1. Parcel Fabric
Lessons Learned
May 11, 2018

2. Agenda
Background
Benefits/Efficiencies
Implementation
Tales of Success and Woe

3. Background We’ve been involved with countywide
Our Experience
We’ve been involved with countywide
fabric conversions for a few years:
Harris County Appraisal District (Texas)
Counties large and small
Lake County (just started)
Training and Consulting
We come from more of a tax mapping background – day to day workflows facing parcel mappers

4. Background What is the Parcel Fabric?
A specialized grouping of core Arc feature classes for the purpose of editing parcels and cadastral data.
Control Points
Line Points
Points
Lines
Polygons (Parcel, Lot, etc…)
Topological interaction
Seamlessly built into workflows

5. ³ Benefits COGO Based Workflows Intuitive ‘Fitting’ Workflows
Why it is Fantastic
COGO Based Workflows
Intuitive ‘Fitting’ Workflows
Different Types of ‘Parcels’
Least Squares Adjustments
Historical Management
Automated Dimension Placement
Future Parcel Work

6. Implementation We Look at a Typical Migration project as:
Stages
We Look at a Typical Migration project as:
Clean the Data
Stage the Data
Load the Data
Tune the Geodatabase
Train the People

7. Implementation Data Should be Super Clean Before Loading
Data Cleaning
Data Should be Super Clean Before Loading
Clean the densified arcs on lines
Gaps and overlaps
Issues between different types (sections/parcels)
Multi-part parcels cannot share a corner (split em up, put em back)
Stacked polygons can only go if every piece is the same geometry (to meet topology rule)

8. Implementation This Process Forces You to Finally Clean Your Data
Data Cleaning
This Process Forces You to Finally Clean Your Data
Years of kaka has crept into your parcel data and this is a perfect opportunity to get rid of it
Prior conversions from legacy systems
HCAD – Scale of database/rendering
Clark NV – OCR’ed their maps

9. Implementation Migration Staging databases (free from Esri)
Things to Note
Migration
Staging databases (free from Esri)
Fabric geodatabase (free from Esri)
Multiple loads can be strategic
Don’t think you have to do it all at once
Different types of features
Parcels a group at a time

10. Implementation Performance The parcel fabric is memory intensive
Things to Note
Performance
The parcel fabric is memory intensive
Requires good server and database management
We have learned a lot especially with the larger datasets

11. Implementation Data Storage / Management (Enterprise)
Things to Note
Data Storage / Management (Enterprise)
Make a habit of periodically rebuilding new spatial indexes – greatly improves performance
Best practice to schedule compress of geodatabase
Use best practice database tuning
Get used to not zooming to full
Versions only one generation off of Default

12. Implementation Editing Platform
Things to Note
Editing Platform
The parcel fabric is an editing platform
Data should be published to layers for consumption
Publication workflows incorporated into platform
GIS layer exports
Plotting
Websites
THIS IS THE BASE!

13. Implementation PRODUCTION PUBLICATION GDB GDB (fabric) Example LAYERS
Parcels
PRODUCTION
GDB (fabric)
PUBLICATION GDB
Publication
Replication
Subs
Survey

14. Implementation Champions and Mappers
Investment in the greater good often overlooks the daily challenges of the mappers
Aside from the technological solutions is the investment in personnel to change the way they approach their work
Transitions take time

15. Change in Mapping Technique
Implementation
Change in Mapping Technique
Less about the lines, more about the polygons
Drawing complete features outside of the mapping area before joining them
Overlapping lines: different surveys
Making things fit
Software making assumptions
Fixin’ stuff – a lot of creativity

16. Implementation Subdivisions
COGO everything in one spreadsheet/traverse
Build all lots/subs/parcels from same lines
Challenge has been joining subs to existing bad data – more parts need to line up, and requires a different approach

17. Implementation
Unlearning old habits is much harder than starting from scratch
Like learning a foreign language
Always comparing to the old workflow makes it more difficult to see the greater good
User that comes in fresh only knows one way to do it

18. Implementation
Learning is a long process
Its not so much learning what the tools do, but where the tools are and in what order to use them
Workflows
Support is important
Internally and externally

19. Harris County Appraisal District
Parcel Fabric
Loading 1.4 million parcels
14 separate loads / 20 million dimensions
Rendering speed / cleaning the data
Three zones full up and running
Eight currently in production
Fully done by spring
Sprinkles have delayed things a bit
Collector for ArcGIS to appraise flooded areas

20. Contra Costa County Parcel Fabric Delivered in October
A ton or crummy curves – the boxey Midwest it is not
Trained on fabric workflows
2.4 million lines – good GIS system

21. Washoe County Parcel Fabric Loading in all of their parcels and subs
Have been ‘countywide’ for a while
Quite a bit of cleanup necessary
Coincidence between subs and parcels
Casinos and air rights
Deliver in June

22. Van O’Brien| Director of Solutions and Services
THANK YOU
Van O’Brien| Director of Solutions and Services
St. Charles, Illinois Office: | Cell: