Monthly Archives: March 2019

City of Delaware Fire Department

Almost at the finish line

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Hi everybody. Hopefully everyone is having a great week and got lots of work done. As for me I’m just marching right along on my project. So I’m mapping a three story building (not counting the basement) and I’ve finished mapping the entire first floor. This means that I’ve mapped out the rooms and the corridors. I’ve also mapped in stair cases, bathrooms, laundry rooms, storage rooms, kitchens, loading docks, elevators, and lots of offices. All together I’d say the first floor by itself had somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 to 70 rooms.  Along with these rooms I’ve added in any pertinent information that the Fire Department requires. The longest part of the mapping was just getting the correct layout of the rooms correct. In fact I had to go back three or four times just to make small corrections to the layer so that the rooms correlated with the map better.

With all that being said I managed  to start working on the second floor. Thankfully the second floor has less than half the rooms of the first floor and the rooms themselves are easier to recreate in ArcMap. Their easier to recreate because they are generally larger and they are more rectangular in shape.  The biggest issue I’m going to have with this layer is taking it from a shapefile and putting it into the correct geodatabase as a feature class. My goal is to do this next week.  My hope is that by next week I will have all three floors mapped out and have the majority of everything in the correct spots. Don’t get me wrong there is a lot of polishing needed before I’d say my layout is “correctly” done but I think I’ve gotten a pretty good base done.  Again I can’t emphasize how much I’m learning about actually manipulating the tools within ArcMap. This familiarization is allowing me to see some Pro’s about the software and also some Con’s.

Anyways hope everyone has a great weekend and enjoy your time off responsibly.

City of Delaware Public Utilities Department

Harvey Post #6

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This week Janelle taught me how to import CAD files into Arc and how to use these drawings to update the maps. These CAD drawings are great to work with, they are fairly straight forward and very accurate. I began this project by comparing the CAD drawings to the drawings we made from the geo-referencing last week. The drawings from the geo-reference were close but not exactly in the correct locations as indicated by the CAD drawings. In order to correct this I simply had to move my previously drawn figures into the corresponding locations based off the CAD drawings, which was pretty straightforward. Once this was finished, I used the CAD drawing to input the rest of the utilities onto our Arc map. Monday I put in all of the water infrastructure, including water mains, laterals, junctions, laterals, fire hydrants, and water meters. There was a lot of water structures within this new sub division and inputting them took the entire afternoon. Friday, since I was finished with the water infrastructure, I got to move on to the the easier storm and sewer utilities. Like, the water I began by correcting the previously drawn in structures from the geo-reference map and put them into their correct positions based on the CAD map. I then moved into inputting the new structures. For storm I input mains, inlets, outlets, manholes, and inlets with manholes. As for sewer I only needed to put in the manholes and the gravity lines, insuring they were headed in the correct direction. Janelle also taught me how to input different layers as well as create a query. The query was very interesting and I can see how useful / helpful it can be. Creating one is relatively straight forward but I would like to do some more in order to ensure I know how to use them. Another thing I would like more practice with is inputting layers into Arc. But overall, another great week with a lot of new information learned!

City of Delaware Fire Department

Lights, camera, action.

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Hello to everyone reading this its me James with an update on how my week has gone. As you’re all aware last week was spring break and unfortunately for me I was violently ill for the majority of it so I didn’t get a chance to work on my project. Needless to say I hope your spring break went a lot better than mine.

So with that being said let’s talk about this week. I really made a concerted effort to make up for the week that I lost. That focus and drive allowed me to knock out quite a large portion of my mapping project and I’ve just about completed the entire first floor of the building I’m on. I know this doesn’t sound that impressive but I’m going through and mapping the footprint of each room in a building the size of a college dormitory. On top of that I need to put in the exits, building entrances, fire hookups, and etc. One issue that I’ve run into is finding a good map of the building to use as an overlay. There is a difference between all maps generally so using the building layout on arcgis in conjunction with an architectural drawing has presented some problems. Nevertheless though I have made a lot of progress and I’m happy with the way my overlay is coming along though I do see where it does require some areas of refinement in the way I’m creating the rooms.

