Latest Contributions by JoshuaDamron

Also, was there a way you could control the subfields for the sign type?  For example if Regulatory was selected, the next field would only give the option of stop, speed, turn etc rather than show all signs so that a warning sign doesn't get selected and then a stop sign get specified as the series type. I completely get what you are talking about!  If the user is looking up a guide sign then they don't want need to scroll through 50 regulatory sign options.  While I know how to build this into an Access database, I don't know if ArcGIS is able to do it.  I have seen this done before though.  I just got the most recent ArcNews magazine and there was an article about the City of Highpoint successfully creating a sign inventory.  You can read the article here: http://www.esri.com/esri-news/arcnew...vity-standards. They also did a FHWA presentation that drilled into some of the more technical aspects of their inventory work, you can view it here:  http://www.gis.fhwa.dot.gov/webcast19_nc.asp. Anyways, they built a FLEX collector app that has the functionality you are wanting.  You may contact Highpoint and see if they are up for sharing the lessons they learned. ... View more

Todd,   Sounds like you are in a similar boat to us with working to meet the FHWA mandate for traffic sign inventories.  I would not recommend placing your signs and poles in the same feature class.  I would place your poles in a file geodatabase feature class and have a related table to hold your signs.  If you would like to know the details of why just ask and I'm glad to share my experience.  FYI there are a few forum posts about this same issue: http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/83079-Sign-Inventory-in-LGIM-anyone?highlight=sign & http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/102474-Sign-Inventory?highlight=sign A resource that I found interesting was City of High Point's article in the ArcNews (Spring 2014): http://www.esri.com/esri-news/arcnews/spring14articles/city-develops-in-house-solution-to-fulfill-federal-reflectivity-standards.  They also did a FHWA presentation that drilled into some of the more technical aspects of their inventory work, you can view it here: https://connectdot.connectsolutions.com/p5l0tq7mev3/.  You can also read the summary here: http://www.gis.fhwa.dot.gov/webcast19_nc.asp.  After reading the article I got in touch with the folks at Highpoint and we had a good dialogue about their project.  I found them to be a very helpful resource, you may give them a ring. I don't have experience with ArcPad but post back with any questions and I will do my best to assist you. ... View more

Nancy,   Sounds like you started off in the right direction with your sign inventory (using related tables for signs & poles in a feature class). You noted your poles as being in a feature class, I assume this means that they are in a geodatabase of one sort or another?  I�??m pretty sure that to return more than the first record in a one to many the data has to be in a geodatabase.  You can read about it here:  http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.1/index.html#//005s0000002n000000  A quote from the Help is �??If you are using geodatabase data to create the join, all matching records are returned. If you are using nondatabase data, like shapefiles or dBASE tables, to create the join, only the first matching record is returned.�?� I would be interested to hear about how you are planning to visually map the signs.   I had some interns start the task of a sign inventory a few years ago (using Google Street View & our high quality aerial imagery to plunk points down).  While we got some great location information, overall it didn�??t end up working out perfectly because we tried to have signs and poles in the same feature class.  It was kinda one of those �??we have an intern lets find something for them to do�?� type moments.  We are in the process of moving all our data to the LGIM so I'm sure that I will be cleaning up this dataset and converting it to the LGIM like you have done.  A hurdle we came across was that we really wanted to symbolize all of the sign blades on the pole.  Ideally the symbols could be organized similarly to how they are arranged on the pole.  Having an effective visual on the map would really help decision makers & field crews to locate signs.  I�??m not sure ArcGIS is up to this complex of a symbology task. I�??d appreciate it if you would post back with what you have learned from your project and how you went about/plan to go about symbolizing your signs. ... View more

Our sign inventory has not been fully completed or field truthed yet, however we got it started with interns driving the City using Google Street View and using our high quality (1/4 ft per pixel) imagery to locate and identify signs.  We also had an intern go through the MUTCD and create sign blade symbols Esri didn't have using a program I found online called Font Creator.  Using this program the intern found a method for importing images from MUTCD(CA) .pdfs or field photos and such to create the fonts. The biggest obstacle for ArcGIS is how to map symbols for multiple signs on a single post.  It is not advantageous to just have dots on a map, field crews and decision makers need to be able to visualize the different signs at each location (which ones the speed limit sign?).  Trying to overcome this we tried several things but we were not successful. The project is currently stalled until we resolve how to track assemblies of multiple signs at a given location (fixed to the same pole).  Can someone share some insights or ideas for symbolizing & tracking multiple signs at one location? ... View more

