GIS

This page includes instructions on how to use the ArcGIS IC Tools toolbar to navigate GIS data and perform records searches. For information on editing GIS data, please see the GIS Editing page.

Getting Started Using the IC Tools Toolbar

When you open ArcGIS, the toolbar may or may not be showing. To show it, go to the Customize menu, then Toolbars. In the list of available toolbars, find 'IC Tools' and select it. If it's not in the list, then it has not been installed. For installation instructions, please see the Installation page.

The features of the toolbar are shown here. In ArcGIS, you can also hover your pointer over each of the buttons and menus to get information about what each one does. Read on below for more information about each tool.

The toolbar is designed to work with a standardized set of GIS layers in your ArcMap document. Many of the tools on the toolbar will give error messages if any of these standard layers are missing, or their data sources are not set correctly. Your IC should have a pre-designed ArcMap document template (or set of templates) with these layers already present, which you can use with the toolbar. You can also download these prepackaged layer files and add them to any ArcMap document.

Get Information About Features on the Map

The two left-most buttons on the toolbar allow you to get information about any location or feature that you click on the map view.

Report UTMs. This tool will report the UTM coordinates of any point on the map, in both NAD27 and NAD83 systems. Click the tool icon to activate it, then click anywhere on the map.

Hyperlink to resource/report. This tool will launch the database application to show the record for any single resource or report that you click on. To use, click the tool icon to activate, and then click on any resource or report in the map view. The database application will launch and show you the appropriate record. You may need to click on the database application's icon in the taskbar, to make the window visible.

If the area you click has multiple features, you'll be presented with a dialog box to allow you to select which one you're interested in. When you select one of the rows in the list, its corresponding shape on the map will flash, so you can tell which row in the list goes with which feature on the map view. Once you select the feature you want, click the Go button, and the database application will launch to show you that record.

If you're only interested in resources, or only in reports, you can turn the other layers off in the map's Table of Contents; the hyperlink tool will then skip those features. For example, if the area you're examining has overviews in the 'Other reports' layer that cover the entire search area, and you don't want them to keep coming up, simply turn the layer off. If any of the standard resource/report layers are not in your map, the tool will give you an error message to that effect.

If you are conducting a records search with multiple resources and reports in the search area, it will be far more efficient to create a selection set and run the Process Selections tool on it, than to use this tool repeatedly. See Select Features below.

Zoom to Resources, Reports and Other Features

The toolbar contains several tools to help you find specific places and features on the map. To activate these tools, click on the 'Find/zoom' on the toolbar and select one of the options. Each one brings up a dialog box in which you can enter search terms.

Zoom to area. This tool allows you to search for specific USGS quads, townships/land grants, or cities. For each of these options, you are provided with a drop-down list of all of the features in that layer in your IC service area. Click on any box to view the drop-down, or simply begin typing. Once you pick the desired feature, click Go. The map will zoom to the area you selected, and its GIS feature will be selected (outlined in blue).

If desired, you can then go on to select the resources and/or reports that fall within the area you searched for, using ArcMap's built-in Select by Location tool.

If any of the necessary GIS layers (USGS quad outlines, Townships/grants, Cities/populated areas) are missing from the map view, this tool will not function. If you need to add them to your map, you can download these prepackaged layer files.

Zoom to resource/report. This tool allows you to enter a specific resource or report identifier. Each identifier has a prefix that you select from a drop-down, then a numeric portion. Padding the numeric portion with zeroes is not necessary. For trinomials, do not enter any 'H' or '.H' modifiers in the numeric portion. Click Go to zoom to the matching feature(s).

If the feature you selected is exceptionally large (e.g., a long linear survey), the map may have to zoom out so far to encompass it, that the feature will not be visible at that scale (by default, reports and resources generally do not show when zoomed out past 1:100,000 scale).

Zoom to UTMs. This tool allows you to enter UTM coordinates, zoom to that location, and optionally draw a crosshair at the coordinates. Make sure you select the correct zone and datum.

Select Features

To perform a records search, you must first select the relevant reports and resources, using ArcMap's built-in selection tools, or one of the tools provided on the toolbar. Selecting features in the GIS outlines them in blue, as shown below. Once you have made your selections, you can then use the Process Selections button to save them, or export them, or view their matching records in the database application.

