GIS Tips & Tricks
We have lots of good ideas.
Our range of expertise is not limited to local government: GIS training, avoiding angry Bulls, fishing in Wisconsin. Our Blog will keep you entertained and learning.
Creating Survey123 forms in Survey123 Connect provides access to many options for supercharged forms that streamline the user experience and minimize data entry errors. Calculations for questions using pulldata() function and its various functionalities allow for pre-population of answers, incorporation of advanced logic, external data lookup and other techniques that are not available with standard XLSforms.
How do you feel when you hear the term “Asset Management”?
Is it just the (latest) buzzword for what you’re already doing? On your never-ending list of things to implement? Do you have something started, but it’s not really meeting your needs?
You’re not alone! But there’s good news - with a couple of affordable tools, you can begin building a GIS that will get you managing those assets more efficiently.
So much goes into transitioning a 911 system to NG911, from changing state policies to buying appropriate equipment to updating GIS data. This upgrade comes with a large price tag. There are a lot of variables and scenarios were calculated in the report to Congress, but we’re talking in the ballpark of $14 billion dollars nation-wide. Available funding varies widely by state, but…
A client with some old technology-Zip disks, a Zip drive, and a Windows XP machine- asked us to extract the files and compare to the current data. What follows is a general overview of how we “turned back the clock”, detailing the process used to knock the dust off of the old technology and bring it to life in late 2020.
With the GIS industry acceptance of ArcGIS Enterprise and Online (whether you like it or not) as a location for data sharing and display. We at Cloudpoint Geographics regularly grab REST endpoint of important services that are publicly facing and put them on out internal websites. As well we have an ongoing collection of ArcGIS Online Organizations homepages an Open Data sites as we come across them.
Are you ArcGIS Pro-ready? System Requirements Lab has provided a tool (available here or at the system requirements page for ArcGIS Pro) that produces a detailed report in a matter of seconds showing how your system stacks up to the minimum and recommended requirements for running ArcGIS Pro. Please watch this video for more information on how you can easily check your system requirements for Pro.
Hoops Tracker is a Esri Story Map that displays information for the 2018 Class 1A and 2A Boys Basketball Tournaments in separate web mapping applications, paired with a view of IHSA's interactive ScoreZone web page and other IHSA links.
There are two meanings here: 1. You might be building your GIS as Shadow IT, know the pitfalls and realities. 2. Beware your GIS 'clients' may be building Shadow GIS underneath you.
Shadow IT is a real thing. It's talked about at conferences and even has a Wikipedia page. Essentially, it is when 'unofficial' tech infrastructure is built in parallel to the official IT department; sometimes sanctioned, sometimes not. GIS could exist as a Shadow IT in both positive and negative way
Survey123 Connect for ArcGIS is a desktop tool that allows you to create and publish survey forms to ArcGIS for your data collection needs. Signing in with your ArcGIS Online credentials connects Survey123 Connect to your organization, and once you create a survey, the form and feature service are stored in ArcGIS Online. The survey form can be accessed and edited in the Survey123 for ArcGIS mobile app, or managed through the Survey123 for ArcGIS website. There are hundreds of ways to enhance your survey forms; here are a chosen few to check out.
Given the wide scope of work that GIS professionals complete, it's important for organizations to stay on top of the progress of various projects that are going on. No tool allows you to do this better than the Operations Dashboard application from Esri. The Operations Dashboard allows organizations the ability to monitor work, track field work crews, and view the status of tasks related to specific projects.
Good relationships are important in Business, Sports, Personal Life...in anything, really. Good relationships are important with GIS data as well. Let's take a look at how relationship classes and related data can aid in the GIS data collection process.
A client from a Water Reclamation Department uses the Collector for ArcGIS app to edit Sanitary Sewer Network data. They requested additional attributes for a Lift Stations layer, as well as the ability to add multiple Pumps to each Lift Station. The solution to this request is a related table in a feature service that allows for editing via the Collector app. This is an overview of the process.
Earlier in my life, I never ran. I mean from bears, sure, probably I would have. I occasionally played a round-ball-type sport that required moving arms or legs quickly. If I had to actually run, I hated every second and would never consider running for health. Well, circumstances change and different things matter as you approach mid-life. Two years ago I found...
The Web Map and Widgets are the foundation of creating apps in Web AppBuilder (WAB), but there are customizations you can make to add a finishing touch to your app and make it unique.
