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Hi, I'm a newbie attempting to build a fire service map book. What inputs are necessary?

BuckySwider

Hi guys, a mapping newbie/volunteer fire officer here. I'm attempting to create a fire run book using the "Fire Service Maps" add-on on ArcGIS PRO 2.2. Some really basic stuff is stumping me already.

I did procure parcel outlines and Streets shapefiles from the county, but I don't know when/where to use them. I'm going through the tasks and I'm at "Load data into SiteAddressPoint feature class". Here's what it's giving me the option of doing:

Instructions from task pane

I suppose I could just forge forward and try to see if the streets shapefile is able to be pulled in here, but I thought it'd be better if I asked first. And when should I import the parcel outlines shapefile?

Sorry for the newb question. (And I'm sure I'll have more to come!)

Thanks!

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JoeBorgione

By Fire Run Book, I assume you are creating a map book of your area of response, correct?

A brief GIS primer first: geographic entities are represented by one of three basic shapes: Points, Lines, or Polygons. It sounds like the addin/task is asking to represent your site addresses as points. Your streets are obviously lines and your parcels are polygons.

Contact your county and see if they have actual address points. These are simply an x,y location with the address assigned to them. If your parcel polygons have a location or site address field, you can convert them to points: every polygon has a centroid location to it. See Feature To Point—Data Management toolbox | ArcGIS Desktop . The difference is address points typically represent the location of the actual residence, whereas the parcel centroid 'floats' somewhere inside the parcel.

BuckySwider

Thanks Joe! Great info.

Yes, "Fire Service Maps" is a canned set of routines that ESRI put together to simplify making a "run book" and also wall maps for the fire service. Here's where they talk about it: Fire Service Maps | ArcGIS Solutions for Local Government

And prompted by your response, I looked in the folder containing the parcels shapefile (procured from county government for a reasonable cost!) and found a .dbf file. I opened it in access and I found a plethora of information about each parcel- like a couple hundred columns . First column is the "Objectid" (which I assumes matches up to some sort of ID in the shapefile). Also (of course) included are LOC_NO with the numerics of the address, and LOC_STR and its companions LOC_SUF and LOC_SUF2. So at this point it seems (wild guess edition) that I can just point the task to the DBF and I'll be able to map the LOC_NO column into my target dataset? But now thinking it through I don't yet have a shapefile loaded to correlate the objectids of the shapefile with the objects in the .dbf....hummmm

MikeVolz

Here is a thread discussing Fire Service Maps from another poster:

Fire Service Maps from ESRI Solutions for Local Gov't

One of the requirements for using this solution is

ReportLab 3.4.0

which is an additional python module that you need to install. The python environment is not quite right and you need to perform some python cloning in order to perform this install that used to be much simpler. Below is one link amongst many about the python environment in Pro 2.2.x:

ArcGIS Pro 2.2.0 and Python Package Manager

Good luck with this setup and I hope this information is useful. I would be interested in hearing how this setup goes for you.

BuckySwider

Thanks Michael! I haven't gotten that far yet , but I did see those 'warning shots' out there. I didn't see the second thread...that's really scary . And it's so long it's hard to figure out what's the current proper advice and what is dated. Guess I'll have to jump off that bridge when I cross it...Extra scary, too, since I use python on a daily basis to automate the processing of our individual incident report...I'll keep you posted!!

JoeBorgione

A 'shapefile' is actually a series of files, one of which is <shapefile_name>.dbf. It's often referred to as the attribute table. More GIS 101: there are two components to the data. Geometry (point,line,polygon) and the attributes. Attributes are the I (information) of GIS.

The dbf table will not be enough to satisfy your needs. You need points as well....

BuckySwider

Ah yes, thanks. I actually did go through some of the online training a while back (I'm now an expert on Amazonian Rainforests!) but shortly after I completed that I realized I needed the parcel data from the county GIS team...and by the time I got that and got back onto this project, most of what I had learned had flown the coop know as my head...

OK, I looked deeper in the .dbf. It appears as if the .dbf has no direct reference to the point. There are these things called SHAPE_STRe and SHAPE_STLe that I think point back to the objects in the parcels shaepfile. I wonder if there is any kind of routine that would interrogate the .dbf and .shp and can kick out point data??

Or is this something I need to go back and ask the county GIS guys about/for? They do list "custom programming" services when we order the data- I wonder if this was something we needed to ask for up front? Or maybe since they know that data they have a way to generate the points...

