Goal

GPS data from last weekend's field trip need to be brought into the GIS project constructed in Lab 7 and assembled into a geologic map that shows field observations.

Procedure:

The general procedure for lab this week involves the following steps:

1. Import field data into the ArcGIS project created last week;
2. Clean the field data of spurious GPS point and vertices.  Edit your point file attribute table, if necessary, so that joint/foliation strikes and dips are correct;
3. Append line and point files to create single feature classes;
4. Edit these lines to remove any self-overlaps or undershoots;
5. Snap the ends of the line segments to create single lines that entirely enclose areas;
6. Convert the enclosing line features to polygons;
7. For polygons that lie within polygons, subtract the overlying polygon from the underlying polygon -  this step completes polygon creation and editing;
8. Add these new feature classes (the new lines, polygons, and point shapefiles) to your existing GIS from Lab 7;
9. Symbolize the new data to make a map.
10. Hyperlink field photos to locations.

8.1 Getting Started - Importing Field Data

1. Download your receiver.  To do so:
   
   1. Cable the unit to your PC and turn it on.  Doing so will activate the Windows Mobile Device Center in Windows 7 or 8.
      
      
   2. Browse the unit to find your ArcPad WMA_XX; copy this folder to your Lab 9 network storage space or flash drive;
      
   3. To download your TrackLog shapefile (this is automatically created during an ArcPad field session and contains a series of points that track your location), use Windows Explore on the receiver to browse to My Documents>My ArcPad and drag and drop the 4 or 5 files named TrackLog to a folder on your storage space;
      
      
   4. Disconnect your Trimble unit from your computer and close the Mobile Device Center software;
      
      
   5. Open your ArcGIS Lab 7 ArcMap document for the field trip.  This must be the same project where you created the ArcPad files;
      
      
   6. "Start Editing" - select the empty point feature class in your Mason_Mt_WMA_XX geodatabase as the layer to edit;
      
      
   7. On the ArcPad toolbar, click the icon for "Get Data FROM ArcPad";
      
      
   8. Using the "Add Data" button (shown below as the "Browse button"), Browse to your downloaded folder of field data and select the AXF files that contain your data (or "Select All"), then Click the "Check in" button;

 -

9. If successful, this step updated your empty point and line feature classes with data you collected - you should see these features on the screen.

10. "Save Edits" and "Stop Editing".

11. The TrackLog is a point shapefile.  To convert it to a line, search for and use the Point to Line tool in ArcToolbox.  If you collected tracks as outcrop outlines, edit the file to remove spurious vertices and line segments using the Split Line and Edit Vertices tools on the Editor toolbar.  Otherwise don't bother.

2. To Download PDF Maps data from your smart phone (Iphone directions below should be similar to the process on an Android device):
   1. With the image containing your points open in PDF Maps, select the "Map Features" icon, shown below at left, then choose the "Export" icon at the bottom, shown below at right.

2. In the "Export Settings" window (shown below as it appears on an I phone), enter the "FileName" WMA_KLM_XX" where XX is your initials, choose "KML" as the Format, a destination, either your DropBox (faster) or an Email attachment (slower), and set the "Media" option to export photos if desired.  This will create and export a Keyhole Markup Language (KML) file that can be imported into ArcMap or Google Earth.  With more than one Placemark, Line or Track (and photos, if you choose, at least in the iOS version), a zipped KML file (a "KMZ" file) will be created, which is also readable by both programs.  FYI, GPX and CSV, the other export formats listed, are common exchange format for GPS data, though neither will export photos with the points.  We will not use them, but such files can be imported by many programs and Apps, including ArcMap.  Finally, if you choose to, you have some control over which data are exported by selecting from "All Features", "Custom" and "Schema Only" from the Data field.  Regardless of which options you choose, data will be exported with GCS WGS84 coordinates, the spatial reference for all KML.

3. Within ArcCatalog, create a folder in your Lab 9 folder named "WMA_field_data_XX", where XX is your initials. Retrieve this newly created KMZ file from your DropBox or email, and copy it to this folder.

4. Copy your field digital photos from your camera or phone to the same folder - either email them to yourself (slow) or DropBox them (faster).  Do this even if you exported them within a KML file in the above step.

5. Use the Search tool in ArcMap to find the ArcToolbox tool "From KML".  The "KML to Layer" tool will convert KML points and/or lines and attributes (but not photos nor, oddly, the "Description" data) to geodatabase feature classes within a newly created geodatabase and adds them to your ArcMap table of contents.

8.2 Sharing and Appending Data

1. To share field data with others, in ArcCatalog, Browse to the newly updated Point and Line feature classes in your Mason_Mt_WMA_XX geodatabase, right click on one of them and "Data>Export>To shapefile(mutiple)" to create two new shapefiles in your "WMA_data_XX" folder. Using the Windows compression utility, create a zip file of this folder.  You can do the same for your PDF Maps data and photos.
   
