ArcGIS Tips / Tricks & Tools An assortment of everyday usable stuff that may increase your productivity or just make others say… WOW! we believe in making use of what others will let us borrow - we don't have programmer resources available often, or for gis projects, so much of what we do is 'borrowed' or out of the box or modified from existing code. there are lots of things you can do with existing resources, things to make doing the gis activities you need to do easier for repetitive tasks, and that with a little know-how and resourcefulness there is a whole lot more potential to GIS that you can offer your employer. Everyone has ‘things’ they take pride in, maybe they made something themselves or got a group of people using. Often they improve productivity while using existing resources. 1 Presenters? • Bryan Townsend – GIS Administrator, York County, SC • Brad Barnell – GIS Manager, Greenwood County, SC • Shane Sprouse – GIS Analyst, Greenwood County, SC • Sandra Ellenberg – GIS Analyst, Greenwood County, SC 2 Blogs? (lots of info nuggets here) • http://gismatters.blogspot.com/ (david maguire) • http://www.spatiallyadjusted.com/links/ (Brian Goldin) • Getting Started with GeoChat – Richie Carmichael http://spaces.msn.com/members/MrRichie/ • http://slashgeo.org • (like the slashdot.org website “news for nerds, stuff that matters,” but with geospatial twist) Why read blogs? Latest in GIS happenings; news, product reviews/issues, ways to use gis There are numerous ESRI Staff blogs. David Maguire (esri Director of products) SpatiallyAdjusted–links to other blogs- More GIS/ESRI Staff Blogs…. 3 Places to start when you need help • Arcscripts.esri.com – extensions, scripts • Support.esri.com – forums, downloads • Edn.esri.com -- ESRI Developer Network • Google.com Try searching support.esri.com when you have an issue. Someone has likely had your same problem and posted how they fixed it. If you run into an issue where nobody has posted, “pay it forward” when you resolve it by posting how you solved your issue. 4 Other Resources (tips) • KesslerGIS.com Tips and Tricks • Connecting to an Excel Table for use in ArcCatalog and ArcMap (*out-of-box @ 9.2) • Recover your identify results window or any other window that has accidentally gotten moved off your screen When researching tips and tricks for this session I knew we would present what we knew well and were already using. There are a few others who have put together materials similar to this and the next few slides provides a ‘summary’ of these tips/tricks that were discovered. 5 Other Resources (tips) • Vermont Center for Geographic Information • ArcGIS and Tech tips • Lots of ArcScript suggestions, some tips and tricks (location of normal.mxt, calculating field tips), a listing of free tools & other tools http://www.vcgi.org/techres/?page=./white_papers/techtips/ArcGISTips.cfm 6 Other Resources (tips) • ESRI Wisconsin User Group (EWUG) • 2004 presentation “ArcGIS Tips and Tools” – Geoprocessing wizard toolbox, recognizing ArcInfo interchange files, working with tables, generating a report, common calculation formulas using vbScript, Shortcuts, thumbnails – cartography (transparency, clipping data frames, templates, printing/exporting maps) – work performance tips (grouping layers, data frame focus, new layer visibility, cancel drawing, pausing the drawing in ArcMap, removing buttons, create graphic circle with specific radius, calculate area of graphic in ArcMap, count features within graphic area), http://www.ewug.org/images/2004/ArcGISTipsAndTools.pdf 7 Other Resources (tips) • Utah AGRC – Tips and Tricks (technical document section) • About Fields in the ArcGIS 9.0 Geodatabase – Field definition, field name, field types, issues with loading and exporting data (using the simple data loader, exporting from pGDB to shapefile) • http://agrc.its.state.ut.us/agrc_gistraining/tipstricks/tipsdata/ArcGIS9_Fields.pdf 8 Where did we find it? Key for Tips and Tricks • (O) - Out-Of-The-Box • (A) - ArcScripts • (H) - Home Grown • (S) - Support.esri.com / edn.esri.com • (C) – ESRI Class • Level of Difficulty or User Experience Needed 9 Overview 1. (Brad) AXL File Hacks (Creating & Labeling a Major Roads Layer) 2. (Brad) Shareware JavaScript optimizer to reduce the size of an ArcIMS website 3. (Sandra) Parcel editing tools (line editing toolbar, zipper task, map book) 4. (Shane) TerraserverGPdownload tool 5. (Shane) MultiversionSpatial view in RDBMS to display edits in the adds table 6. (O) Change Data Source of ArcMap Doc. / Find & Replace Pathnames 7. (O) Why Download…Share using ArcIMS! 8. (S) ArcIMS Performance: Analyze Log Files 9. (A) Log Concurrent License Use 10. (C) Export all Layer Files from ArcMap using simple VBA 11. (H) Organize Data by Layers 12. (S) Archive Data Model: All deleted features archived in a history FeatureClass 13. (H) Set up a Spatial View in your RDBMS: Take advantage of hyperlinking 14. (O) Custom ArcPad data collection using Out-of-the-Box Geodatabase Design 15. (A) Geodatabase Diagrammer 16. (A) NPS Metadata tools 17. (O) System Monitoring with Big Brother/Hobbit Lots of tips / tricks and tools here. Way more than advertised in the title of the session. This ppt will be posted on the ineternet. A few more not included – • (A) -download and use xToolsPro, it has many free tools you don’t have to pay for. Delete fields, calculate acres. • (O) –Package data with ArcPad or Disconnected editing toolbars. ArcPad toolbar extracts images to MrSID files, both clip to extent and produce a map document retaining layer properties including view extents and symbology. • (H) –NPS Metadata Tools Extension, custom toolbar from nature.nps.govthat wraps up the USGS mp.exeFGDC metadata parser and validator, allows you to spellcheckyour metadata with MS Office, lets you export to 5 different formats, and bestof all is FREE. • (S) Geocoding development kit – • (A) TerraServerGP–Download DRG, DOQ or Urban Area imagery from MS TerraServer. Uses extent of features in layer (county boundaries, makes individualimages for each county boundary). It is added as a tool in the Toolbox. • (A) -GeoDatabase Reporter • (C) -GeoDatabase Toolset • (A)(0) –Build image catalog from a directory of images within ArcCatalog, use vbReplace() function to remove the path and leave the file name in another field using ArcMap. replace( [IMAGE] ,"G:\chester_orthos_sid_out\tiles_20\", "") 10