Latest Contributions by JoeBorgione

Hello, I'm currently working on creating a feature class for bus stops in my city. The transportation manager gave me a spreadsheet with lat long on it which I converted to decimal degrees so I could use the Display XY data tool when you right click on the spreadsheet. Once I display the data I export it with the data frames cordinate system so that it will be in VA state plane south but once I add it back to the map its not showing up near all of my other data. The bus stops are showing up at 38822226.125, 34219046.878 While my roads/other data that are right are showing up at 10880205.128, 3573999.38 Any know what I'm doing wrong?! Thanks! It actually displays correctly before you export it?  I assume you add xy, then right click on the subsequent feature class, and export using the display coordinates or those of your roads?  Something seems kind of fishy..... ... View more

wow, Joe, this is quite humbling.  I looked at the links you provided....I get the feeling that ESRI wants to make it so difficult that one signs up for their 200 tutoring session.  if that is the case, can somebody tell me and I can move on from this struggle.  I have now spent a good ten hours basically doing nothing.  I understand this is sophisticated software, much more than others I am familiar with.  but even Einstein on his way to E=mc squared, I am pretty sure  had to use some basic algebra.  so, I am reading thru geocoding exercises that either are well beyond what I need (like code, subtypes, field types, 1 to many mappings, etc) or an exercise where I need a DVD to get the folder 'data' and I don't find out until I am into page 8 of a geocoding tutorial. I just want to walk before I run.  can you provide me with a very basic link to simply do a basic think like convert an address to a lat/long? (or doesnt the software work that way) and then to put that lat/long on a map?  thanks John As I mentioned, you are in the trough of a significant learning curve.  I don't share the opinion that ESRI is making it as difficult as they can: of course I geocode hundreds of thousands of addresses a year with ESRI software so I pretty much have it figured out.  Only you can decide if it's worth $200;  I know what I charge per hour, and that won't even get you a half day!  Sounds like a bargain... ... View more

If you look at any file geodatabase with windows explorer, it appears as a folder, with a ton of oddly-named files within it.  You need to view it from ArcCatalog; the contents will appear as various feature classes. I don't have that data in front of me, but as I recall, you'll create a geocode locator using the Atlanta streets data. Take a look at this earlier thread I participated in.  It provides a bit of insight to the process.  Here's another one. And another And yet another that discusses accuracy versus precision in geocoding Happy geocoding! ... View more

thanks Joe, I will take a look.  I have worked with mappoint (a fw years ago) and as I recall, it converted addresses to lats and longs and was able to plot on a map.  it was pretty basic.  or as I recall, I easily converted an address into lat/longs first, and then imported the lat/longs.  this appears to be more difficult.  having played around with it a little, there are all kind of extensions for files, I am not familiar with, and it is just not cooperating.. eh, maybe its me, but I have found others much more user friendly. thanks again John John- I'm not familiar with Mappoint, as I've been guzzling the ESRI kool aide since about 1990.  With any GIS though, you start off with G: geography; where is your area of operation?  You'll need to create some sort of spatial data repository (commonly referred to as a geodatabase) and then get some kind of spatial data. (Commonly referred to as feature classes)  This spatial data is typically in the form of points, lines or polygons.  So that's the I (information) of GIS.  S (system) of GIS includes, everything mashed together: data, discs, plotters, you, etc etc etc.... Finally, when you have all that stuff nailed down, you can start doing the cool stuff, like geocoding.  In order for your addresses to convert to x,y, you match them to a feature class. Good luck- ... View more

Hello, after some futile attempts, I need some very basic help.  I am new to ArcGis, and simply want to import addresses to plot them on a map.   for instance, when I open arcmap, and try to add data, it ony has certain folders (does not have folders of my choice).  so, I have no idea how to simply import addresses.  I have tried videos and tutorials, but they lead me to dead ends. can somebody help? thanks I suspect you have some sort of file that has your addresses on it, correct?  It might be word doc (yuck) a spreadsheet(acceptable but not optimal) or maybe some sort of database table(hooray!) You really can't "simply import addresses" and then expect them to plot on a map.  It just doesn't work that way.  As humans, you and I recognize addresses like 1234 S Main St; the GIS needs to think of that in terms of geographic space, so the process of geocoding takes an address and converts it to an ordered pair of x,y coordinates. You've got a fairly significant learning curve ahead of you;  may I suggest you start with the basics, located here.  Open up the essential library and go from there. Hope this helps- ... View more

