Latest Contributions by TimHodson

Halloween seems like the appropriate time to respond to the �??Dreaded Spiral�?�! Happy Halloween everyone! In tomorrow�??s Land Records meet-up, we will be doing a poll and discussion on this topic, (see examples in the documents attached to this post.) Since spirals often go hand-in-hand with Station-Offsets, and definition of a highway or road centerline, we�??ll cover stationing tools as well. Example (100+152.36, offset 10.00 left) Part of the poll is to determine if you ever encounter spirals and/or stationing and offsets while processing the parcel records at your organization, and if so how you enter or use them. For example, do you represent the spiral as a chord, like Betty? Or else do you keep older Esri ArcInfo software on hand to compute the spirals, as Bill does? �?�and so on. We are also interested to see if there is a geographic pattern to where spirals are referenced within recorded deeds and other land records. This will help us to learn if this is something that is more common on the US west coast, for example. We�??d like to hear from international customers too. Some of the meet-up poll questions may require longer answers, so if you are either not able to attend the meet-up, or would like to add further info on this topic, then please give us your feedback by responding to this post. Even something brief will be helpful, for example , �??Yes [/no], we do [/do not] need spirals and station offset utilities for managing our land records here in [organization], [department], [county], [state /province]�?� Thanks, -Tim ... View more

Jay, I've made this short video that should address your questions. It shows how you can use the over-rides to enter a circular curve with any combination of 2 geometry parameters and any of the 3 orientation parameters. You use these to by-pass the current Plan settings, described starting around [5:20] in the video, and I think that this also answers your question 3. In general if there is a straight line segment on a drafted plat/plan that: connects with a circular arc without an obvious bend where the 2 connect, there is no bearing for the curve shown in the curves table, (if there is a curves table) there is no bearing shown near the curve itself, or on either of the curve's radial lines, (if radial lines are shown) �?�then it can be inferred that for this pair of lines the circular curve is "running tangent" to the preceding straight line. Similarly, if the preceding line is also a circular curve, then you'd have a tangent curve that is running tangent to the preceding circular curve. When you create a tangent curve it is, by definition, never the first line that you enter for a new parcel or for a new construction. The term "tangent" is also used in a different context, and it can sometimes cause confusion; when referring to a "tangent bearing" for a circular curve this is referring to a property of the curve itself rather than to its tangency with respect to a preceding line. This is more fully described in the video, but the tangent bearing is one of 3 different bearing formats that may be used to define the orientation of a curve with respect to north, and it is not directly related to the concept of a "tangent curve." Hope this helps. -Tim ... View more

The grid coordinates are based on grid distances from the point of origin of the plane/grid defined by the projected coordinate system. In this case the lat/lon coordinate was used as a cross-check to confirm that the coordinates on the document are in grid. So to answer your question, yes: to convert the grid coordinates to ground coordinates you�??d apply the Combined Scale factor. Note that in the fabric (and for most typical projected GIS datasets) the coordinates for control are expected to be in grid coordinates, and the coordinates computed for the parcel points are also in grid coordinates. In the case of the document that you provided, the State Plane coordinates presented are in grid, because otherwise the lat/lon values shown in the Identify window as described in the previous steps, would not match the lat/lon values shown on the document. Since you�??re planning on working with the fabric, another important related note: all the distance values stored as attributes on the parcel lines are expected to be in ground distances; this is because distances placed on land record documents in the US are ground values. So for example, if you identify a line in the fabric, you�??ll expect to see the line�??s �??shape_length�?� to be different to the value in the distance field. The �??shape_length�?� is the grid distance. Please also see this archived thread on how the combined factor is used, relevant info quoted here: �??�?�a particular projected coordinate system (based on a particular geographic coordinate system) results in a plane, or grid. This plane may not align that well when working out in the field due to the average elevation or the distortions due to the projection. The grid coordinate are then scaled to better fit the local area.�?� -Tim ... View more

