Overlaying a COMPASS line plot to ArcGIS

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Re: Overlaying a COMPASS line plot to ArcGIS

Postby John Lovaas » Mar 16, 2010 7:39 pm

WVCaver2011 wrote:Man, that bites that you have to spend all that money just to get a shapefile to work properly...


Well, I spent $200 back in 2005 for a student copy, and it is all I've ever needed. Not a big outlay of cash, and any student can qualify for the discount.

Meanwhile, ArcExplorer will not let you do what you seem to want to do- that is, view a three dimensional model of the cave and the surface above the cave from any vantage point below the surface. Doesn't do it with a shapefile, doesn't do it with a KML file.

You can answer your other questions-

WVCaver2011 wrote:...I would rather just like to know how much dirt and rock is above my head at any given point in the cave. Also I would like to know how close certain areas are to the surface just to see if there may be other entrances to the cave in that direction....


with some pretty basic map interpretation, comparing cave elevations to surface elevations. You can use the PopUp tool in ArcExplorer to identify these numbers, or view your elevations in Compass while reviewing the KML file in ArcExplorer.

A case of getting what you pay for ;-)
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Re: Overlaying a COMPASS line plot to ArcGIS

Postby WVCaver2011 » Mar 16, 2010 9:27 pm

John Lovaas wrote:
WVCaver2011 wrote:Man, that bites that you have to spend all that money just to get a shapefile to work properly...


Well, I spent $200 back in 2005 for a student copy, and it is all I've ever needed. Not a big outlay of cash, and any student can qualify for the discount.


No way!! Where do I go to qualify? That would surely be a great B-day present!! :tonguecheek:

John Lovass wrote:
WVCaver2011 wrote:...I would rather just like to know how much dirt and rock is above my head at any given point in the cave. Also I would like to know how close certain areas are to the surface just to see if there may be other entrances to the cave in that direction....


with some pretty basic map interpretation, comparing cave elevations to surface elevations. You can use the PopUp tool in ArcExplorer to identify these numbers, or view your elevations in Compass while reviewing the KML file in ArcExplorer.

A case of getting what you pay for ;-)


Yea, I figured that out...but I would like to visually see how far underground the entire cave is intead of interpreting a few points...
There's nothing that makes me more excited than finding a place underground that no one has ever seen or been in!

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Re: Overlaying a COMPASS line plot to ArcGIS

Postby John Lovaas » Mar 17, 2010 9:34 am

WVCaver2011 wrote:No way!! Where do I go to qualify?


Your school's bookstore. If they don't have it, call ESRI- they'll run you through the process.

WVCaver2011 wrote:Yea, I figured that out...but I would like to visually see how far underground the entire cave is instead of interpreting a few points...


Well, if by "a few points", you mean "every survey station in the cave"- seems like plenty of points.

The task of interpreting the relationship between your cave survey and the surface on a 2D map is very small, compared to the task of learning ArcGIS/3D Analyst/ArcScene- which is what you'll need to do to meet your aim.
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Re: Overlaying a COMPASS line plot to ArcGIS

Postby WVCaver2011 » Mar 17, 2010 6:49 pm

John Lovaas wrote:
WVCaver2011 wrote:Yea, I figured that out...but I would like to visually see how far underground the entire cave is instead of interpreting a few points...


Well, if by "a few points", you mean "every survey station in the cave"- seems like plenty of points.

The task of interpreting the relationship between your cave survey and the surface on a 2D map is very small, compared to the task of learning ArcGIS/3D Analyst/ArcScene- which is what you'll need to do to meet your aim.



Na, I mean as in a station here and there... Figuring out the distance from the surface to the station directy below wouldn't require much more than a topo map and the elevation of the station. However, I would much rather learn how to use a decent software program anyway because I would love to see the whole cave at one time instead of using my judgment on a point here and there and I would also like to see the owners reaction when he see's what I present him...He has neighbors and his neighbors have roughly 10 undocumented caves that they wont allow anyone in...However, his neighbors are also his relatives...I'm going for a long shot here but I'm hoping to copy a fly though or somthing of the cave and present that to him on disk then hopefully he'll show his neighbors...Maybe this will jar there attention a bit...I'm sure they're wondering whats under the ground beneath those holes... :big grin:

Anyway, I called to place an order for the software and they told me that since I was going to school at a university that had a site license then I could get ArcGIS Editor for free. So, I contacted a couple professors and found who I needed to talk to...Looks like i'll be learning how to play around with ArcGIS Editor after all...This will keep me busy.. :tonguecheek:
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Re: Overlaying a COMPASS line plot to ArcGIS

