Latest Contributions by ChrisDonohue__GISP

If you find you will be doing many route maps, an advanced technique you might want to consider is employing Representations.  By using Representations, you have more cartographic control on the display of the data.  For example, one can offset overlapping lines so they are side-by-side.  Even better, unlike some other techniques to visualize data, Representations do not affect the underlying data, just the display of it.  However, it is not totally without drawbacks.   A big drawback is the time spent learning how to do Representations and then setting up the Representation symbology.  If you find you will be revising the same data many times, it can be well worth the investment. What are representations?—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop Chris Donohue, GISP ... View more

Let me add this group 911 GIS .  I know they are on the front-end, but I suspect get inquiries from researchers in the aftermath and may be able to provide some insight. Chris Donohue, GISP ... View more

Something that is not obvious is that the elevations are not required to be "real" in Network Analysis.  As they describe in the process you ran in step 20, one can use logical elevations besides real elevations.  The important thing is that the values chosen for the segment ends are exactly the same for segments that should connect.  Any values could be used, as long as the connecting values are the same.  So by using logical elevations one could choose 1, 6, 2657429, or 99 - as long as the value is the same for the segments ends that connect.  For example, in its simplest form, if one had a network with ground level and one level of overpasses, one could take a binary approach and do a whole network with just 0 and 1 for elevation values - a value of zero for ground level and a value of one for overpass segments. One could also do a more rigorous analysis and derive the actual true elevations for each segment end.  However, the catch is the values will still need to be exactly the same for each segment that connects, and this could involve a bit of cleanup. If you are only after connectivity for Network Analysis, I'd suggest using logical elevations over true elevations. Chris Donohue, GISP ... View more

At the City where I work at we're in the same boat.  We run into this all the time.  Apartments, Condominiums, and office buildings are the primary culprits for us.  We're currently re-evaluating our addressing standard, but the labeling aspect hasn't been addressed (no pun intended) yet.  So for now, it's hand label each one individually  .  However, If the addresses are in a continuous range we often shorten the label by depicting the range instead of listing of all the units (i.e. the label for all apartments in one building would be "101-108, 201-208, 301-308").  Still, it's a manual process. Chris Donohue, GISP ... View more

I believe one of the necessary conditions to do this is that one be specifically in Layout View.  Then it works for me if I follow these steps (ArcGIS 10.2.1): 1.  Highlight "Layers" in the table of contents, then right-click and select Copy. 2.  On the Standard toolbar, Select Edit, then Paste. But if I am in Data View, one can Copy but not Paste (Paste is grayed out). Chris Donohue, GISP ... View more

The quick and dirty workaround to identify gaps in a theoretically connected Network Dataset is to use Network Analyst to create a New Service Area.  When setting up the Service Area, check off the box to Generate Lines.    Then set the Default Breaks on the Analysis Settings tab to a very large value so the entirely street dataset will definitely be covered. Then run it.  If lines are not generated across your entire network dataset, then there are issues with connectivity.  My guess given the image you have posted is that there are tiny disconnects at each of the intersections. Chris Donohue, GISP Network Analysis = 1% Analysis + 99% Data Cleanup ... View more

Unfortunately, I never found a solution.  So it ended up being a manual edit slog.  Chris Donohue, GISP ... View more

I'm not sure if this will fully answer your question, but if you set the Input as a Parameter in Modelbuilder, it will allow the user to pick the source when the Model is run. Here's an example on how it can be done from an ESRI Blog post (in particular, see step 4): Creating models with interactive input (ModelBuilder 10.0-10.2) | Esri Australia Technical Blog Chris Donohue, GISP ... View more

I would second the suggestion Wes Miller .  Unless the data was originally from one source and cleanly split, there is a very high chance there will be disconnects between the two datasets, even if one Unions them.  Run topology be sure that the linework is indeed connected.  It just takes one very small disconnect that is almost invisible to the naked eye even when zoomed in to cause a lack of connectivity.  It is not uncommon for small gaps to exist when merging or unioning datasets. Chris Donohue, GISP ... View more

Here's the message part in question (please see highlighted image). Chris Donohue, GISP ... View more

I'm not sure, but in the Copy Features part of the message it appears that the source data path includes two folders that contains spaces in their foldername, plus one has a dash in the foldername, and there may even be a period thrown in the next one.  Both spaces and dashes (and periods) in the path can cause geoprocessing to not work as expected.  Consider renaming the folders "Construction Layers" to "Construction_Layers" (or something similar that does not have a space between the words) and likewise remedy the folder off it to so it does not have spaces and the dash (and remove the period if it is there). Chris Donohue, GISP ... View more

Depending upon your data and how many of these need to be done, one approach could be to Dissolve (Data Management) with the Create multipart features (optional) setting checked on.  Note the tool includes the ability to Dissolve based on a specific field in the data, so that can help differentiate what should be combined. ArcGIS Desktop - Dissolve Chris Donohue, GISP ... View more

It sounds like the lines to be generated fall into a few categories, but there are many more lines than categories (i.e. multiple lines desired for each category), so just creating the lines by the category is tripping things up. As a workaround, is there any way to identify before running Points to Line which points are grouped together?  If there is, one could then add a new field to your data, then calculate a new unique ID for each point in an identified "line group", then run Points to Line using the new field for the Line Field parameter so as to get the lines as you want.  You would still have the original values in your input points to Spatial Join to the lines if need be so one could get the original categories assigned.  Chris Donohue, GISP ... View more

Neil - agreed.  I can't tell you how many times a Project Manager has told me "This project should be fairly easy, as the client already has a well-developed street linework to start with", then you get the line feature class and while it looks great zoomed out it has hundreds of tiny disconnects that are not readily visible. Level of Effort for Network Analysis = 1% Analysis, 99% Data Cleanup Chris Donohue, GISP ... View more

TheSelect By Location as mentioned above will do it. Once caveat - this assumes the point data you have is fairly accurate / coincident - i.e. a point that matches in both datasets is not spatially in a slightly different location in each dataset.  If it varies between the two, it will be more challenging. Chris Donohue, GISP ... View more