GIS editing

This page contains instructions on how to use the IC Editing Tools ArcGIS toolbar to complete various common GIS editing and data-validation tasks. The basics of GIS editing are not covered here. If you are new to GIS, you may want to view this ESRI help topic on editing.

IC Editing Tools toolbar

In ArcMap, you can make the IC Editing Tools toolbar visible by selecting Customize > Toolbars. If the toolbar is not in the list, then you need to install the add-in. Please see the separate Installation page.

The toolbar has a single menu with a series of buttons under it.

Change edit file. This button will update the data sources for all of the standard IC layers in your map document. This is useful if the data sources are broken for whatever reason; or if you wish to switch from viewing one personal geodatabase file to another. For example, you may want to do some digitizing into an empty geodatabase template; you can use this tool to redirect your map's layers to this empty geodatabase.

Simply select the new target geodatabase at the dialog box, and click Add. The geodatabase must be in the standard IC format.

Append geodatabase. This button will append one personal geodatabase file to another. You may want to do this, for example, if someone has been digitizing into an empty GIS geodatabase template, and you want to append those data to your main GIS dataset.

At the prompts, select the source file, then the target file. Both geodatabases must be in the standard IC format.

Update label fields. This button automatically updates several fields in the GIS layers’ attribute tables. These fields must be filled in so that the links to the database application function correctly. (For resources, this includes the PNumber and Trinomial fields; for reports, this includes the ReportNum field.) Additionally, if you left the Label field blank while digitizing, this tool will fill the Label field with the primary number for resources, and with the formatted report number for reports.

Run this tool whenever you finish editing a geodatabase. On larger datasets, such as your primary GIS, it will take several minutes to run. On completion, the tool will report how many shapes it updated for resources and for reports.

This tool will fail to update the label fields if any of the required source fields are empty (DocCo and DocNo for reports, PrimCo and PrimNo for resources) or if the county code fields (DocCo, PrimCo) don't equate to a California county.

For ICs that do not use the standard county-based report numbering system, the DocNo field is used for linking to reports, rather than the ReportNum field. Therefore it is not strictly necessary to populate the ReportNum field; however, a standards-compliant ReportNum field will still be generated, if both DocCo and DocNo are filled in.

Join tables/Remove joins. The Join tables button performs a “join” operation on all of the current resource and report layers, so that the main database tables are attached to the layers’ attribute tables. This allows you to browse fields from the database, select features based on attributes from the database tables, etc. To view the joined table data for a layer, simply click the tool, then open the layer’s attribute table. Click Remove joins to remove.

Joining tables will fail for records that do not have their label fields (PNumber, ReportNum) updated. You should run the Update labels routine first if necessary.

Select unmatched. This button selects all features in the resource and report layers that do not have a match in the database. Ideally, every GIS feature should have a matching record in the database, but if identifiers are missing or entered incorrectly in the GIS, or simply not yet entered in the database, there won't be a match. This tool will select the problem records so that you can correct them if necessary. Again, this tool depends on the label fields (PNumber, ReportNum) being filled in properly, so you may want to run that tool first.

Select unmatched trinomials. This button selects all resources in the resource layers that have a value in the TrinNo field not matching the trinomial listed in the database for that primary number. For example, P-21-000100 corresponds to CA-MRN-70; if you were to digitize a shape for P-21-000100 and mistakenly filled in the TrinNo field with a number other than 70, the tool will select the shape. The tool will also select all shapes for which there is a trinomial listed in the database, but for which the TrinNo field in the GIS is blank. Once these features are selected, you can then edit the selected features so that the trinomials match.

Checking GIS Completeness Against the Database Application

Your GIS dataset and the data in the database application exist independently. But ideally, everything in the database would have a matching GIS shape, and vice versa. As you complete or update the digitizing process for a given area (e.g., a quad, or an entire county), you may want to check the correspondence between the GIS and the database, and fix any problems with missing or mis-classified data.

1. In ArcMap, create a GIS selection set for the area of interest. For example, if you're checking by quad, select all of the resources and reports that fall into that quad. Use ArcMap's built-in Select by Location tool to do this. The GIS page has more detail on making selections.

2. Click the Process Selections button on the IC Tools toolbar. Just close the results dialog box, rather than viewing matches in the database application.

3. Open the database application normally, and create a selection set in the database that should match what you selected in the GIS. For example, you could select all resources that are listed as being on the quad you selected in the GIS. The database Search page has more detail on creating database selection sets.

4. At the main database application menu, click Admin Tools, and then Check GIS Status. The application will open three queries: one for matches, one for shapes in the GIS without a database match, and one for database records without a GIS match. You can print or export these queries for further troubleshooting work.

Keep in mind that things listed as missing from the GIS may in fact be present in the GIS, just not in the area you selected. Similarly, things listed as missing from the database may be present, but lack the attribute that you selected on, e.g., the appropriate quad name.

GIS Work Flows for Multi-User Offices

ArcGIS does not support simultaneous editing of the same data by different users. Therefore, if your IC has more than one person responsible for creating and editing GIS data, or you are having digitizing work done by an outside entity, then you will need to decide on a scheme for combining different sources of data into your master GIS geodatabase.

Append from Templates. If you are working only on digitizing new data, or incorporating new GIS data supplied by someone else, you can simply provide an empty GIS data template at the beginning of the work. The GIS data template can be downloaded here. Then, when the work is complete, you can easily add it to your main GIS dataset.

You may want to do some quality control before adding the new data to your master GIS. You can use the Change Edit File tool to quickly switch your map view between the master GIS data, and the new data. You can also run the Update Labels tool on the new data, and then the Select Unmatched tools to see if there is a match in the database. Once you're satisfied that the new data is ready to be added to the master, you can quickly add it using the Append Geodatabase tool on the IC Editing Tools toolbar.

This workflow does not provide a way to modify or delete existing GIS data.

ArcSDE Replication. If you have several different staff members all responsible for editing GIS data, you should consider moving to ESRI's ArcSDE data storage. You will need an ArcGIS Server license, as well as a Standard (Editor) license for each data editor. This software offers the ability to create disconnected replicas that you can work on independently, then check back in to the main GIS dataset. You can modify existing data as well, if it is included in the replica.

GIS Data Standards and Field Definitions