Latest Contributions by AmirBar-Maor

Hello Dennis, The lines.type field is identical to the parcel.type field. This can allow you to separate the lines of lots from the lines of subdivisions. In version 10.1 SP1 we set the lines.type field for newly created parcels. Another filed on the lines is called �??Category�?�. This field is used to separate boundary lines from road frontage lines, connection lines etc. It is useful to use Road Frontage lines if you plan on running a LSA adjustment in the future. You can set the Road Frontage lines to remain straight within a specified tolerance. I would not recommend using the Category field for Easements and ROW type. Since easements have an area, I would use a parcel type for this. Those are considered Encumbrances (type=9) and have a field call EncumbranceType and a Domain lrEncumbranceType. We do not distinguish between freeway, highway, local�?� ROWs because they overlap �?? who is superior to who? How do we prevent area from being calculated twice for those overlaps? It can be interesting to know what is the business requirement of separating the ROW types? Is it only for symbology (cartography) and\or other business requirement? Hope this answers your questions, Amir ... View more

We record the meetings and publish them on the MeetUp pages. These pages are only available to the meetup members. Amir ... View more

Hello Tom, Having the resources to capture the parcel from scratch is a privilege not many counties can afford. If you capture them correctly you should end up with very good data. Here are a few recommendations: Start with a good cadastral framework, in your case good PLSS sections. If you can have a surveyor recapture the section corners any other legal document that ties to the framework will have better accuracy. In some areas you might also need the quarter section corner. Capture all the parcels, including the historic parcels, and make sure to enter the legal start date and the legal end date. Use the Local Government Information Model �?? this will save you time of data modeling, editing map configuration and you can benefit the automated workflows. If you find out that after you capture everything you can for an area you still have holes �?? use the legacy data with low accuracy (6 or 7) and the first join option. Use plans to reference the legal document (subdivision, deed�?�) that created the geometry. You can save it on a shared directory and use the plan source document field to paste the link, making it easier to retrieve later. Use accuracies when entering data on plans. Capture the lots and the ROWs �?? this will maintain connectivity and will allow you to run adjustment (LSA) in the future. There are probably a few more that might be data specific that you will encounter. Start with a pilot area to come up with the best process that includes QA. Amir ... View more

