Georeferencing

I haven't learned something new in a while, but this week saw an end to that. Turns out that I was incorrect when I previously said that I would be using all of my scanned files to mark out the street lights on all of Olathe. What I am doing is sort of similar, but it does not include marking lights. It is something called georeferencing, and initially it was complex enough leave me dazed for a while. However, I am happy to tell you that I got the hang of it after a few days and many questions.

I will walk you through the steps. Now that I have all the ".tiff" files extracted, I then pull those separately into the ArcGIS map program as previously described. This creates a map layer for the each picture file that I draw in. I then read the document to see what Olathe "plat" (small plots of land) it lies on, then select that plat from a menu. This brings me to it on the main Olathe map, and I can then do the actual georeferencing. I then compare the picture file and the main map and pick at least two easy to spot overlapping landmarks. This locks them overlapping each other showing the exact same plot of land, but with the picture document showing the street light layout. The next step is to save, and then I am done. That ".tiff" file has been georeferenced to the map.

It all took a while to get used to and make meaningful progress, but these files are of undeveloped plats as well, so I can see the layout of all the roads and homes before they are even built. I may be weird, but there is just something satisfying about that.

Playing with Files

This week was a shortened week due to the upcoming FIRST Robotics Regional. I only had two work days this week, but they were used hard at work first putting all of my scanned street light ".pdf" files into separate folders, naming them, and then removing the specific page that showed the street light layout on each document into its own ".tiff" file, although the exact process for each one is slightly different. For the ones that were scanned before me, all the folder has is ".tiff" files and I need to combine them into a ".pdf". Others are only the ".pdf", while the best ones are both the ".pdf" and the ".tiff", so all I need to do is delete the unnecessary ".tiff" files. Unfortunately, I had about two hundred of these to do as well, which still took me a deceptively long time.

However, all of the folder naming and placements are done for them, and I am now starting on removing the ".tiff" files on them. As I said last week, it is at least some solace to know that all that I do is compounding on itself and becoming a part of something bigger.

Putting the Pieces Together

Well, this was an interesting week. With all of the street light plans done, I began work anew. However, I found out that this next job is a culmination of the last. For my new work, I would be going over all of the street light PDF files that I had created, and copying the street light plan file in the stack into a ".tif" picture file. This picture file will then be used in the future to post over the ArcGIS program map so that we will be able to reference it to  the ArcGIS map and then mark of the street lights and circuits for all of the streets of the city. I may be mistaken on the exact process to get there, but it will be satisfying to have the street light points on the ArcGIS map be a direct result of the work that I have done. Now all I need to do is get there.

Until next week my avid reader.

Short but Successful

This week, only a 3 day due to a FIRST Robotics Regional, was nonetheless productive as shown by still completing folders 10-12 in this time frame. They may have been less full than the others, but the macro is the important part. These files are nothing that I haven't described before, just some more of them.

In case you have forgotten, what I am doing more of is street light files on roads and intersections all over our fair city. What this boils down to is a stapled stack of about 6 large papers outlaying the entire region, then the following pages show closer and more detailed drawings of separate sections of the area or of the specific streetlight design forms. There is more than that, but I cannot decipher much more than that. I haven't looked at any closely in a while, but it is interesting to see how much the city has on file, and how I could essentially find and layout every utility in my neighborhood from the files that I have access to. I don't exactly plan on it, but I now know that I have the ability.