Mapping In "Plane" English

[arctips]

DON’T REINSTALL ARC....try this first

First, I can’t believe how long it has been since I have posted anything on this blog. That is completely contradictory to what I intended to do which was post regularly. In my defense a full time job, family, and finishing a second Masters (GIS) has sucked up most of my time. I plan to continue on with this blog and have made a New Years Resolution to post at least twice this year :). 

Now, what is the title about? I am working on a pretty big project at work and have really been power using Arc Desktop 10.4.1. The software has been really stable but after leaving for home one night and returning the next morning, I was at a complete stand still when I launched Arc and instead of launching my project (or any project for that matter), I received the “Arc has crashed” splash screen...

After trying several fixes to include trying to view the dump report, I ended up having my IT guys reinstall Arc for me and much to my surprise, that didn’t work! So I wasn’t really sure what my next step was. I ended up having a casual conversation this afternoon with some of our onsite ESRI reps and one of them said, “Did you ever get that issue fixed?” I stated that I had not and they said to try something which ended up working. So, here is what I did and felt it would be useful to share.

Resetting the ArcGIS Profile

1. Assure that no instances of Arc products are open

2. Open a Windows Explorer window so that you can view the file and folder structure.

3. Assure that you can view Hidden files. This can be done in Windows 10 by selecting View from the ribbon bar, Options > View > “Show hidden files”

4. Navigate to: “C: > Users > {ProfileName} > AppData > Roaming > ESRI > Desktop 10.4 > ArcMap > Templates. Once here you will see one file called “Normal.mxt”

5. Name the “Normal.mxt” to “Normal_Old”. This will force Arc to rebuild a profile on the next launch.

6. Launch Arc Desktop again. It will open a little slower, much like the first time a fresh install of Arc is launched for the first time because it is rebuilding a new profile. The software is now fixed.

So, if you are having issues with ArcGIS crashing and you think you have to reinstall the software again, think again; this fix may solve your problem. Till next time....Happy Mapping!

[arctips]

Making your Densities Look Presentable

How many times have you performed some sort of density (Kernel or Point) in ArcGIS and had a result where the boundaries looked choppy or cut off such as this...

    In this installment (my first), I am going to show you a work around to have a more appealing density. The data that is being used is the Grocery store shapefile from the DC GIS Data Inventory and is publicly available. In my line of work, I conduct spatial densities on a regular basis and being somewhat of a perfectionist, I like for my products to not only tell the story, but look visually appealing. In order to make your densities look more appealing and not as if they were clipped, is relatively simple. There are many ways to do this, but here is one that works well for me.

     First, open the Draw Tools (Customize -> Toolbars -> Draw) and dock the tool bar where ever you wish to place it. Use the Rectangle Draw tool and draw a rectangle larger than the area you wish to show. In the case above, I would draw a square that encapsulated the diamond border of the District of Columbia.

     In the Draw Tool, select the drop down by selecting "Drawing" -> "Convert Graphics to Features" and then save it where you wish to save it and allow it to display on the current map. Next you will select the rectangle you drew and select delete. You will be left with converted graphic. At this point, you may want to select the Converted Graphic, click symbology and then make your drawing an outline with no fill color. Which will show the square outline. Next you will turn on the Grocery Store Points.

      The next step is what is going to allow your points to be rounded off regardless of their location. In the main toolbar, select "Geoprocessing" -> Environments. The Environment Settings box will appear ; select "Processing Extent" then in the dropdown under extent, select "Same as Layer Converted Graphics". This sets your processing extent not to the boundaries of the points, but rather to the larger area that you specified when drawing the square. Select OK and then run your Spatial Density tool of choice again located in the Spatial Analyst Toolbox.

         Once done, you will see equal boundaries around all of your areas and in order to have the background "0" values off, you will need to check the box in the symbology of your shapefile that says "Display Background Value: 0". In another installment, we will concentrate on how to symbolize your shapefiles for optimal visual effect.

If you have any questions, please feel free to message me and thanks for your time.

[arctips]

Welcome

    Being a GIS/Imagery analyst, my primary tool is ESRI's ArcGIS. I also work with Remoteview and Socet GXP but most of what I do as stated previously is in arc. I often find myself tackling a problem daily and saying in my head "There has to be a way to make this work". With my logic, I figure that I am not the only one that has ever had this thought. With that being said, I am going to cover Arc Toolbox from A - Z one tool at a time and try to explain it in plain english with a sequence of screenshots (hence the name of this blog). I may even throw in other tips and tricks with other programs that I use daily. The goal is at least one tool/post a week. So, with that being said, if you have friends that are analysts, students, or just avid arc users, please feel free to let them know. Hope you enjoy and that I can help you save some time in your daily workflow.