Noble County GIS Practical Uses of Model Builder IGIC 2016 State GIS Conference| May 11, 2016

Topics for Discussion My Background Why I use ModelBuilder My Uses of ModelBuilder My Experiences Using ModelBuilder Case Study: Vegetation Management for Surveyor’s Office Wrap Up 2

My Background Worked with Noble County Government Since 1996 Introduced to GIS in 2003 Started working with ModelBuilder in 2006 Member of IGIC and NIGIC Since starting work with the County in November 4, 1996, I’ve had three separate positions: drafting technician, Tax Mapping Technician, and GIS Manager. I was introduced to GIS when I became GIS Coordinator in 2003. Up that time, I was using AutoCAD Map 3D, but then started using ESRI’s ArcMap from that point. I believe I became interested in learning about ModelBuilder while seeing ModelBuilder arcmodels used at the 2006 International GIS User Conference in San Diego. It sparked my curiosity and I began investigating its use. Being a member of both IGIC and NIGIC has helped me learn more about the possibilities of ModelBuilder. 3

Why Use ModelBuilder Learn something new Automate reoccurring tasks Automate specific tasks requiring multiple steps A good way of documenting processes 4

My Uses of ModelBuilder Addressing Tools Geoprocessing tools for copying existing address points Updating attribute fields for existing address points – “GON” Updating GIS data shared with others Albion Utility Infrastructure City of Kendallville – Addressing, Parcels and Roads State of Indiana – Data Sharing Agreement Parkview EMS Shared Layers Updating base map layers for web applications Noble County Lakes and Recreation web application 5

ArcModel for sharing SDE layers with Albion: Update_ArcSDE_Geodatabase_Layers 6

ArcModel for sharing addresses with Kendallville: AddressesForDispatch ArcModel for sharing parcels with Kendallville: CreateKvilleParcels_Ver2 ArcModel for sharing addresses with Kendallville: AddressesForDispatch 7

ArcModel for updating basemap layers in web application: This arcmodel is used for updating the GIS layers used by the Noble County Lakes and Recreation web application. The area displayed in the red box is shown in an insert on the left. This portion of the arcmodel updates six hydrology layers. ArcModel for updating basemap layers in web application: UpdateBaseMapLayers 8

My Uses of ModelBuilder Assessor’s Office Sales Disclosure Parcels Soils Parcels Update Creates parcels layer copy and dissolves it by TaxID number Cut existing landuse features by parcel boundary. Auditor’s Office Tax Sales Parcels Watershed Acreage for Splits City/Town Geodatabase Update – broken into 3 steps Create new file gdb and populate feature datasets Copy gdb to Dropbox Copy gdb to workstation hard drive 9

ArcModel for updating file gdb for City/Town Map Viewer: This arcmodel is used for updating the GIS layers used by the Noble County Lakes and Recreation web application. The area displayed in the red box is shown in an insert on the left. This portion of the arcmodel updates six hydrology layers. ArcModel for updating file gdb for City/Town Map Viewer: Step1CreateNewGeoDBOnGisserver 10

My Uses of ModelBuilder Clerk’s Office – Address points for all of Northeast Indiana Building Dept. – Prepare parcels in flood zones 911 Dispatch – GeoComm mapping updates Health Dept. – Appending Septic System field work features to production file gdb Parcels with Address Restrictions 11

My Uses of ModelBuilder Highway Dept. (GASB 34) Transfer 2012 State codes to Co. roads (GASB 34) Calculate edge of pavement width by State ID Divide area in sq. ft. by the road segment’s shape length (GASB 34) Transfer R/W dimensions to road segments Determine the From and To road names for each road segment Transfer Speed Zones to road segments Plan Commission Create Address Book table Removal of zoning from road R/W Select parcels within proximity to parcel requesting a zoning change 12

My Uses of ModelBuilder Emergency Management Project – West Lakes Evacuation Reconcile and Post for applying versioned edits to default version Surveyor’s Office Vegetation Management tools Watershed tools for managing hyperlinks to network folders in MS Access 13