The annotation expression has been modified. Make sure that on the annotation classes tab --> expression, you have: 'Display coded value description' checked off 'Advanced' checked on The Lines Bearing field is set a Number Format of Direction (in degrees, quadrant bearing) Adjust the expression below to display bearing if required, minimal line length for anno, minimal line length for bearing, curve parameters Make sure the SQL Query on the Annotation Classes tab does not filter a parcel type In 10.1 SP1 the line.Type field is set to the Parcel.Type making it possible to distinguish between Tax parcels lines to Lot lines etc. If anno is not displayed - verify the values exist in the line (e.g. sometimes curves were imported without an ArcLength and will only display a radius) As always - feedback is welcome You can try to copy and paste the following expression into the annotation class: '*******Description******** 'This expression only shows dimension only for lines of Category 0 and Category 5 for which the hide field is 0 or Null 'Default: show dimensions as distance for straight lines and radius and arclength for curves.  Hide dimensions if distance is smaller than 5 map unit. 'Distances are format to show 2 decimal places 'Customizing the expression: 'To show the bearing on a straight line set the ShowBearing variable to 1. 'Set the MinDistBearing variable to not display bearing when the distance is smaller of the set value 'To control which curve dimensions are displayed: set the CurveDisplay variable as specified below 'The expressions hides dimensions for lines that have a distance smaller  of 5.00 map units. Modify the HideDimensions variable if needed. '************************ Function FindLabel ([Bearing], [Distance], [Radius], [ArcLength], [Delta], [Category], [Hide]) 'ShowBearing FLAG --- To show bearing set this value to equal 1   Dim ShowBearing   ShowBearing = 0 'MinDistBearing FLAG --- This value represents the minimum distance of a line for which both Bearing and Distance will be shown.   Dim MinDistBearing   MinDistBearing = 100 'CurveDisplay FLAG --- To show Radius only set value to 1, for radius and ArcLength - 2, for radius and Chord - 3, for radius and central angle - 4   Dim CurveDisplay   CurveDisplay=2   'HideDimensions FLAG --- to hide dimensions on lines that are smaller of a certain distance set the value. Default: 5.00 map unit   Dim HideDimensions   HideDimensions = 5.00     if(([Category] = 0 OR [Category] = 5) AND ([Hide] = 0 or isNull([Hide]))) AND (cDbl([Distance])>HideDimensions) then 'IF LINE IS BOUNDARY OR ROAD FRONTAGE AND HIDE IS NOT 1 if ([Radius]>0) or ([Radius]<0)  then  'IF A CURVE   if (CurveDisplay = 1) then                 FindLabel = "R=" &  FormatNumber(Round(abs([Radius]), 2), 2)& "'"   elseif (CurveDisplay = 2) then    if (IsNull([ArcLength])) then                 FindLabel = "R=" &  FormatNumber(Round(abs([Radius]), 2), 2)& "'"    else                 FindLabel = "R=" & FormatNumber( Round(abs([Radius]), 2), 2)& "'" & vbCrLf & "L=" & FormatNumber(Round([ArcLength],2),2) & "'"        end if    elseif (CurveDisplay = 3) then                 FindLabel = "R=" & FormatNumber( Round(abs([Radius]), 2), 2)& "'" & vbCrLf & "Ch=" & FormatNumber(Round([Distance],2),2) & "'"    elseif (CurveDisplay = 4) then                 FindLabel = "R=" & FormatNumber( Round(abs([Radius]), 2), 2)& "'" & vbCrLf & "D=" & [Delta]     end if else   'IF NOT A CURVE    if(ShowBearing = 1) AND (cDbl([Distance])>MinDistBearing) then     FindLabel = formatnumber([Distance],2) & "'" & vbCrLf & [Bearing]     else     FindLabel = formatnumber([Distance],2) &"'"   end if end if end if End Function ... View more

Hello Jake, After enabling the Local Government Information Model, new domains with an 'lr' prefix will be added and the appropriate fields pointed to those domains. Since one of the goals of having the same information model across the US: - Do not change the domains, but if necessary change the domain description - Do not change the fields, but if necessary change the field alias (e.g. parcel Name to 'APN' or 'PIN' etc.) - You can delete domain values that do not apply to your county to minimize the drop down list - You can delete old domains that are not prefixed with 'lr' Map File: The map has been optimized for parcel editing in the US. It is designed for parcel editing and not for map production that usually outputs a map in black and white. Since a map tells a story, like a language, wouldn't it be great if it told a similar story across counties?! - create a new map document and start by dragging and dropping the parcel fabric (that is enabled) to the map - Change symbology and any map definitions as necessary - You cannot re-order the layers: if you think the ordering is wrong, please let us know what you think needs modifying - Layer names can be changed (e.g. change the cadastral framework from PLSS names to metes & bounds names) - The cadastral framework parcels have no fill color and are placed above the tax parcels. I can see  this becoming a problem if you do use a fill color. In general: We would like to create the best editing map for parcels and for customers to be able to directly start work with it. Any feedback is welcome in an effort to improve and perfect this map. Amir Bar-Maor ... View more

