Latest Contributions by TomLucky

Unfortunately, a parcel can have multiple parents.  Manually entering a list exponentially increases the chance for typos and this data is directly fed to our property appraisal system where it is critical that mistakes are reduced. ... View more

I'm not sure I am following exactly how your data is structured.  I see two possible gotchas for your work flow - 1) overlapping parcels  2) different data schemas from the counties.  If I was receiving data from multiple sources I would try to combine it first into a staging table with a structure suitable for loading into the LGIM.  Once normalized, I would then load the data into the LGIM by truncate and append.  I also think it would be helpful to have some kind of update tracking such as last update date and editor name so you can quickly resolve questions about the data. You probably don't have any control over the county's data, but another option for sharing data is database replication.  It could be possible to create a one way replica of the feature classes you want in your SDE database and then you only need to grab the updates instead of the entire dataset.  This would, however, require the source database to be in a geodatabase and have a minor schema change. ... View more

If you aren't maintaining the parcel boundaries from deeds and plats, I don't think the parcel fabric will benefit you.  You can still use the LGIM and load your data into the ParcelPublishing dataset.  That will get you the benefits of the LGIM and it's associated applications without the overhead of maintaining the parcel fabric.  A truncate and append might still be the best method, but you probably want to create some kind of automated process or tool to reduce error.  Good luck. Tom ... View more

The parcel fabric and the fabric editing tools do not require spatial analyst or any other extension.  If you are only interested in using the fabric to edit and track parcel changes, then there is no advantage to having spatial analyst. ... View more

Your workflow is becoming clearer now.  It sounds like you are deleting and recreating the assessment data table when you get an update.  Anyone using the table will create a lock preventing updates.  Instead of replacing the table, could you select and delete all the records, then append the new data?  You can probably script the updates to happen at night so the users won't see the data disappear during updates. I still think you will be better off keeping the geometry and assessment data in separate tables connected by a join.  If your users will get confused by a join, you can create a layer file with the join already done for them to use. If you decide to migrate to SDE, you should create a version for your parcel edits and use default as the version to push out the finalized edits to the users.  Script the updates from default to replicate to your published data.  I am not an expert on scripting and database replication, so you may need to get some input from some others if you go that route. If you haven't done it in the past, you should join the land records meet-up webcast.  There is a chance at the end of every meeting to ask some questions of the group and you might be able to get some good suggestions.  It is every other Friday at 2:00pm est (next meeting is June 29th).  Send me a pm if you are interested and I'll send you the details. Tom ... View more

If your ArcView editors are only updating the parcel attibutes and not the geometry, you could split the attributes into a separate table which is then joined to the geometry in the geodatabase.  The edits could be done to the table and the only locks would be the standard database locks.  If you are editing geometries after exporting to simple polygons, then I'm not clear on the advantage to using the parcel fabric. Have you looked at associating feature classes to the parcel fabric?  http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#/About_associated_feature_classes_and_the_parcel_fabric/00850000000n000000/ That might allow you to edit the fabric and then have an associated publish feature class with your dissolved parcels.  You might not need to synchronize or export features. Tom ... View more

SDE was created specifically to handle multiple editors, versioning and file locks.  You should probably look more closely at moving your organization to SDE because the solutions you describe which avoid SDE sound like they could cause some maintenance headaches in the future. I have some questions about your parcel maintenance.  The parcel fabric at 10.0 & 10.1 is part of the local govenment information model and I believe would require at least ArcMap Standard (ArcEditor) to edit correctly.  Are you using an old version of land records maintenance?  Are you editing a true parcel fabric or simple polygons? As for your problems: There are some serious bugs in the parcel fabric at 10.0 that seem to be getting better with 10.1, but I am not aware of any that are specific to using SDE.  Are you using the latest version of the parcel fabric? A local database is almost always going to be faster than going across the network, but a properly configured database with SDE should be plenty fast enough.  Some organizations are in production with over a million parcels in SDE and multiple editors. I think new licenses might be unavoidable.  It depends on how much time you are willing to spend maintaining the system.  If your one ArcInfo license is being used by Bob who forgot to close ArcMap before he went on vacation, do you pull the plug on his edit session?  Are his edits saved and posted?  There are lots of chances for problems with multiple geodatabase replications and too few editing licenses. Good luck, Tom ... View more

You need to match up the local government schema with your data to see how it will fit.  Is the table and field structure compatible with your data?  To really take advantage of the ESRI model, you need to stick as close to the default structure as possible.  You can add additional tables and fields, but don't remove anything.  I didn't have any huge problems, although I have not migrated any data into the feature datasets with a geometric network such as stormwater.  Your topology will probably need to be clean before you can load the data. It is usually recommended to create a transitional file geodatabase for loading your data with the same tables and fields as the local government model.  Load all your shapefiles into this database.  Then use the transitional data to load into SDE.  If you are loading into a geometric network, you probably need to set up the same network topology rules and clean up all the errors in the transitional data before loading. Once the data was ready, I loaded into SDE using the "Load Objects" tool in ArcMap. http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//003n0000003z000000 I am not an expert, but I hope that helps. Tom ... View more

Robert, Thanks for tracking down this bug.  Since I am not compiling my own code, I guess I will have to wait until this is fixed in the next release.  I also want to say thanks for all the work you do on this message board.   I would not have made as much progress with my Flex site without your assistance. Regards, Tom ... View more