BuckySwider

Duh, it seems like that's the routine that you linked me to in your first reply! Let me go off and investigate (and hope I'm licensed for that...)

BuckySwider

Well, I ran Feature-to-Point and it resulted in a nifty layer as well as dots in the center of my parcels. Pretty cool!

However, I can't figure out how to import into LocalGovernment database that is deployed as part of the Solution/Project. The DB has a table/layer called "SiteAddresses" which is used to put the address of the parcel on its proper place within the map. Running the task to import the data, I try to import the dataset I created with "FeatureToPoint". Since the schema created by the utility was based on my original parcel shapefile created by county, it retains their original schema plus only one new field "orig_fid". (Actually I think there may be another new one "Shape") So I have to manually match the fields in my "FeatureToPoint" table with the "SiteAddresses" table (it's right here) . And the one thing I think I really really need to match is the "USGNCOORD" field, which is a 50 character string defined simply as the "USNG Coordinate Value". I mean how else will it be known where these points are supposed to go?

I would have expected the FeatureToPoint process to create some sort of spatial reference field, but there is none to be found- it seems to still have to reference the initial polygons via "Shape" (which I think it added), "Shape_STAr", and "Shape_STLe".

So I'm stumped at the step to populate my SiteAddresses table.

The short of it is I would've expected FeatureToPoint to output a spatial reference but it did no.

(I'm new to GIS and thus new here- not sure of the vibe. Since we're veering off / deeper into my original post, should I create a new post with this question?)

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BuckySwider

Went into the toolbox and found a tool called "Add XY Coordinates". Ran it against my FeaturesToPoints table output and guess what it did? It added XY coordinates! Now I just have to figure out the proper format of the USGNCOORD field in SiteAddresses and figure out how to map these two columns to one (and get it in the right format)....

JoeBorgione

Bucky- the Local Government solution can be viewed as a suggestion rather than a hard-fast set of rules. I've tried parts of it myself. You'll find as you gain experience working with data that a one size fits all approach may or may not work for you.

Here are a couple of things to look into:

First and foremost; ditch shapefiles in favor of File Geodatabase Feature Classes as your data format. To get your data into the schema of the Local Gov't model, you can create an empty feature class based on the attributes of the Local Gov't SiteAddress feature class. Then use the append tool to move your original data into that schema. You'll have the opportunity to 'map' your attribute fields to those provided in the Local Gov't model. (Look at it this way: If I have a point feature class and I have field called SiteAddress, and your data has a field called Address and they both contain data in the form of 1234 S Main St, does it really matter what we call the field?)

The US National Grid is just a system of location and it can be very handy if you have a major catastophe and you need to bring outside resources. Lets say you have a 7.5 magnitude earth quake and the National Guard is deployed. Using the USNG to allocate those resources would be a better way to go than telling them ' we have 200 people injured in the Maple Hill District'.

Your homework assignment for today:

Create a file geodatabase—Geodatabases | ArcGIS Desktop

Create Feature Class—Data Management toolbox | ArcGIS Desktop

Append—Data Management toolbox | ArcGIS Desktop

Do a google search on 'US National Grid'

As a firefighter, you have a unique perspective on the saying 'Taking a drink from a fire hose'. Keep the questions coming...

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MikeVolz

I know you are still early on in the development of your specific solution (and you have plenty of homework for today), but keep in mind the administration of this app over time. Are the requirements of this project to update the Fire Service Maps on a regular basis (yearly, every other year, etc.) as development occurs so parcels and address point locations change? For this aspect of the project I would document all the tools that you use to arrive at your final data source as you might want to script this out with python so you just run the script in the future instead of going through the manual steps. (I would even suggest performing the ETL (extraction, transformation, loading) process in ArcMap so you can start with ModelBuilder and export out to python (This functionality is not available in Pro - not sure if ESRI will even port this functionality over to Pro.) You can then make some minor modifications to the python code so it will work in Pro.

BuckySwider

Thanks Joe! I appreciate the encouragement. I will get on my homework today. Stupid day job gets in the way!

