Frequently Asked Questions

1. I left the office still connected to the Hub geodatabase, and when I returned in the morning, my connection had been cancelled. Why is this?

Periodic data updates are done to the Hub geodatabase. This is normally done at 2AM. It is necessary to remove all users's locks prior to updating the geodatabase with the new information. If you are planning on running something that requires a connection all night long, you can contact us. We may be able to postpone our update.

2. How do I set up an ArcGIS layer (.lyr) file? I want to pre-define the data source and display characteristics to make things easier on myself and the people in my organization.

In ArcGIS, you can do this with ArcCatalog or with ArcMap. If using ArcCatalog, right-click on the selected data set, and from the menu, select "Create Layer…" You will be presented with a dialog, where you will browse to where you will name the file and where you want to store the .lyr file (we suggest one standard area, so that all users will benefit). Use ArcCatalog to browse to the location of the .lyr file, right-click on the name, and select "Properties…" from the menu. You can now customize the display properties by clicking on the General tab to set the display scale, clicking on the Symbology tab to set the display characteristics, etc.

You may find it easier to set up the layer file using ArcMap. Load the information into ArcMap, set the display characteristics of that data. When ready, right-click on the data set name, and select "Save As Layer File…" from the menu. You will be presented with a dialog, where you will browse to where you will name the file and where you want to store the .lyr file (we suggest one standard area, so that all users will benefit).

3. How do I know what layers are available within a map displayed by the Hub Explorer?

The Hub Explorer is set up so that layers appear and disappear depending on zoom scale. This is done to reduce screen clutter and to keep the image size relatively small, improving performance. However, it is not apparent what layers are available for a particular map and what details the layer contains (depending on zoom scale) when one first starts the Hub Explorer. In the future, we will look into how a list of available layers for a particular map can be presented within the Hub Explorer. In the meantime, it may be helpful to view the descriptive information associated with each data theme, displayed in the Hub Explorer Home Page.

4. How can I save the map that I see in the Hub Explorer as an image that I can include in another document? I see the map in the Hub Explorer that I would like to save, but when I right click and select "Save Picture As...", the file is saved as pixel.gif, and it does not contain the image.

Eventually, we may be able to supply an easy method to save the displayed image in a specified format. For now, you have two ways to get the image that you desire. In the Hub Explorer, click on the Print icon in the upper right corner, change the print title if you desire, then click on the Create Print Page button. In the new window that appears, put your mouse on the map, right click, and select "Save Picture As..." You can also use the Metadata Explorer. In the Metadata Explorer, click on the Browse tab, click on the Interactive Maps link, find the map that you are interested in, click on the View Map button, then right click on the displayed map and select "Save Picture As..." For more information, visit the Metadata Explorer.

5. In ArcMap, I am trying to extract data to a shapefile from a feature service by right-clicking on the layer, selecting Data, then Export Data... After a bit, my computer appears to become locked up or runs very slowly and the Export Progress window doesn't show anything happening. I've let this go on for 30 minutes, and still nothing has happened.

Extracting data from a feature service in ArcMap appears to cause ArcMap to do a severe amount of pre-processing prior to the extraction. This work is not displayed in the Export Progress window and can take a long period of time. Please shut down as many applications as possible, to free up all available memory and minimize load on the CPU. During this pre-processing, ArcMap will likely consume 100% of the computer processor and begin to consume large amounts of computer memory. Unless the computer runs out of memory and swap space, the extraction will eventually complete.

6. I am using the BUFFER button in the Hub Explorer to select features and it is taking a very long time to complete the process. Is something broken or am I doing something wrong?

Try using the BUFFER button without putting a check mark on the "Display Attributes" option or use the BUFFER button on smaller geographic areas (thereby reducing the number of features that can be selected by the BUFFER option). This should improve the speed considerably. Use the IDENTIFY button to get information about a feature selected by the BUFFER command (you may have to zoom in, also be sure that the layer containing the feature you are interested in is active). If you do need to display the attributes of the features selected by the BUFFER command, you may have to wait a long time for the report to be generated in your browser and your machine may slow down while it generates the report.

7. When viewing the Water_Poly feature class in ArcMap, I see large areas of what appear to be water in the northern and northeastern part of the state. These large water areas do not exist. Why are these displayed?

