Transmission Lines and Finals!
This was a great couple weeks of flexing my GIS muscles! We were working on our final project where I had to investigate the impacts that a transmission line would have in a predetermined area. We were focused on avoiding schools, limiting exposure to environmentally sensitive areas, avoiding as many houses as possible, and figuring a rough estimate of cost. I used a 400 foot buffer on the proposed area for the line to see what lands and buildings might be impacted by the line.
I tried my best to use as many tricks that I learned this semester, and I found out that I still have a long way to go. I tried my best to use ArcPy... I wound up just selecting the tools and using them the long way. In the couple weeks off I'm going to check out what codeacademy has to offer for python programming. I also tried using a model to do some of the more repetitive things, but I realized I wasn't quite sure what I wanted done. While it might have saved me some time to use one of those, I had a good time clicking around and figuring out what I actually want. For instance, I had a hard time selecting conservation lands by location, there would never be any results. I eventually found the right setting: it had to intersect the target polygon.
I also was unclear in the beginning and thought the proposed area was an area where the line could go through, like the line could zig and zag in that area. No. That whole area was for the line, unless I have really messed up this interpretation too. So I was deleting sensitive areas, and areas where houses were and then realized I was not able to quantify those areas... I might have made all of my maps twice, or three times, maybe even four times.
This project was challenging, but not impossible. It really gave me a sense of accomplishment when I figured out a step. I had to walk away a few times to really think about what I would do next, like finding the houses and schools. I also had to find and try new tools like the "Collapse Dual Lines to Centerline" tool which was really helpful. So here is the final project if you want to take a look:
The powerpoint:
The Transcript:
Thanks for tagging along during this wild ride!
I tried my best to use as many tricks that I learned this semester, and I found out that I still have a long way to go. I tried my best to use ArcPy... I wound up just selecting the tools and using them the long way. In the couple weeks off I'm going to check out what codeacademy has to offer for python programming. I also tried using a model to do some of the more repetitive things, but I realized I wasn't quite sure what I wanted done. While it might have saved me some time to use one of those, I had a good time clicking around and figuring out what I actually want. For instance, I had a hard time selecting conservation lands by location, there would never be any results. I eventually found the right setting: it had to intersect the target polygon.
I also was unclear in the beginning and thought the proposed area was an area where the line could go through, like the line could zig and zag in that area. No. That whole area was for the line, unless I have really messed up this interpretation too. So I was deleting sensitive areas, and areas where houses were and then realized I was not able to quantify those areas... I might have made all of my maps twice, or three times, maybe even four times.
This project was challenging, but not impossible. It really gave me a sense of accomplishment when I figured out a step. I had to walk away a few times to really think about what I would do next, like finding the houses and schools. I also had to find and try new tools like the "Collapse Dual Lines to Centerline" tool which was really helpful. So here is the final project if you want to take a look:
The powerpoint:
The Transcript:
Thanks for tagging along during this wild ride!
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