MapSAR Troubleshooting and glitches: Schema Lock

[GeorgeDurkee]

I thought I'd start a thread that will cover a couple of MapSAR problems that have been popping up. Not sure if the best way is one continuous thread or a new one for each problem... . Put the specific problem in the Title line as above??

I'll start with the dread Schema Lock. It'll show when you go to Update Domains and get a bunch of red error messages. It's documented in the User Manual, but is worth covering here since I've had it happen a few times and, on an active SAR, tends to send me into a small panic.. .

It seems to occur most often when I switch between templates. The old one (mxd) doesn't seem to close out properly. What happens is that it's still got a 'lock' on files in the gdb. So Update Domain won't be able to update some of the feature classes. If you use Explorer to look at the SAR GDB file, you'll see one or several files with a "lck" extension.

So, you need to start Task Manager, go to Processes and then close all running ArcGIS processes (save your work in the one you're using). Restart and voila!, you should be good. You also may have to reinstall Update Domain -- I've had the icon no longer work after this problem (that's in the Manual).

[GeorgeDurkee]

On a tabletop exercise the other day, I did a briefing map showing search segments. It consisted of both regular polygons for large areas and trail corridors buffered out to about 100 meters using the line buffer tool (what a great tool!). The larger segments were correctly labeled but labels didn't show for most of the buffered line polygons.

I solved this by going to to Segment Properties > Labels > Placement Properties > Placement tab, then uncheck "Only place labels inside polygon." It'll still correctly put labels inside the large polygons, but now allow labels across the buffered lines, rather than requiring them to be inside (and so not visible because of size constraints). You may also want to increase font size, depending on the size of the map.

George