As far as ditching the suggested Local Government Model: If I was doing this to create my "own" system that would certainly be a much better way to go. But my end run here is to be able to use their canned projects (not even sure if that is the right word?) and use their automation to create "Run Books" and wall maps. I would think (and could very well be incorrect) that their routines that create these output products rely on having their Local Government model used as the base- for instance, they likely use the "Fullname" field in order to create the street index pages of the map book. I I recently went through a video that showed the steps in executing the map book creation- I wish I could find it again to link it (sometimes water runs down my chin when I drink from that fire hose!)

Thanks also for the primer on USNG. So this isn't just another coordinate system? It seems to look like the grid system that exists in the ADC Map Books series. And that begs the question- if the only geographic reference in the SiteAddressPoint dataset is USNG, how da heck does it know exactly where to put the point?? So much to learn...

Thanks, will get to that homework!

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BuckySwider

Thanks Michael! Coincidentally, as I was in the middle of trying to transform the county-supplied data into the format for the Local Government Model, I had that feeling that I was re-inventing the wheel. So I emailed the county GIS coordinator and asked him if they had any more specific datasets or advice that would make things simpler- and specifically listed that the reason for this would be to simplify updates going forward. Sure, I could write scripts and excel formulas and save a new .dbf and eventually get it to the place where I can map into SiteAddressPoint in a way that allowed the Fire Services map tools to function properly. But three years from now when we have another eleventy billion new developments in our township and want to re-run the books- would I even remember what to do? Would have I been hit by a bus between now and then and some other poor sap has to try to re-create my conniptions? So you're absolutely correct- my aim is not just to get this current data into ArcGIS and create map books today, but make the process somewhat easily repeatable in the future.

Thanks, and I will put ETL/ModelBuilder on my homework list!!

BuckySwider

And I think I may be overthinking things a bit here with regard to SiteAddressPoint. The tasks are:

create a new Local Government Information Model for your organization

load your source data

update fire service maps data sources

install ReportLab toolset.

I'm stuck on step #1. I wonder if in step 2 I get to import my polygons and lines as "source data" that will map back to the SiteAdressPoint data? I guess I should just match up what data I have and forge ahead. Oh wait, I still have to concatenate a bunch of field to map the "Full Road Name" field....or maybe I'm overthinking that to. Or maybe I should just skip this step and see what happens!!!

MikeVolz

Did you get any feedback from the county that is the data steward for the address points? If the county is also trying to use ESRI's LGIM for address points to use OOTB apps, then this work might already be done. It's quite expensive to write your own code and much more economical to use OOTB apps where configuration is all that is needed.

BuckySwider

Nothing yet...but I only emailed them this morning. Yes, I'm hoping that they adopted the stock LGIM, but not too optimistic. Hopefully if they DO have something they won't make me/us pay again. The county GIS has a fee schedule- a set price per parcel and then an hourly for 'custom' work. Not too bad; ending up costing us like $250 for the 6,906 parcels in our township.

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JoeBorgione

LOL: next time they charge you ask who ever you are talking to what their address is. Maybe they'll get the point! 😮

MikeVolz

Have you thought about trying to configure the solution with the parcel centroid points that you generated from the parcel polygons? It might work with this setup and if not, it might help you to figure what the minimal critical fields of the LGIM are needed to get this solution to work as expected. You could also start working on the setup with this approach instead of waiting for an answer from the county who might not even have the address points in ESRI's LGIM anyway.

MikeVolz

Are you sure you actually need to see the coordinates of the point? When you created the centroid points, the coordinates are stored in the geometry field that the software uses to map the points. I think this is really what you need so I would give it a try with the point feature class you created.

BuckySwider

The way this is structured, I have to create a new project to launch the

"Fire Service Maps" tasks. Then on the the data import task to populate

SiteAddresdPoints I designate as the input dataset the feature class which

I created in a separate, independent project. I actually did try to use the

same project but couldn't figure out how to load in the Maps template other

than by following their instructions - which of course called for a fresh

project...

BuckySwider

OK, sorry about the brief response- was on the road.

Now that I'm back in front of a real screen, here's what I tried to make sure that the points tied back to my shapefile to actually have some real spatial reference:

-Opened the project with my parcel polygons and SiteAdressPoints already in it

-As per the instructions here, I went to Open-->Portal-->and double clicked Fire ServiceMaps.ppkx from "My Content" (I had already "Deployed the solution" to my organization as per the instructions here).

-I then get a prompt to "Save Changes to <current project with polygons & address points>?"

-I click "Yes", and then it closes my prior project and opens a new win (of course starting from scratch).