   
2. Upload your zip file to a DropBox site (I have sent you a link in an email).  From the same DropBox folder, download other group's zip files and store them in your Lab 9 data folder.
   
   
3. For shared ArcPad data (not the imported KML files), load the point and shapefiles, one at a time, examining the attribute table for each.  Delete replicate observations - you only need one point or line at each site, not many of the same that record the same thing(s). For lines be selective - compare your and other's lines to the orthophoto to gauge accuracy.  Extract any lines that are not outcrop outlines (e.g. dikes) into a separate shapefile(s).
   
   
4. Once you have cleaned your and other groups' ArcPad data of unneeded points and lines, use the Append tool in ArcToolbox to Append first the line and then the point shapefiles into two (line and point) feature classes.  FYI, the appending process is only possible because we all used EXACTLY the same field types, field names and field domains in our ArcPad projects.
   
   
5. Imported point files from PDF Maps, alas, do not have attribute tables that match our ArcPad files so need to be managed separately.  They can nevertheless be appended together to make a single feature class - do so using the Append tool.

8.3 Editing The Geologic Map

Our first goal is to convert the new lines into outcrop polygons.  We could do this, as we did in Lab 4, by creating a line topology with rules that search for overshoots, undershoots and self-overlaps, then make corrections and generate polygons.  With so few(?) lines, this is probably overkill.  The other way to do it is by using the "Feature to Polygon" tool in ArcToolBox.  This tool only works if all lines that outline outcrops are in a single feature class (the Appended line feature class created above) and are snapped at their starting and ending nodes.

1. Using what you learned in Lab 4 and 5, edit your appended line feature class so that all outcrop lines are snapped at their starting and ending nodes.
   
   
2. Use the "Feature to Polygon" tool to create granite outcrop polygons.  This may take several tries - lines that are not snapped to entirely close on themselves ("leaky lines") are ignored by this tool.  If it gets too onerous, try creating a topology to identify undershoot (unsnapped nodes) and overshoot (overlapping lines) errors.
   
3. Polygons within a single feature class can be merged with the "Merge" option in the Editor toolbar; they can likewise be "Clipped" to conform to adjacent polygons or to clip "donut holes" where one polygon overlies another.  The "Split Polygon" tool on the Editor toolbar can create two polygons from a single one.
   
   
4. Fill the polygon attribute table with the proper unit abbreviations.
   
   
5. Symbolize and label the outcrops to match the existing ones, using perhaps a darker shade to distinguish them from those previously mapped.
   
6. Add and symbolize the point measurements (joints, foliations, etc.) and dike lines/polygons, again using a different color to distinguish these from extant data.  Use all data, including that collected with PDF Maps.

8.4 Hyperlinking Field Photographs to Field Sites

Read the section on "Setting HTML pop-up properties for feature layers" in ArcGIS Help and create HTML pop-up displays for 3 or more field photographs of your choosing.  These will be set up as "attachments" on the point feature class (see ArcGIS Help for how to create and enable attachments).  You choose how best to organize the data!  An alternative but less attractive way to do this is to enable the hyperlink tool using a dynamic hyperlink for each point feature.  Search ArcGIS Help for "Using Hyperlinks", paying particular attention to the section on "Defining dynamic hyperlinks though Identify Results".  The preferred method for establishing and viewing hyperlinks is:

1. Rename your photos with meaningful file names so that you can easily know what they show.
   
   
2. We will link photos to the field station points by adding them as "Attachments" to the points.  To add attachments, we first need to "enable" the point feature class so it can contain attachments.  Follow the two steps in ArcGIS Help "Enabling attachments" to do so.
   
   
3. Using the instructions in ArcGIS Help "Adding attachments to feature", attach your photographs to the points where they belong.
   
   
4. Once attached, there are number of ways to view the photos, including using the Identify tool and the attribute table.  Read about these in ArcGIS Help "Viewing attachments".
   
   
5. Neither of these viewing techniques is very elegant - the picture viewing window often covers the map.  We will instead set up HTML pop-up windows for viewing the photos and attribute information.  Read ArcGIS Help "Setting HTML pop-up properties for feature layers".  We will use the first option mentioned, "As a table of visible fields"  that "Include(s) feature class attachments".  Read carefully these sections and create your pop-ups.  It's a lot simpler than it looks and you'll be pleased with the result.  An example is shown below; Popups are launched using the HTML Popup tool on the Main Toolbar, highlighted in red below.

8.5 Create a new map

1. Create two page-size layout of the Saturday and Sunday field trip areas containing the new map elements - granite outcrops, dikes and measured point features.  A poor example (e.g. joints illegible, Explanation contains units not on map, no LIDAR hillshade!) from a previous trip is shown below.

To Turn In:

The layout described in step 8.5 above, AND a screen capture, like that above, that shows a photograph attachment open in ArcMap.

You're Done!

M. Helper, 2007, 2008, 2012, 2014, 2015