence see 4/3/08 12:00 AM in the cell instead of 39541).  If you do this you shouldn't even have to tell the GeoTime configuration utility the format (the button will be disabled) and it will figure it out itself.
 

No GMT listed as the time zone, assumed it was EST not GMT

GeoTime should be treating all times in Excel as if they were specified in GMT unless a timezone is explicitly appended to the end of the date/time.  GeoTime itself also only shows time in GMT.  I made a test file with a single event at 4/3/08 12:00 AM in Excel and it showed up in GeoTime at 4/3/08 12:00 AM GMT.  If your data is in another timezone, you'll have to append the timezone code to the data so we know what it is...but GMT should always work fine.
 

I don’t have the Add-Ins tab in Excel (2007) so I can’t see the GeoTime buttons. Under Excel Options -> Add-Ins, I can see the GeoTime Extension Toolbar but it is disabled. If I try to enable it I get this message: “The connected state of the Office Add-Ins registered in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE cannot be changed.”

If the Excel plug-in used to work please get an administrator to log in and see if it works under their account.  Also get them to re-enable it (Through Excel Options -> Add-Ins).

How do you change the background colour in Geotime?

This is not adjustable.
 

How do you change the shapes of the data objects (sprites)?

  1. Highlight the data object that you wish to change.

  2. Right click and select Object Properties… click on the Icon File entry field area.

  3. Select a file, or image that you would like to replace the original shape with.  This could be an image, or a shape of your choice.

  4.  or, at data import time, include a path to the icon in each record.

How do you import an image without using ArcMAP?

  1. Assign the map you want to use with a set of coordinates (you can use Global Mapper for a technical conversion and is recommended for Commercial applications)

  2. After the map is generated the map file and its associated data files can be saved in a folder under MapMan>Resources>Maps.

  3. Restart both MapMan and GeoTime

  4. Select the Config button from Mapman and expand the layers menu to adjust the layers settings to overlay other maps.

We have an application that constantly writes events to a CSV file. To see the updated information I need to Import the same file every time. What is the best way to accomplish this?

It is recommended that you use the Excel plug-in to bring your CSV data into GeoTime, rather than the import feature. The Excel plug-in actually has a "Send to GeoTime" button which is a quick process to send events with just two clicks, once you set up a configuration file.

 

I have two formats of CSV files, when I switch between the different files I need to configure the mapping in the GeoTime. How can I avoid the 'reconfigure' process?   

If you use Excel to import your data from the CSV files, you can create a configuration file that would be saved. You can then just pick the config file when sending data to GeoTime. If your column labels are consistent throughout both files, you could even use one configuration file for both CSV formats.

I would like to import data of communication events that include 'virtual geospatial position' and display the information in a 'virtual space' display. How can I do that?   

When creating your configuration, if you have an event's place coordinates (it's Lat and Lon) left blank, the event will be placed at the side of the map as a "non-geospatial" event. The "Excel Integration Guide" in the program's documents folder can give you more information on creating configurations.

 

I have a raster map (Geo Tiff) that can be displayed by ESRI and I want to display this map in the GeoTime application. How can I do this?

If you have ArcMap running in the background with a map loaded, GeoTime will use that map in place of MapMan. You can also select whether to use ArcMap or MapMan as your map source in the drop-down menu in the GeoTime toolbar.

An alternative is to use ArcTOC in GeoTime if you have an ArcObj license locally.
 

GeoTime takes a long time to load (over 60 seconds)

Go to the following folder:
c:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Local Settings\Temp\
and delete the file called "gtesrilayers.mxd"