Module 6 - Map Layout

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. List what map layout consists of
2. Describe the pieces of a map
3. Describe the important aspects of how a reader naturally focuses on a map
4. Evaluate the overall balance of a map
5. Describe how the grid enforces the stability of map layout

TERMS TO KNOW

• map layout
• map pieces
• title
• legend
• scale
• explanatory text
• directional indicator
• inset
• locator map
• visual center
• symmetrical balance
• asymmetrical balance

READING ASSIGNMENT

Chapter 6 in the text. MakingMaps: A Visual Guide to Map Design for GIS

ACTIVE LEARNING EXERCISE

3D Models in Sketch-up: An introduction - posted last week

STUDY QUESTIONS

1. What does the author mean by the statement 'there is more to a map than the map'?
2. List and describe the common 'pieces' to a map.
3. What does the map reader 'notice' when the map layout succeeds?
4. What happens when map layout fails?
5. What does map layout consist of?
6. What is an advantage to a 'visual scale' like a bar scale?
7. When should a visual scale be used?
8. What is one way to deal with data that does not lend itself to be shown at a single scale?
9. Where on the map should you position elements you wish to be seen first?
10. Where is the visual center of a map?
11. What is the difference between symmetrical and asymmetrical map balance?

Module 6 - Active Learning Exercise: 3D Models in ArcGIS and SketchUp - An introduction

Introduction: The abundance of high quality 3D terrain data have prompted an abundance of 3D modeling techniques to gain insight into how we interface with the world. Modeling terrain data in ArcGIS and SketchUp can provide unique visualization and analysis of 3-dimensional information. For this exercise we will work with data from Haywood County, Haywood Community College and the USGS.

Sources of this data in North Carolina include:

LIDAR - created as part of the flood mapping program for Western North Carolina

Contours - From individual county or available state-wide from NC Dot - http://www.ncdot.org/it/gis/DataDistribution/CountyMapData/default.html

Other GIS data - infrastructure and other base data available from counties and the NC DOT.

'Building out' the campus in 3D will allow for a more interactive experience when looking at the campus as a whole. This type of information will provide many different departments on campus with a robust tool to enhance decision making on a campus wide basis.

Some of the types of questions this data will be able to answer:

1. Where is the best place for a walking trail taking in consideration distance and change in elevation (or slope) as well as views.

2. What is the best layout for the 9 hole frisbee golf course the Board of Trustees recently approved and funded?

3. Where are the dark, hidden areas of campus where car break-ins are more likely to occur.

4. What is the best place for the new Geospatial Technology Center building taking into consideration the beautiful mountain views and the impact of our neighbors view after our new building has been built. We should also use this information to assess the slope of the land and existing infrastructure such as water, sewer, and fiber optics, and parking lots.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the different sources for 3D data in North Carolina
• Create terrain data (TIN's) from vector based-contour data
• Generate shapefiles in 3D
• Assign building base heights using Zonal Statistics in Spatial Analyst
• Extrude features based on attributes
• Export to Google SketchUp

Steps / Procedure:

Project set-up and data preparation:

Download the data and create map document

1. Click here to download the .zip file containing the data for this exercise.

2. Create a folder in your working directory for this exercise - i.e. f:/pete/gis251/terrain

3. Unzip the data into your working directory. Keep everything from this exercise in your working directory.

4. Open ArcMap and add the following layers to your map document:

• Buildings
• Main Campus
• CampusContours

5. Symbolize and organize the data as you see fit.

6. Set your map document to store relative paths (File ==> Map Properties == Data Source Options)

7. Save your map document (to your working directory) and save it often!

Establish the scale of the data frame

1. Zoom in to close enough that you can just see the campus boundary. (1:4500)

2. Don't forget to save often!

Create a TIN from the contours

1. In ArcMap, turn on the 3D Analyst Extension (Tools ==> Extensions)

2. Turn on the 3D Analyst Toolbar (View ==> Toolbars ==> 3D Analyst)

3. On the 3D Analyst Toolbar (3D Analyst ==> Create/Modify TIN ==> Create TIN from features)

4. Choose 'CampusContours', height source 'Z-FEET', and Triangulate as 'Hard Lines'. Put the 'output TIN' in your working directory.

