Anyone work with GIS?

Just curious. I love maps. Could stare at them all day.
GIS is fun to mess around with. Currently taking a class in it but it is much more difficult than I was anticipating.

 

...ever used ArcGIS?... you can get a home use license for $100 (annual fee)... good way to practice your skills!

 

Ya they gave us a free copy thats good for a year with the class! haven't put it on my computer yet.. would need to put windows on my Mac to do that so I'm waiting until I get a new computer.. but I did get an A in my class

 

It's in my job title GIS Specialist...

Best advice I can give you is organize your data!!! You kind of have to be anal/ocd to stay sane when using arc a lot. Any background you can give yourself in programming will go a loooong way as well.

Cheers!

~M

 

good! take advantage of it while you have it, ...there's a bit of a learning curve and the interface is still a cluster**** of sorts after years and years of cobbling together new features... but, once you get through the pain, ...and find a groove, you will soon see how it can be very useful...

 

I've used ArcGIS a bit at work. Neat program once you use it a bit.

 

Civil 3d/map 3d. Certified applied science technologist here. I love my job but after 18 years I now have carpel tunel in my wrists. Might hav to get surgery in a couple of years.

 

yep, there's a lot you can do w/ it, ...especially modelbuilder... however, the version 10 leaves a lot to be desired in terms of the interface IMO... i was happier w/ the version 9 interface...

 

thats what my professor had said as well. He also said the next version is going to have even more "simplified" which I have a feeling for you GIS masters is going to be a little upsetting and annoying.

As for now Im hanging onto my copy and I'll put it on my next computer. Did makes some pretty good looking maps though through that class. Even a fly through (even though our school computers struuugled and would crash every other time we tried to record it)
Put I'm definitely glad I got some hands on time with that program

 

yep, ...haven't heard about what the next version will be like, but they have room to improve on making certain functionality "more consistent" throughout!

...i don't know if arcglobe or arcscene are known for working well, ...arcmap is kinda the main workhorse... what it is good at is advanced vector creation/editing, layers, topology, and geoprocessing (i especially like modelbuilder)...

 

<--- Sr. Geographer who works with ArcGIS 9 hours per day and loves every second of it.

I started using ArcMap, IDRISI and ERDAS while in college. I learned Arc 8,9,10 at work.

Every version is going to be easier than the previous one, there is no doubt about that. 95% of the time things changed will not impact you in any way shape or form. Let me explain:
Think of concept of a car. A car could be classified as a bus, a truck, a semi, a convertible, a sedan, a van etc etc. Every single car type is used for completely (almost uninterchangeable) different purposes. ArcGIS is exactly like that. You can use it for mapping or analysis or creating and editing or database management or for tracking purposes. Every version that comes out makes you wonder why in the world would they change X and after using new version for 2 seconds you are like "Aaaaaaaaaahhhhh so THAT'S why they did it."

ESRI which makes ArcGIS designed a core software package capable of making maps. To it they added like 9 bazillion doo dads that you will never in your wildest dreams learn how to use because your work may not require it. Likewise if you are a jack of all trades in ArcGIS you may not know how to make something work... specifically.

ArcGIS is a wonder tool... a swiss army knife that has inexhaustable capabilities. With ArcGIS its not about what you can do as it is about what it can't do because it does just about every thing you might conceivably ask of it. In a span of a day I go from making maps to running complicated analysis to designing stuff to creating models to managing databases to sharing, exporting, creating, editing etc etc etc. In the end even after years of GIS practical hands on usage, taking years of college classes, taking dozens of ESRI provided classes, attending conferences there is still about 90% of ArcGIS left to learn. In hands of a GIS Technician GIS can go a long way. Many people use it for checking things out so in many ways GIS is a tool rather than a science.

To anyone hoping to take on this as a career I would strongly advise to get a career as a Geographer with emphasis on GIS all while taking remote sensing, hydrology, geology, cartography classes.

As for frustrations... I think only frustrations that deal with GIS specifically are when you are locked out of editing for no apparent reason. With every version editing environment has slowly shifted from traditional databases to those capable of supporting gigabytes of data. If you are in a network where dozens of people actively open maps or work with data you are bound to run into lock issues but outside of that it is a very rewarding experience.

 

I use it every day too. Have you played with the app for smart phones yet. Pretty slick when bouncing back and forth with a gps.

 

Yeah I have it on my 2 ipads and iphone. At work we use them on ipads and iphones. As long as you have arcgis online account you can use them. ArcGIS app is so awesome that I use it just about every other day. Tons of free goodies on it.

 

GIS is pretty badass! I work at a Water District doing GIS and Planning work while I finish up my senior year. I've been to the ESRi Headquaters here in Redlands multiple times and that place is rediculous, so much money invested in the program and so much to be made with it.

Bored at work screen shot haha

 

Does anyone here work with the ArcCollector iPhone/iPad app??

We just got an iPad at work to use during SWPPP site inspections and I'm trying to figure out if the subscription is worth the money over the ArcGis iPad app.

 

Esri controls the world.

 

Spent my fair share of hours within arcmap with a GIS minor. Now all my time is spent mapping geological features and modeling with Vulcan mining software. Cool stuff and very expensive. Data organization is key!

 

I agree with data org. I got my GIS certification when I was at school for my forestry degree. Probably one of my best decisions! In my field, it's surprising how little the older folks know about it. I'm the only person in the parks department (in the biggest city of Vermont) that knows anything about it. Helped me out big time

 

I have an uncle that teaches 2nd year gis at a college back home. Been considering taking the course, looks like its some fun stuff to play around with.

 

Alrighty guys I need some help... I've been trying for the last two hours at work to figure this out and I know this is freaking easy but I can't get it to work.
I'm working with a parcel map, and I need to make a new shape file of all the parcels that participate in a program in the county. What I have is the shapefile of all the parcels, and then another excel file with one column of parcel ID numbers of all the properties that participate. I've been able to add the excel file of just the short list of participating parcels, but I can't figure out how to make a new shapefile with all the participating files with all the extra needed info. Let me take some pics and hopefully this will make sense

This is the county parcel table


And this is the table my boss gave me.

So I need to make a new shapefile with the parcel list my boss gave me, and I need to pull it all out of the larger table. I would do it one by one (like my boss told me to do because he couldn't remember how to do it either) but that means going through something like 150,000 rows of data.

Help is very much appreciated!