Who can use ArcGIS Engine?

Many users require focused, lightweight access to GIS. They need much less than a complete GIS application, such as ArcView, yet require access to sophisticated GIS logic in their applications. In cases in which users need focused, customized access to GIS, ArcGIS Engine provides a lower-cost, lightweight option.

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There are many potential users of GIS-enhanced applications who are not GIS professionals and are just not equipped to take advantage of the comprehensive tools available on the market without a steep learning curve. To provide spatial solutions to non-GIS users, developers need the ability to build domain-specific, easy-to-use applications that can incorporate the power of a comprehensive GIS into a user-friendly experience. These applications, if built from scratch, can be an overwhelming development effort and may not be time or cost-effective.

You can use the ArcGIS Engine Developer Kit to successfully build standalone applications. There is a wide variety of types of applications that can be built, ranging from graphical user interface (GUI) applications to command-line, batch-driven applications. GUI applications will make use of the extensive ArcGIS controls exposed in the developer kit. These controls include everything you need to build a sophisticated front-end application. You can leverage your chosen API to integrate the ArcGIS controls with other third-party components and create a unique user interface for your custom ArcGIS Engine application.

An application built in Java using the GlobeControl

ArcMap, one of the ArcGIS Desktop applications, is an excellent way to create data and author maps for use in custom applications. The MapControl and PageLayoutControl provided with ArcGIS Engine can work with the map documents created in ArcMap. SceneControl and GlobeControl can display documents authored in the ArcScene™ and ArcGlobe™ applications. Using the ArcGIS Desktop applications to create and manage maps used in custom applications can save you much development time and effort. ArcGIS Desktop also provides tools to build and manage geodatabases, shapefiles, and other forms of spatial data.

The 9.2 release provides support for Geoprocessing tools, scripts and models inside of Engine applications. ArcGIS Desktop is a great way to interactive create Geoprocessing models using ModelBuilder.

The underlying components of ArcGIS Desktop are the same ArcObjects components that make up ArcGIS Engine. This allows every ArcGIS Desktop user the ability to run ArcGIS Engine applications. You can develop applications based on ArcGIS Engine and deploy them to ArcGIS Desktop users or extend ArcToolbox™ with a custom toolset built with the ArcGIS Engine developer kit.

ArcGIS Server administrators can provide server objects and Web services to ArcGIS Engine applications. This allows the integration of desktop functionality with server functionality. It is also important to remember that the GIS functionality exposed via the ArcObjects that compose ArcGIS Engine is the same in ArcGIS Server, meaning that ArcGIS Server, Engine, and Desktop have the same core ArcObjects.