Latest Contributions by ChrisDonohue__GISP

A few of questions to help clarify what you after: 1.  Which software are you using?  ArcGIS Desktop, ArcGIS Online, etc. 2.  When you say you want a count for the layer of stores per state, do you mean in the Legend?  For example, the legend item for Arizona followed by the count.  Or in the Table of Contents (if ArcGIS Desktop)?  Or a separate table of states with their counts placed on the map? 3.  Is the count already compiled, or are you looking for a way to create the count of stores per state? Chris Donohue, GISP ... View more

What you ran into is a common issue that comes up when doing Network Analysis - the data seems all ready to go, but in reality it takes a bit of preparation and troubleshooting to get it ready for analysis  My experience is that most Network Analysis projects are 90% data preparation and 10% actually running the analysis. ... View more

That was part of what made it cool - one could go back and forth to GIS with the Plug ins.  Plus it was very easy to use.  The company that made SketchUp (@Last Software) was very small, and if you called tech support for them you could get anyone from the company heads to the programmers (and they were all knowledgeable and enthusiastic).  If you suggested additional functionality, they often would create it within a short time.  We had a great user experience with them. The company was sold to Google around 2007.  I hear that Google sold it to Trimble in recent years.  I don't if/how that has affected their software and user experience. ... View more

Another idea - review the Select Layer By Location "Selection Types (optional)" to see if the setting is not the appropriate one.  It may be that it is defaulted to a different setting than needed. ... View more

SketchUp has been around since before 2006.  In that year, Urban Planning colleagues of mine discovered it and were using it for a plethora of projects.  They really liked it.  I played with it a bit and found it to be very intuitive. I have not used it in recent years, though. ... View more

The lyr files can still be saved if you want.  What would change is the model would branch instead of being linear.  One branch off I_InZips_Name would go to the Save to Layer File, another branch off I_InZips_Name would go to Select By Location. Anyway, see if it helps to do the direct feed from I_InZipsName to the Select By Location - that's the critical part to troubleshoot first, as it looks to be where things are going awry. ... View more

That helps. Just a thought - maybe try the Select By Location directly off "I_InZips_Name" instead of the layer file.  Layer files have some unusual properties and are sometimes problematic when doing analysis. Also, can you mention what the characteristics are of the results that didn't work?  What exactly about them is unexpected/not working?  This will help in troubleshooting. ... View more

Quick question to help clarify this - is the input labeled "InZips (3)" the same as the input "InZips"?  It looks like you stated that above, but I wanted to confirm it.  The reason I ask is twofold: 1.  If it is the same, usually it would be connected to the first input ("InZips"). 2.  The other reason is the Select By Location appears at first glance to be unneeded.  The features are already selected, and how it is set up now seems to reselect the already selected features.  I suspect I am missing something obvious, or there is another intent to this.  Can you clarify what the Select By Location is for? Thanks, Chris Donohue, GISP ... View more

Here's an alternative software that may do the trick, should no one know of a good GIS solution. SketchUp http://www.sketchup.com/ Chris Donohue, GISP ... View more

Somes troubleshooting ideas: If you haven't already done it, I'd start by running topology on all the participating datasets.  Use rules to ensure that you have connectivity between all the edges.  It's been my experience with network analysis that there can often be very small gaps between the edges that throw the analysis, even though visually the lines look connected even when zoomed way in. One rough and dirty way to check for this without doing the topology is to run a few Service Areas at several distances.  If you notice the Service Areas not covering areas with linework (edges) at the expected distances, that points towards issues.  It may be a disconnect is present, or that some of the edges have a directionality error (set one-way when they should be two-way, or set opposite the direction they should be). Another potential issue - be aware that the Search Distance sometimes will fail to find nearby edges, even when they are within the set distance.  In this case, you may have to digitize in added linework from your existing edges to the points to ensure a connection.  Be sure to check the topology of whatever you added. Chris Donohue, GISP ... View more

That I don't know. Somewhat related, there is a Delete Fields tool.  But I'm not sure if a workaround with that will help. ... View more

Here's a reference: Field names cannot be longer than 10 characters. Geoprocessing considerations for shapefile output http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//002t0000000m000000 There are also specific known restricted character issues that are commonly run into when converting from Coverages to Shapefiles.  I used to have a link to a nice information page on that, but I'm not finding that information so far (and I lost the bookmark for it). ... View more

I think I just figured out what the potential issue is.  The final Feature Class to Feature Class is going from a Coverage to a Shapefile.  Not a problem in general, however, there are often field name issues when transferring data from a coverage to a shapefile (and reverse).  For example, field names that are OK in one file type are not OK in the other due to the differing restricted characters,  allowed field lengths, etc.  This can cause data to not transfer correctly. ... View more

Forgive me if I am missing something obvious, but I don't see any processes that would differentially add fields, so therefore it seems all the fields would be constant.  What is causing there to be different fields between iterations? ( I realize there may be scripts and coding hidden in the model that can't be seen in the image) Knowing where processes are adding/removing fields would help in troubleshooting this. ... View more

When you look at the outputs of each process step, at which point is the data not being transferred? Also, what process is being done in the "Get Field Value"? ... View more