Postby WVCaver2011 » Apr 15, 2010 11:56 am

After retrieving arcgis editor from my university, I figured out things are a lot different from arcgis explorer... I've tried to get my 3D shapefile to export and open it in arc catalog and arc map but all i'm able to open are lyr files...I can't seem to retrieve the other files that exist... Am I not doing something right? Should I be opening in in another program within arceditor? :shrug:
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Re: Overlaying a COMPASS line plot to ArcGIS

Postby Aaron Addison » May 11, 2010 12:20 pm

Can't Compass import and display DEM data? Walls can certainly import Compass data and output a shapefile with the correct projection.

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Re: Overlaying a COMPASS line plot to ArcGIS

Postby Pat Kambesis » May 11, 2010 1:56 pm

Since you want to view your files in 3-D, I think you may need to be using ArcScene - not sure if the student version offers that option - when you install that version you have to make sure that you've checked of all of the tool options.

The biggest problem that I've had with getting a line plot to show in ArcGis had to do with the coordinate system and sometimes the units.

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Re: Overlaying a COMPASS line plot to ArcGIS

Postby rl23455 » Dec 26, 2010 6:57 pm

Use QGIS an open source(and free) GIS software. I use it and it has no problems accepting a shape file. As long as you have entered geographic coordinates into Compass properly. WinKarst also works fine with QGIS

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Re: Overlaying a COMPASS line plot to ArcGIS

Postby WVCaver2011 » Mar 4, 2011 1:30 am

Hey guys,

I'm back again.... Unfortunately I ran into a problem while trying to export a KML. I properly labeled my fixed station in the project manager but when I go to view my cave plot it reads the following:

"-----------------------------------
Compiling File: sc kml.mak
-----------------------------------
Make Subfile: Short Cave Survey.DAT
Shots With No Tie In:
a0-a1
a1-a2
a2-a3
a3-a4
a4-a5
a5-a6
a6-a7
a7-a8
a8-a9
a9-a10
a10-a11
a11-a12
a12-a13
a13-a14
a14-a15
a15-a16
a16-a17
a17-a18
a18-a19
a19-a20
a20-a21
a21-a22
a22-a23
-- More Than 25 Errors, List Truncated --"

Although a23 is tied into a24 and a24 is tied into c1....I dont understand why im getting a tie-in error?!?!

I set a0 as my fixed station and connected it into a1

I'm officially stumped...

After it reads the error above it displays, after the cave plot TRIES to boot up:

"No Shots in plot file! Probably caused by errors in data file."

I assume this is just due to the tie-in error for whatever reason...

What really stumps me is why I can go into the .DAT and have it display the cave plot without 1 error and then try to do the same thing with the project and have it read the error above....

I'm not new to the survey level of compass but I am new to the project level of compass. There could easily be something that im not understanding at the project level but if it were at the survey level I know I would have caught it by now. :shrug:
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Re: Overlaying a COMPASS line plot to ArcGIS

Postby chac » Mar 4, 2011 11:18 am

Allen,

If everything looks good in the actual data (no survey typos, etc.) and the .DAT file processes correctly, go back and check your fixed station information in the Project View. Make sure you identified the fixed station as it is in your survey data. A common mistake is specifying aO instead of a0 (or the reverse). Go to the Geo-Calculator and make sure everything is correct in the appropriate fields. Save it and try to process it again in the Project.

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Re: Overlaying a COMPASS line plot to ArcGIS

Postby WVCaver2011 » Mar 5, 2011 1:14 pm

Okay,

Thanks for the information, I will see what I can do tomorrow evening/night when I get back to my computer. I do believe that it's possible that I labeled the fixed station A0 in the links page instead of a0 like I should have. I will see if this is correct. If not I will be asking for more assistance.
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Re: Overlaying a COMPASS line plot to ArcGIS

Postby chac » Mar 5, 2011 2:49 pm

Allen,

Hopefully it will be an easy fix, and you will be back in business.

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Re: Overlaying a COMPASS line plot to ArcGIS

Postby WVCaver2011 » Mar 7, 2011 11:59 am

It was an easy fix! Thanks!
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Re: Overlaying a COMPASS line plot to ArcGIS

Postby chac » Mar 7, 2011 1:29 pm

Excellent! :kewl:
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