1 Reply by RobLarge

  • RobLarge
  • RobLarge
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  • From: Wiltshire
  • Registered: 15-07-2008
  • Posts: 812

Re: Recorder 6 mapping

I have just spent a considerable amount of time migrating our dataset fromRec3 to a shiny new copy of Rec6 and am pleased to report that overall it has gone very well.

I am now looking at the Recorder 6 map window, trying to decide whether it is of any use at all. I can see that it has some useful functionality, but as yet I can't see any way to get our exisiting data into it without a lot of grief.

We have around 2000 sites digitised on Mapinfo, plus several tens of thousands of polygons of high-quality habitat data. Now I can see how I might import some or all of these into Recorder, but it seems the import without  any attribute data and I see no likelihood of anyone ever having the time to go through assigning all those polygons to their associated data attributes.

To be honest, I haven't got very far with the process. I imported a map of the 270 odd parishes in Wiltshire, but after assigning about 4 of these to their admin area records, I gave up. What a faff!

Does anyone have any useful experience of bulk importing and associating GIS data into the Rec6 map window? Is it possible and is it even worth the effort?

Rob Large
Wildlife Sites Officer
Wiltshire & Swindon Biological Records Centre

RobLarge's Website

2 Reply by sallyrankin

  • sallyrankin
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  • Registered: 07-04-2006
  • Posts: 371

Re: Recorder 6 mapping

When consulting Lynn Heeley about various mapping issues she said JNCC are planning to provide the following facilities in coming releases:

A filename and object id field in the location hierarchy which will enable Recorder users to associate external GI files and their polygons with Recorder data (for complicated files that you do not want to import)

The ability to associate polygons and locations when importing a file from a GI system

Ability to reorder the polygon layers (in left hand window of map window)

More functionality when right clicking on a polygon

In the meantime, reports can be done by the report wizard for polygons that aren't linked to locations using the 'Find Polygon On Map' facility on the Polygon Selection page that appears if you select 'Restrict to one or more Polygons' on the opening page of the wizard. In Recorder 6 there is a good case for keeping the mapping very simple as when things go wrong you may be faced with resetting the maps which can wipe out all the map layers you have set up which means you have to load up every thing again. I advocate loading map tiles for your area (up to 60, possibly 80, but not all 812 on the map tiles CDs available from the NBN) and a few polygon layers. You can then use 'Find On Map', do distribution maps and report on data in polygons. If you have a GIS it will probably be better to use that for more sophisticated mapping work.

Sally Rankin, JNCC Recorder Approved Expert
E-mail: s.rankin@btinternet.com
Telephone: 01491 578633
Mobile: 07941 207687

3 Reply by Gordon Barker

  • Gordon Barker
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  • Registered: 15-05-2006
  • Posts: 344

Re: Recorder 6 mapping

One of the problems I came across when importing GIS objects was the disaggregation of objects that are made up of more than one polygon. This process also created additional polygons in the Recorder map layer for any holes in the original object - i.e any areas wholly surrounded by the location's polygon but excluded from it. Presumably these would count as 'complicated files you do not want to import'.

Another approach that I found useful was to create simple polygons, from a file of 1k grid squares, for each location - resulting in a block of squares, attaching the block to the location in the map window and running the extract grid squares tool to produce a simple data-entry filter for grid squares, as this avoids the disaggregation and hole problems. This only causes problems where there are large numbers of grid squares and you get a Spatial Reference System error, but I believe this is due to be sorted in the next update.

Gordon

Gordon Barker
Biological Survey Data Manager
National Trust