Over the last few years, Esri has been focused on thedevelopment of a Parcel Editing solution that leverages the Parcel Fabric datastructure. As such, Iâ??d like to sharewith you some of the benefits weâ??ve identified and heard from users whoâ??vedeployed their editing solutions on top of this underlying data structure. Benefits of Using a Parcel Fabric The parcel fabric is designed for parcel maintenance andprovides the following benefits: 1. Data Integrity â?? thetopological relationships between the parcel, lines and point are persisted asan inherit part of the data. This behavior doesnâ??t exist with simple featuresand topologies. When you edit/interact with simple features in a topology, auser might perform an edit that breaks a rule and you must validate and fix theerror to persist data integrity. When you edit/interact with a parcel fabric,the user does not have to worry about that since the fabric maintains thoserelationships and ensures data integrity. 2. Historical Parcels â??Parcel history, or lineage, is a native feature of the parcel fabric. Any transaction, such as a split or a merge,retires the parent parcel(s). The historic parcels are not deleted but markedhistoric automatically and can be viewed in any time, even with a time enabledlayer. 3. Legal Start/End Dates â??Each parcel has a legal start and legal end date that allows you to track thelegal creation of that parcel. This isin addition to the system start and system end date. 4. Record Measurements(COGO) - Therecordvalues or measurements on a line are never changed, even if the line geometrychanges in the parcel fabric. Records values are used to calculate misclosures,legal area and other processes. Each parcel has its own set of lines. Thisallows 2 lines to be connected to the same start and end points yet havedifferent records measurement. 5. Stacked parcel typesâ?? the fabric support stacked parcels that can connect to the same points. Forexample, a subdivision, lot, and tax parcel all use the same points on thesubdivision boundary. If those points move, all the parcel types move. But more importantly, the tax parcel and lotcorners donâ??t break the subdivision boundary. 6. Associated FeatureClasses â?? any adjustment or movements you make to your parcels can beapplied to other simple feature classes (e.g. tax districts, utilities, zoning,etc.) that are associated to the fabric. 7. Backlots - Theparcel fabric manages line points that connect a line to another line withoutbreaking the other line (like a T junction). This helps users persist the record measurements of each parcel uniquelyand avoid the classic backlot issues (single lines with vertices thatcompromise the record measurements) youâ??d run in to using simple features and atopology. 8. Plans â?? the parcelfabric has Plans that manage a group of parcels and can specify the accuracylevel, unit of measure, how the curves are defined and other properties. A planis often used to capture a document reference number and the legal description. 9. Standards Based â?? the ArcGIS for Local Governmentsolution extends the parcel fabric data model to include domain specificattributes and best practices. Theattributes and best practices are based on the National Cadastral standard; andare encapsulated in the Local Government Information Model and Tax ParcelEditing Map. Users can easily adopt andstart working with this data model and it is the basis for all the Land Recordsmaps and apps. And as many begin toadopt this approach, organizations will be able to exchange data (county tocounty, county to state etc.) more easily. 10. Accuracy â?? Eachmeasurement has an associated accuracy. Survey control points can be improvedover time and used to run an adjustment (LSA) in order to improve overallaccuracy and identify blunders. Esriâ??s parcel editing solutioncontains more than just the parcel fabric data structure. In addition, the following is also provided: 11. Parcel Editor Toolbarâ?? the parcel editor contain tools that are specific for parcel maintenance:merge, metes & bounds, area calculation based on records measurements,construct from parent and many more. It is a ready to use and fully supportedpart of ArcGIS Desktop. Many customers are gravitating to this supported anddocumented functionality and moving away from custom tools they have to developthemselves and support in future releases of ArcGIS. Esri continues to grow and evolve this set oftools so let us know what you think. Ifyou feel something is missing submit a topic on the ideas website and weâ??ll consider it for thenext release.. 12. Parcel Workflows:Version 10.1 SP1 of ArcGIS Desktop will include a new tool called ParcelWorkflows that streamlines and improves editing efficiency. This functionalitywill only work with a parcel fabric data structure and will be optimized forthe ArcGIS for Local Government Tax Parcel Editing map. Current users will beable to upgrade their parcel fabric and easily create the editing map bydragging the fabric to the map. 13. Additional Land Records Mapsand Apps - All the maps and apps on the ArcGIS for Local Government ResourceCenter are freely available and designed to work together as a complete system.So as you begin to use the Tax Parcel Editing Map and parcel fabric datastructure, youâ??ll be able to take advantage of other maps and apps that addvalue to you organization. It could be apublic access application, a value dashboard for your assessor/treasurer, or asimple map book. Hope this helps you to make an informed decision, Amir ... View more

