topic Re: Time dependent data in ArcGIS Pro Questions

Time dependent data

Axelvon_Matern — Sun, 20 May 2018 06:46:43 GMT

Hi!

I am making a historic map and am in need on best practice input / ideas on handling time related data. For example building features that change attributes like name or usage over time.

My solution is very cumbersome, where I have a finite number of fields for for example the name. Can I do this in a more clever way then this:

FeatureName1

FeatureName1YEarFROM

FeatureName1YearTO

FeatureName1Source

FeatureName2

FeatureName2YEarFROM

FeatureName2YearTO

FeatureName2Source

etc etc

Problems with this solution:

- Highly inflexible and slow.

- Makes unnecessary big database.

- Can only tell ArcGIS Pro to use YearTO and YearFROM in one field for time function.

Can anyone point me in the right direction on this one?

Re: Time dependent data

KoryKramer — Mon, 21 May 2018 12:58:36 GMT

You could maintain a feature class of your geographic data (building features so probably either polygons or points, correct?) Because these are just storing the features, we won't duplicate those.

The attributes at different times can be maintained in a separate table in the same geodatabase, with a field that is used to relate each time record to its corresponding feature.

A good example is given here Examples of queries with the Make Query Table tool—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop for ArcMap and the same principles can be applied in ArcGIS Pro.

Cheers

Re: Time dependent data

Axelvon_Matern — Sun, 03 Jun 2018 10:52:30 GMT

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction Kory! I guess this is possible to do in ArcGis Pro too?

Re: Time dependent data

KoryKramer — Mon, 04 Jun 2018 13:12:42 GMT

You're welcome. Yes, you can do this in Pro as well. Cheers.

Re: Time dependent data

Axelvon_Matern — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 10:00:42 GMT

Oh man! I guess its about time for me to tackle the relationship part of ArcGis now then! I have kicked this can as far as I can until now...

(If anyone find him/herself in myshoes, heres a video I think is helpfull learning realationship databasing in ArcGis Pro https://youtu.be/Fo9tP9qkm8k).

Re: Time dependent data

Axelvon_Matern — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 11:29:01 GMT

Hi again!

I figured out (sort of) how to work with related data and made a QueryTable. Now I need to figure out how to use this table when defining a temporal label or Symbology. How do I tell the Expression Builder to find a field from the related table? I hoped the fields from the related table would be available, but no.

Re: Time dependent data

KoryKramer — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 12:51:14 GMT

If it is just related, you won't be able to label or symbolize on the related data. But if you used the Make Query Table tool you should have ended up with a virtual table (a feature layer if you included the Shape field in the output) that has all the fields you need and you can use it like any other table.

We'd need to see what you have done so far and what the result was. Screenshots will be necessary at this point.

Re: Time dependent data

Axelvon_Matern — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 16:33:34 GMT

Hi Kory!

After a litte sleep + your answer I think I figured out how it works. But it dont... I did this:

1. Run "Make Query Table" with two tables: "Building" and "UseType" and added the fields I need.

2. Get an "Table initialization error! when opening the "Quary table". Is this to be expected as the table is virtual?

3. I set the time fields to "QueryTable".

4. My data do not show on the map.

5. My data show when time slider is set to "show all"