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

2. 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

3. 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 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

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

5. 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

6. ArcModel for sharing SDE layers with Albion:
Update_ArcSDE_Geodatabase_Layers 6

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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. Establish Environment settings before running Python scripts16

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

18. 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

19. My Experience Using ModelBuilder
Scheduling a Python script or model to run at a prescribed time (July 30, 2013 ArcGIS Blog) 19

20. 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

21. Case Study: Vegetation Management for Surveyor’s Office21

22. 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

23. 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

24. Input dialog box for Create a Route Tool24

25. Input dialog box for Add Work Event Tool25

26. 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

27. Input dialog box for Add a Work Event Attachment Tool27

28. 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

29. 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

30. 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

31. 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

32. Noble County GIS Department
Steven J. Hook, GISP
Noble County GIS Manager
101 N Orange St
Albion, IN
Phone: 32