Hello Carol, Using labels can save you a lot time Using feature linked annotation saves you time if dimension values change and remove the annotation when a feature is deleted. Using standard non linked annotations can potentially creates conflicts and requires a lot of maintenance. You can read more about Labeling Parcel Lines With COGO Dimensions Not many counties have good COGO they can use for labeling and have no choice but using legacy annotation for the old data.  New parcels can be identified and filtered (using the Layer--> Label --> SQL) and use labels. This is sometimes referred as the "Day Forward approach". You can use the Maplex labeling engine (Maplex is part of ArcGIS Desktop 10.1) to always place the label in the middle of the line (50%). Amir ... View more

Please submit your Forum post in the Land Records Forum: http://forums.arcgis.com/forums/44-Land-Records Amir ... View more

Please submit your Forum post in the Land Records Forum: http://forums.arcgis.com/forums/44-Land-Records ... View more

Dear qwerty123, There are dozens of successful migrations stories to the ArcGIS Local Government Solution for Land records . It would be inappropriate to publish their names & contact data without getting their consent. I would appreciate if customers directly respond and share their success stories. Amir ... View more

There are many users who have migrated to the parcel fabric on their own without any help from Esri. Since Parcel Editor is part of ArcGIS Desktop and does not require additional license, it is hard to tell how many users have migrated without Esri�??s support. Migrating to the ArcGIS Solution for Land Records usually requires the following: 1.       Data migration �?? this is not rocket science but in order to achieve the minimal quality requires for data migration, this process requires analysis and some form of cleanup. Migrating from coverages (or polygons) is usually easier than migrating from lines (CAD). 2.       Basic ArcGIS Training - users need to get familiar with ArcGIS Desktop and Enterprise Geodatabases, including versioning. 3.       Parcel Editing �?? The Parcel Editing feature dataset (and the Parcel Fabric) included with the Local Government Information Model is configured to streamline your editing workflows. Plenty of resources are available including the Tax Parcel Editing Map and videos. These workflows will be made even easier in version 10.1. 4.       Local Government Solution - instead of spending time to develop a unique data model and maps, the solution is ready to use and allows users to focus on the above rather than �??inventing the wheel�?� over and over again. This solution is based on best practices and has already been implemented by many. The solution offers many maps and apps, for desktop, web and mobile and will continue to offer more resources and improvements in the future. 5.       Technical support �?? if you find any issue in the software, please contact technical support. If you think the solution or the software should work differently to support your workflows, we are always happy to listen and improve. The tools are designed to work with old surveys from previous centuries that have low accuracy. This is taken into account when running least squares by giving lower weights to lower accuracies. By Bad Measurements\COGO I mean really bad values where the geometry is far off from the stated length or bearing. This is sometime caused by splitting a line and not updating the length. Look at these tools to help identify those geometries. I cannot determine the cause of your slivers and scaling without examining your data. I can only guess bad measurements and links could be causing it. You might also want to convert your multi-segmented curves to true curves before migrating them to the fabric. You will have to submit a tech. support incident and attach your data for someone to have a look and determine the cause. I am attaching a document with links to useful resources in version 10.0. We will also be happy to talk with users in the upcoming user conference in San Diego to learn more about any difficulties and how we can improve. ... View more