So If I don't have those geometry points in my new project, how will it know? I had assumed that the class in the prior project (created from FeatureToPoint) pointed back to the shapefile- that's how it knows where to put the points. But obviously I really do not know the mechanics of it all.

I'm sure that other people who have deployed the maps have seen the same thing (unless it's always skipped?) I considered just skipping it and adding the layer independently. But if the SiteAddressPoints data is useless, why are they even asking for it? There's got to be something I'm missing....

BuckySwider

WAIT A DANG MINUTE! I think I see it now. I can actually import my parcels SHAPEFILE right into the project- I don't go through the conniption FIRST of creating the centroids- I'll do that once my project is all loaded up. So yes, Michael, you are correct- it actually doesn't have to be in the target Feature Class if I have the shapefile in my project. I threw myself off by creating the points FIRST!

This hit me when I was doing step 2 (Street Centerlines) because I was thinking "wait, that doesn't have any spatial reference either! And I finally clicked on the help button on the task explaining what append does and it says plain and simple "Appends multiple input datasets into an existing target dataset. Input datasets can be feature classes, tables, shapefiles, rasters, annotation or dimensions feature classes." And when I saw "shapefiles" that's when the bell went off. And whaddaya know- that's also step 3 of my homework for tonight!

So it looks like Joe's homework is entirely relevant- I will be ditching shapefiles in lieu of a geodatabase and feature classes- but I can't ditch them until *after* in import them!

Onward and upward...now I gotta figure out the tedium of merging fields in my input schema to match the LGIM!

Thanks guys!

BuckySwider

AAARRRGGGHHHH

I thought I had it.

When selecting the shapefile as input fo the append, it gives me an error for a table mismatch or something like that. Looks like I have to convert it to a feature class in a gdb first. Back to my homework assignments!!!

BuckySwider

To restate the obvious, yes, Mike, you were dead on . Importing the feature class is (now I know this!) equivalent to importing the shapefile. So all the way back to square 1 I went, almost- running feature-to-point and importing that feature class back to the SiteAddressPoint. But think of everything I learned because of my mistaken assumptions!!!

So now on to step 2, and running into another puzzler. Importing the StreetCenterlines. Same drill, change he shapefile into a feature class, then append that onto the RoadCenterlines feature class of the target dataset. Matched all the input fields to the output fields, but the append is failing with "Error 0001156: Failed on Input OID 1, could not write value ' ' to output field FROMLEFT".

The FROMLEFT, of course, is the "Lowest address range on the left side of the road" which is mapped to my input field L_F_ADD. And the schema says "IsNullable" is TRUE, so I don't need any value there (which makes sense). I wonder if there may be a space character in here that it's choking on? Would be a tough one to find and remedy.

I did look into the ETL from ActMap, and apparently my license doesn't allow that, so it's a non-starter.

After this fromleft challenge, my next one will be to create a feature class to demarcate my FireDistrict. I thought I could skip that one, but well, I think that's how the utility knows exactly how to pare down the whole map and just draw the necessary pages. This will simply be my entire municipality (township). I think I'm going to try to use the "PA Municipality Boundaries" tool and then see if I can somehow cut it down to just my township. That will be another learning experience. I guess I just can't go in and edit the table of the feature class and remove everything else? I don't know yet.

Oh yeah, and figure out what it's asking for with the "FireIMapndex" inport data.

Til tomorrow...

Thanks guys for all your help!!!

JoeBorgione

So it looks like Joe's homework is entirely relevant...

Sometimes I get lucky...

It's always good practice to google 'arcgis errorNumber': 001156: Failed on input OID ; could not write value '' to output field .—Help | ArcGIS Desktop

Take a close look at both your input data and the target feature class field properties; this error indicates a mismatch. Sometimes address range values are numeric, sometimes text...

BuckySwider

Looks like I have some whitespace instead of nullls. Looked thru all the rows and the ones that aren't blank are numeric (plus the error text points to " "). The target field is long integer with ISNULLABLE set to true. Working on finding a way to use the field calculator to change whitespace to nulls- I asked a question over in the "Managing Data" forum to save you guys the tedium (and to save this thread from drifting too far of the course of what's required for the Fire Maps).

Will report back!!

JoeBorgione

nulls versus whitespace.... don't get me started!