The combination factor does not need to be applied in any way when entering the coordinates, though it is important information to store together with the entered values. The combination factor is scale factor that is computed based on the geographic datum (+ plane projection), the latitude and longitude, and the Elevation of the point. It is applied to "measured" distances for conversion between ground and grid distance values. (Ground distance x factor = Grid distance) When storing control points, and other land records in a database or GIS, it is important to capture the original information from the document, and to do some cross-checks (sometimes they are just "rough" checks) to, firstly, validate the values on the document, and secondly, to confirm/QA that you've entered the values (projected coordinates in this case) correctly. In this example the check is to confirm that the geographic coordinates are a match with the projected coordinate equivalents. A quick way to do this is to use ArcMap's Identify tool, and change the coordinate units, as described below. You could store this control point information using a standard point feature class, though I�??d recommend using a parcel fabric, since a control point in the fabric is not too easily (accidentally) moved. In the fabric, a control point can only have its position changed by directly editing/re-typing the control point coordinates in the control point dialog. Here is a link to a map package that contains the final result with this single control point in it. There is a topographic base-map included in this map that can be used as a check on the Elevation data. Below are some screen-shots of what is represented, and the steps used to create this mini-map. In these suggested steps below, I make the assumption that you are using ArcGIS Desktop 10.1 and that you are running with an ArcEditor license, or higher. The end result may also be achieved using 10.0, though 10.1 makes some of these steps simpler. 1. Open a new map document in ArcMap 2. In the Catalog window in ArcMap, right-click your geodatabase, and create a feature dataset. Give it the Iowa South NAD83 projection: NAD_1983_StatePlane_Iowa_South_FIPS_1402_Feet 3. Right-click the new feature dataset, and click New > Parcel Fabric 4. Name the fabric, click Next, and accept all the defaults in the Parcel Fabric creation wizard. 5. After you click Finish, the fabric is added to the map. 6. Still in the Catalog window, expand the parcel fabric node, Right-click the fabric class that ends with �??_Control�?� and click properties. 7. Add 2 new fields with the type of [double] and call them EllipsoidHeight, and CombinationFactor. 8. Add another field with the type [text] and call it Description. Add any other fields that you feel are necessary to capture the relevant information from this document. In this case I have used the fields specified in the Local Government Information Model for control points. [ATTACH=CONFIG]17983[/ATTACH] 9. Right-click the fabric class that ends with �??_Control�?�, click Manage > Create attachments. (this is an optional step, but it can be used to store the scanned document in the database) 10. Turn on the Parcel Editor toolbar, and turn on the Editor toolbar. 11. Click Parcel Editor > Start Editing 12. Click the Maintain Control Points button on the Parcel Editor toolbar. 13. Click the new button, type in the projected coordinates, elevation and other information, click Update, then Close. [ATTACH=CONFIG]17984[/ATTACH] 14. On the Editor toolbar, click the Attributes button, click Attachments, click Add, then browse to the location of your scanned document to attach it as a reference to this control point. Note, you may attach more than one file as a reference. [ATTACH=CONFIG]17985[/ATTACH] 15.You can use the Identify tool to see the control point's information. 16.While in the identify window, change the units to degrees, minutes, seconds, then click on the control name node in the tree-view, and check that the coordinates shown match (to 3 decimals of a second) with the latitude and longitude values from the document. [ATTACH=CONFIG]17986[/ATTACH] 17. Using the public topographic basemap, you can also get a rough check, to the nearest foot, of the Elevation value: in the Identify dialog, change the target to "Elevation (ft)" then click on a location as near as possible to the control point that you entered. [ATTACH=CONFIG]17982[/ATTACH] -Tim (Parcel Editor Team) ... View more

Hi Danny, Here are some ideas and approaches that may help. 1. Using the grid over-rides for non-tangent curves: When adding new parcels to the parcel fabric, if you are missing certain information such as the chord bearing for a non-tangent curve, you may still have the radial bearing, or the tangent bearing. Sometimes you may have a radial bearing and it is not explicitly present on the curve itself, but may be inferred from the surrounding information. If you have one of these other bearing parameters, then you can use a grid over-ride to enter the value. As an example of the radial bearing over-ride, if your plan properties are set to use chord bearing, but you want to enter the bearing as a radial bearing, then you can type the following: S75-27-27E rb In the above string the quadrant bearing portion defines the radial bearing in a direction toward the center of curve. The �??rb�?� is a suffix placed after the bearing to indicate that the bearing is to be interpreted as a radial bearing instead of the default chord bearing. After you enter the radius and the other curve parameter for the line, and hit enter to start the next course, then the chord bearing will be computed for you and placed in the grid cell, replacing the over-ride string that you typed. 2. For tangent curves, if the curve runs tangent from the prior line(or curve), then you can use the �??*�?� to indicate the curve (or line) is tangent to the prior course. There are a number of over-rides explained at the hyperlink called About entering lines on the parcel details lines page. 3. Otherwise, if you have 2 non-tangent curves on the same parcel, and neither of them have any information at all to help specify the orientation of the curves (no chord bearings, no radial and no tangent bearings), then that would require entering the other surrounding line information into a construction. If you have some examples that you�??d like to share, that would help. Using a construction and entering the surrounding lines may (depending on what you have) allow you to establish the end points of the curves that have the missing data. This may even mean entering parcels from an adjacent block into the construction, and using a connection line to establish the end points for the curves. If you have a plat you can attach as an example, I may be able to give further ideas. -Tim ... View more

Hi Brian, Please confirm that you resolved the issue on your own? Based on your last edit, it sounds like there were densified curves in your data and excluding this data from the adjustment solved the problem? If you are still experiencing problems with control points, please note that there is a fix in SP5 that lifts a prior known limit that had required all control points in an adjustment to have unique names. (NIM075375). Thanks for your post. -Tim ... View more