Gwenn-  like Matt says and what I included in my edited post, you can create a locator that uses points, lines or polygons.  Remember all geocoding does is turn some sort of string that we as humans recognize into an x,y pair that the GIS recognizes. So if we are matching against streets, and the 'string' happens to be an address like 1234 S Main St, the locator looks at the streets to see if there is a segment called S Main ST and if any of those segments have the range that covers 1234.  Then it interpolates where it should be based on the length of the segment and the values of the range. Let's say you have a point feature class of schools and all it has is the name of the school. If you have a table of events that references each school by name, you can geocode that list to your point data. In your case with parcels, it has an address field.  You can match your table of addresses against the parcels, and instead of interpolating where the point should be along the street, it hits the actual polygon.  More precise results especially when you have parcels that carry a street address but are set WAY back from the street.  Or parcels that have addresses that the street data doesn't cover.  And who DOESN'T have parcels like that?  Take a look here for a summary of what locator styles use what type of feature class. Hope this helps- ... View more

Proper wildcard support is planned for a future release. That will be very cool! ... View more

That's interesting; I won't be back to that client site till Monday, but when I get there I'll try it against a composite I have there. That should give us a clue as to where the bug is; your locator(s) or the tool.  Maybe Brad or one the other of the ESRI geocoding team could chime in on this... ... View more

... so I wouldn't consider this a bug; it's just a manifestation of one of the many reasons shapefiles are not reliable as a spatial data transfer format. - V Vince- that is probably the most concise if not eloquent description of shapfiles I've ever read. ... View more

Seems odd that ArcGIS doesn't make the adjustment on the fly; perhaps you could just re-project it using one of the false-northing feature classes as the coordinate system. ... View more

Just another way to skin this cat:  create an empty point feature class with a schema of your design. Use the simple data loader and load each of your feature classes using the field mapping feature it provides.  You can then load additional feature classes as the become available.  Similar to merging, but a little different as well.... ... View more

Rachel-  are your points in an SDE geodatabase?  In  my 'test' I just geocoded a table of two address in a personal geodatabase: my address and one I made up that I knew would not hit.  If your address points are in an SDE gdb, that might explain it, since you have to have write permissions (which I assume you do) but in order to add a point, you'd need to open an edit session. ... View more

At the risk of sound like a Parrot: what sp level are you running?  I have v10, sp3 installed.  Just for fun I tried to replicate you problem.  To be perfectly honest, this is the first time I've ever used the 'Pick Address from Map' option. When I left mouse click, nothing happens.  When I right mouse click on my 'desired' location I get a context menu; the first choice is pick address.  There appears to be a couple of options checked below that first entry.  Anyway, when I right click on the location and then select  'Pick Address' from the context menu, it adds a point, and since I have add X Y turned on in my locator, it adds the x,y.  It's actually pretty cool; if you have a matched address point highlighted in the Interactive Rematch window, you can 'move' it to where ever you want, and the the x y data is updated accordingly, while the actual address remains the same. Is it just begginers luck that I got it to work?  How are you trying to get it to work? Hope this helps- ... View more

Gwen-  you can convert your parcel polygons to a point feature class with the feature to point tool; I only have an arc editor license and can't use it so it seems you need an arc info license for it.  The poor mans approach (which is what I have to do) would be to add two fields to your parcel attribute table of double type; CentroidX and CentroidY.  Then you can use the Calculate Geometry tool to get the centroid x,y pairs.  Use that table to Add X Y coordinates and save that to a point feature class.  Once that's all done, you have a point feature class with addresses you can match to.  [edited moments after posting] Or you should be able to simply geocode against the parcels themselves; I'm not sure if that puts the address point at the centroid or not.  Maybe you can try that on a subset of your parcels. Hope this helps- ... View more

I'm pretty sure Anthony is right.  However, you might be able to turn your spelling sensitivity down so your misspellings will constitute a match.  There's always a price to pay so use with moderation..... Hope this helps- ... View more