MikeVolz

I think you may need to drift into multiple topics to complete this project, one of which I have already mentioned is your python environment for adding the required python module. You probably also are going to need python to script out the data transformation from your current data set(s) to the LGIM as you can see from the null space issues that you are running into.

BuckySwider

Thanks Joe! That's on the right track- I think I have to put together a little codeblock to handle the empty/null fields though. It bombs out trying to convert a nothing into an INT.

JoeBorgione

Is it an empty string or a true <null> value? ArcGIS Pro takes a little getting used to. Personally, I like to work with true <null> values. An empty string can be '' or ' ' , or ' ' or' '....

Which value do you trap for? How many blanks did I insert in each of those records?

BuckySwider

That is the sixty four thousand dollar question! Can't really tell. Probably null, but maybe not.

Yeah, I can't yet figure out how to use the code block and Insert Values field in tandem with one another...off to yootoob!

JoeBorgione

Nope: they are 'not null'... just like the first two records are not null. Notice those records (in either field) that are valued as <Null>. That is a true value! It just happens to be the null value. Big, scratch that, HUGE difference between <Null> and ' ' or ' ' or ' '.... That's why I prefer <Null>. I can see it and I can test for it...

BuckySwider

Woo Hoo! Finally wrote the proper 5 lines of python to copy the strings to new columns defined as LONG. Used them for the APPEND to the LGIM, and it worked!

So onward & upward...next it's asking me to append to FireMapIndex. I have no idea why there would be a input dataset for this. It's a bunch of page number type stuff for the <eventual> map book. The shape is a Polygon, though. I'm really out in left field here. Suspicions may be that this is the polygon that delimits the map area, but I would have suspected FireDistrict did that.

Field	DataType	Length	AliasName	Description
NWPAGENUM	String	15	Map Sheet Number (Northwest)	The map sheet page number to the northwest of the primary page
NPAGENUM	String	15	Map Sheet Number (North)	The map sheet page number to the north of the primary page
NEPAGENUM	String	15	Map Sheet Number (Northeast)	The map sheet page number to the northeast of the primary page
WPAGENUM	String	15	Map Sheet Number (West)	The map sheet page number to the west of the primary page
EPAGENUM	String	15	Map Sheet Number (East)	The map sheet page number to the east of the primary page
SWPAGENUM	String	15	Map Sheet Number (Southwest)	The map sheet page number to the southwest of the primary page
SPAGENUM	String	15	Map Sheet Number (South)	The map sheet page number to the south of the primary page
SEPAGENUM	String	15	Map Sheet Number (Southeast)	The map sheet page number to the southeast of the primary page
PAGENUMBER	Integer	4	Map Sheet Number	The fire map book map sheet number
PAGENAME	String	15	Map Sheet Name	The fire map book map sheet name, which in some cases is the same as the number
LASTUPDATE	Date	8	Last Update Date	The date of last update in maintenance database

I think I will skip this on and move on to FireDistrict.

For this, as I implied before, I'm just going to use our Township Municipal Boundaries. So the next befuddling task is to figure out how to add one of the supplied "PA Municipal Boundaries" layers and deleted everything except my township. But everything I find won't let me remove rows. Not sure if this is the proper approach, but it's all I've got for now!

BuckySwider

OK, and update to this one- I found a tool "Grid Index Features" that you point to a layer and it makes a grid of your choosing. However, in order to create the data fields for the adjacent map fields, you follow that up with the aptly-named "create adjacent fields". Which is deprecated in ArcGIS PRO. I have another question opened up about that one...

https://community.esri.com/message/810762-calculate-adjacent-fields-in-arcgis-pro

One step at a time!

BrianOevermann

Bucky,

Think of the FireMapIndex layer as the source for each page of your fire map book. The polygon layer you create (because from all of your discussion it appears that such a layer does not already exist) will be a set of polygons that cover your entire district (or the portion(s) that you want in the map book). See the attached graphic for an example of ours. Our grid has tiles and quarter tiles but yours doesn't need to be that complicated. Ideally choose a scale (zoom level of detail) that you want each page to show and draw your polygons based upon that. You would then need to populate each of those fields that you listed in your message above to enable the OOTB tool to do its magic. There is likely already a data schema for the index layer that you can use to draw your polygons into.

