Print, Annotation, Export

Printed a version of the map - the coast is looking better but the roads look sloppy as well as the labels for rivers/lakes.
- Need to export all of the rivers into one file
- Exported data to individual folders to keep everything better organized so that multiple files, smoothing files, etc. can be deleted from the Ddrive and it is insursed that the data will be there through exporting.

- Text cannot be linked to a layer -
- When applying labels in the layer there is no 'name' assignment
a. Open Attribute Table
b. Add Field
c. Turn on Editor
e. Select each of the lakes and type in 'name'
f. Apply Labels (Label Feature)
g. Go into Properties - labels
h. select 'lake names'
!
Convert labels into annotations using ARCGIS help option - main advantage is scale and individual control over annotations.
To turn Annotations 'on' and 'off' go to
a. View
b. Data Frame properties
c. Annotations Groups - tab
d. deselect the annotations

Converted Rivers into annotations using the same steps - annotation overflow was an error and use ARGGIS help option to add the annotation
- for whatever reason Saco River was not included in annotation process - ?
Re-did the label-annotation process - St. John and Allagash were deleted - we think all the rivers need to be in the screen view in order to have the annotations apply (strange) so I zoomed out of the map a little and tried for a third time (while also turning off the roads layer to try and 'give' more room for the labels) and this time all annotations are on the map as well as no having any problem with overflow.




Questions:
- Where is the rest of the Androscoggin (NH?
- Do we want the other lakes in the general vacinity of Richardson Lake?
- Will Annotations work better than labels?
- Roads look awkward - do we still want them?

Clean up - Labels v. Annotation v. Text

Cleaned up the lakes layer - initially we went into the properties menu, selected quantities, and created two natural breaks in the Lake Layer - area greater than 14000 acres and area less than 14000. The areas less than were deemed too small for what we are trying to accomplish and we made the feature hollow with no outline to 'hide' the feature.
Unfortunately when we figured out smoothing the coast the lakes layer needed to be above the state outline (to show up on the map) but there were all these little white marks from where the lakes had previously been.
Today I found the smallest area for the lake we were using (using the identify tool) and selected out the features that were less than 14000 acres and deleted them using the 'Select by attribute feature'

Questions:

Labeling

Working on labeling the rivers, lakes, and roads

Commands:

View - toolbar - labeling

*Reading on ArcGIS to try and figure out with method is better - adding a text and then spiraling might work better than trying to apply labels - it seems (knowledge found through online text) that you can only add labels to one area and need to create annotations - not sure which method is better (Ask Matt) but for now adding text seems to be going better for me.

TEXT is found at the bottom (of at least our version) and is displayed through the DRAW toolbar - use the Spiral Text Option to get the text to curve around the River

To Edit vertex use the Edit button (Text must be selected when using this option) next to the text option and start shifting things around

When it comes to labeling it really helps having the rivers smoothed

___________________________

Since the text is not saved as a layer the text size changes depending on the zoom which makes for a messy/interesting map...

Can text be made into a layer? or file? or something?

Next meeting:

Wednesday at 1pm - annotation v. labeling v. text - where to go next - how to make text align better...etc.

Still needs work but gives an idea of smoothed coast as well as labels (roughly).

Maine

• Began merging all the towns/ships in Maine which worked better today (Wednesday the computer would not respond when I tried to merge...) - there are some little gaps (including Moosehead Lake) which I am merging to Maine polygon so that when we simplify everything will be all one piece.

(side note - did end up smoothing the rivers after merging the pieces we wanted)

*Drew wants the initial map to include surrounding territories and then all of the other maps to be just of Maine.

• When smoothing the coast of Maine - Beizer does not work (creates an error OS) and Pake will only work if you tell the smoothing to Flag Errors

• Cut out the coast from Maine (using Cut Feature in Editor), exported that data into MaineCoast and smoothed it at 5000m - Made a Copy of the initial file we cut from and merged the two together - State looks a lot better than when we started.

• Added in what was thought to be major roads (MetaData said roads that posted above 40mph where in the file) but does not include I95 or 295...E911 is a dense set of data and could get messy when trying to select out and edit major roads.
  
• Looking for data on the whole country - found US Interstate Highway Data from NOAA and need to change the projection - data at the country level will (hopefully) be easier to work with.
• Needed to change the projection (datamanagment - projections and transformations - raster- define projection) and then fit it to Maine's UTM (data - projections - feature - project)
• Selected out (using the identify tool since names have changed after the file was create) roads wanted!

Questions:
Roads - what symbols to use?
Rivers - same
Shaded Relief
Other states
Coastline
Labels - how should everything be labeled (Annotation, layer?)
Symbolizing terrain/mountains
Lakes (select out major lakes and export them to a different file? - creates weird gaps on the boarder)

Smooth?

Trying to smooth out the coast of Maine by taking a polygon (selecting out the islands) and converting it to a line feature -

Matt also tried calling the Community for GIS in Farmington to see if they had any advise but no one was there

So far having a little trouble with selecting out the islands and getting them to delete

Created a New Field called 'Acres', calculated the geometry and then selected features that were less than 2500 acres - the areas are selected but when I try to delete it does not seem to want to ________

Dear Sarah,
You need to turn on the editor tool to delete...
______________________________

Deleted out hydro features less than 2500 acres and the coast line is starting to look better - going to try and smooth the polygon (even though we were having trouble before) rather than make it a line because maybe with the little islands gone, the smoothing will go better - did not go according to plan -

Meet again on Friday.

Meeting

Meeting with Matt and Drew today - finished rivers and lakes
Looking for shaded relief - ARCMap seems to have the data but unsure if we can edit.
ARCGis Online Resource Center


Talked about aesthetics and what to have on the map -

Rivers cont.

Finished Saco, St.John, and Andro - all rivers simplified.

Had the idea - if I am able to smooth the line feature of the State of Maine to be as I want - can I just convert that into a polygon rather than going through trying to smooth a polygon that doesn't seem to want to be smoothed?

Editing Rivers

Creating Single Lines

Open editor
select the features I want to use as the river
Use 'options' - 'switch selection' - delete
Now I can go through and select all the other features and delete - can use the split tool to make the shape into one line.

Snap all the pieces together and then merge the river to create one line.

*use shift to select all pieces needed
*might want to smooth the river a little before selecting out the features to delete.

Completed:
Penob
Kenn
Allagash
Machias

Rivers

Selected out parts of the Kennebec and created a line feature- created two lines rather than one

Commands
(Data management - features - polygon to line)
(data - generalization - smooth line)


Smooth - trying to smooth the lines of the river and is starting to work but still have two 'lines'
(use smooth rather than simplify) rather than being generalized into one

Collapse - tried at 1km to collapse the two outer lines together and then again at 5km and did not seem to make a difference


*for 'banks' topological error

Creating single line river is more complicated than expected - will work on this again Wednesday.