5. Preview the TIN...make sure to order the layers in the table of contents so the buildings and campus boundary are displayed on top of the new TIN. By the way, have you saved lately? I didn't think so.

TIN example

Download and install the SketchUp ArcGIS PlugIn

This plugin can be downloaded from the Google SketchUp Plugins page. You'll need to scroll towards the bottom of the page and make sure to get the SketchUp 5 ArcGIS Plugin. I am using SketchUp 6 but this version worked for me.

• SketchUp PlugIn Site - http://www.sketchup.com/?sid=37
• Check the link above to see the ArcGIS and all the other plugins. For quick access to the SketchUp 5 ArcGIS plugin click here!

1. Download the file to your working directory

2. Double click and install all components to their default directories

Load the plugin into ArcGIS

1. Open your map document.

2. Tools è Customize

3. Click the Toolbars Tab è Add From File
4. Navigate to the place on your computer where the SketchUp Plugin was installed. The default location for this (i.e. where it is normally installed) is C:Program FilesArcGISSketchUp5

5. Double click the file: FeaturesToSkp.dll

6. Click OK to the added objects

7. Under the Toolbars Tab, make certain the SketchUp 5 Tools is checked and close the dialog box

You should now have a small toolbar displayed that looks like this è

Assign base elevations to buildings layers

The buildings data for this exercise must have a 'base height' to assign an elevation at ground level for the building. This data must also have some type of information that the buildings can be extruded by. This field normally holds the height of the building although this may sometimes need to be calculated using the number of stories by the height of each story. Our data in this exercise has a height field for us to extrude the buildings by but we will need to assign a value for elevation in the attribute table for the buildings.

Convert TIN to raster

The TIN we created earlier must be converted to a raster file containing elevation before going farther

1. From the 3D Analyst Toolbar, make certain the drop down box contain layer informatin èLayer: TIN
2. Convert the TIN to raster (3D Analyst èConvert èTIN to Raster)
3. Use the following settings in the TIN to Raster dialog:

• Input TIN: TIN
• Attribute: Elevation
• Z factor: 1.000
• Cell Size: 10
• Output raster: C:ClassesGIS251_sp07Module6elevgrid (This resulting file will be a GRID. GRID file names CANNOT be longer than 8 characters)

4. Save your map document

Assign elevation to the buildings using the elevation GRID

We will use Spatial Analyst and Zonal Statistics to assign base height elevations to the attribute table of the buildings layer. Zonal Statistics will allow us to create statistics for individual zones on a raster based on the information in the raster (the elevation raster in our case). We will use the buildings layer to define the 'zones' therefore the 'zones' will be individual building polygons. For each zone (i.e. building) statistics such as maximum, minimum, mean, median and more for the elevation information in the cells within each zone (building). A table will be created of these elevation statistics and be automatically joined to the attribute table of the buildings. In the end we will use the average elevation for each building to display the buildings on a surface in SketchUp.

1. Turn on the Spatial Analyst extension: (Tools èExtensions èSpatial Analyst)

2. Display the Spatial Analyst Toolbar: (View èToolbars èSpatial Analyst)

3. From the Spatial Analyst Toolbar: (Spatial Analyst èZonal Statistics)

4. Set the zonal statistics dialog as follows:

• Zone dataset: Buildings
• Zone field: nombre
• Value raster: Elevation
• Ignore NoData: checked
• Join output table to zone layer: checked
• Chart statistic: mean
• Output table: put the table in your working directory

5. Click OK

6. Save your map document

The resulting table and graph describe the "elevation" within the the zones of "buildings". There should be a zone for each building. Don't be surprised if a couple buildings do not get elevations assigned. I was having problems with 3 buildings earlier and could not find out why. Just ignore them for the purposes of this exercise.

This elevation information was also 'joined' to the buildings attribute table (open the table for buildings to see the joined fields - the . in the field names indicate that tables are joined).