Draw line/Draw polygon tools. These tools allow you to digitize a simple records search shape on screen. Simply click the outline of the records search shape, and double-click at the last vertex. You will then be prompted for a buffer distance; you can enter zero if desired. The resources and reports within that shape will then be selected, and the Process Selections tool will run.

These tools only allow you to draw a relatively simple shape on screen, and there is no way to save the shape you create permanently. For more complicated records search areas, you may want to digitize the area into a separate records-search GIS layer, or request a layer from your client if possible. You can then use ArcMap's built-in Select by Location tool to select the relevant reports and resources.

Interactively selecting features. You can use any of ArcMap's built-in Select Features tools to select resources and reports that you see on-screen, or that meet the conditions of a query you specify. For more information, please see the ArcGIS topic on selecting features interactively. Once you have made a selection, you can then run the Process Selections routine to save your results.

Selecting by location. You can also use ArcMap's built-in Select by Location tool, if you want to select resources and reports that intersect another shape or layer. For example, you could select all resources and reports that fall on a given USGS quad you select, or that intersect a records search shape in a layer provided by a client. For instructions, please see the ArcGIS help topic on selecting by location.

Process Selections

Once you have some features selected for your records search, click the Process Selections button. Your selections will be saved, and you will be offered several options for how to proceed. Various options may be dimmed, if none of the relevant types of features were selected. If no GIS features were found in any of the layers, you will see a message to that effect, instead of the dialog box.

You may see an error message if any of the expected standard GIS layers are missing. To correct this,restore the missing layers to your map, or correct their data sources.

List resources/reports. These options will open the database application, showing a list of the matching records. You may need to bring the database application to the foreground, by clicking its icon in the Windows taskbar.

Note that these options create a new selection set in the database application, overwriting any selection sets that you already created.

If any of the GIS shapes you selected have no match in the database application (e.g., because of a typo in the identifier in the GIS data, or if the GIS identifier is blank) you will see an error message that lists the problem identifiers.

List historic properties. This option behaves just like the List resources option, except that it shows matches to the features in the stand-alone 'Historic properties' layer provided by OHP.

List informal resources. This option will show a list of all of the informal resources (i.e., those without a primary number) selected. Because the database application does not store information on informal resources, there is no option to show them in the database.

Export selected shape(s). This option lets you export the selected resource and report shapes to a set of shapefiles, for clients requesting GIS data. You will be prompted for an export directory.

Return to map, showing only the selected shape(s). This option will filter the resources, reports, historic properties, and informal-resources layers to show only those that were selected. This is useful for preparing a records search map that does not have extraneous data showing. You can later restore all shapes by clicking the Show All button on the Filter/Show menu.

Filter/Display Tools

The toolbar also contains a number of buttons to assist in controlling the display of data. To use these, select the Filter/Show menu from the toolbar.

Show last selections only. This button will change the map view to show only the reports and resources that were selected the last time the Process Selections button was clicked. To undo this, click the Show All button on the same menu.

If you select features and click the Process Selections button while your layers are filtered, you will see a warning to that effect. This is just to make sure you are aware that you're not searching the entire GIS dataset. This may be what you want, if you already have some results selected and you only want to pare them down further. You can click OK at the warning to proceed. Alternatively, if you need to start over with the entire GIS dataset showing, click Cancel, and then click the Show All button on this menu.

Show last database selections only. You can also filter the visible features to show only those that match your current selections in the database application. You can open the database application, make your selections, then return to your map document and zoom to the features that match those selections.

First, open the database application and select resources and/or reports, using any of the search tools available there, or by selecting manually. Please see the Search page for more information. Once your selections are made, close the database application, or simply return to the GIS application without closing. Next, from the Filter/Show menu, click Show last database selections only. The application will then select and zoom to the features that match your database selections.

Note that when you select resources and/or reports this way, the features may be very far apart, and hence not visible when the application zooms to the full extent of your results. The application will warn you of this. Also, not all records in the database are guaranteed to have a matching GIS shape.

Also, as with the Show last selections only option, if you go on to select features and process selections while this filter is active, you'll receive a warning.

Show all. This button removes any filters on resource and report layers that were applied using the above options.

Labels on/Labels off. These buttons toggle visibility of the labels for all of the IC layers. Of course, you can also toggle the visibility of labels for individual layers, using ArcMap's built-in functionality. Right-click on any layer in the map's Table of Contents and select Label Features from the pop-up menu.