My Experience Using ModelBuilder Watch out for ArcMap upgrades Sometimes better to save output data results to the hard drive Delete unneeded attribute fields early on in arc model Geoprocessing tools don’t always work the way they’re supposed to Dealing with joins in arc models Joins remain in memory until the arc model has been closed and reopened Joins usually append a prefix of the source name 14

My Experience Using ModelBuilder Watch out for locks on data when needing to be overwritten Conversion of arc models to Python scripts not always a smooth process Determine whether your arc model will be run independently from a map document or not Make sure everyone has access to data on the network for shared arc models Issues exist with running arc models while they are still being built Establish Environment settings before running Python scripts 15

Establish Environment settings before running Python scripts 16

My Experience Using ModelBuilder Make sure to add the ability to overwrite existing output when exporting to a Python script 17

My Experience Using ModelBuilder Using a Python script to run an arc model Export an arc model as a Python script in its entirety Create a Python script that runs a geoprocessing tool (arc model) 18

My Experience Using ModelBuilder Scheduling a Python script or model to run at a prescribed time (July 30, 2013 ArcGIS Blog) https://blogs.esri.com/esri/arcgis/2013/07/30/scheduling-a-scrip/ 19

My Experience Using ModelBuilder Use Python when performing calculations in arc models that you plan on exporting to Python Finding a good time to run Python scripts as Windows Scheduled Tasks People can create locks on data when they don’t shut down their maps at the end of the day The unannounced network glitches Troubleshooting arc models that run and then don’t run for some reason Be careful how you construct your arc models so they don’t prevent themselves from running later after not running successfully Document your arc models 20

Case Study: Vegetation Management for Surveyor’s Office 21

Case Study: Vegetation Management for Surveyor’s Office What was the problem? Document on maps the location of vegetation projects on open regulated drains and tile Provide process using Linear Referencing to display line work that wouldn’t require editing of the vegetation line feature – “KISS” principle The process: Create a file geodatabase to store information – VegetationMngment.gdb 22

Case Study: Vegetation Management for Surveyor’s Office The process: Create a series of arc models that perform work tasks Step 1 – create routes for linear features (events) to be associated with open drains and tile features Create Open Drain Route Tool Create Tile Drain Route Tool Step 2 – Add work event information Add Work Event Tool – uses Record Set variable to add new work event record. Table uses the schema of a separate WorkEventsSchema table which provides domains for fields in the table. 23

Input dialog box for Create a Route Tool 24

Input dialog box for Add Work Event Tool 25

Case Study: Vegetation Management for Surveyor’s Office The process: Create a series of arc models that perform work tasks Link external documentation to the work event Add a Work Event Attachment Tool Stores only links to the document location Provide tools to delete routes and work events Delete a Route Tool – removes routes from both open drains and tiles Delete a Work Event Tool – deletes work events and related attachments 26

Input dialog box for Add a Work Event Attachment Tool 27

Case Study: Vegetation Management for Surveyor’s Office The process: Create various ArcMap layers for symbolizing route and work event features Tools allow interaction by the user for placing a star on the map Symbology for routes Symbology for work events categorized by year and work type 28

Case Study: Vegetation Management for Surveyor’s Office The process: Prepare drainage features to work with the Vegetation Management tools Examine open drain and tile features for Line breaks – use “Ignore spatial gaps” option to prevent gaps in the measures of routes Direction of line features – this affects the start and end points for stationing measures along a route Branches that are treated as one feature – each branch needs to be split apart and contain its own route Drains having the same name – each drain and branch needs to have a unique name since the route ID uses the open drain or tile name Presence of punctuation – such as “()”; this can cause the tool to error when ran 29

Case Study: Vegetation Management for Surveyor’s Office The process: Create documentation Summary of the application Lists components Procedures Maintenance Topics Set up tools in ArcMap Provide training 30

Conclusion It takes desire and time to learn Can be frustrating troubleshooting arc models when they don’t run as expected Migrating to new ArcGIS versions is painful Time saved makes it worth the effort 31

Noble County GIS Department Steven J. Hook, GISP Noble County GIS Manager 101 N Orange St Albion, IN 46701 Phone: 1-260-636-1293 32