Latest Contributions by RobertBorchert

Sounds like a good project. If you can get older data I would suggest going back as far as possible and try to show the progression through the years of the spread. A local Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in my area does a similar type of thing showing the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in the state for White Tail Deer.  They have been charting CWD for about 20 years and can show maps over time of the spread. The DNR also tracks the spread of Eurasian Milfoil arcross the lakes and it is a serious problem. Data such as this I think would be more valuable to coffee farms that are not infested at this time and to the local governments.  A lot of revenue comes in from the farms so it would be of interest to the deparmtent of Agriculture as well.  Those farms that aready have a problem are going to tell you that you are preaching to the choir.  Those that do not have a problem are going to show more concern if you can show the progression of the CBB towards them. On a side note. I love Hawaii Coffee.  My son in law was stationed there for 3 years on Ohau and we have been there a few times. ( which is why I made a database of Ohau and a nice selection of maps).  We found there are 2 places to buy coffee.  Where the sellers expect tourists to be and grocery stores where the locals shop. ... View more

I always keep my eyes open for job openings.  Though it would actually take a heck of job to drag me away from where I am now. ... View more

I see you have posted a number of job openings. Are you a head hunter? ... View more

Develop a price point first.  people don't want you selling them something without knowing a price. What is a coffee writer? What is CBB?  Don't they make swim bikini's? If your going to build a map for a specific purpose such as for Coffee Farmers you need to talk to the owners and find out what they want.  Get them invested in the product. Same holds true for many industries.  Some of my clients I can create the best online product ever.  But they won't use it, they want a paper map book. And before you talk to them come up with some gee wizz bang things you can show them. A few years ago I made a geodatabase for Hawaii.  I know you have a LOT of free high quality data available. Maybe you could gather some elevation data and show them runoff areas.  But then again if they have been farming the same location for a number of years they are going to know these things. ... View more

$$$$$? ... View more

On the counter of Ted's support. My organization works with a lot of clients and many of them decided they want to have their own GIS person on location.  The big mistake they make is assigning people to the job who have been with their organization for while and think of GIS as a slough job to give them until they retire or they hand it off to someone that barely knows how to turn on a computer. The  most successful of these "promotions" was however the client who handed it off to an IT Database Manager person.  She got it from one of the people who they gave it to until retirement. I am not saying you have to have a GIS education to be good at GIS but is good to go through at least the basic training that ESRI offers to help get you up to speed.  Believe, me I must charge and average of 200 hours of tech support every year showing people how to do the most basic of GIS functions, things a grad from Tech College in GIS would know. Now Chris and Ted you do seem a better fit than most i have had to work with. The best qualifications for going into GIS are the ability to be out of the box and to be able to figure things out.  As Ted has shown he can. To me GIS is for the ambitious who WANT to know more and more about the discipline. I have a 4 year degree in Geography with a GIS Minor.  To be honest the Geography Degree is a lot more valuable to my career than the GIS Minor.  I learned more about GIS in my first 6 months on the job than I did in 2 years in the minor. The Geography element was a lot more valuable as it taught me map fundamentals, about land and relationships and how the environment works and why things are where they are. A programming education or experience will be a lot more valuable than a GIS certificate There is a LOT more to ArcGIS than you can ever learn in the classroom. ... View more

It has to be possible  Your data frame is constantly returning you current scale. you scroll in and out if is instantly updated.  Also when you put in scale text or scale bar that changes.  so the system has to be constantly quering it. ... View more

hee hee layer files is exactly what I have been trying to get away from for well over a decade. I have actualy been posting this question ever now and then for a long long time. I have one particular mxd from which I generate .pdf files for one of my clients.   I have 4 levels of visibility for which I want certain features of a feature class to be visible.  so as the scale gets larger more features become visible. I normally have 5 features that would be to clutterd to show all of them at a small scale.   So i have them in the mxd 4 times and using definition querys make certain features visible.  When I drop below 1:20,000 the first layer goes gray and the second layer is visible with all features from the first and more now visible.  It also then controls lables. The major issue is when someone suddently wants a larger format product I have to redefine all the scale visibility or even worse when they want a change in labels I need to make that change multiple times for each copy of the attribute. etc.... ... View more

I would like to do something along this line and query data frame scale and put it in definition query. i.e. I would like create an attribute and call it vscale  ( visible scale) can be anything this is arbitrary. I would like to create a definition query as such. vscale >= CurrentDataFrameScale So when I am at or above whatever value i have in vscale my feature becomes visible. ... View more

First find specific places in your CAD drawing that can be referenced to a location in the world.  For most of my CAD georeferencing I have been fortunate to have section corners or QQD. Often when referencing CAD Plat drawings there will be a reference point and distances.  Sometimes in larger drawings it helps a lot to put a POINT on those locations and give it a large obvious symbol.  It would be BEST if you can location TWO reference points as far apart as possible. IF you cannot determine two points but you have a known distance, say along the edge of a series of parcels.  Calculate that length from the reference point to the end. Generally speaking some place you can determine the exact location in ArcGIS For this example I will use section polygons. I go into ArcGIS and open the section polygons.  I select those that are in the area I am locating.  Export them as a shape file.  Import the shape file into a NEW autocad drawing.  Be sure to import projection data.   Import the polygons as closed polylines.  Once they are in CAD lock the layer. Add your drawing to be georeferenced as a block. Z enter E (zoom extents).  Make sure all of your drawing layers are visible and unlocked (other than the reference sections).  Select all of the drawing elements and drag them close to your reference sections. Z E again.  Now wiht all your elements still selected use MOVE, select one of your reference points and move it to the reference point on your reference sections.  IF you feel you need to rotate the drawing and your cad drawing has a East West or North South line then put in a construction line and rotate your drawing using the ROTATE command. Go back to your section reference point and then use the SCALE command to rescale the CAD drawing between the two reference points. save your drawing. You should now be able to open it in ArcGIS.  In CATALOG  you can assign it the projectoin from  the shape file. I once had to convert a 5 county wide electric distribution system that the original CAD technician had thought they were doing to proper size when in fact they had used millimeters instead of feet.  They also made the mistake of assuming all section lines were all norht south east west ... View more

We use iPads and they work well.  We also have a number of Motion Tablet PC's which work exceptionally well.  If your going to deal with large map areas, satellite imagery and not be on a network of some kind then memory and speed are going to be cruical.  Go 32gb iPad I'm trying to integrate a mapping software into my field research and was looking for recommendations on tablets. I'm a geology grad student, I deal with large map areas, geologic maps, would like satellite imagery, would like to input data points, and have no cell or wifi signal. I think I need the collector app which does not work with windows tablets or convertible PCs, but am not sure. Am I correct in thinking that an android tablet is the way to go? If anyone has specific tablet recommendation that would be helpful as well! ... View more