Sunday, August 5, 2012

Module 8(Cursor)


PART II: Module Summary

·        Have a lot better understanding of the Cursor group
·        Now to actually put it to work in the assignment
·        The Cursor tool could be very useful in the right hands, I have a small understanding so it might be dangerous in my hands
·        Type very carefully, as one little upper/lower case out of place and you could be searching for a long time
·        Have a long way to go to even scratch the surface of what can be accomplished with scripting
·        This is not something that you can do occasionally and become proficient
·        I didn’t have the time needed this semester to really delve into the class as needed, real life got in the way
·        Now I can take all the modules and have a great reference to help me to some scripting in the future
·        There have been some great references provided by classmates
·        Quite the difference from just adding a line to table compared to adding data to match a line

Friday, August 3, 2012

Module 7


PART III: Module Summary


I’m think I am finally starting to get a little bit of a grip on a lot of the steps required to get a script to work
The interactive GoToMeeting was a huge help in getting an explanation on some items that were not completely clear.
Now I have a quick way to make my folder structure for new projects easily.  This beats making the folders each time and taking a chance of misspelling them.
Each module adds new items to use in the script.  I’m still a long ways from completely understanding them, but with the Usage tool, I can now open quickly to see what parameters are required and what ones are optional. 
Checking to see what files Exist can speed up the process so you don’t accidentally overwrite it.
Using the ‘print’ statement will help show where you are in the script so you know the status as it is executed
Finally understand loops so that I can use fewer lines to perform repetitive steps
I think if I had about ten more interactive meeting like we had the other day, I might be able to actually walk through some scripting on my own
I still have a long ways to go before I can write scripts without a struggle
Even with help and the script doesn’t work, does not necessarily mean that the script is bad, it could be an error with the computer system

Sunday, July 29, 2012

W4 Tsunami(Evac Zones)



PART III: Process Summary Details


Part I: Building a File Geodatabase

1)      Open ArcCatalog
2)      Navigate to Tsunami folder
3)      Select Roads.shp and the Preview tab
4)      Bottom of page, select Table from drop-down
5)      Right-click TsunamiGDB and select New, then File Geodatabase and name it Tsunami.gdb
6)      Right-click TsunamiGDB, click New and select Feature Dataset and name it Transportation
7)      Select the UTM54N Projected Coordinate System under UTM>WGS84, use defaults for rest of options
8)      Right-select Transportation feature dataset and Import >Feature Class (multiple)
9)      Browse to BaseData folder and select Rails, click Add and again for Roads, hit OK
10)  Open ArcMap
11)  Select File>Add Data>Add XY Data
12)  Navigate to Fukushima.xls, City_Population$ Events, select the same coordinate system as above
13)  Export data to a shapefile called JapanCities1
14)  Add two new feature datasets, Administrative and Damage_Assessment
15)  Add required feature classes to each one
16)  Build raster attribute tables for the four DEMs using the Build Raster Attribute Table in ArcToolbox>Data Management>Raster>Raster Properties
17)  Right-click on the Tsunami.gdb and select New>Raster Dataset, using FukDEM the Raster Dataset Name, and Pixel Type: 16_BIT_UNSIGNED, Spatial Reference WGS84_UTM54N, hit OK
18)  Load the two N37E DEMs to the FukDEM raster dataset
19)  Repeat process for another with the name SendDEM and add the N38E DEMs to this one
20)  Right-Click the FukeDEM and select Calculate Statistics, use defaults, click OK
21)  Repeat for SendDEM
22)  Save screen shot as jpg

Part II: Fukushima Radiation Exposure Zones
1)      Open ArcMap and add JpnBndOutline, NuclearPwrPlnt, JapanCities, Roads, NEJapanPrefectures
2)      Select the Fukushima II nuclear plant and save as Fukushima_PPt in the Tsunami.gdb
3)      Create a multi ring buffer of 3, 7, 15, 30, 40, 50 miles and save as MultiRingBuffer in the Damage_Assessment feature dataset
4)      Clip the MiltiRingBuffer to the JpnBndOutline and name it Fuku_Evac_Zones
5)      Remove MiltiRingBuffer
6)      Edit symbology for the Fuku_Evac_Zones
7)      Clip the roads to NEJpnPrefectures
8)      Remove Roads from map
9)      Query cities in the Fuku_Evac_Zones, save screen shot for PS, and save as Evac_Zone_cities
10)  Finish answering questions
11)  Create labels for Japan cities showing name and population
12)  Switch to Map View and finalize map

Saturday, July 21, 2012

W9 Alachua Location Decisions



I started out looking at the basic criteria that you were looking for in a location to purchase a home.  The fist map illustrates the four criteria you specified with respect to location of your place of businesses, peer groups relative to age, and housing cost individually.
The second map has two individual frames with the first one representing all criteria as weighted equally.  So it will give you an area that is the best when you don’t have a preference on the criteria. In other words, none of the criteria are more important that any of the other three.  This way you don’t have to decide what is the most important if you don’t agree on it.
The second frame represents the same set of criteria, but you have determined that relative distance to work is much more important after driving in the city for a little while. Now the distance to work is weighted more than the housing cost and the peer group relative to age.
Now you can prioritize those three tracts to start searching for a new home.  

Friday, July 13, 2012

Module 5


PART III: Module Summary

I’m so confused right now I’m not sure exactly what I learned.

1.       Debugging a program that is written by oneself is very hard, let alone one written by someone else
2.      There are some good tools out there to help you debug a program
3.      It will take more than just a few exercises to really grasp the procedure
4.      I now know what some of the basic errors are so at least I can get a good start
5.      Some are quite easy to correct as the error is highlighted
6.      I know that you have fix syntax errors before you will see runtime errors
7.      Python DeBugger is a good tool for going step by step
8.      As long as I remember each of the commands and how to properly use each one
9.      You can print items in the debugger which will tell if things are going good
10.  This is good tool for testing loops
11.  Logic/semantic errors are the hardest to track down
12.  Will definitely keep exercises to look back over
13.  PyhonWin DeBugger was different, not sure I like it
14.  Would probably use Python DeBugger for a lot of variables
15.  Seems a lot more steps involved with PythonWin
16.  Still having problems with if/else statements
17.  Was able to fumble through the assignments, but thankfully there were a lot of good notes on the discussion board
18.  Learning scripting and debugging is a long slow tedious process
19.  My example scripts will help a lot when I run into a problem
20.  I’ve have a hard time writing these summaries because I am so focused on the problem at hand, that some steps are automatic and I can’t remember exactly what I did
21.  The first part of exercise was fairly easy to find the basic syntax errors
22.  The path took a while to get straight until I saw about the folder name
23.  The buffering was a pain, definitely have to look at each line carefully, this is where writing it yourself would help instead of trying to correct someone else’s
24.  With a lot of help from the discussion board I finally got it.  Thanks everyone
25.  The second one was fairly easy
26.  It only took a little while before I saw the wrong formulas
27.  I didn’t use any of the debugging tools we learned about
28.  Have to go back later and play with them more