The Local Government Model is a well documented, highly integrated, geodatabase model that has been developed and configured by ESRI and made available on their site for all registered users. It is considered a complete product but one thing I've discovered is documentation on it is sparse and/or somewhat difficult to find. On top of this there are multiple applications and solutions developed, both by ESRI staff as well as 3rd parties (generally users). The documentation on all of the myriad of pieces is fragmented due to the fact that it is developed on so many levels and by so many parties. This document is my attempt to bring together all of the pieces that are important (as I see them) concerning the actual model itself into one place for ease of use, navigation or discovery.
Detailed Information
Data Dictionary
ESRI offers a 'Data Dictionary' for the LGM that gives a complete birds-eye view of the entire structure in a web-page format complete with links. This information can be found here.
Access the LGM
The download point for the LGM should be located here.
Updates / Upgrades
The beauty (and horror) of using the LGM is that it updates regularly. It is a living Geodatabase.
Update / Upgrade Assistance
ESRI provides a tool that will assist in migration from one version of the ArcGIS Solution Information Model to a newer verion and incorporate content provided with each release. The tool gives you the option to 'opt out' of specific aspects of the update. In fact, the 'Schema Migration Wizard' looks at your setup and allows you to accept or deny changes to your system based on new data as well as removed data. If you have questions about the process ESRI provides a help section to walk you through a lot of the nuances of updating.
Release Notes
ESRI generates a detailed release notes for the Local Government Information Model in PDF format. It appears that they just update the Release Notes PDF with each update so >> this link << should work everytime the notes are updated. If you try this link and it doesn't work, please feel free to update / correct.
LGM Tools
ESRI Provided
ESRI has assembled, developed and made available a series of tools for interacting with the LGM. Everything from installation to updating your very own Local Government Model Geodatabase.
- ArcGIS Solutions Schema Migration Wizard
- The ArcGIS Solutions Schema Migration Wizard helps you migrate from one version of an ArcGIS Solution Information Model to a newer version (i.e., 10.1 > 10.2) and incorporate content provided with each release.
- X-Ray for ArcCatalog
- The X-Ray add-in for ArcCatalog can be used to develop, refine and document your geodatabase designs.
- X-Ray for ArcMap
- The X-Ray add-in for ArcMap can be used to document the properties of your map documents (MXD's)
- Set Map Data Sources
- The Set Map Data Sources tool helps you update map documents that reference data in a file geodatabase to correctly reference data in an enterprise or workgroup database.
3RD Party Provided
3rd party organizations have also assembled, developed and made available tools for interacting with the LGM.
This Document
This document is created in Google Docs and copied and pasted to here. In order to find this document please follow this link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i3bGwhzXEl-a8aHNTkWw23_aPUVavFX6keHpoqUqntc/edit?usp=sharing