Thanks for reporting this bug to tech support. It is recorded under NIM083531. This problem occurs when the curve is an exact half circle with a central angle of 180 degrees. Curves greater than 180 degrees are now supported at 10.1. See more info under the help topic Entering data into the parcel traverse grid. As a workaround you can create these half-circle curves as 2 quarter-circles instead. It's easiset to do this using the traverse grid over-rides for tangency (using * in the bearing), and central angle (using 90d in the second curve parameter). See an example video in the attached zip file. -Tim ... View more

Maya, If I understand your question correctly, you had started with 10.0 installed, had a 10.0 tax parcel editing map document pointing to the 10.0 version of the fabric. You've installed 10.1, upgraded the 10.0 fabric to a 10.1 fabric, and re-opened the same 10.0 map document? If true there is no problem in doing this, note that when you save changes in 10.1 the map document will be a 10.1 map document. Note, though that there is also a new 10.1 version of the tax parcel editing map on the local governement resource center. At 10.1 Final, when you add the local-government-information-model (LGIM) fabric, to a new empty map document, you see the basic/default view of the fabric, without the special authoring for tailored cartography. At release 10.1 sp1 this default view of the LGIM will be much enhanced. Please respond if I have not understood your question correctly. Thanks, -Tim ... View more

Maya, we'll need to figure out if the plans are missing from the plans table, or if there is an unintended filter applied on the Plans Directory that is hiding them. Please try the following; zoom into a map extent so that there are parcels that are contained within 10 to 20 plans, and then set the Plan Directory filter List to "Current map extent" to show only those plans that contain the visible parcels: [ATTACH=CONFIG]16982[/ATTACH] Are there any plans listed in the Plans Directory? Next thing to try; starting from an empty map document, open the catalog window, browse to your fabric's plan table and drag it onto the map (expanding a fabric node to see its tables is available in 10.1): [ATTACH=CONFIG]16983[/ATTACH] Then, in the map's table of contents, right-click the plans table, and click Open: [ATTACH=CONFIG]16984[/ATTACH] Does the table contain Plan records? Thanks, -Tim ... View more

Hi Maya, There are no known reasons for this to to occur. Would you please provide more information on your steps? For example, did you first upgrade the 10.0 fabric to 10.1 fabric from the General property page for the fabric properties, or are you working on the same 10.0 fabric? When you are looking for the plans, are you opening the Plans table directly, (for example by dragging and dropping it from the catalog window, and then clicking open from the table of contents), or are you using the Plan Directory, via the Parcel Editor toolbar: Parcel Editor-> Plan Directory? Did you notice the missing plans immediately, or did you edit and save edits on the fabric before you noticed the missing plans? Did you do any new data migration from source data into your fabric after you started using 10.1? Thanks, Tim (Parcel editing team) ... View more

Hi Greg, Note that the geodatabase topology and the rules that we've defined for loading into the fabric work best by defining discrete sets of toplogies for each parcel type, and loading these into the fabric separately. If your ultimate intent is to move the data into the fabric, then I'd recommend doing a mini dataloading exercise into the fabric now, so that the process is clear, even though you may not be going into production on the fabric immediately. I think that by doing this data-load prototyping, many of your questions will be answered. I good starting point for data loading is this whitepaper: http://www.esri.com/library/whitepapers/pdfs/loading_data_parcel_fabric.pdf Hope this helps, -Tim ... View more

On your first question, I'm not sure why you're not able to see the error, but you should be able to use the planarize lines tool from the topology toolbar to solve it. http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//001t0000008t000000.htm Note also that the whitepaper I referenced before, has some good information for the steps to using this data loading approach.Loading Data into a Parcel fabric.pdf On your second question, the following link points to the help documentation for how to work with topology errors: http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//001t000000st000000.htm Hope this helps. Apologies for the delayed response. ... View more

Hi, There are 2 different approaches for doing bulk data-load into a parcel fabric. Of the following two approaches, the second approach would be recommended for your case. 1. The first approach (the one that you've tried) requires setting up or having a cadastral fabric source (such as a COGO coverage), and launching the importer wizard by right-clicking on the parcel fabric, and clicking Import->Fabric Data. 2. The second approach uses the Geoprocessing tool called "Load a Topology to a Parcel Fabric", and it requires setting up a geodatabase topology: [ATTACH=CONFIG]12491[/ATTACH] This second approach uses lines and polygons that are setup in a topology with a set of topology rules. It is described more fully here:http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//00850000001z000000.htm -Tim ... View more

Thanks, Jim. There is also an additional step to do if you're using the Curves and Lines Add-in, and especially if you're using it with the option to create circular arcs. Prior to running the tool use the planarize lines tool from the topology toolbar, to make sure that the topo rule �??Must Not Intersect Or Touch Interior�?� can be honored later on when creating and validating the topology. Note that there is now a good whitepaper on this topic here: http://www.esri.com/library/whitepapers/pdfs/loading_data_parcel_fabric.pdf -Tim ... View more