Latest Contributions by ThomasMuench

After a symbology is imported from another layer, there appears to be no way to remove that symbology and do a new symbology directly in the layer's properties box. In particular, the imported symbology is using the category method, and that method no longer appears in the list of methods in the symbology tab. Also the box one gets when Import is chosen, has no way to select a "no import" choice. Do I really have to create the layer again to be able to do a new symbology? ... View more

I find that graduated symbols are always drawn over filled polygons (graduated colors) even if the filled polygons are higher in the layer order. Filled polygons higher in the layer order cover filled polygons in a lower layer. Symbols higher in a higher layer are drawn over symbols in a lower layer. This lexicographic drawing order does not follow the drawing order that I see documented. Am I missing something?  Has anyone seen this in the ArcMap 10 documentation, and, if so, where? ... View more

The dot density symbology seems to yield hugely more dots on polygon boundaries than would be probable with a uniform probability distribution on the polygons. This is evident no matter the number or size of the dots. It is particularly evident, though, when the dot value is increased so that a large number of polygons have only one dot. In that case, a huge fraction of all dots are on boundaries. The centers of these dots are apparently so close to the boundaries that the boundary usually appears to go through the center of the dot with the naked eye. Thus it becomes practically impossible to visually determine the actual number of dots in any given polygon and thus to estimate the value of the symbolized field. Has anyone else noticed this?  Is this a known bug? Does anyone know of a way I could fix this? ... View more

There are a number of circumstances where ArcMap cannot find its data even if it is set to treat data location in the "relative" fashion.  To fix this generally, one can go to Data/Repair data source on a layer's drop down menu. If one chooses "Select All" in the dialog box, one can fix (almost) all the layers at once. The catch is that it will not fix the link to any data set joined to the main source file in a layer. It tells you that, and actually doesn't fix it. But it does leave "tracks in the dust", so to speak; often the legend using the joined data and/or the actual symbology on the map is still there. However, the actual joined data is not on the attribute table nor recognized in the Properties/Symbology tab nor is there any record of what the original joined source was. Thus one has to set up the join all over again. There does not seem to be a way of finding out or verifying what the original setup was. I guess I was really surprised at this apparent situation. Does anyone know how to recover the original join setup (if one doesn't know it) and repair the link to its data source? ... View more

There are a number of circumstances where ArcMap cannot find its data even if it is set to treat data location in the "relative" fashion.  To fix this generally, one can go to Data/Repair data source on a layer's drop down menu. If one chooses "Select All" in the dialog box, one can fix (almost) all the layers at once. The catch is that it will not fix the link to any data set joined to the main source file in a layer. It tells you that, and actually doesn't fix it. But it does leave "tracks in the dust", so to speak; often the legend using the joined data and/or the actual symbology on the map is still there. However, the actual joined data is not on the attribute table nor recognized in the Properties/Symbology tab nor is there any record of what the original joined source was. Thus one has to set up the join all over again. There does not seem to be a way of finding out or verifying what the original setup was. I guess I was really surprised at this apparent situation. Does anyone know how to recover the original join setup (if one doesn't know it) and repair the link to its data source? ... View more

As opposed to many of the other queries in this forum, I am trying to carry out the task below directly in ArcMap and not embedded in any program code. The Help system (Extentions/Geostatistical Analyst/Visualizing and Managing Geostatistical Layers/Predicting Values for Specific Lacations) says that MapTips works for Geostatistical Layers and would give the predicted value at any arbitrary location on the map using the GPI generated polynomial.  There is even a box to check in its Properties/Display dialogue window. However, MapTips doesn't work. There is a mention on the MapTips help page that MapTips might not work if there is no spatial index. Therefore, I have tried to figure out how to get ArcMap to produce a spatial index for the geostatistical layer. All the instructions I could find required the layer to be in a database of some sort. I do not use databases because it would entail major overhead and probably too complicated to arrange for all my students to learn and access it. I simply use files, although not a "file database". Is the lack of a "spatial index" likely to be my problem?  If so, is there a way to set it up without the overhead of creating and managing a "database"? Maptips does work for "regular" layers (for points, lines, and polygons). It just doesn't work for the GPI created Geostatistical Layer which is not any of those three "regular" type layers. ... View more

After producing a geostatistical layer using global polynomial interpolation using, for example, the Geostatistical Wizard, how can I access the actual coefficients for the n'th order polynomial that the Wizard produces. Clearly, these coefficients are stored in the ArcMap geostatistical layer, but I can't find any method (the generic sense) to access them. In addition, I can't find the format of the layer file in order to access them with a binary file reader. I notice that for some kinds of regressions in Spatial Analyst, the coefficients can be outputted to a file when using Arcpy. Howevr, I have not found any facility to get at the coefficients produced for global polynomial interpolation in Geostatistical Wizard. The only information on the polynomial that the Wizard outputs at the end is the order of the polynomial which in actually an input. Does anyone know how to do this? ... View more