Cloudpoint has successfully upgraded a number of Flex mapping applications to Javascript applications in the past year using Web AppBuilder (WAB). Some of the components that make these apps stand out are widgets that improve the user experience with the app. . Esri packages a number of basic widgets in WAB, but some developers have designed custom widgets that extend the functionality of these applications. A number of these custom widgets were available in the Flex apps and we wanted to honor our client's wishes to provide the same tools and functionality. Here we highlight a few of the custom widgets we configured for our clients.
Below you'll find an article in our local paper from Journalist Cheryl Wolfe of the Pantagraph papers in Bloomington, Illinois. She did a fantastic job and we wanted to include her article in our blog as a "Thanks!".
(Reprinted with Permission)
ALL MOVED IN--Employees at Cloudpoint Geographic, Inc. are: (left to right) Jodi Hoffman, Paul Stephenson, Micah Williamson, Joe Christian, Matt Junker, Tyler Severson, and Jonathan Hodel
Hodel plans open house
CHERYL WOLFE
cwolfe@mtco.com
ROANOKE—These days, Jon Hodel often has his head in the clouds and is always thinking higher.
When office space for his growing business, Cloudpoint Geographics, Inc. got too small, Hodel started looking for something bigger. He found it, just a block away in the building that formerly housed Dr. Michael Meier’s dental office.
A building with several smaller rooms might not fit the needs of most businesses, but for Hodel and his employees, it was literally a godsend.
“This office has been a perfect fit for us,” Hodel said of the building. “The Lord provided for us; we couldn’t have asked for a better fit.”
Hodel said it was getting crowded in his old office on Main Street, but now all employees have their own space, in addition to a conference room and a kitchenette. And, the move kept Hodel’s business in his hometown, just where he wants it to be. There was a time when Hodel was thinking of re-locating to another town because he could not get enough high speed Internet service in Roanoke, a service that is vital to his business. But he recently found a way to get by with the service in place.
“We don’t have fiber yet due to the cost, but we’re using the Amazon cloud, and we’re getting by for now,” Hodel said. “We have seen increased efficiency, and cost savings came into play.”
Most people don’t really understand the kind of work Hodel does unless they are very technologically savvy. Hodel is a licensed professional engineer and certified Geographic Information System (GIS) professional. His business started with him, by himself in an office with a laptop, and grew to where it is today with one part-time and five full-time employees. Their work includes GIS mapping for government utilities and public works and asset management, among other projects. Simply put, they make maps, Hodel said. But the maps are not simple.
GIS maps are detailed and made using satellite technology. They allow clients to visualize, question, analyze and interpret data to better understand patterns and trends, as well as what is happening in geographic space. They are also valuable in creating and maintaining more accurate records.
There is a growing interest and awareness of the economic value of GIS. It can be used to manage assets, such as the life expectancy of streetlights or to schedule garbage truck routes to maximize efficiency in fuel and labor. Cloudpoint performs both small jobs and big ones, like a utility mapping job in Mendota that has taken all summer.
These descriptions are only a fraction of the work that Cloudpoint is capable of doing, and they barely scratch the surface of what will be available in the future. Hodel said drones will be used as a powerful commercial tool in the future pinpointing a number of things, from agriculture applications to other commercial uses. He plans to be a part of that technology as it is implemented.
”We’re really excited about the new technology drones will bring,” Hodel said. “It’s fascinating. I really enjoy new things. It’s the engineer coming out in me.”
Hodel said he hopes to hire a licensed pilot to work with drones in the future to create another arm of his business.
The work of Cloudpoint Geographics is far above most of the public’s head, so getting his name out and helping others learn about the services he provides to gain new business is sometimes challenging.
“We find we do a lot of door knocking, and use our web presence,” Hodel said. “Most of our business comes from referrals or face-to-face marketing.”
Hodel wants to do a little face-to-face marketing with the people of Roanoke where he has lived most of his life. He has invited them to come see his new office during an Open House, on Friday, Oct. 2, from 4-6 p.m. He will be glad to explain some of the fascinating aspects of his work to anyone who is interested. And, he wants everyone to know how much he enjoys his new office in Roanoke.
“We’re really happy to be here,” Hodel said.
Here is a recent map of the severity of the current drought in Illinois. This map shows the lack of rainfall throughout the state for the month of June. We are currently obtaining additional data for the entire summer that will provide greater insight as to the hardest hit areas. Contact us for more details!
