Latest Contributions by JohnSobetzer

If you made any changes to the index file perhaps refreshing your DDP will help. ... View more

If your Select Topology is set to map topology then the Fix Topology button would be grayed out. ... View more

You might also check out http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/HomePage.htm and from there perhaps go to the Web Soil Survey map service directly or use it as a WMS Server. You might also contact your local Natural Resource Conservation Service (Soil Conservation Service) office for assistance.  I've always found their people to be extremely helpful.  In some cases they've done extra work (e.g. Vermont's Top 20) that you might find useful. ... View more

If you split your parent shapefile by attributes for each year (Split tool, split layer script or ETGeowizards split wizard will do that for you), then union them together, will that work?  It's not a finished product, it holds all the information but you do have to find a way to get the year data from different year fields back into one field and that may hinge on how you want to store that information.  A simple concatenate in the calculator may work.  If there are overlaps within a year, however, then you have to split them out into separate layers as well. ... View more

Just a suggestion, but working with SSURGO data and its tables is usually much easier and less misleading if you use the free Soil Data Viewer extension for ArcGIS.  There are many one to many relationships, and many complex linking relationships in the SSURGO data, such that simple joins beyond soil names can be difficult or produce less than accurate results. ... View more

If you have Spatial Analyst you might check out the Combine tool, and convert the combined raster to vectors.  If you only want to work with rasters, and have Spatial Analyst then use a extract my mask.  If you don't have Spatial Analyst or like a different option with rasters, you might also see if you can clip your raster to the desired areas, and then symbolize the No Data areas as no color.  There are several ways to clip, one being using graphics in ArcMap. ... View more

You can reproject a properly defined raster to a new coordinate system using the Projections and Transformations - Raster - Project Raster Tool.  See the Help before using it since there are options that are relevant to some of what you have discussed and to the use of the tool generally.  Specifically you may need to set a transformation to get an accurate reprojection.  I just did a quick Google using "transformation between wgs84 and ngo 1948 and came up with some information that might be useful.  It may be that ESRI already provides a good transformation but if not it looks like you may be able to download one. ... View more

If you have to have transparency, and you've played around with the resolution and the quality settings, about all I can offer is: 1. export to pdf and see if for some reason that produces a map without the spikes, and then convert it to a raster in Adobe Acrobat; or 2. export without transparency to Adobe Illustrator format and in Illustrator (maybe the free Inkscape) apply the transparency and see if it can save to a graphics file with better results.  Maybe others have better suggestions. ... View more

Yes Ken and that works well saving me many clicks for simple edits and allowing me to edit any layer whether defined, turned off, selected, oddly symbolized, etc. provided I am not in layout.  But I found I had to do a few more customizations to make it work like (better than) my prior 9x. I always used in 9x an ArcScript called "Start editing data from ArcMap context menu" which set the target layer at the same time as it started editing for any layer selected in the TOC.  I found I could start it via a button for easy one click starts.  It works fine in 10.1 with VBA installed IF feature templates are turned off. In this approach the Edit Task and target layer drop downs don't really get used except perhaps to verify what I'm doing.  To make up for Edit Task dropdown I had to add some of the edit buttons to the Editor toolbar, also a one time customization. This works better than trying to use the Edit task drop down as I did in 9x. There can be one problem, the button or menu option to run it May not show up in new projects based on the normal.mxt forcing me to add it in every new project.  But I found if I saved this in a project called normal.mxd in my ArcMap templates folder, the button persists in all new documents based on the normal.mxd.  It comes up as the "Normal" in the My Templates Getting Started dialog box. To make up for the inactivated dancing feature construction toolbar, I added the Editing buttons to a custom toolbar and docked it where it is easily reached when the editing is away from the buttons on the "top". Now if I could only get a Cut Polygons Without Selecting tool to work I'd be better than I was in 9x for editing. ... View more

I suppose it's not practicable given an interest in keeping code streamlined, and given all the different ways people can use a program, but it would be nice if every major change to the GUI came with two things.  First, with an option to use the classic or the new, preferably by toggling, and second, with a pdf showing the many ways it can speed up common tasks, the many ways it can slow other common tasks down, and some ways to work around the latter.  I would think the smart users/testers at ESRI have already explored the benefits/detriments/workarounds before deciding to include any change in a new version. ... View more

I found this to be an essential tool in 9x since it: 1. allowed cutting without having to select a polygon (saving the time and clicks involved in changing to the select tool, making a selection and then changing back to the sketch tool), and 2. it allowed cutting using selected features and the trace tool. I would still like this tool in 10x.  I went through a lot of the same wasted effort with the developer sample before finding out it was only for Engine.  It could avoid the selection clicks when using a sketch to cut a polygon.  As for using the trace tool, in 10x the cut polygon tool combined with the trace tool is really nice, but tracing can be difficult in places where there are many features at the scale one is editing.  So in 10x I'd like both the built in and the cut without selecting versions, and in both have the ability to use 10's trace without selecting, or to use 9's trace using only the selected features for more control. ... View more

If you are using 9x there is a developer sample called Cut Polygons Without Selecting that was so good I never used the regular tool.  See http://edndoc.esri.com/arcobjects/8.3/Samples/Editing/Edit%20Tasks/Cut%20Polygons%20Without%20Selection%20Task/CUTPOLYGONSTASK.htm or http://resources.esri.com/help/9.3/ArcGISDesktop/dotnet/fd27ecf3-417b-4119-891b-411fb20b5e4b.htm. I was unable to get it to work with 10x.  Bummer.  There was one for 10 Engine.   I just came across the next link in getting you the links above so I'll have to look at it more closely: http://help.arcgis.com/en/sdk/10.0/arcobjects_net/componenthelp/index.html#//00480000002v000000 If you don't/can't go the foregoing, you might create a temporary layer of your selected polygons, then deselect to cut or otherwise edit the main layer, and then edit the selected layer table. ... View more

Did the new install turn on the new snapping?  If you have a lot of vertices in the extent that can slow things down. ... View more