What Works with GIS

GIS Applications, especially ArcMap, can crash and have other problems. To avoid this, we've come up with processes and guidelines that we have found works for large data sets and with the IT infrastructure here at HSU. Please follow these processes and guidelines.

Process for completing lab assignments:

1. Create a folder on your desktop labeled "LabXX" where "XX" is the number of the lab.
2. In the LabXX folder, create a folder for "Originals" and place any files you download from the web or from a GPS into this folder.
3. In the LabXX folder, create a folder for "Working". After you QAQC and project files to the desired spatial reference, place them in this folder. Also, if you digitize data in the desired projection, you can put it directly into this folder.
4. In the LabXX folder, create a folder for your "Final" files. Place any exported maps and project (mxd) files into this folder.
5. About 10 minutes before you lab time is up, copy your LabXX folder to your GoogleDrive.
6. Make sure the folder has copied to the "cloud" (the icon changes to a cloud) before logging off.
7. If you have a lot of files, "zipping" them with 7-zip will speed up the process. Without zipping, you may not be able to ever download the files from Google. Use the "zip" option rather than "7z", "tar", "gz", or other compression options.
8. When you return to work on the lab again, download your LabXX folder from GoogleDrive to your desktop.

Guidelines:

• Only use letters, numbers, and underscores in folder and file names.
• Do not work with any file formats in ArcMap other than shapefiles (.shp), TIFF (.tif), Imagine (.img), or MrSid (.sid). If you load data from a file format such as CSV or MS-Excel, immediately export it to a shapefile (File -> Export -> Export Data).
• For large data sets you are only using as a background, copy them to the desktop but do not copy them to your GoogleDrive as this will take a long time. Just re-download them the next time you need them.
• Only use letters, numbers, and underscores in the names of columns in CSVs, MS-Excel and ArcGIS attribute column names. They can only have 10 characters max to work in ArcGIS products.