topic Re: Need Assistance - First Time User in ArcGIS Mapping and Charting Questions

Need Assistance - First Time User

AllisonMcKillop — Wed, 20 May 2015 22:08:25 GMT

Hello all,

I apologize for the basic nature of this question.

I am unable to call tech support and my boss gave me this program today to use for the first time, with a deadline of tomorrow for a zoning issue project.

I have several Excel spreadsheets with names and addresses in them. One is for retail stores, one for residential, etc.

I need to figure out how to create a map of my city, and plot each point (300+) on the map, with a radius around each one. This needs to be fairly accurate to within a few feet (not sure if this is something my boss just wants or if it's even possible)

How do I do that with this program. I have searched online, but am at a loss.

Any information would be much appreciated.

Re: Need Assistance - First Time User

ChrisSmith7 — Wed, 20 May 2015 22:21:21 GMT

You will need to geocode the addresses, first. There are a myriad of ways to do this, such as using Esri services:

Geocoding and Place Search | ArcGIS for Developers

I am unsure of your programming abilities, but you can call APIs directly to geocode the points - Esri has a batch service as well:

ArcGIS REST API

Since you are in a pinch, and are probably looking for something free, I would check out Texas A&M - they have a geocoding services department that allows you to upload a spreadsheet to geocode up to 2500 records for free:

Free online database geocoding services from Texas A&M Geoservices

Just a word of caution, the Texas A&M points will probably not be as accurate as Esri's service... From personal experience.

Once you get the points, you will need to add them to ArcMap - someone created a YouTube video for that:

How to Create a Shapefile from a Table of Lat Long Coordinates in ArcMap 10 - YouTube

Re: Need Assistance - First Time User

AllisonMcKillop — Wed, 20 May 2015 22:26:39 GMT

Thank you so much. Was trying to Geocode the addresses but not having luck, will try the links you gave me.

Thanks, I'll respond again if (when) I have more questions.

Re: Need Assistance - First Time User

SepheFox — Wed, 20 May 2015 22:37:19 GMT

This isn't a helpful comment, but your boss seems like a bit of an a-hole. Once you get your addresses geocoded, and you have created a shapefile of points, you can use the buffer tool to make radius around each one. Luckily this part is very easy and fast: ArcGIS Help 10.1

Re: Need Assistance - First Time User

ChrisSmith7 — Wed, 20 May 2015 22:52:55 GMT

Ah, I totally overlooked she needed buffers around the points!

Allison,

You will probably want to adjust the symbology of the buffer output to something with a bit of transparency, or maybe no fill at all. Here's some info on how to do that:

ArcGIS Help 10.1 - Transparency

You can also change the color and other symbol attributes:

ArcGIS Help 10.1 - Symbology

The video tutorial looks like it shows how to pull in an Esri basemap service - hopefully this will be a good background to show your area of interest. You can also adjust how the map looks before printing/exporting:

ArcGIS Help 10.1 - Page Layouts

Re: Need Assistance - First Time User

AllisonMcKillop — Thu, 21 May 2015 00:58:02 GMT

So, I made an excel sheet with two columns - one latitude and one longitude. saved as a .csv. added it to arcmaps, and then right-clicked to display XY Data....none of my points show up when I do that. 😕

Also, how would I go about giving these points "names" that display on the map, assuming I can get them to show up?

Re: Need Assistance - First Time User

AllisonMcKillop — Thu, 21 May 2015 00:59:01 GMT

When I just put a pin on the map, I'm able to get the radius to show up fine, I just can't seem to import my addresses.

Re: Need Assistance - First Time User

ChrisSmith7 — Thu, 21 May 2015 01:14:00 GMT

Make sure you have the lat/long columns correctly identified and not flipped - if everything is good, the import should automatically find the appropriate columns, and your points will show after you add to ArcMap. You can then right click the event layer and export as a shapefile (.shp).

As far as getting lat/long correctly identified, I'm not sure if the output you received labelled the lat/long columns as x/y, but just remember that latitude is y, and longitude is x (it seems counterintuitive until you stop to visualize). Another thing to ensure as I'm not sure if the video showed this, you'll need to assign a coordinate system/projection when you import. I would search for something like "wgs84" and choose that from the world coordinate system folder.

For labels, here's another video someone made showing how to do this:

How to Label Features in ArcMap 10 - YouTube

You'll just need to make sure your x,y csv file has the name field you want to display.

Re: Need Assistance - First Time User

StevenGraf1 — Thu, 21 May 2015 01:21:52 GMT

You have an excel document with lat long coordinates or addresses? I could set up a team viewer meeting and show you how to do it. You will have to follow me so I can message you.

Steven

Edit: To explain what we did, I brought in the table of lat/long coordinates into ArcMap, right clicked and selected Display XY Data. Once the window opened, I made sure Long was X and Lat was Y. I set the coordinate system to GCS_WGS84. This created a temporary file. I right clicked on it, Export, Export Data, Exported all features to a feature class (must do this to create ObjectID field for further use). The next step was to create buffers. I selected Geoprocessing, and Buffer. Applied a 1000 ft distance and set the output to the same geodatabase as the point file.

