Latest Contributions by ChrisDonohue__GISP

There are a wide variety of things that can go awry with Topology that cause validation errors, ranging from high numbers of coincident polygons to large spatial extents.  I did a quick Google search and several issues were mentioned, though none were the same error as you experienced. I'd contact ESRI Customer Support.  If you are in the United States, the number is:  909-793-3774.  They have more detailed information to go with the specific error and probably already have ideas on what needs to happen to resolve the issue. Chris Donohue, GISP ... View more

Follow on info for the original poster: If you want California data that is in native Teale Albers NAD83 to match against your data, you can download some from CAL-Atlas: CNRA Download For example, there is a county boundary shapefile in Teale Albers (cnty24k09): CNRA Download Teale Albers: Projected Coordinate System:    NAD_1983_California_Teale_Albers Projection:    Albers False_Easting:    0.00000000 False_Northing:    -4000000.00000000 Central_Meridian:    -120.00000000 Standard_Parallel_1:    34.00000000 Standard_Parallel_2:    40.50000000 Latitude_Of_Origin:    0.00000000 Linear Unit:     Meter Things to note: - Negative values will be present in some areas and that is OK. - Units are in meters. Also, there is a Teale Albers NAD27 flavor out there, so keep an eye out for that. Chris Donohue, GISP ... View more

I second the suggestion by Curtis Price​ California Teale Albers is a very popular coordinate reference system here in California, particularly with the State.  Several years ago when ESRI added Teale Albers to ArcMap as one of the listed standard projections, there was much celebrating. Chris Donohue, GISP ... View more

To add to what Benjamin Mittler  stated, one approach is to use Integrate (Data Management) on your sidewalk linework (and then rebuild the network dataset afterwards): ArcGIS Help 10.1 Note that you can run this tool using only one feature class as an input if you want. Caveats: Make a backup copy of your data before running Integrate, as this tool does not create a new output but instead modifies the original. Choosing the correct XY Tolerance is critical.  You will probably have to do several runs to find an effective value that corrects the gaps without moving linework that you don't want moved. Chris Donohue, GISP ... View more

In regards to the not drawing issue, I'm not sure if this is the cause, but may be worth considering: ArcGIS 10.4 does not list AutoCAD 2015 as a supported CAD format.  2014 appears to be the most recent supported version. Supported CAD formats in ArcGIS—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop However, 10.3.1 would have the same issues, I would assume? Chris Donohue, GISP ... View more

You probably already thought of this, but here are two more dimensions of the challenge: At the Users Conference, trying to promote GeoNet will essentially be "competing" with all the other things going on.  Let's face it, the UC can be pretty overwhelming, there is so much going on, it can be mind-boggling.  So the challenge will be to promote GeoNet in a way that makes an impression on people and that they remember it while they are simultaneously being bombarded by all the other (cool) stuff. Secondary Selling points: GeoNet is free.  I mention this as some folks may assume GeoNet is the same as Customer Support, has fee/cost, or think it requires a Maintenance plan to use. Available to all levels of GIS users.  Some folks may assume GeoNet is just for hardcore users and are intimidated from using it. Available to all types of GIS users.  Some may assume it is just for one flavor of ESRI software. Contributors are mainly users.  This is an important point, as the advice received from users oftentimes contains tidbits of information that help other users resolve problems that concern the "pragmatic/practical" issues one hits in "real life" besides the purely technical side. Chris Donohue, GISP ... View more

So if I understand this correctly, the goal is to promote awareness of GeoNet beyond the current group of troublemakers contributors.  With that in mind (on a more serious note), here's some brainstorming: One idea - and I don't know if this is already done - would be to have GeoNet listed in the ESRI User Conference packets one gets when attending.  For example, towards the end of the "book" that ESRI has provided in the past UC's there are listings towards the back in the post-conference section for things like "get recordings of presentations".  This area would be a good location to plug GeoNet as an opportunity to get ones questions answered.  After all, one big reason why people go to the Users Conferce is to get questions answered; one of the appeals of GeoNet is that is available all year, to everyone, night and day, to get ones questions answered. Another opportunity to generate interest and thus promote awareness would be a contest approach, as suggested by Dan Patterson .  I know personally when I'm at the UC I always do the satellite imagery contest where one identifies where in the world the images were taken.  Maybe something similar that grabs people's attention and thus makes them aware of GeoNet? A third idea - to grab people's attention, here's some ideas for print approaches: A poster with "These were the top 10 questions last year on GeoNet.  Find the answers to these and more on GeoNet".  Somewhat reminiscent of the "Top 10" enhancements to ArcGIS that used to be part of the UC Opening Session, but in a print form.  Just the questions, as a teaser. A map of the World with "Here's the locations of GeoNet Contributors who can answer your questions.  Come be a part of it".  (If you really want to be risque, you could intentionally put Earth in a non-standard projection to grab people's unconscious attention as they note the distortion). Chris Donohue, GISP ... View more

