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Collect GPS while editing attributes?

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04-28-2013 12:32 PM
RossWiseman
by
Emerging Contributor
‎04-28-2013 12:32 PM
Hello,

Would anyone be able to tell me if there is a way to start averaging GPS positions while editing the attribute data for a new feature? We have a GeoXH 6000 with the newest versions of ArcGIS mobile and the trimble positions extension. When we switched from ArcPAD (.AXF files practically unusable on windows mobile 6.5 without clipping data down to too small an area to do any good when we've got meter readers running across the entire city over the course of a day) our meter readers complained about the feature collection workflow. According to them, ArcPAD was better because they could be editing the attributes for a new meter while the collector was averaging positions, and by the time they were done entering the data, the averaging would be finished. With mobile however, they complain that the workflow is much slower, requiring them to stand still and do nothing while waiting for the averaging before they can enter attributes.

Is there any way to do these simultaneously in ArcGIS mobile? I thought I read somewhere that this feature was supposed to be part of 10.1.1, but I guess I may have misread.

Thanks.
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1 Reply
AkhilParujanwala
by
Regular Contributor
‎04-29-2013 05:36 AM
Hi Ross,

I have had the exact same issue as you, people would have to stand still while gps averaging was occurring and then put in the attributes. I did customize the workflow to have the averaging to occur in the background while the user can enter in data.

There are a couple issues that I should note first.
1. I am currently still on ArcGIS 10.0 and so I am not using the latest ArcGIS Mobile.
2. I am using ArcGIS for Windows Mobile WPF (tablets and laptops), not for Windows Mobile.
3. The newer ArcGIS Mobile SDK appears to no longer have the gps averaging object, instead it looks like it was replaced with Single-Shot. I have not found much information or worked with this new object because I am still int 10.0, and I will be moving to 10.1 in the coming months.
4. I found that gps averaging for my use cases to be problematic, because my users are not going still for more than 3 seconds. I have done some research and gps averaging appears to be only effective if you are stationary for 2 to 20 mins. I used to have my users average for 10 seconds, then I slowly decreased the number of averages to 0 or 1 because the averaging caused more problems than solved.
5. This is something you may already know, but ArcPad is generally geared to users who know GIS, whereas ArcGIS Mobile can be tailored to users who don't know GIS. It appears your users may be GIS personnel, meaning ArcGIS Mobile may not be required for your needs? But I can't make this decision for you. My users are not GIS personnel, so I have customized the WPF application for their needs.
6. My customized workflow are extremely fast and allows users to collect data within 1 - 4 seconds in an automated format. If the user has to do manual entry on some fields, this is possible and data collection can take up to 1 minute depending on how much info that user wants to enter.
7. In the newer version of ArcGIS Mobile WPF, there appears to be a button for collecting the location of the feature in the attributes form. Meaning without any customization you can actually get the geometry while users can be filling in other data.
8. If you were to continue with ArcGIS Mobile then I do suggest programming your own customized workflows that will better suit your users. This can take a lot of time to develop.

I hope this helps.


Regards,

Akhil P.
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