Re: Need Assistance - First Time User

RebeccaStrauch__GISP — Thu, 21 May 2015 01:25:21 GMT

Also, make sure you are specifying the coordinate system

I'm assuming they are WGS84 if geocoded from ArcGIS Online or similar.

as for labeling near the point, make sure there is a column with some identifying name. Ones you make you Display XY event, you will want to save it to (right click and Export). To save it as a shapefile, call the file Mypoints.shp or if ou have a file geodatabase (fgdb - my preference), you can do similar to this where temp.gdb is the name of my fgdb.

To label the points, right click on the new layers so you can select the properties, and in the Label tab

Sorry this isn't pretty, but I know you are in a rush.

Once you buffer your points, if the unique name does come over to the buffers so you can use that for labeling, you can use a join between the two (since there should at least be a common field, or use the joinitem (to permanently attache the attribute from the point file to the buffer. Then you can use labeling on the buffer file.

I hope this helps. we've all been there on learning and having rush jobs. good luck.

edit: looks like Chris already responded and has the same info.

Re: Need Assistance - First Time User

AllisonMcKillop — Thu, 21 May 2015 01:28:10 GMT

Seriously? That would be amazing if you could. but no worries if not. I can't imagine this is very fin for anyone.

I have an excel sheet with lat & long that I'm working from. (The sheet only has ~6 on it right now, I didn't want to put them all into a sheet if I couldn't figure out how to make it work) Should I have the "label" information in that sheet as well? Ideally I'd like to wind up with a map showing locations, with a 1000ft radius, and their business names.

I also have the addresses.

Re: Need Assistance - First Time User

ChrisSmith7 — Thu, 21 May 2015 01:36:22 GMT

That's probably your best bet! This is a lot of info to take in over one evening, especially without previously using ArcGIS!

Something else you may want to add to your map, or at least keep handy - I think you should have received a "match score" in your output file... This number quantitatively identifies how confident the geocoding processor was in assigning the lat/long from your street addresses... the higher the number, the greater the confidence the address was given a point right on top of the building (known as rooftop geocoding).

The Texas A&M geocoder should use parcel data whenever it's available. If you see a "matching geography type" of "parcel", and the match score is close to 100, you can be pretty confident this is very close to a rooftop address.

Re: Need Assistance - First Time User

AllisonMcKillop — Thu, 21 May 2015 01:56:39 GMT

I'd like to thank all of you for your help, I really appreciate it!

Steven Graf logged onto my machine and showed me my errors - I was in fact using the wrong coordinate system, among a few other things.

Re: Need Assistance - First Time User

AllisonMcKillop — Thu, 21 May 2015 16:24:39 GMT

Okay, so, I deleted everything I had previously done, and started anew this morning. I managed to get all my points onto the map, with their radius as well! I can have the label (name of business) pop up too, although since I have ~350 points, it's almost illegible.

Next question - I want to share this map. How can I do that and allow them scroll-ability? (tired and can't english today haha)

Is that possible? I was able to export as jpg which was not much more than a screen shot.

Thanks again!

Re: Need Assistance - First Time User

ChrisSmith7 — Thu, 21 May 2015 16:27:11 GMT

Would it be ok to export a really large PDF?

Re: Need Assistance - First Time User

SepheFox — Thu, 21 May 2015 16:29:02 GMT

Will exporting as a PDF work? You can certainly scroll in that. Maybe you're looking to make a map package though. The other people will need ArcMap to view it, but it's an easy and compact way to transfer a map. See the instructions here: ArcGIS Help 10.1

Well done by the way! You got this done quick for someone who has never done this stuff. I hope your boss appreciates your ingenuity.

Re: Need Assistance - First Time User

AllisonMcKillop — Thu, 21 May 2015 16:29:46 GMT

Possibly, I think my boss may wat something interactive where she could scroll around and whatnot. But a large .pdf could be useful too.

Re: Need Assistance - First Time User

StevenGraf1 — Thu, 21 May 2015 16:35:02 GMT

They could download ArcGIS Explorer (free). This is a desktop viewer application. They would be able to pull the layers that you created in, set basemaps and do some other things.

ArcGIS Explorer | GIS Viewer | Free GIS Software & Maps

Steven

Re: Need Assistance - First Time User

ChrisSmith7 — Thu, 21 May 2015 16:40:11 GMT

From a time perspective, this may be your best best. You can export attributes this way, too - ArcGIS Help 10.1, so users can use the object data tool to click and identify features. If you had more time, you could look into sharing this as a web map using ArcGIS Online:

Share maps—ArcGIS Online Help | ArcGIS

Re: Need Assistance - First Time User

ChrisSmith7 — Thu, 21 May 2015 16:45:35 GMT

If you ever want to learn more about ArcGIS and creating interactive web maps, I would really recommend looking at the JavaScript API:

ArcGIS API for JavaScript

There's a lot to learn, especially if you're new to both coding and GIS, but if you keep at it, it'll be well worth it in the end! There are a ton of samples with sandbox environments that really let you learn by doing.