This join is only preserved in ArcMap (the 2 source tables are not combined) so we need to export the buildings with the joined elevation zonal statistics table to a new shapefile in order to have all the elevation zonal statistics permanently joined to a buildings layer.

6. Right click the buildings in the ArcMap Table of Contents: (Data èExport Data) - put the new shapefile in your working directory and name it something that makes sense. I called mine bld_elev.

7. When asked if you want the new data layer added to the map, click yes.

** Note: This step is not necessary to draw buildings in 3D with ArcScene in ArcGIS. In ArcScene, base heights can be in the attribute table however if they are not the buidings could still be displayed in 3D by assigning base heights from a surface like a TIN or DEM. In this case, the elevations are not stored in the table in a place you can see or access them. To draw the buildings in SketchUp, the base height elevations MUST be in the attribute table in a column.

Export your contours and building features to SketchUp

The new buildings shapefile with base height elevations has a TON of attributes with that addition of all the elevation zonal attributes. We will be using the 'mean' elevation as a base for our buildings. This is not perfect since the 3d terrain surface of contours we wil be displaying the buildings on is continually changing across the base of the buildings meaning that the buiding footprints have not been 'stamped' into the 3D terrain surface. The other attribute used will be 'height'. We will use the 'height' attribute to extrude the buildings.

1. Turn off all layers except the new buildings layer (with elevation) and the contours

2. Click the button on the SketchUp Toolbar.

3. Select the Feature Class tab

4. For the buildings choose:

• Elevate by field: mean
• Extrude by field: height
• Name group using: nombre

5. For the campusContours

• Elevate by field: Z_FEET

6. Filename: put the new file in your working directory

7. Explore the Tins and Rasters Tabs even though we will not use them in this exercise.

8. Click OK

Viewing the data in SketchUp

1. SketchUp should have automatically opened. If it did not, double click the file to open it.

2. Click the Zoom to Extents button and explore the data in SketchUp.

Credit to the Harvard Graduate School of Design for much of the content and ideas in this exercise.

NC GIS Conference 2007

We'll all be there so we'll make that our assignment for the week! Lot's of exciting talks and sessions. Make sure to take notes during your favorite session because next week I'll have you do a short write-up of the conference or a session that you liked.

http://www.cgia.state.nc.us/ncgis2007

We'll have Haywood Community College's very own Andy Tait giving a presentation as part of the 'G. Herbert Stout Award' student presentations. His presentation is entitled:

Resource Assessment: Ecologically Sound Development in Western North Carolina with Regard to Slope Stability, Soil Conditions, Watershed Integrity, and Other Factors.

These student presentations will go on all day Friday. Yours truly will be moderating the sessions. Don't forget to check out the conference program before you go to get an idea of what sessions you may want to attend - and we hope you'll spend some time around the HCC booth helping to promote our programs!

Pete

Module 5 - Active Learning Exercise

In Google SketchUp, you can create surface models (terrains - TINs) using existing digital elevation data in many formats. In this exercise, we will utilize a set of vector contours in .dwg (AutoCAD) format to create a surface.

1. Download the contours in CAD format and uzip them.
• http://www.usgsquads.com/svcs_contour_extraction.htm#Sample_Data
2. Start Google SketchUp
3. Activate the Sandbox Tools Extension. Windows ==>Preferences ==> Extensions
4. 
5. Import the contours. File ==> Import - Make certain to change Files of Type to ACAD files and navigate to the contour file you downloaded and unzipped.
6. 
7. Note the import results dialog. Pan around and preview the contours.
8. 
9. The contours come in as a 'group' so you must 'explode' them before a terrain can be generated. Select the group using the select tool. It should appear with a blue box surrounding all of the contours. Right click on the selected group ==> explode.
10. 
11. Now your contours are ready to be used to create a TIN. Make certain all the contours are selected and then choose the from contours tool on the Sandbox Toolbar (it is the button to the far right). Be patient, this may take some time!
12. The finished terrain model.

