Kevin

1,720 reputation

217

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	location	Texas
	age	31
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I am an archaeologist and GIS Specialist with a modest background in computer science and general electronic tinkering. I generally know enough to get in way over my head and then work my way back out.

	1,720 reputation	bio	website		visits	member for	8 months
217 badges		location	Texas		seen	9 hours ago

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45 Comments

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May 13	comment	Are database client files platform specific? So, are the files specific to QGIS and ArcGIS? Or is it just a matter of making a copy of the set in the ArcGIS folder so they are available to ESRI products as well?
May 7	comment	Search cursor stops selecting after two iterations I would recommend throwing in a handful of print statements that will show you the values of your variables for filenames and paths. It's inelegant and pretty much a brute-force technique but I've often found it the fastest way to debug arcpy scripts. I would recommend using arcpy.GetCount_management() to show how many records are being recognized in your layer, a counter to show how many times you're going through the for loop, and an output of all your filename/path variables. Then run the script and dig through all the output when it quits. You may find the culprit somewhere in there.
May 6	comment	Search cursor stops selecting after two iterations Have you checked to make sure that no records are selected in grid_lyr when you start the script? If anything is selected when you get going ONLY those records will show up in the cursor.
Apr 25	comment	How much database bloat is reasonable? Really appreciate such a thorough answer!
Apr 25	comment	How much database bloat is reasonable? Thanks elrobis, I know moving to a SQL world would be ideal but it's complicated to coordinate the move and get trained up on everything I need to be equivalently functional in that environment. I'm definitely going to learn as much as I can but I think it will be a gradual migration.
Apr 18	comment	How to convince an organization to move towards open source GIS? I employ a similar strategy. I have found that some folks are open-source averse because they think it can't be as good as the stuff you pay for. However, if you can do something really well and then show that you did it with open-source products they don't have the same prejudiced reaction.
Mar 4	comment	Preventing ArcMap from Clipping Neatline when Exporting Map Thanks! I knew there must be a simple solution.
Mar 1	comment	Which free/cheap tools can open ESRI Geodatabase Files? Does it specify if it is a File Geodatabase or a Personal Geodatabase?
Feb 20	comment	How to use Scale tool when Georeferencing Raster in ArcMap? Just to throw my hat in the ring... I never use the scale tools. I use control points exclusively. Granted, I'm usually doing a quick georef just to get an idea of where something is, or do a quick-and-dirty digitization of a project area for a map in a proposal or bid. I've never had any issues, even with maps that are rotated strangely or at a weird scale. I just make sure that the points I'm using are reliable and I try to distribute them across the image. That's my two cents.
Feb 18	comment	Stop a Cursor loop when only 1 item is selected with Python Glad it was helpful!
Feb 18	comment	How to convert jpg file to shapefile? As Mapperz said, this is a problematic thing. Does your client/employer/whomever have the data that generated the map you are trying to convert in a vector format that they can provide?
Feb 18	comment	Display XY Format to Shapefile (Scale) Do you need the full seven digits for attribute purposes or for location-precision purposes? That is: are the features being mis-plotted when you bring them in from excel and you need that extra digit for spatial precision purposes. Or, do you need the unchanged number because you need it in its original form for analysis purposes?
Feb 15	comment	Are multiple separate feature classes more efficient than repeatedly deleting all features from the same feature class? At this point I'll take a pragmatic solution over an optimized one! Thanks for the input, I hadn't thought about the normalization issue but for now, it works, I guess I'll stop trying to fix it!
Feb 14	comment	Are multiple separate feature classes more efficient than repeatedly deleting all features from the same feature class? .mdb because I use the tables as data sources for a mail-merge to build summary packets for each boundary. The .gdb makes it harder to do that, so I just use the access format that is Word-friendly.
Feb 7	comment	Connecting to ArcGIS Desktop PostgreSQL database (running locally) Okay, I changed the instance name to my machine name, that got rid of the 'Failed to Start' potion of the error I was getting. Now it reads: "Unable to connect to database server to retrieve database list; please verify your server name, user name and password info and try again." I've also made sure that the login name/password are in the Logon Roles, although I'm not sure I did that correctly. Still no dice though. As I've tried to find a solution to this elsewhere I'm seeing 'direct connection' come up a lot - is it relevant that I do not have a license of ArcServer?
Feb 7	comment	Connecting to ArcGIS Desktop PostgreSQL database (running locally) Brad - Thanks for the quick response, yes, I installed the whole opengeo suite. I added a screenshot of what I have in pgAdmin.
Feb 6	comment	Strange things are afoot with the "Eliminate Polygon Parts' tool I understand all of that. My question is about what I am misunderstanding about using the Eliminate parts tool.
Feb 6	comment	How to remove ESRI basemap credits? If you make the text box very small it will stop showing the text and prevent them from returning after being deleted. I usually make the box about a 1/4 inch square and then put it in part of the legend.
Feb 4	comment	Can I access Trimble logged positions in ArcMap10? Glad to hear it was helpful! It depends on what you want to represent. If you are interested in the just the fence - I would record it as a line. If you are interested in the area enclosed by the fence, then I would record it as a polygon.
Jan 29	comment	ArcPad Raster Not Displaying Correctly Yes, when it displays (albeit improperly) everything lines up fine it just looks wrong. At this point I'd almost take displaying wrong over not displaying at all.