We are working on a project to identify the GPS locations of multiple species of birds on an island using drone photos. We would like to have the ability to work with and enable/disable the display of individual species on the map, so Layers seems to be the logical way to go.
Currently we can generate CSV files for each species with the Species Name, Lat, and Lon values, either all species at once or a separate CSV file for each species.
Both approaches work, and with each species loaded separately, the layers can be enabled like we want, but with 30 or more species, that's 30 manual "Add Data XY/Export To Layer/Delete Import Event Layer" operations. Since we plan to do this several times for each environmental survey, that's a lot of iterative manual processing. If we load the entire show at one time, we get everything placed properly, but don't have individual display control over the different species.
When everything is loaded at once, we can select the different species, but I can't see a way to control individual colors or display control using selection.
Is there a way to import XY GPS data in bulk and retain the ability to control display according to a field using desktop operations?
We have the capability to externally generate CSV and DBF files with any combination of fields or records.
Any suggestions appreciated, including search terms that would guide me to something like this already covered in the forum.
Thanks in advance
A couple of things.
If you want the ability identify an individual observer. You should set up your gps to record a comment field with the user's name (at least some gps units offer this)
If you can't record a comment, then you need to put one in. Excel can do this quickly, or better still you can script loading the csv files, provide an extra column then a key to identify a user.
Once you have the csv files appended you create the event layer once, then use the Copy Features tool (or right-click on the layer, select Data …. ) and create a featureclass.
If you don't want to add the extra field identifier, before hand, then you could do it after.
With the identifier field, you can produce a new field which concatenates the class with the user key to use as a supplementary symbology... so instead of just having 'butterfly' as a species without keys... you could have 'butterfly 1' which would identify butterflies in area 1 which may have been collected by Bob