Hello Rob, I am happy to hear you have decided to move forward with your parcel editing technology. You should find it relatively easy to migrate from coverages to the parcel fabric from quality and conceptual aspects. Moving forward from the old ArcEdit and learning to edit parcels in ArcMap required a learning period, but I am sure you will find it more efficient and productive once you have mastered it. Many users have performed similar analysis prior to migrating to ArcGIS and are currently successfully using the parcel editor to maintain their parcels. We are always interested to get feedback in order to improve our software. Here are a few recommendations\observations: When you open a tech support incident, please be sure to inform the technical analyst your issue has to do with the Parcel Editor toolbar\Parcel Fabric. This will not only get categorized properly but also be addressed and reviewed by the right person. You�??re inability  to start construction from the plan directory is most likely to do with having an open parcel �?? use the Parcel Detail window and make sure to use the red X button before starting a new construction. Another reason might be having parcels that point to a plan that does not exist (most unlikely - this will not happen if you follow best practice). The best thing to do would be to contact tech support and provide a screen shot that shows which tools are disabled. It would also be good to know if you can edit other fabrics, such as the Tax Editing Map from the resource center in order to figure out if this issue is data related. Joining is all about getting the correct links established. The links ensure correct topology. If you miss links your topology will not be correct and you might see slicers and gaps. Any line point that is more than 100 cm (3.3 feet) from a line will not be snapped to the line (leaving a gap) �?? can be change in the registry. If you intend to run adjustment (LSA), it is irrelevant which join mode you are using as LSA is using your record measurements and accuracy to find the best position (a solution with minimal weighted residuals). Joining is about TOPOLOGY. LSA is about ACCURACY. Before migrating to the fabric read and follow the data migration white paper (http://www.esri.com/library/whitepapers/pdfs/loading_data_parcel_fabric.pdf). If you import data that has bad record measurements (COGO), you should expect to encounter issues when you join and\or run LSA. Slivers are usually an indication you missed links. Submit the data to tech support if you feel you found a bug in the system and we can have a look and provide recommendations. You will also find in the next release (10.1) improved functionality to generate the links and the ability to bend �??straight�?� lines if they are joined to a bent line. QA (�??three lines of defense�?�): After you COGO a new parcel make sure it has a reasonable closure (QA1 �?? identify bad COGO on entry), then examine the residuals during join (QA2 �?? identify issues with surrounding parcels or new parcel) and lastly, if you run adjustment, you can identify lines with big residuals (blunders).   Use the latest release (currently 10.0 SP4). We continue improving our software between releases and every service pack is geared to fix bugs as well as improve the functionality. Since you are preforming your analysis now, release 10.1 is a few months away and you can test it if you join the beta program. Following best practices would put you on the right pass. If your neighbor county opts to edit parcels outside of the fabric, and freely move boundaries around, not only do they make the process highly inefficient, but introduce errors and future challenges (easily seen after the next high resolution imagery is acquired and compared against the parcels). If you are seeing a scale of 0.77 it indicate you have issues with you measurements and\or joining process. The scale factor should be around the ground to grid value. Many counties are using the parcel fabric to manage their parcel data which contains complex geometries. There are many resources available, from the tutorials in the help documentation to videos that demonstrate how to work with the software. Please submit a tech support with your data and screenshots of the issues you are having and we will be happy to examine them. Amir ... View more

We recommend using the Geoprocessing tool known as the topo loader for thedata migration and the following workflow: Since your data seem to have the correct legal COGO dimensions start byadding the cogo fields to your line feature class (if not already exist) anduse the COGO toolbar (under the editor toolbar) to calculate the COGOdimensions for all lines. I would verify the COGO dimensions are correct whencompared to the geometry (see helpful migration tools) The second step will be to fix the topology. This can be done by severalmethods, one of which is to  increase the topology's spatial tolerance inorder to get rid of small slivers and gaps. Another approach could be to cleanthe lines geometry and then re-create the polygons (such tool exists in thelink above). More information about migrationg to the parcel fabric can be found in this white paper (a new December 2011version will be soon published). Any of the parcel types can be exported to simple feature classes. If thisis something that needs to happen on regular basis automatically (i.e. fromtransactional to publication environment every night), this can be performed byusing windows scheduled task and similar python code: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ # Import arcpy module import arcpy # Local variables: Tax_Parcels = "Tax Parcels\\Tax Parcels" Default_gdb = "C:\\Documents and Settings\\survey1\\MyDocuments\\ArcGIS\\Default.gdb" # Process: Feature Class to Feature Class arcpy.FeatureClassToFeatureClass_conversion(Tax_Parcels, Default_gdb,"tax", "\"Type\" = 7", "Name\"Name\" true true true 50 Text 0 0,First,#,C:\\Data\\Amir\\DemoData_inProgress\\LandRecordsWithDemo.gdb\\ParcelEditing\\ParcelFabric_Parcels,Name,-1,-1","") ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As for ArcGIS Server, the fabric classes can be published using ArcGISServer though we recommend using simple feature classes as usually only theparcel class (polygon) is needed as well as some level of integration (CAMA)and preparation. It is not possible to edit the fabric using ArcGIS Server incurrent release. Amir ... View more