We use the county/state GIS systems every day for parcel data, general wetlands and FEMA info, Orthos, DEM data, and a bit more.
We're in the process of setting up our own system and I'm curious on how others utilize GIS in their businesses?
Tom
Tom,
We do the same but we also have a gis of survey maps that covers the past 30 years of our records in addition to records of 3 other surveyors that my boss acquired. It has taken a lot of setup but now when we are looking at a project we simply find the area on the gis map and we can instantly see what we have on file for that area. Its nice because although tax map numbers can change, the location of the points will not. Also, some of the point are linked to project folders, dwgs and scanned maps. It works very well.
Gregg
Are all of the old projects in SPC or did you have to geo-ref them?
This is similar to what I want to do, any advice on setting something like this up?
Tom
What are some good options for GIS programs other than the big boys?
Joe
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country. Typing class 9th grade!
I'll get back to you later on some set up tips but to answer your first question, most were not in spc so we basically manually placed each point where it belonged in the shape files we created.
Joe
I use [REDACTED] and it does everything I need as a GIS.
Thanks John, That is what I needed, a good reference from a good source.
Joe
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country. Typing class 9th grade!
:good:
Everyone, including civil engineers and land surveyors, want to make the GIS map. They want
to buy existing graphic databases for free or low cost, and then sell the electronic GIS map.
When you create 'your own system', certain databases may be very costly to reproduce and
import into your system. Most parcel data is maintained in a shape file by the county assessor
or tax department. Probably it is not the most accurate data that a surveyor would want to use,
but the database is usually so huge that you choose to use it.
Wetlands and orthophotos are maintained by the county and state GIS systems or their department
of natural resources. DEM data is usually pretty inaccurate and cities and counties bite the bullet
and pay for accurate digital contour maps.
Keeping up to date contour data is valuable and will be a function of UAS. This is why UAS has such
a promising future.
Does anyone here use GIS with their GPS mobile devices? Whats your setup look like? I know ArcGIS offers this, but they charge an arm and a leg.
The majority of surveying software can export a file format that can be imported by GIS office software. The workflow will likely have a few to several more steps compared to a device running Esri ArcPad and using the ArcPad Data Manager of Esri ArcGIS Desktop, but it is doable. This is just an example, the same could be said for using QGIS as the office software.
If you are simply looking to to store survey field data in a GIS to use as a archival and research tool, then this shouldn't be an issue to implement. However, if you are looking at a true asset inventory project that has a geodatabase as a final deliverable, I would recommend a device running Esri ArcPad or another software that can utilize the domains and coded values of a geodatabase as there is a lot of streamlined workflow that would be lost otherwise.
I hope this helps.