Portfolio - GIS Customization

CSV files converter project: Python 2.5, ArcObjects, VBA, ArcMap 9.3

At the Center for Earth Observation (CEO), GIS Specialist – Justin Shed was working on a project for National Park Service (NPS). His project required him to repeatedly download multiple CSV format files in order to convert them to Shapefiles for visualization and analysis. These CSV files are not immediately GIS ready.  The available conversion tools could not handle the file format.  For example, the field names are in the seventh row. CSV files came with additional six rows above field names row.  In addition, some field names contain some symbols not accepted by ArcTool during conversions. These modifications can be performed manually, but the volume of files makes this impractical and can introduce errors. Dr. Laura Tateosian wrote a Python script to automatically modify the CSV files and convert them, producing one ESRI Shapefile per park.

Build an application to convert CSV files to shapefiles and display the results in ArcMap. In VBA I created a button to allowing the user to perform this conversion and map the results automatically. The VBA calls Dr. Tateosian's Python script which modifies the CSV files downloaded from a National Park Service web site and converts them to ESRI shapefiles. The VBA code then automatically adds the newly created shapefiles to the current data frame.

'Make a Map' application project: ArcObjects, VBA, ArcMap 9.3.1, ArcServer 9.3.1

Implement a 'Make a Map' application for non-technical employees of National Park Service to quickly build and print basic maps for NPS presentation and decision making. The target users have very little experience using ArcMap, so this required an intuitive interface that would step them through the process.

The application has a button with a two step wizard to create a map with the NPS standard template. The application also provides buttons that allow the users to perform common related tasks: printing the map, exporting the map to an image format, and clearing any all selections and the map contents, so that users can easily return to the original blank template.

The NPS users did not necessarily have Arc software installed locally, so we explored two solutions for bringing 'Make a Map' to these users. The first solution, made the application available via a Remote Desktop connection using Virtual Computing Lab (VCL) at NCSU. For the second solution, I created a similar application in ArcGIS Server 9.3.1 capitalizing on the new builds-in print feature.

First user form wizard

Second user form wizard

Example of output map product

RDU project: Python 2.4, ArcObjects, VBA, ArcGIS Desktop 9.2

Automate the process of updating a shapefile attribute table based on a huge GPS data list collected for the trees around RDU airport as part of a forestry research project.

The VBA form 'Update attribute file' would be called as respond to a Mouse Down event while user selecting a point needed to be updated with the new GPS data. Then VBA form will pass the information of selected point to a Python script. The Python script will calculate new filed values and update the target row in the attribute file.

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