Grid Index layer example

One thing I've noticed, after reading this entire thread, is that you may be having a hard time visualizing what each of these layers should generally look like and what the overall tool ultimately does. While I haven't used this particular tool, and our grid index isn't set up with the required attributes, I would be happy to package up our relevant data and send you--offline--a link to download it from our OneDrive site for you to look at and/or load into the tool to understand the bigger picture.

Offline: briano at issaquahwa dot gov

I won't get into my opinion of public agencies charging other public agencies for data... Does the County have an e911 entity? Perhaps you can get the data through them. They would likely have site addresses, streets, and a fire district (response entity) layer from which you can extract your particular area.

MikeVolz

Is the population of the FireMapIndex layer with all the neighboring page number information an automated process or is this a manual process?

BuckySwider

Thanks much Brian! After a sleep-deprived weekend (I made the most of the extra hour!) I have pretty much everything lined up- I did, however, bomb in the run book creation due to what seems to be a know bug.

However, I AM very interested in creating a grid with different size squares like you have done- a smaller coverage area for more dense locales, and larger for rural-type tracts. As I noted above, I used the "grid index" tool to create my uniformly sized grid. Any info or insight you could pass along on how to do this would be greatly appreciated!

I will contact you offline....

I guess I get it that we are charged a nominal fee (3 cents per parcel) for the map data. Our 911 administrators don't know much about map data- I approached them first. In PA since we're a "home rule" commonwealth, we're actually a separate entity from the county who supplies dispatch and property services...

Cynthia__Cindy_Fowler

Hi Bucky,

Bucky Swider

Wow! Volunteer fire fighter and GIS! You are a person that I want to talk to. I'm a relatively new GIS staff member at the USFA at NETC in Emmitsburg. Sounds like you are near-by? I was reading your questions and responses with interest as I'm new to the structural fire fighting emergency response side of GIS and trying to also get transitioned over to Pro too. (I have used ArcGIS and QGIS for many years) I plan to follow up on some of these leads you have highlighted. Thank you for the thread. There might be some training resources for you here at NETC, and I would like to hear more about how you use GIS in your job. Don't know how best to connect, but if you could call or email, that would be awesome.

Cindy

(Cynthia.fowler@fema.dhs.gov 301-447-1837)

JoeBorgione

Best thing about this forum: networking!

BuckySwider

Hi Cynthia! I'll give you a call sometime tomorrow. And for the record....I'm volunteer firefighter AND volunteer GIS. I am a career IT person, but this is my first foray into GIS- I got so sick of our outdated map books I decided to do something about it! It's been a long path though..anyone can stop reading now if they don't want to hear the lengthy story about how I ended up at this point...

Almost exactly two years ago I finally decided to do something with new map books. Ours were originally created in 1980, and updated in 1990. And since then it's all hand-edits and stuff like that. Oh, and the township did supply a new "map book" about ten years ago, but the scale is so bad and the objects so small it's virtually worthless. Everyone still uses the old map books (or google maps!) instead of that new book.

So I'm researching, going online, and I find Openmap. (or is it OpenGIS? I forget now!). Installed that and started messing around and got really frustrated. Upon further searching, I learned that ESRI had this pre-canned "Fire Run Book" thing. Perfect! But, alas, ArcMap was cost-prohibitive for my volunteer department. Then I found they had a non-profit program...great! Apply for it and...WOMP WOMP WAAA....it's only for 501c(3) organizations and not 501c(4), which we were. Apparently there has been talk over the years of us applying to be a 501c(3), but the paperwork requirements were too daunting so nobody ever followed through. Until me! I had to change the company charter (not an easy process) to match IRS requirements. Had to change the company bylaws. So those two steps took about 6 months. THEN I filled out all the very lengthy, very detailed IRS applications Another few months. Finally submit the application...

Then a couple months later...VIOLA! We're approved as a 501c(3)! I rush back to the ESRI site and submit our non-profit discounted license request...get it approved...install ArcMap...and start trying to figure stuff out. I go through a bunch of training modules on the Amazonian rainforest. Start in trying to build the map book. I wasn't really that far in at all when I realized I was missing some essential data. I wanted either the building footprints or parcel lines for my map. The only source I can see that had footprints was G**gle, and they apparently stopped providing their basemap. I recalled from looking at county real estate records that they have parcel lines...I find out where I can get them from, but unfortunately there's a charge. So I have to go back to the fire company and get that expense approved...then the request is submitted to the county. In the meantime some stuff happened in my personal life that started eating up all my free time for a period of about 4 months. So finally when I break free just last week, I find that the "Fire Run Book" on ArcMap has been succeeded by "Fire Service Maps" on ArcGIS PRO. I figure I'd better go with the new thing, so a little learning curve there...and finally, with the help of really cool folks here on geonet, I have a great start on the new map book! Only took two years from when I started the quest!!!

