4.Create a folder named EsriPress in a location where you want to store all the files, preferably on your drive C. Click the thumbnail and download the data for the first tutorial, saving it to your new folder (e.g., C:\EsriPress), rather than in the Documents library or on the desktop.
5.Extract the zip file. It will create a folder named Tutorial 1-1.
6.You can download and access these files as you need them for the other tutorials in this book.
Start building the model
1.Open a file explorer window and navigate to the location where you downloaded the tutorial 1-1 materials. Open the file GDB design forms.xlsx. Note: There is also a PDF version of this file in the same location.
2.Print all six pages of the geodatabase design forms (GDB feature classes, tables, domains, domains 2, subtypes, and relationships).
You will write out all your designs on these printed sheets, and you can print more sheets for corrections or expanded designs. Pages 1 and 2 will be used for these first few steps, but the other pages will be used in the other steps of this tutorial.
The geodatabase will need a name. It should reflect in general terms what will be stored in it.
3.On the first line of page 1 (GDB feature classes), write the name LandRecords for the geodatabase name.
The next line asks for a feature dataset name. A feature dataset is used to separate data into smaller subsets but is also important in grouping data for use in topology and various other advanced features. For now, leave the feature dataset name blank.
The next step is to start filling in the feature classes. So far, the city planner has described only one feature class, which will contain the polygons representing parcels and will include the fields he described.
4.On the feature class portion of the worksheet, add a new feature class named Parcels. Note its type as POLY (for Polygon), and give it an alias of Property Ownership.
The alias is one of the first characteristics of the geodatabase that will be assigned. This alias will be shown in the Contents pane when the layer is added to a project; consequently, it also could be used in a legend. The alias should be very descriptive of the data to distinguish it from other datasets.
This feature class will have fields to store data, and these fields are recorded on the second design form. From the city planner’s description, you can determine that the feature class will have fields for the subdivision name, block designation, lot designation, street address, and a land-use code. The content of the first three fields is self-explanatory. They will need to contain alphanumeric characters, so their field types will be Text.
5.On the Tables worksheet (page 2), write the name of the new feature class on the first line. Under the field name, enter the first field as Sub_Name. Note its type as Text. Add another field for Blk as Text and Lot_No as Text.
Simple so far, but there is other information to enter that will start impacting the future use of the data. The first is the field alias, which is another characteristic of the geodatabase. The alias is typically similar to the field name, with the important difference that it is allowed to have spaces in the text. This alias will be shown in many of the ArcGIS tools, the attribute table, any classification schemes, and many more places when the data is accessed. The field alias also should be descriptive of what data the field contains.
6.Next to the field name Sub_Name, write the description Subdivision Name as the alias. Then write the alias Block Designation for Blk and Lot Number for Lot_No.
Those notations have taken care of some of the fields, but there are more. The next is street address information. The address could be entered as a single field, but if you ever want to geocode against this dataset, it would be better to have each component of the address in a separate field. The common fields for geocoding are street prefix type, prefix direction, address number, street name, street type, suffix direction, and zip code. Fields such as city name or state name may be necessary if you are geocoding a broader region, but because all the features that this dataset will contain are specific to Oleander, you can leave them out. All the listed fields must be included in the table.
One interesting thing is that if the fields are given certain names that ArcGIS uses as a standard for address components, they will be filled in automatically when you make an address locator. An address locator is a special file that ArcGIS builds using your dataset that will allow addresses to be found easily when geocoding or using the Find tool. This address locator can also be used in routing and network applications. A list of preferred field names for each field is stored in the address locator style file, which was loaded when you installed ArcGIS Pro. You can open the file in the <install directory>\ArcGIS\Pro\Resources\Locators folder and view the list by searching for the phrase Preferred Field Names. You may add your own field names to the list as needed.
7.Open a file explorer window. Navigate to the folder containing your ArcGIS installation (e.g., C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Pro\Resources), and open the Locators folder. Scroll down to the file USAddress.lot.xml, right-click, and click Open with > Notepad.
8.Use the Find tool, or scroll down to the area labeled “Reference data style for Single House.”
9.Within the section, scroll down to the area labeled Primary.House.
As you can see, there are many acceptable names for this field. The advantage of using one of these suggested field names over a new incarnation is that prebuild geocoders and geoprocessing tools will automatically recognize these field names and, in some cases, can validate that you have the correct field name chosen for a given data type. Look over the rest of the list to see what the choices are for other field types such as Primary.StreetName, Primary.Locality, or Primary.Postal. It is important to try to use one of the preset abbreviations or add your own field names to this list whenever possible. This use of existing names will make the entry of field names in certain tool parameters almost automatic. The ones shown in this geodatabase design were all derived from this list.
10.On the Tables worksheet, write the following field names, field types, and aliases:
•Pre_Type, Text, Prefix Type
•Pre_Dir, Text, Prefix Direction
•House_Num, Text, House Number
•Street_Name, Text, Street Name
•Street_Type, Text, Street Type
•Suffix_Dir, Text, Suffix Direction
•ZIP_Code, LI (Long Integer), ZIP Code
These fields will add a lot of functionality to the dataset that may be valuable later. For example, you could select all the parcels in a certain subdivision, all the parcels that front