Great idea, I have low level GIS users who only need to see the one .mxd that they use and not get confused by previous versions or other .mxd's that may have been opened on their computer at some point in the past.  it would b egreat to beable to dump the files that are no longer relevant. ... View more

I found that the calibrate route tool (http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.1/index.html#/Calibrate_Routes/003m00000004000000/) creates M values for existing feature class geometry.  When I used it I carried over the FacilityID field from the utility feature and then used that to join the two feature classes and export for establishing M value capability in my original (now new) utility feature class. The only issue is that for some reason the calibrate route tool seems to scrambled/flipped my flow directions.  This is where batch selecting and using the flip line tool (http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.1/index.html#//001v00000005000000) came in handy. ... View more

Metadata will be carried over in the export. Thank you for the correction Nidhin, I didn't check my facts and was mistaken about metadata being carried over. ... View more

As Mark mentioned earlier you can also a place the Copy Parallel tool (or pretty much any tool) on a toolbar via Customize>Customize Mode  (see attached image) ... View more

Note: I believe that if you export your data any metadata you have created is not carried over in the export and will have to be recreated for the new feature class. ... View more

If you are trying to place arrow symbols on your lines, this video will help you to learn more about how you build symbology: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL81TflbGNI If you are trying to create network connectivity then you want to learn more about geometric networks. Here is an introduction to how geometric networks function: http://video.esri.com/watch/2012/geometric-networks-an-introduction Here is a good post titled "Geometric networks for water utilities" from the ESRI blog:  http://blogs.esri.com/esri/arcgis/2009/11/17/geometric-networks-for-water-utilities/ All the best! ... View more

Mark,   Thank you for another descriptive reply.  It is very helpful to have a sense of ArcHydros intended uses & functionality, it sounds like at this time ArcHydro is designed towards developing watersheds in general, and less towards analyzing flow characteristics.  I checked out the Army Corps of Engineers website and I may have to read up on the software they have made available.  Thank you for pointing me in that direction.  I did find a post in the ArcGIS blog (http://blogs.esri.com/esri/arcgis/2013/08/26/urban-hydrology-modeling-using-gis/) about urban hydrology modeling, so I see that (as you have mentioned) ArcHydro does have some ability to model urban hydrology as it interacts with pipe networks.  A big focus for me is managing the impacts of land use on Public Works pipe infrastructure, I may have to do more poking around to find the right tool set but I can see that ArcHydro offers tools that can act as a step in the process of getting to where I need to go.  I had earlier checked out your problem solving forum post, it is great to see the ArcHydro community build its own troubleshooting guide. Thank you again for passing on your knowledge of ArcHydro, you have been very helpful. All the best, Joshua ... View more

Likely more than you asked for.... Hope this helps. Actually this was exactly what I was hoping for.  Thank you for taking the time to clearly outline the steps involved.  Your post gives me an idea of what level of commitment I'm making if I tell my engineer "of course ArcGIS can do that!"  I'm certain that any product used for a certain level of drainage analysis requires a high degree of fine tuning and ArcHydro is in this same ball park.  My City has a very high resolution TIN/DEM which generated 1' contours, this is really nice because the DEM shows all of the curb lines and the crowns of most streets.  I can see that if we go in the direction of using ArcHydro for drainage analysis this data will save a lot of time.  Its unfortunate that a line, not a feature line is generated with a trace.  I'm connecting a few dots and for storm inlet structures and pipes, I'm assuming you build the pipe into a sink with parallel walls on each side, ending the walls at the inlets/outlets to let the water in/out and creating what ArcHydro sees as a channel for the water?  Is it possible for ArcHydro to bring pipe size, slope, friction coefficients into an analysis to model capacity constraints?  If I calculated how much water a storm inlet (or series of inlets) were to capture for say a 100 year storm, could ArcHydro analyze if the downstream pipe network can handle it? Or is this beyond the scope of ArcHydro at this time in its development?  Thank you again for the thorough description of what ArcHydro can do for me. ... View more

I know that this is an older thread, but here is a recent post that may help with this discussion: http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/87837-Automatic-manhole-numbering-according-to-flow-direction ... View more