There's still lots and lots to figure out and tweak, so I figure I'm still a good couple months before the task it complete. But I'm fairly confident I'll get there- just a lot more of a learning curve to climb!!!

(As an aside, even though my fire company got its 501c(3) designation solely for this purpose*, it has paid LOTS AND LOTS of dividends over and above this. Many residents can now contribute to our fund drive via their employer's matching program; we participate in Amazon Smile and receive funds from that; my employer even offers a quarterly reward to the company once all my volunteer hours are documented. So it's made us thousands in additional funds already!!) (* I don't mean that literally- we merit the status- but if I hadn't wanted to get ArcGIS, nobody would've gone through the process to get it done!!)

Cynthia__Cindy_Fowler

This is the best story ever! I love it! I can't wait to see how the story unfolds, but it sounds like you truly demonstrate what public service is all about. I'm starting to learn more about that here at EMI surrounded by fallen hero tributes (and even some other heroes walking the halls.) I look forwarding to talking to you.

Cynthia__Cindy_Fowler

Hi Bucky,

Just checking in to where you stand with your map book. If you are on to something, maybe there is way we can develop some helpful steps that we could share with other volunteer fire departments? Sounds like from your description this is a common issue. I am wondering if there is something I could propose as a project for next year to the US Fire Admin? thanks

BuckySwider

Hi Cynthia and everyone else! I suppose I owe everyone an update and an apology. As with all things volunteer, sometimes a work life or personal life (not to mention a weird spike in the number of fires!) gets in the way of progress. And that unfortunately has been the case for me recently.

So I've been working with Mary from support on getting the "final" generation step to work without failing. She has been working diligently to help. The last thing she's asked for I'm struggling to accomplish on my own. We are setting up a webex so she can walk me through it after the holidays, because unfortunately right now talking is painful for me (complications from wisdom tooth removal ) and I am using my voice as sparingly as possible (the guys at the firehouse, I believe, are thankful for this while still giving the appearance of empathy ).

Anyhow, as I did the multi-iteration generation of an entire runbook, I've had the opportunity to take that in a truck and see how it fared in "real life" situations. Here's the initial takes on things that I need to improve before going live with this:

1- The index is built on the alphanumeric grid ("Pagename") but the notations on each page showing the adjoining map pages use the page number ("Pagenum"). And each individual page has its own "Page Name", but not "Page Number". So if for example the right (east) side of the map page you're looking at adjoins with page 35, there's no way to find page 35 short of counting each page starting at #1. It may be somewhat simpler to add the page number on each sheet along with the page name, but I think a much better method would be to stick with one (and only one) reference for each grid- either the alphanumeric grid name or the numeric page number. Not sure which would be better, but using both is confusing.

2. The index pages have a bug where long names overlap/overprint onto the corresponding index notation.

3. The index pages, as currently generated, aren't the easiest to read in a dimly lit fire truck bouncing down the road. Perhaps going to a single-column format with a larger, bolder font would fix this and #2 at the same time.

4. Likewise, the basemap I've chosen (black & white basemap) has smaller type and fonts for street names. So although my grids are fairly small/zoomed in, the street names are hard to read in the hardcopy/truck environment. I don't know if there really can be any fix for this short of finding a better basemap.

5. Lastly, some GREAT news: Our county GIS has a new coordinator and they are in the process of putting together a data portal where the data will be updated every two weeks or so (and for FREE!). Until the portal is in place, he is going to add me to an ArcGIS group so I can pull the data directly from the web. AND they have an initiative to get everything into the ESRI Local Government Information Model (LGIM) so in the future I won't have to go through all of the data massaging steps that I do now to get the data into the format where I can use the "Fire Service Maps" routines. And he's also very enthusiastic about getting what the fire service needs- things like hydrants, road obstructions, etc., may soon all be native to the county datasets so I won't have to go gather up these things from disparate sources. Things are looking up in that regard!

Anyhow, I apologize again for leaving everyone hanging. Hopefully soon things will return to a semi-normal state and I can resume progress on this project. Happy holidays to all!

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