Shapefile Creation in ArcGIS

1. ePermit Boundary Shapefile Submittal Support Training Series Shapefile Creation in ArcGIS Making the Boundary Shapefile from an AutoCAD DWG

2. The Basic Workflow • There are several different workflows that can be used. • All of the them are good as long as the submitted shapefile meets DMP GIS specifications. Source CAD Drawing ArcGIS Shapefile Boundaries Only DWG Save Down or Export Attach to GIS Map

3. The Source CAD File • It is your decision whether to make any changes to the layer structure in your current CAD template. • The object is to move certain selected elements from the source CAD drawing into a separate DWG file that will containonly those features required by the DMP. • If placing these features on different layers, renaming layers, or establishing any other standards that facilitate an eventual export, copy, or save down into this separate DWG will speed or enhance this process, then you might make these types of modifications to your CAD workflow. • The challenge on the CAD side is to make this process as seamless and easy as possible. Ideally, once the separate specific boundary DWG is created, the CAD operator should not have to perform any additional edits or modifications, and should be ready to attach this DWG to an ArcMap project immediately and begin attributing the features. • How you, as CAD operators, get to this point is up to you, as only you know what will work best within the CAD framework and software you operate with.

4. The Boundary DWG • Kentucky Single Zone Coordinate System • Contain only the following features • Proposed Boundary • Current Approved Boundary • Fills • Permanent Impoundments • Haul Roads • Bonding Increment Boundaries (if applicable) • All features must be closed polygon elements. • Make sure to save the DWG down to ACAD version 2007. • For haul roads, the polygon area would be the right of way edges but if the roads are polylines these could be buffered into polygons. • The DMP Shapefile Specification can be downloaded from the website at http://minepermits.ky.gov/Pages/CHIA.aspxThis document contains detailed information regarding the shapefile format.

5. Example of Source MRP Map in AutoCAD

6. Boundaries Only DWG Resulting from Export, Copy, or Savedown

7. Creating the Shapefile • Start ArcMap • Set the Coordinate System of the Shapefile to Kentucky Single Zone NAD83 units in feet. • OR – simply attach the empty shapefile Empty_DMP_Shapefile.shp to the Table of Contents (TOC) and the coordinate system will automatically set to the proper values. • Attach the Boundary DWG last. • These two files are all the data you need.

8. Open a New ArcMap Project

9. Add Data Button Table of Contents (TOC) Map Display Area

10. (1) Click on the Add Data Button (2)Select the Empty DMP Shapefile to add First

11. The Empty DMP Shapefile is added to the TOC – it’s empty – so no data displays. Doing this sets your coordinate system. If you add the DWG first, the coordinate system might not set.

12. If you accidentally add the DWG file first, you will probably get the message below. Your file will still attach, but your coordinate system will NOT be set correctly and your shapefile will not meet the specification.

13. Using the Add Data button again, double-click on the Icon for the DWG file to see the component elements. (see next slide) We don’t want the whole DWG, just the polygons.

14. Double-Click on the icon / not on the filename

15. Files for each of the component elements of the DWG will list out. Select the “Polygon” element and click the “Add” button to add it to the TOC

16. All the data you need is now added to your ArcMap project – in order to see the data you will need to Zoom In to its location. (next slide)

17. (1) Right Click on the Polygon layer (highlighted) and a context menu will appear. (2) From this menu left click on “Zoom to Layer” and your data should appear.

18. If you do not see your data, it is probably because the features are polylines and not polygons, or something happened during the export or save down procedure.You will need to go back into AutoCAD and convert, edit, or otherwise make sure that all of these elements are polygons, then re-add the new polygon layer to the TOC and see if that fixes the problem. If your elements are polygons then…

19. Your Screen Should Look Something Like This

20. Now Change the Symbology to See All of the Features (2) With the symbology expanded you see that your layer is currently set to solid-green (in this example) We need to change this to “Hollow” so we can see all our data. (1) Click on the Expand box to see the layer symbology

21. Solid filled polygons can mask out other features. The color of the boundaries may be different on your display – it doesn’t matter. Also, you may not see some of the features, such as impoundments or roads, because they are beneath other boundaries that are solid filled, such as the proposed permit boundary. This is caused by the order in which the elements were originally digitized and does not matter.

22. By Changing the Fill Selection You Can See All Your Features Change your solid fill color to “Hollow” so that you can “look through” stacked features and see all of your data. To do this double-click on the color box under the polygon element class in the TOC. Double-click on this box

23. A Symbol Selector Box Will Appear (1) Click this one “Hollow” (2) Then Click “OK”

24. Your Data Should Look Similar to This Note: ArcMap assigns symbology to attached layers at random – that means that it might just come up in “Hollow” to begin with, and you won’t even have to do this step!

