GIS Project Management

• Organize your data
  • Name files sensibly, and put them in subdirectories
  • Consider putting the current project directory in the Quick Access section of File Explorer while you need it often.  You can pin it there while working, and remove it when done.
  • While working on a project, make its path very simple, with no spaces.  While working, you will need to do a lot of moving and checking files, and make this as easy as possible for yourself.  This can involve having to use command line tools, and they will be infinitely easier to use with short paths.
  • When the project is done, you can archive it and bury it as deep as you want in the directory structure, at which point you might also delete any remaining ZIP files, and temporary data sets.
• When downloading data, get too much in preference to too little.  It is much easier to clip the data set compared to having to go back and get a bigger data set.  Obviously this is easier to do with low resolution data; once you move to GB sized data sets, being judicious in picking the extent is much more important.
• If you have to import the data through GDAL, consider then saving it in a MICRODEM native format to speed up opening it if you will use the data set a lot.  This also applies if you need to fill holes, deal with incorrect setting of missing data, or deal with other data set anomalies.
  • File, Save DEM, Entire DEM, MD DEM or GeoTIFF (if you want to export to other software)
• Once you have the data, if the data set is large, consider subsetting.  You can do this with both raster and vector data.
  • For a vector point data,  use Report on the DB table display. This will save with any current filter applied, and will remove hidden fields.  If you have a lot of fields, it can be very hard to see the ones you want, and removing fields you do not want will be helpful.  If you keep the original file you have a backup if you misjudge and later need a field.
    • For point data, use Report, DBF table.  If you later need to share with other software, you can recreate the SHP and SHX files.
    • For a vector line or area shapefile, use Report, Shapefile export. 
  • For a DEM
    • File, Save DEM, Current subset, MD DEM
    • File, Save DEM, Portion of DEM with data which will remove any missing data along the edges

Last Updated on 10/26/2017