Module 5 - Geographic Framework

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Describe what the geographic framework involves
2. Describe the Tissot indicatirix
3. Characterize major map projection by spatial property preserved
4. Contrast large and small scale maps
5. Describe latitude and longitude
6. Describe the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) coordinate system
7. Describe State Plane Coordiantes
8. Import contours from CAD data into Google SketchUp
9. Place 3D models on terrain in SketchUp

TERMS TO KNOW

• Geographic Framework
• Map Projection
• Map Scale
• Map Coordinates
• Tissot indicatrix
• latitude and longitude
• universal transverse mercator
• mercator
• state plane coordinates

READING ASSIGNMENT

• Chapter 5 in the text. MakingMaps: A Visual Guide to Map Design for GIS
• Map Projection Overview - Peter H. Dana - The Geogapher's Craft project

ACTIVE LEARNING EXERCISE

We will be importing contour lines to create our own surface or terrain and placing our 3D model on the terrain.

In Google SketchUp, you can create surface models (terrains) using existing digital elevation data in many formats. In this exercise, we will utilize a set of vector contours in .dwg (AutoCAD) format to create a surface.

STUDY QUESTIONS

1. Describe what is involved with the geographic framework.
2. How does Tissot's indicatrix help to evaluate map projection distortion?
3. Give 2 examples of how data distorted through map projections can incorrectly distort perception about the information being mapped.
4. When overlaying multiple layers, why is it always important to know the projections of your different data sources?
5. Describe one projection in each of the following categories - 1) area preserving 2) shape preserving 3) distance / direction preserving 4) compromise. Make sure to describe what the map projection does well and does poorly.
6. Define map scale
7. How does map scale affect the data on the map?
8. Compare and contrast large and small scale maps.
9. When is latitude and longitude an appropriate coordinate system to use?
10. When is UTM an appropriate coordinate system to use?
11. When is State Plane an appropriate coordinate system to use?

SUPPLEMENTAL

• Java Maps web application showing Tissot's indicatrix
  

Module 4 Lecture

Module 4 - Map-Making Tools

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. List several different map-making tools
2. Describe how the map-making tool can influence or control map design
3. Discuss map-making without computers
4. Explain how the internet has changed map-making
5. Identify the ways GIS software is used for more than just making maps
6. Compare map-making on an internet site versus using a GIS
7. Describe how map making tools can be used together
8. Download Digital Elevation Models from the internet
9. Explore DEM's using 3DEM
10. Generate terrain models in SketchUp using Digital Elevation Models

TERMS TO KNOW

• queries
• buffer
• overlay
• analysis
• map
• graphic design
• design

READING ASSIGNMENT

• Chapter 4 of your text - MakingMaps: A Visual Guide to Map Design for GIS
• What is Web 2.0? - O'REILLY
• What is GeoWeb 2.0? - David Maquire over at GIS Matters

ACTIVE LEARNING EXERCISE

Importing digital elevation data into Google SketchUp provide real-world, accurate terrain data for incorporating into your 3D SketchUp models. This week we'll utilize an exercise by Chris Fullmer to help us process and import USGS DEM's into SketchUp.

Sketchup DEM Import Tutorial - thanks Chris! When you finish this tutorial, export the model to a .jpg and insert in your homework document for the week.

SketchUp User Guide: 3D Model (DEM) Import - another great source of information.

STUDY QUESTIONS

1. Describe a situation when a hand drawn map would serve your purpose.
2. What are some advantages and some disadvantages to internet mapping sites?
3. How and when are graphic design tools useful in the mapping process.
4. Describe a fictious project where you would use 2 or more of the map making technologies to achieve your overall goals and objectives.
5. Describe some map-making tools that were not covered in the book.
6. Export your 3D terrain model from SketchUp and insert into homework document.

SUPPLEMENTAL

Start getting ready for next week by watching the following tutorials on working with Google Sketchup.

What the following videos from:
http://sketchup.google.com/gsu5vtvideos.html

• Creating terrains from contours
• Creating rolling surfaces with the Sandbox Tools
• Pressing a footprint into terrain with the Stamp tool