Dec 11, 2024

Announcing the ArcGIS Maps SDK for Qt ARM64 Linux beta

By Nick Furness and Rex Hansen and Mike Branscomb

We’re very pleased to announce a new beta of the ArcGIS Maps SDK for Qt 200.6 for Linux on ARM64 architectures.

Many of you have been asking to run the Native Maps SDKs on ARM64 Linux, so we’re providing this beta to gauge interest and better understand your requirements. The primary driver for this beta is desktop support, but the SDK also works with embedded devices.

If you’re at all interested in building ARM64 Linux solutions with the Native Maps SDKs, whether for desktop or embedded systems, please join the beta and provide your feedback in the dedicated beta forum.

For those of you who’ve been following our exploration of supporting ARM64 on Linux with the Native Maps SDKs (this is in fact our third beta), here’s a quick summary of how we got here.

In 2018 we provided our first beta, in response to requests from our developer community, targeted specifically for customers building embedded/IoT solutions. This beta was based on the 100.x ArcGIS Runtime SDK for Qt, running on Qt 5, and was firmly aimed at embedded devices and the Qt for Device Creation license. It was really a testbed to assess interest, but didn’t really gather much traction.

More recently we’ve been hearing interest in running the Native Maps SDKs on desktop ARM64 Linux systems, and so in 2023 we launched a new beta delivered through the ArcGIS Maps SDK for Java which supported both desktop and embedded systems. This garnered more interest, but with the subsequent deprecation of the ArcGIS Maps SDK for Java, we needed another path forward.

That path was opened up earlier this year when Qt 6.7 introduced ARM64 support on Linux as a technology preview, graduating that to a supported architecture with Qt 6.8. This enabled us to deliver this new beta alongside the latest ArcGIS Maps SDK for Qt 200.6 release.

We look forward to learning more about your plans for building solutions for ARM64 Linux using the Native Maps SDKs, so please sign up for the beta and chat with us in the dedicated beta forum.

Nick Furness

Nick Furness is a Product Manager for the ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Native Apps, and ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Game Engines, specializing in Swift and iOS. He's spent over 25 years working in the GIS space building projects ranging from small mom-and-pop solutions all the way up to enterprise utility and national government deployments. Nick presents at various Esri Developer Summits, the User Conference, and many other events, almost always talking about something to do with the Native Maps SDKs (although you might find the odd bit of JavaScript thrown in there).

Rex Hansen

Rex Hansen is a Product Manager for the ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Native Apps and ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Game Engines. He has over 25 years of experience in GIS, spatial analytics, and computer mapping. Currently, he guides the development of native technologies in the GIS industry to use authoritative geospatial content and analysis in offline workflows, photorealistic experiences, and immersive, extended reality solutions.

Mike Branscomb

Mike Branscomb is a Product Manager for the ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Native Apps and ArcGIS Maps SDKs for Game Engines. With over 20 years of experience working in the Esri ecosystem, he specializes in .NET, Local Server, and 3D Scene Layers. Mike is also a Scrum Product Owner with over 10 years of experience guiding teams through the product development lifecycle.

ArcGIS Blog

Announcing the ArcGIS Maps SDK for Qt ARM64 Linux beta

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