If you look at the attributes for these areas, you'll see that these polygons have no attributes. The reason these polygons show up, is that in the processing of this GIS data, therer are areas where mainly streams and irrigation ditches close into polygons. You could also have this occur where you have a swamp feature joining two lakes that drain to two different basins which ultimately drain into the same river downstream. Or you might have an intermittent stream that causes an area to close into a polygon, but you might not think about it being there since it may be dry most of the time. In any case, there are several different scenarios where the lines in the map layer could form closed polygons, and thus, show up as water areas when you just pull up the data and look at it with out filtering out the polygons that aren t actually water features.

Here's how to get rid of those water areas. Assuming that you are already going into the layer properties to change the random color that ArcMap assigns to data brought, this is where you'll break out the water features. On the Symbology tab, you'll see on the left side Features, Categories, Quantities, Charts, and Multiple Attributes.

1. go to Categories
2. select Unique Values
3. set your Value Field to Major1
4. and click the Add All Values button
5. uncheck the <all other values> box
6. click on the 0 value in the legend and remove it with the Remove button.

You should only have USGS codes that stand for water features, and thus will get rid of upland areas that initially show as water features.

Yet another method would be to use the items:

Flow_type which breaks the dataset into perennial versus intermittent. If there is no value present, it's not a water feature.

Feature_type again, if there is no feature name, it's not a water feature

Or, if you use Unique Values, many fields to categorize your data, you can easily remove those polygon features that are showing up by default, and show many different unique combinations of feature types. Once you ve defined what you want to display, you'll probably want to create a layers file so you don't have to set the symbology every time you add that data layer.

8. I have bookmarked a Hub Explorer web site. Later on, when I use that bookmark I the website does not load and I get an error that states, "Unable to start. Required HTML Form missing (jsform.html). What is the problem?

When first starting a Hub Explorer website, the index.html file is used to correctly set things up. While running, the Hub Explorer displays viewer.html in the URL address field and this is what is used when a bookmark is set up. To fix the problem you are experiencing, edit the bookmark properties for your Hub Explorer link that you are trying to use and where you see viewer.html replace that with index.html.

9. When I try to run the Hub Explorer with Internet Explorer 6.0, I get an error message, "A runtime error has occurred. Do you wish to debug? Line 169. Error: invalid argument"

This can be a problem if you have recently installed Office 2003. In Internet Explorer, click on Tools, then click Internet Options. In Internet Options, click on the Advanced tab. Under the Browsing section, click to SELECT "Disable script debugging." Click to CLEAR "Display a notification about every script error." More information can be found on the Microsoft web site: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;822521&Product=ie600

10. When I try to print from the Hub Explorer, I see the "loading" message for a time, then my map reverts to the original state-wide map. I am not able to print the map.

This problem may be the result of pop-up blocker software on your browser. The pop-up blocker software is not allowing a new browser window to be created, which is necessary for the printing to complete. Locate the list of accepted web sites in your browser or pop-up blocker software. To that list, add "web.apps.state.nd.us" (without the quotes) and try to print again.

11. I used to see the map coordinates in the browser status bar at the bottom of the browser but they no longer appear. What has happened?

Some browsers such as Firefox allow the disabling of text display in the browser status bar. Although this setting may vary between different browsers, in Firefox, click on Tools - Options, then click on Content and then click on the Advanced button to the right of Enable JavaScript. Place a check on the "Change status bar text" option. In Internet Explorer 7.x, click on Tools - Internet Options then click on the Security tab, then click the "Custom level..." button. Under the Scripting section, go to the "Allow status bar updates via script" section and click on the radio button in front of Enable.

12. I am confused on the definition of township. Sometimes I see or hear township labeled with a name such as "Grand Harbor" and other times with a number such as "159." What is going on?

There are three different ways in which the term "township" is used in geographic and cartographic discussions.

One of the most common references to the term "township" is used in describing the U.S. Public Land Survey System (PLSS). This is the common legal description used in land holdings and refers to a system that was developed in the early 1800’s for describing surveyed land. These townships are also called survey townships or congressional townships (because they were defined by U.S. congressional mandate). This is the system of having a township, 6 miles by 6 miles in size, subdivided into 1 mile by 1 mile sections.