Other than working on my project though I got a chance to have my picture taken. I’m not the most photogenic person so hopefully the pictures turn out well. Also it’s really nice people will get a chance to see the kind of project that I’m working on. Also I’m looking forwards to collaborating with some of the other interns on a project.

Anyways hopefully you have a great weekend.

 

Preservation Parks of Delaware County

Tracing water and electric lines

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This week I was able to use the as-bill maps to trace the water and electric lines for 2 of the parks that need to be mapped. I was able to associate the maps just through landmarks visible in ArcMap. These added graphics were transferred to layers as a part of the geodatabase. I plan to continue doing this with other locations.

However, I won’t be able to do this with all of the maps. There are some parks where the trees make the roads untraceable on ArcMap. For some others, the as-bill map gets too distorted when I try to associate them to use them. For these I’ll have to go out with the GPS to get better data to associate the maps with or go out with the utility line locator to trace them in the field.

 

City of Delaware Public Utilities Department

Harvey post 5

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Another great week at the internship following spring break. On Monday janelle taught me how to use blueprints and georeferencing to create a new utilities map. After giving me the run down in how it works she let me work on Arc from her desktop, since it has more capabilities and is easier to use then my laptop, and set me free to create this utility map of a new subdivision. I spent the rest of the afternoon adding in the water, sewer, and storm infrastructure. This included adding structures such as inlets, manholes, fire hydrants, valves, laterals, junctions, and a few others. After the map was completed it was very rewarding seeing the finished product! It was a great experience and an even better learning opportunity!

On Friday janelle had me continue the same type of work but on to a bigger and more complicated scale and with a new development.   This time janelle taught me how in import csx and cad files into arc online as well as how to munipulate these layers and how to use a query when looking for something specefic. For this project I was drawing in the utility infrastructure using the engineering cad files. This was a bit more complex then simplying drawing in the lines from the blue prints like we did Monday.  At first I was a little overwhelmed but as I got into I really enjoyed the task! Janelle even had the confidence to leave me alone while I continued this work and when she came back all was good, which was a relief. A big part of this was modifying the lines that were previously drawn in and this proved to be more time consuming then expected and I only got the water infastruce completed. So we plan to continue the process on Monday and finish up the sewer and storm infastructure!

 

 

City of Delaware Fire Department

Using ArcGis to make a Masterpiece

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So for the last two weeks I’ve had the pleasure of using ArcGis to map out a building. The building that I’m mapping is rather large and is comprised of 3 floors and also has several smaller buildings surrounding it. It also has its own large pond which is pretty cool.

During this mapping process I’ve had to think outside the box a little to make sure that my end goal i.e. a complete layout out of the building, works together as a cohesive unit. This means deciding on how exactly I want to display the data I have within ArcGis. I think I’ve settled on a way to do this that makes sense but the only way to really make sure is to view the end product.

Needless to say this project has made me realize that there are a lot of things within ArcGis itself that I don’t really know how to use to there best potential. I understand that hands on experience is key for understanding the software but there are a few things that I wish would have been covered in my classes more extensively.

Beyond this though the experience that I’m gaining is quite invaluable. Michelle is showing me ways to use the software that streamline and speed up the mapping process. Being able to find shortcuts and work arounds within ArcGis makes mapping go a lot smoother and speeds up the process. Not to metion that the final layout will be better organized.

Beyond just mapping though Michelle has let me know that I’ll be scanning actual building blueprints for the fire department. That is something I’ve never done before and it actually sounds quite interesting. I’ve gained a lot of appreciation during my time at the fire department for how important Michelle’s job is for the city of Delaware. Trying to create an interactive layout for Delaware is no small feat and I’m happy to help.

Phoenix Environmental

How to Write for Social Media

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Writing a social media post can be one of the most difficult parts of marketing, especially for small business owners. There are some important keys to remember when writing a social media post!

Register is vital to remember when posting. Too informal and you lose the professional feel that is key to managing a small business. Too formal and you risk boring your audience and getting lost in the static.

This week I worked with Phoenix Environmental on writing social media captions for their Google account and Facebook page. A common mistake among social media managers is very formal and stiff writing, but nowadays we expect businesses to be more sociable and friendly on social media.

