Class 3 Notes

First off, I stumbled across a fun use for Google Earth. Check out PlaceSpotting.com. It provides a riddle and you have to try to find the location of the place featured in the riddle with Google Earth. Okay so it might only be fun if your a Google Earth nerd.

Study Questions:
1. Why might you use 'connect to folder'?
Connecting to a folder keeps you from having to repeatedly having to locate a data folder that is nested in a series of subfolders. It's more or less a time-saver and insures that you save your data to the same spot consistently.

2. What is an alias and why would you use one?
An alias is a name for a field, table, file, or dataset that is more user friendly. It is not the name that the software references in relationships or scripting, but is the name that users of the information will encounter under normal use. An alias avoids database naming conventions for fields, tables, files, or datasets and can be more descriptive and easy to interpret than the actual name associated with the information.

3. Does ArcMap or ArcCatalog use aliases?
ArcMap takes advantage of aliases as the end-user of a dataset will typically uses ArcMap or and ArcIMS type application to view the data (in the case of an end-user such as a city planner or sewage maintenance technician).

4. What is a domain?
Domains, or an attribute domain in the case of a geodatabase, is used to define the permissible values in a field contained within a feature class or nonspatial attribute table. If subtypes are used to group the features or nonspatial objects than separate attribute domains can be used with each one of the subtypes.

5. What is a subtype?
A subset of features contained within a feature class or objects in a table that share the same attributes is referred to as a subtype. Using subtypes can streamline data creation and can prevent the need for excessive feature classes or tables within a geodatabase. Hydrology information could be stored taking advantage of subtypes to differentiate between stream orders. Subtypes also improve accuracy because because default attribute values can be established and domains can be set up.