Image 1 (36kb gif) [taken from Maps for America, Third Edition, Morris Thompson, USGS, pg. 81, Fig. 87]

These townships also have a numbering system that uses the term "township" to indicate the northing row of townships established from an established baseline. Ours (North Dakota’s), is in Arkansas. Using Township 159 North as an example, this indicates that it is the 159th township row that was established north from the baseline in Arkansas. If one takes 159 and multiply by 6 (miles), the result will be 954 miles; and that is about how far north 159 is from the baseline in Arkansas. Range is the term applied to the east/west component of the PLSS township’s "name." As one can see from the example above, Township 2 South, Range 3 West is two townships south of the baseline and 3 townships west of the principal meridian. As an example, Township 159 North, Range 99 West, means it is in the 159th township row north of the baseline in Arkansas and 99 township columns west of the 5th Principal Meridian as shown in the map below.

Image 2 (48kb jpg) [taken from Maps for America, Third Edition, Morris Thompson, USGS, pgs. 82-83, Fig. 88]

The last use for the term "township" is with civil townships. Civil townships are minor civil divisions with established governments. They can have town boards, town assessors, town clerks, their own maintained roads, etc. They are essentially a governmental sub-division of a county. Many times these townships correspond with PLSS townships. Many times they don’t. There are civil townships in Golden Valley County, North Dakota that cover 4 PLSS townships (i.e., 144 sections). There is one civil township in Ransom County that covers one complete PLSS township, and half (18 sections) of the PLSS township to the south. Most, if not all, of these townships have established names such as the Town of Almond, or the Town of Rose, or the Town of Rome. There are also many areas that are unorganized, meaning that no civil township government structure is in place. There may have been one there at one time, but maybe the residents chose to disband their local government, or maybe the population could no longer support it. Or maybe one was never formed. In either of these cases, the county usually takes over the local governmental issues.

13. Is it possible to display GIS Hub data on Google Earth?

Yes. In the future depending on demand, the GIS Hub data extraction tool will likely include a KML download format to allow you to put GIS Hub data into Google Earth. If you are interested in putting GIS Hub onto Google Earth you currently have some options:

1. Download data from the GIS Hub then convert it to a KML file following these steps (1.7Mb pdf).
2. If you have ArcView 9.x installed, download and install an ArcGIS extension. Download the file from bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showthreaded.php/Cat/0/Number/189412/page/ then click on the Open This Placemark link. Instructions for installation are in the readme file that is within the downloaded ZIP file.
3. If you have Google Earth installed, visit view GIS Hub data in Google Earth to stream the data from the GIS Hub to Google Earth. As you zoom in, cities, highways, interstates, and aerial photos will appear.
4. Find the web service of interest through Mapdex. For example, in Mapdex, click on the 'server' link near the top of the greenish box. In the search field, enter 'web.apps.state.nd.us' (without the quotes) and then click on the Search button. There will probably be just one record displayed. At the start of the record there is a number, e.g., "31." click on that number to see a list of GIS Hub web services. You can either hover your mouse over the name of the service (in the Service column) then click on the Google icon, or you can click on the View link (in the Map column) and then click on the 'Download visible layers in the table of contents for Google Earth' link. In both methods, you will be prompted to open the KML (Keyhole Markup Language) with Google Earth or to save the KML file for later use with Google Earth.
   
   If searching by server does not work, then click on the 'address' link in the upper right of the Mapdex page, then click on the 'state' link below the empty field, and then in the empty field type in 'north dakota' without the quotes before clicking on the Search button. You will be presented with a list of services containing 'web.apps.state.nd.us' in the server column. Click on one of those instances of 'web.apps.state.nd.us' to get a list of all web services running on the GIS Hub. Now click on the 'View' link on any of the ImageServer records to get a new window which contains the option to display the data in Google Earth.

14. I am trying to extract data using the Hub Explorer. In Step 4 I can see the layers that I want, but they are grayed out and not selectable

On the map, you have probably selected the items you wish to download. For example, using a tool like SELECT BY RECT. you can select one or more layers on the map. If you then use the EXTRACT DATA button those items are shaded out on the list because the download tool gets cranky if the data has been graphically selected. What data has or has not been selected graphically makes no difference to the download tool. If the data has been selected, simply use the CLEAR SELECT button to get rid of the highlights then re-try EXTRACT DATA.

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