Lab 1 went well for the most part. I got hung up trying to find the “right way” to find the percent building area within the parcelboundry. I find that I get caught up with how I want to do something and look past easier ways to accomplish my goal.
A: Often there are lots of right ways to do things. My advice – just start somewhere. Derive your result. Confirm its validity. Then … “waste” a bunch of time looking for a more elegant solution for the task you’re already done with. Lots of learning potential with this approach.
Q: Has anyone else had issues using MS Excel within the VM client (i.e., for documenting geoprocessing steps)? When I open them it asks me to sign in, but whether using my UVM NetID or a personal e-mail with an Office subscription, it returns error 0x8004005 saying “The products we found in your account cannot be used to activate Office in shared computer scenarios.” I could understand if Word isn’t loaded on the ArcGIS VM profile, but I’d be surprised if we didn’t have the ability to use Excel. Thank goodness for Google Sheets in the meantime, and for hive-mind tech support!
Alternative: I am using an Excel spreadsheet from Microsoft Office outside the VDI. (Google Sheets is a great alternative, but I do know that UVM has a site license for Microsoft products as well)
Comment: Generally speaking, I would say I’m not super detail-oriented and this aspect of documenting my work step-by-step felt like sounding out each syllable while reading. But, I begrudgingly did it. Now, I’m a frequent user of open GIS data portals (our county’s, the City of Chicago’s during grad school, state DOT’s, and others). Using these portals, I’ve grown accustomed to looking at the various attributes and fields in the dataset prior to downloading them. The video in Module 1 highlighted for me the importance of this step in the process and made me reflect on a lot of the data perusing that I do in my work. Going forward, it’s made me understand the importance of accurately documenting the data I produce. More than for other professionals, I’m heartened by the capability of accurate documenting to support the work of community advocates doing their own GIS work, pushing and challenging government agencies. Hopefully, I can work through my natural tendency and document all my work accurately (I’m also grateful ArcGIS pro has the capability to store the Geoprocessing history in the metadata!)
Response: Personally, I document all of my geoprocessing steps in an Excel spreadsheet while I’m doing the work. It’s easier when a single geoprocessing operation takes 10 – 15 minutes, because then you don’t have any excuses 😎, but I too have been the “victim” of my own excitement as I race through multiple geoprocessing operations to derive the result “I’ve been waiting for” only to wonder what the heck I just did to get from A to Z. The other element I like to consider, as a person who has been responsible for developing data for others, is that the better your documentation, the less likely they’ll have to pepper you with questions about your effort.