Week 12 = 11/09/07

Today was the GIS day that has been advertised and talked about for a couple of weeks now. To say the least the event was full of activity. The day prior to the GIS day had its share of activity. That was the day that the equipment came in for the geo dome that was going to be setup and the AB Tech staff and I got the hallways and classrooms ready to receive the students and guests. I was able to play with the Garmin GPS units the Thursday before today so that when someone wanted to see them in action I was the dude to demo it. Some questions I was able to answer and some I had no clue as to the answer. Those questions I didn't know I would sent the person asking the questions to Pete and told the person asking the question that he was the "man" at answering any GPS question. One person asked me how she could use the GPS unit in her car or taking a trip. Another person asked me how he could use the GPS unit on a hike that he was planning to take. As the crowds thinned out during the course of the day I went over to the geo dome that was setup. This person that was doing the demo for the dome had a picture of Mars, Earth, and even our solar system. I wasn't able to catch all of the lecture but the part I did hear was that NASA is teaming up with the company that made the demo to get a better mapping software ready for use in NASA and in the civilian world. I could go on and on with the numerous people I have met and the activities I have seen but I won't. All I can say is that today was a day that can never happen the same way again. The next GIS day might have more presentations or more people at it but it will never be like the first ever GIS day at AB Tech that all of my instructors and my fellow classmates helped be a part of.

Week 11 = 11/02/07

Today for class we had a activity day, so to speak. We got to play with some GPS units that AB Tech has managed to acquire. Before we got play with the GPS units we discussed some topics like what GPS system OnStar uses for commerical use. We also discussed more and more about the GIS day which is going to be next class period. After the discussion we took the GPS units and went outside. We acquired the satellites and then marked a wave point at the light pole that is facing the Balsam building. Then we decided to mark another wave point at the oak tree that is at the beginning of the drive for the nursing building and the balsam building when you are coming down Victoria Rd. After a couple of passes going back and forth between those points we decided to make another wave point. This wave point was located at a light pole in the parking lot for the Birch building. When we got finished with the wave points we went back inside and saw how to download the data from the GPS unit to ArcMap, Google Earth, and ArcCatalog. We were shown how to make several different maps and reports from those three wave points. We were also exposed to several different web sites that contain all kinds of maps and reports about GIS. Some of the sites allowed us to convert data to a .kml file for goggle earth. While we were outside there were talks about setting up a booth for dudes to take a GPS unit and try to navigate to some points around AB Tech. I kinda am looking foward to being outside and help some people learn how to use a GPS unit. I am going to have get with the instructor sometime next week so I can learn more about the software and the GPS unit.

Week 10 = 10/26/07 = Cherokee County Maps

The map on the left shows the Cherokee County with the aspect option of the ArcMap software. The map on the right shows the hillshade of the entire county. The different colors indicate the different hillshades for the county. Of hand I am not sure what the colors mean but if you would like to know then shot me a comment and I will get a legend on that map.










The map on the right shows a contour for the Cherokee County. This map was generated by taking the downloaded data and using the contour option in the ArcMap software. The map on the left displays the cut/fill for the entire county. The blue represents the net loss for the county. It is hard to tell but there is another color on the blue map. Pop quiz hotshot, can you tell me the other color?














The map on the left shows the hours of winter solstice for the Cherokee county. You aren't able to see it but the hillshade layer is underneath this layer. If you look real close you can kinda see it. This map does not show any title or legend on it. The map on the right shows the final version of the map on the right. This map has a title, legend, and miles chart. The map on the left is ready to be printed and used.

Week 10 = 10/26/07

Today in class we went over our second test that we had. On the parts that I thought I did good on I did bad on but the parts that I thought I did bad on I did good on. Needless to say I am not going to post my grade on this blog site. After reviewing the test we got a demonstration on how to create a slope, hillshade, contour, and several other different maps. We were even shown how to download the hours of sunlight from any county in Western Carolina. After the show we were assigned to "play around" with the software for the remainder of the class. I decided since my grandma and two uncles live and work in the Cherokee county area I would do all of my maps for that county. The maps that should be displayed above this blog are the contour, cut/fill, aspect, and hillside maps. The hillside map may not be on the blog because I may not have saved just that map. I was trying to do the viewshade map for the hours of winter and summer solstice. Since the computer was taking a long time to calculate these maps I decided to abort those maps. When I tried the winter solstice calculation I got an error message about six minutes in it. During our lab time we were shown how to save a layer with our maps in that layer and we got more info on the GIS day. It turns out that our class is going to be broken up on that day. The instructor would like some classmates come from 8am-noon, some to come from 10am-2pm, and some to come the times between 8am-2pm. What I am going to do is report in from 8am-2pm since this is the first GIS that I have ever been to. I also heard that pizza is going to be served for our class. I only hope that there is enough pizza for the entrie class since most of my classmates like pizza.

Week 9 = 10/19/07 = Spatial Exercises Map

This map shows the suitable locations for areas for a new school based on some conditions that were established in the calculations. These highlighted areas are away from existing schools and close to recreation sites. Due to the small size of the map it might be hard to tell that right now. If you would like me to display the calculations for displaying this then post a comment and I will display that image.

Week 9 = 10/19/07 = Chapter 12 Maps

The map on the right shows an area in which the trees are not able to be cut down and logging is prohibited. The map on the left shows both areas that are and are not able to be cut down. In theory these maps will be used to help logging companies. If you would like me to enlarge the images then post a comment and I will try to post the larger image.

This map shows the harvestable areas that have a query that was created to display just that area. The map didn't display all the way when I up loaded it. At the top where it looks like there should be circles is where there are circles that the query had produced. If yall would like me to display the circles then post a comment and I will hope for the best

Week 9 = 10/19/07

Today in class was a break in the normal flow of the class. The normal flow is we come in lecture on one or two chapters and then do some lab exercises with the remaining time. With the normal flow I usually have little to zero troubles after I get started. Today was not a normal day. When we came in we were able to finish our lab exercises from the previous class. For me I had already done chapters eight and nine and all I had to do was chapter tweleve. Not only was I able to finish chapter twelve but I was able to export some maps that I had done from the second and third week of class to a jpeg. Needless to say that those images are finally on the blog. After two and a half hours of lab the instructor started to demonstrate how to download files from the Buncombe County website. The link to the site should be located on the left side of the blog site. During the demonstration we started to lecture on chapter ten, raster analysis, because some the data from the county was raster based data. After about a hour of the lecture we were given an exercise from the instructor on finding a site for a new school in the stowe geodatabase. When I went over to my lab computer and moved the mouse to get it out of the screen saver something weird happened. The mouse pointer displayed by the rest of the screen was black. My fellow classmates and I tried several options like "ctrl + alt + del" and hitting any key on the keyboard. In the end I had to reboot the computer. Think goodness I had saved my data before we started the lecture. After the computer powered back on I started on the exercise. During step one the instructor informed me that it would be better in the long run to store the spatial data folder on the root of my flash drive instead of in my gis folder due to there being a space in my gis folder. After getting through the computer reboot and the step one error everything else went smooth. I was able to finish the lab exercises in plenty of time and exporting the maps went smooth as well. Above this blog should be the maps for chapter twelve and the spatial analysis exercise.