25. At this point in the process you need to ensure that you have ALL your data present and that it consists entirely of closed polygons. • Proposed Permit Boundary(s) • Current Approved Permit Boundary • Impoundments • Fills • Haul Roads • Bonding Increment Boundaries (if applicable)

26. Current Approved Boundary Fill Haul Roads Proposed Boundary(s) Impoundments

27. Now would be a good time to double-check to see that your coordinate system is Kentucky Single Zone. (2) Next click on the “Properties” option at the bottom. (1) Right-Click on “Layer” at the top of the TOC to highlight it and see the drop-down context menu.

28. The Data Frame Properties menu will display. It doesn’t matter which tab it comes up in, you want the “Coordinate System” tab to be the active one. If it isn’t, then click on it.

29. Your coordinate system must be shown here as NAD 1983 StatePlane Kentucky FIPS 1600 Feet. If it is anything else your shapefile will be incorrect and you should not proceed.

30. If the Coordinate System is Wrong or Undefined You Can • Close ArcMap, then start over and make sure to add the Empty_DMP_Shapefile.shp to the TOC first. • At the bottom of the Coordinate System dialog box you have displayed, click the folder icon for Predefined, then click Projected Coordinate Systems, then click State Plane, then NAD 1983 then scroll down to the very first entry for Kentucky and click it. The coordinate system box at the top will reflect the change. Click OK and the box will close. You have just reset your coordinate system to the correct one. • The data may disappear from the screen because it has been reprojected, if so, just right click on the Polygons layer and click “Zoom to Layer” from the drop-down context menu. OR

31. But if the coordinate system is correct – and all your data is present in polygon form….you are ready for the next step, which is to create the shapefile that you will be sending to the DMP.

32. Shapefiles are for GIS systems.As you may already know, the power in a GIS lies not in the graphics but in the underlying database tables whose records of information are attached to every map feature in the shapefile.In this section you will create the shapefile and populate its table with the appropriate information that describes your boundary polygons.

33. Each of the attendees of this training presentation has been given a copy of the specification for this DMP Shapefile. Inside this specification you find requirements for field names, acceptable values, etc. There are several ways to create this shapefile, some easier than others. For example, from the ArcMap project you have been working with , at this point, you could just export the polygon layer into a shapefile format.But if you did that, all of the AutoCAD fields – 30 of them – would be inserted into the attribute table. You would have to delete these fields, then add the 7 fields the DMP requires in the specification. Try this if you like…..But there is a much simpler way -

34. The Empty_DMP_Shapefile.shp that you attached to your ArcMap project at the beginning of this exercise contains the coordinate system information you need, but it also has all seven of the fields you will need to populate already defined for you.Also, this shapefile is defined as a polygonal shapefile type, and will not accept any geometries other than polygons.The easiest thing to do would be simply to merge AutoCAD polygons into this prepared shapefile, and then you don’t have to deal with creating and naming fields in the attribute table – it will all be done for you.

35. Click on the Red Toolbox icon on the menu bar to bring up Arc Tools

36. The tool we need is called “Merge” – to get to it dbl-click on “Data Management Tools”

37. Now dbl-click on “General”

38. And now we see the “Merge” tool. Dbl-click on it to start it.

39. Your screen should look like this. You will need to see the TOC so if the Merge dialog box is too large and obscures the TOC just resize its window.

40. Like This

41. On the Merge dialog box, click on the Input Data drop-down button and you will see the available layers that you can merge. Click on the Empty_DMP_Shapefile first.

42. Notice that the layer goes into the list of files to be merged And that it’s table fields go into this list. Note that these are exactly the fields called for in the specification.

43. Click on the Input Data drop-down button again and add the remaining DWG polygon layer to the merge list.

44. Now we have both the files we need for the merge. But first we need to clean up the fields. Notice that the 30 AutoCAD fields have been added to the Field Map section below the required shapefile fields. We don’t want these and we need to delete them out of the list so that they do not merge into our shapefile and create more work for us.

45. (1) To delete these fields, first highlight the field you want to delete by clicking on it. (2) Then click the delete button in the panel to the right of the field list. The field will delete and one beneath it will become highlighted. So you should only have to click the delete button until the unwanted fields are all gone. Because we added the Empty DMP Shapefile first, and its fields are on top, this task is made easier.

46. If you accidentally delete a field you need, just close the Merge tool dialog box and reopen it. It will come up blank and you can just start over again.

47. Almost ready – now you have to tell it where to put the resulting merged shapefile and what to name it. This Output Dataset box will always have something it in, but it will never be named what you want, so will always have to change this value before you merge.

48. Your Final Dialog Box Should Look Like This.

49. Remember that the naming convention for the shapefile you submit to the DMP is specified in the Specifications document. It is critical that you name your shapefiles according to the spec. Permit Number, Action, and Action number (if Applicable) – use only underbars and no spaces. Make sure the directory exists or you could get an error icon.

50. When you are ready click the OK button and the Merge tool will start.