 

Phoenix Environmental

On site with Phoenix Environmental

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In my last post I discussed the importance of content marketing for a business such as Phoenix Environmental. Since then I’ve worked with Jeff to explore ways we could accomplish this and other goals we generated in the Comprehensive Social Media Plan.

Earlier this week I worked on site with Phoenix Environmental for the first time. I worked at a location that was built in the 1820s and has since unfortunately fallen into decay. The likely location of America’s next Annabelle sighting, mold tags the walls like graffiti. Orange light pours in from stained glass windows and casts an eerie glow on an already terrifying setting. Light switches filled with several ounces of mercury line the walls. Yet, the sighting that most offended my eyes was the awful wallpaper the interior designer chose for the bathroom. Blue stripes… what was he thinking?!?

While on site I learned about asbestos and mold testing, how to take soil samples, and about how amazing I look in a hard hat. This first site assessment was mostly educational for me, although I had the chance to take some shots of the asbestos tests and soil samples! Pictures are a key part of content marketing and of showing our audience what it is that we do at Phoenix Environmental. Aren’t these photos bad for marketing, though? Aren’t my descriptions of the site as a horror house dangerous for Phoenix Environmental? Look at these pictures and realize that this is why you should call in environmental consultants like Phoenix Environmental as soon as possible! It’s better for us to find the problem before it becomes a problem, and that is the content marketing these pictures highlight.

One problem that makes taking photos (and writing posts like this one) especially difficult is that Jeff and his team highly value privacy, so all pictures and descriptions must strictly avoid giving away the location of a project. This is a creative challenge for marketing, but one I look forward to working around.

In the near future I’d like to join Jeff and his team on site and produce a video showing some of the work that Phoenix does, so be on the lookout for that!

 

Preservation Parks of Delaware County

Testing GPS transfer and Learning to Read Utility Maps

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This week I brought the GPS that I will be using to mark the utility lines to the office. I made a test point to see if I was able to transfer the point onto ArcGIS. I was not able to do this due to an issue with the communications port.

I was able to resolve this issue by putting the coordinates from the GPS into ArcGIS through the ‘Go to XY’ tool. I was able to turn this into a layer in the geodatabase via the ‘convert graphics to features’ function and then that was added as a layer to my map.

When I try to do this with multiple points I think it would be more efficient to make a table of all of the points for a line on excel and then add the whole table as a layer. I’ll be able to do this at school throughout the week and then bring the tables to the office on Friday via a flashdrive. I’m considering converting the excel file to a .dbf file before I try to transfer it because I know .dbf files transfer more easily than excel files.

Also, Janelle Valdinger came in today to teach me how to read the maps of property utility lines. We were able to get maps for some of the parks and should be able to use them directly to map the utility lines on ArcGIS. I’m going to look into the possibility of converting a PDF document to a jpeg and then being able to assign geographic data to it. The maps that we were able to get are well marked which makes them easier to understand and use.

City of Delaware Public Utilities Department

Harvey Post #4

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This was an interesting week with a change in schedule. I did not report to the public utilities office at all this week, instead I spent my hours shadowing a Delaware county game warden. Janelle has been excellent indirecting me throughout my internship but also going above and beyond to help me search for jobs post graduation. She was the one who set up this shadowing experience with the game warden and I am very grateful. The game warden, Maurice Irish, walked me through a typical work day for him. Since it is a slow time of year with no hunting or fishing going on we spent most of the time driving around different parks and wildlife areas to ensure everything was running as it was supposed to be. Maurice also took the time to tell me about what he does during different times in the season, his favorite parts about being a game warden, as well as his least favorites. Maurice gave me lots of good tips and advice to think about when preparing to apply to be a game warden, including things to do in the meantime and what to expect if I get selected. Maurice also talked to me about other aspects to his job that most people do not think about, such as education and public outreach. As part of his job he gives a lot of presentation and even pulled up a few to give me an idea of what that entails. All in all I really think this is the type of career I could see myself doing!  Although we did not get to do a whole lot of hands on things today, I found it quite interesting and very helpful just to talk with Maurice and get his views and opinions on what being a game warden is really like. Towards the end he gave me his card and invited me to partake in another ride along whenever I get the chance and I look forward to taking him up on that offer.