I am trying to consolidate some ideas for several courses I am developing and figured the end users were the people to ask. So I would like to know what types of courses people here would like to see. The topics I am trying to develop are mostly GIS oriented:
bringing your CAD to grid for importing into GIS,converting CAD data for use in GIS
creating GIS databases
referencing CAD into GIS
managing the company's files and data
adding value to contracts in order to increase your competitive position using GIS
supporting the facilities and assets management industry after the survey has been completed and project built
"how to build GIS databases" workshop
"how to use GIS" workshop
available standards and how to incorporate them for efficiency and delivery
What would your guys like to see as a course?
Thanks in advance for all of your input.
Good luck, and great idea. I could use some education but I'm so ignorant of most GIS that I don't know what to ask.
I have never used it except for local town data bases.
I hope you can come up with something great, keep me in the loop please 🙂
Taking a finished cad file of a boundary survey and overlaying it to an aerial photo or google earth. Not as the official final plat but to show the client where the partition lines will fall.
James
Our CADD creates a kmz google earth file with one poke
Teresa,
Everything you mentioned sounds interesting and useful. Are you going to do Webinars?
Dave
Hi Dave,
Not sure the formats, still just consolidating ideas. I am thinking modules so you don't have to sleep through a lot of stuff you don't need. Then if it's a class, I would combine the modules I want to present and can give them back to back, one based on the previous. But the material and any video are each a stand alone topic.
I think one on just handling imagery is an excellent idea. Is the image georeferenced? How to rectify or georeference if needed and what is the difference of those terms? How to handle the different image formats and what are the differences between them. First module idea!
Please keep course ideas coming. I think all of you bring to the profession a unique way of adding value to your product. I want to consolidate some of those ideas and create a systemic way of looking at business development and promotion of the geospatial profession. Something you now take for granted but you had to go figure out on your own how to do it - like working with images.
One I struggle with is creating the project projection in CAD and how that translate to grid/ground, low-distortion projections, county networks, large projects with extreme elevation or long routes (pipeline and utilities). How does CAD handle that, how do you deal with designers, etc. This is another topic for modules I am considering.
Teresa,
"...creating the project projection in CAD and how that translates to grid/ground, low-distortion projections..."
A nuts-and-bolts, theory-meets-practice course on that would be great.
Another idea would be practical application of GIS. Everyone knows how cool it is to overlay lot lines on a Google Earth photo, but what else is GIS useful for? What can you do with GIS and how can you make money with it?
Dave
Myself and the people I work with would very interested in something as you describe. I use global mapper quite a bit but am no GIS expert. Unfortunately my organization does not see the value. Most of us went to school before GIS was in wide use. We have large lidar data sets and ortho imagery that I want to create in a geo-referenced data base and possibly publish.
Keep us posers up to date on what you decide to do.
Thanks Dig. What methods you are using is exactly what I need to hear. I use Civil 3D and ArcGIS, but those are expensive. I am familiar with Microsurvey and Carlson to some extent. On the GIS side there are good programs out there as well that are affordable. I can't learn them all but knowing what people are using helps me focus the training.
The technology might save you some money by organizing data and making an operation a little more efficient, but that is not its importance. What it will do is provide you with the tools to widen your market and offer your clients a product that they are coming to expect. Your clients are barraged daily by maps and aerial images as background to everything. You may not want to have an image on the plat you record, but the client would appreciate seeing the image as the background on the survey you provide for their personal record. Or the subdivision HOA receiving a database all set up for facility management. Bottom line, it can increase business.
I will keep the board posted as to what I come up with. It will take me the summer to put something together. I am also trying to write an article based on my thesis - GIS for Short-term Facilities Management. I showed that the payback period was only 13 months with a large return on the investment. I think the info is useful for others.
