topic Re: Noob to ArcGis and have a question about merging layers in Geoprocessing Questions

Noob to ArcGis and have a question about merging layers

TerryMergl — Tue, 21 Oct 2014 15:37:00 GMT

I am not sure where to post this question so I have my fingers crossed. I have been tasked with learning ArcGIS - not to become an expert but to assist the engineers and make sure their projects are functional. Several questions come to mind, but I am sure I'll learn a bit at the ESRI training.

One question that my boss would like to figure out is this. (we migrated from Bentley Microstation to ArcGIS)

I added a Census Tract layer for our county (.shp) as a new layer. Great, I have colored the polygons ...played a bit with the attribute table; field calculator ....fiddling around to familiarize myself with the tools.

The boss man asked if there was a way to say find subscriber data on our map based on the census tract information. I have heard GeoFence, several terms I'm not real up on yet. But I am a fast learner. Our live map the guys use to draw is utility/communications so there isn't any polygons or outline for census tract information. I'm not sure if I'm able to accomplish this with the new layer I added from the Government or not. The boss would like to be able to look at the map with the census map layer active and find out how many subscribers are in that tract or block.

Any thoughts?

I realize I lack details but I hate to ramble on

Thank you

Terry

Re: Noob to ArcGis and have a question about merging layers

TimWitt2 — Tue, 21 Oct 2014 15:42:14 GMT

Terry,

If you have a point layer with all your subscribers,

you could run a select by location query to find that answer:

http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.1/index.html#//00s50000002q000000

Tim

Re: Noob to ArcGis and have a question about merging layers

KenricMcCay — Tue, 21 Oct 2014 17:46:57 GMT

Terry,

Tim provided a useful link. This might be what you need. I don't think you would need it, but you can try to do a "Clip" too. ArcGIS Help 10.1

You would have a new shapefile with the points you want (subscribers).

Re: Noob to ArcGis and have a question about merging layers

TerryMergl — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 12:07:27 GMT

Thank you gentlemen. I will be fiddling around with those ideas this morning. I really appreciate it. I apologize about my lack of terminology, but I have realized that ArcGIS - I love it. The data opportunities are incredible and I believe that's why the bossman would like me to dig in. I have to use Crystal Reports here, so I'm familiar with our data .... I'm just not upon drawing; pedestals; structures; etc etc ...

Will update after I play around. I did notice messing with Union and Merge that my data from the .mxd file did not work well with the census block shapefile. It did provide an error about compatility between the two.

I guess they both had to be polygon, polyline or points.

Thanks again
Terry

Re: Noob to ArcGis and have a question about merging layers

TerryMergl — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 16:16:51 GMT

So this is a screenshot of the two layers I'm playing with. I have tried clip and the search by location and seem to complete. How would I view my subscribers per census block - the shaded polygons?

Thanks
Terry

Re: Noob to ArcGis and have a question about merging layers

KenricMcCay — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 16:31:28 GMT

Hello,

I see you have two shapefiles. What is the top shapefile? Is that the clip or the blocks/subscribers? I assume the bottom shapefile are the blocks?

Re: Noob to ArcGis and have a question about merging layers

GlennAguilar — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 21:23:30 GMT

Hello,

Most convenient thing to do is to "Join data from another layer based on spatial location" -> accessed by right-mouse clicking on the County shapefiles -> Join and Relates -> then select the point shapefile to join to your polygon layer. The output shapefile will have a count column that shows how many points are located within each area or polygon.

Hope this helps.

Re: Noob to ArcGis and have a question about merging layers

TerryMergl — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 13:55:05 GMT

Hi Kenric. Yes the top layer is, I guess what's called a points layer? It is subscriber data. The bottom one is a federal census block .shp we download from their site.

I think I have made some progress....

Re: Noob to ArcGis and have a question about merging layers

TerryMergl — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 13:56:56 GMT

Hi Glenn, yes it has helped. Actually the earlier comments and your advice has pointed me in the right direction and have had some success thus far. I think I"m on the right path

Thank you for the information

Terry