If the feature class is in a File or Personal Geodatabase and you still get the lock even after checking that it is not being used, there is another solution to clearing the lock.  Here's what you do - run the Compact (Data Management) Tool.  ESRI Support passed this on to me when I had a similar issue several months ago with File Geodatabases showing as locked even though no one else was using them.  Compact will resolve the locks as it has a built in process to clear locks as part of it's running.  To be clear, the Compact tool is being run for the desirable side effect of lock-clearing, not because compaction (or lack of) has anything to do with causing the locks. Note to avoid potential confusion - the Compact geoprocessing tool needs to be run, not the Administration - Compact Database process from ArcCatalog, which sound like it is the same (but is not), as the latter process does not have the lock-clearing functionality. ArcGIS Help 10.2 - Compact (Data Management) Chris Donohue, GISP ... View more

Regarding your follow-up question on earthquake data, yes, this can be done with GIS.  One general workflow that could work is this: 1.  Use the Excel data to create an Event Layer and then save as a feature class ArcGIS Help 10.1 - Add XY data 2.  Spatial Join the feature class to your country layer ArcGIS Help 10.1 0 Spatial Join 3.  Export to Excel. ArcGIS Help 10.1 Exporting Tables Note that step 1 will require some knowledge of projections/coordinate systems and is a place where things commonly can go awry when people first try this.  If this happens, post back here and folks can direct you in how to tackle it. Chris Donohue, GISP ... View more

GeoNet meetup with Beer on tap!  Chris Donohue, GISP ... View more

Here's an example to calculate the From-To (FT) Minutes using VBScript in Field Calculator running against a streetline feature class in an Enterprise Geodatabase/SDE (note this formula can vary depending upon how you set up your data): [Shape.len] / [SPEED_FT] *(60/5280) For the To-From segments, it looks like this: [Shape.len] / [SPEED_TF] *(60/5280) Assumptions:  calculation assumes values pulled from SPEED_FT and SPEED_TF are the speed in Miles per Hour when traversing the segment. Chris Donohue, GISP ... View more

That is strange behavior.  The caveat at the end of the link Dan Patterson  provided sort of sums it up: When to use IDW A surface calculated using IDW depends on the selection of the power value (p) and the search neighborhood strategy. IDW is an exact interpolator, where the maximum and minimum values (see diagram below) in the interpolated surface can only occur at sample points. Inverse Distance Weighted profile example The output surface is sensitive to clustering and the presence of outliers. IDW assumes that the phenomenon being modeled is driven by local variation, which can be captured (modeled) by defining an adequate search neighborhood. Since IDW does not provide prediction standard errors, justifying the use of this model may be problematic. How inverse distance weighted interpolation works—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop Also, something to check (longshot).  The ArcGIS 10.0 help offers this: Some input datasets may have several points with the same x,y coordinates. If the values of the points at the common location are the same, they are considered duplicates and have no affect on the output. If the values are different, they are considered 'coincident' points. The various interpolation tools may handle this data condition differently. For example, in some cases the first coincident point encountered is used for the calculation; in other cases the last point encountered is used. This may cause some locations in the output raster to have different values than what you might expect. The solution is to prepare your data by removing these coincident points. The Collect Events tool in the Spatial Statistics toolbox is useful for identifying any coincident points in your data. ArcGIS Desktop ArcGIS 10.0 - IDW Any chance you have coincident points? Chris Donohue, GISP ... View more

I'd go with the concept proposed by m. neer .  This way the data will continue to exist for those situations where you need it, so you won't need to maintain two layers.  Plus if other departments want to also have a hand in annotation, you can make a field for each of them with the same Definition Query process in mind. Note that this process will required educating the other departments on how the Definition Query works if they are planning to pull in the data themselves. Chris Donohue, GISP ... View more

Some questions to clarify your process and question: Is the Annotation Group stored in a mxd or is it stored in an annotation layer in a geodatabase?  If it is in a geodatabase, what format is it (Enterprise/SDE, File, Personal)? Is it feature-linked annotation? Which version of ArcGIS are you using? Chris Donohue, GISP ... View more