Updating raster catalog footprints

This topic applies to ArcEditor and ArcInfo only.

The geodatabase raster catalog has a footprint (geometry field). In some cases, this footprint may not be up-to-date. This may happen when you don't use ArcGIS or ArcObjects to insert raster datasets into a geodatabase raster catalog.

You may have used the ArcSDE command line to make changes to your raster catalog, for example, using the SDERaster command. If SDERaster is used to insert raster data into a geodatabase raster catalog, the footprint will not be updated, since SDERaster is not aware of the footprint column in the raster catalog schema. If SDERaster is used to mosaic raster data to a raster catalog item, the footprint is not updated accordingly, since SDERaster is not aware of the footprint column. These footprints need to be updated, since raster catalog items with empty footprints are not viewable in ArcGIS.

When updating a footprint, the operation cannot add a footprint that falls outside the footprint column's spatial domain, and the operation does not report an error in this case. It is your responsibility to ensure that the raster catalog is created with the correct spatial domain. The spatial domain of the raster catalog's footprint field is set to the extent of the coordinate reference system.

To learn more about inserting or mosaicking raster datasets into a raster catalog using ArcGIS, see Loading raster data into a raster catalog or Mosaicking raster datasets.

Steps:

1. In ArcCatalog or the Catalog window, expand Database Connections in the Catalog tree and double-click the database connection to which you want to connect.

   If you need to make a new connection, see Creating spatial database connections.

2. Right-click the geodatabase raster catalog and click Update Footprints.
3. Click Query Builder on the Update Raster Footprint dialog box.
4. On the Query Builder dialog box, create the query that corresponds to the raster catalog items that need to be updated.

   If the query is blank, all the footprints in the geodatabase raster catalog are updated.

   To learn about building queries, see About building a SQL expression or SQL reference.

5. Optionally, check Update empty footprints only.
6. Click OK.