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from our fantasBc clients to people we have connected with at
conferences and presentaBons. We asked for their shortcuts
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ArcGIS / ArcFM Shortcuts and Hints

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Table of Contributors
Publishing Web Services, Savannaha Mentzer

Simplis@c Quan@ty Determina@on, Savannaha Mentzer

Leverage of Spa@al Selec@on for New Loca@on, Philip Davenport

Moving Loca@on and SeYngs Symbol Rota@on, Philip Davenport

Procedure for Thicker Symbol Line Width, Rick Wery

Speed Up Load Times of Stored Displays, William Cra[

Expor@ng a Fiber Manager Report, Brian A. Higgins

GIS Art in PowerPoint, Brian A. Higgins

New vs. Classic Editor Toolbar, MaMhew Stuart

Responder Customer List Report, MaMhew Stuart

Responder Incident Cancella@on, MaMhew Stuart

Complex Symbology Altera@on, John Coleman

Scroll Wheel Modica@on, John Coleman

Selec@on with Box, John Coleman

Snapping Override, Kyle Anderson

ArcToolBox Trick, Terry Iand

Esri Disconnect Tool, Philip Davenport

Hidden Tools, Mul@ple Authors

Pan/Zoom and Feature Selec@on Short Cuts, Mul@ple Authors


Title: Publishing Web Services
Author: Savannaha Mentzer
Posi@on: Supervisor, Geospa@al Analysts
Company: Lincoln Electric Systems

Descrip@on:
This Bp relates to an issue we ran into with our 10.2.1 upgrade. We
were having trouble publishing web services from ArcMap at 10.2.1.
We didnt realize you needed to specify your ArcGIS connecBons to
online resources through the ArcGIS administrator. Once we added the
ArcGIS Online for OrganizaBons address within the portal connecBons
and connected to it, we were able to publish services to ArcGIS Online
as we did at 10.1. Without this set, only the service deniBon le would
be created and the service would not be published to ArcGIS Online.
We noBced that others have had the same issue and have posted our
soluBon to GeoNet (geonet.esri.com) as well.

Direc@ons:
A. Open the ArcGIS Administrator in All Programs/ArcGIS (Figure 1).

Figure 1

Publishing Web Services (Con@nued)

B. Click the Advanced BuJon in the boJom right (Figure 2).















Figure 2

C. Click Manage Portal ConnecBons (Figure 3).
D. Add your company portal address or ArcGIS Online for OrganizaBons
address (Figure 4).
E. Once it is added, click connect, and then close the dialog boxes by
clicking Save and OK.

Publishing Web Services (Con@nued)

Figure 3

Figure 4
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Title: Simplis@c Quan@ty Determina@on
Author: Savannaha Mentzer
Posi@on: Supervisor, Geospa@al Analysts
Company: Lincoln Electric Systems

Descrip@on:
OYen I get asked quesBons like how many single phase transformers do
we have or how many 600 Amp blade switches are there in the
system. Instead of opening up the aJribute table and performing a
query, I simply double-click on the layer in the table of contents to open
up the layer properBes, click on the symbology tab, and then click the
count eld within the symbology pane. This will automaBcally count all
features that meet each symbology type you have set.

Direc@ons:
A. Right-click or double-click on desired layer in the Table of Contents to
open up Layer ProperBes (Figure 1).

Figure 1

Simplis@c Quan@ty Determina@on (Con@nued)

B. Display the Symbology Tab (Figure 2).














Figure 2


C. Click on the Count eld name within the symbology pane. This will
populate the counts for each symbol type (Figure 3).

Simplis@c Quan@ty Determina@on (Con@nued)

Figure 3

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Title: Leverage Spa@al Selec@on for New Loca@on
Author: Philip Davenport
Posi@on: GIS QA/QC Supervisor
Company: Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corpora@on

Descrip@on:
The below instrucBons discuss the moving of a reference point for
selected features so that they can be moved and snapped to a new
locaBon.

Direc@ons:
A. Select features and the reference point will be somewhere in the
middle of the selected features shown as an x (Figure 1).

Figure 1
B. Hold down the control key and hover the cursor over the reference
point and the cursor will change. You can then drag the point to another
locaBon and it will snap based on your current snapping sehngs (Figure
2).

Leverage Spa@al Selec@on for New Loca@on (Con@nued)

Figure 2
C. With the point moved to the end of this busbar, I can now move the
selected set and snap it to the new locaBon (Figure 3).

Figure 3

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Title: Moving Loca@on and SeYngs Symbol Rota@on
Author: Philip Davenport
Posi@on: GIS QA/QC Supervisor
Company: Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corpora@on

Descrip@on:
The below instrucBons discuss the moving of the locaBon of a feature
and sehng the symbol rotaBon.

Direc@ons:
Select the feature and click the pencil in the shape eld of the feature in
the aJribute editor. This will allow you to click the new locaBon of the
feature then click a second point to set the rotaBon angle. This will
display a red x on the map. Clicking update on the aJribute editor will
set the new locaBon.

Figure 1
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Title: Procedure for Thicker Symbol Line Width
Author: Rick Wery
Posi@on: Computer So[ware Specialist IV
Company: RPQ Engineering, MLGW

Descrip@on:
How do you get a character-based symbol to render with a thicker line
width?

Direc@ons:
A. Select the desired target symbol (Figure 1). It is a character marker
symbol which renders with a ne line width. For some map
products, this might be too thin.

Figure 1

Procedure for Thicker Symbol Line Width (Con@nued)

B. Double-click the symbol deniBon line to get its properBes page
(Figure 2).

Figure 2
C. Click the Edit Symbol buJon to see the extended properBes (Figure
3).

Procedure for Thicker Symbol Line Width (Con@nued)

Figure 3
D. You see that this is a Character Marker Symbol. To get the line
width thicker well trick it with a Mask. To do this, click on the Mask
tab and select Halo (Figure 4). The soYware will give the illustrated
result by default.

Procedure for Thicker Symbol Line Width (Con@nued)

Figure 4
E. This is not quite what we are going for, yet. Set the Size to
something arbitrarily very small (like 0.0100). Then click the Symbol
buJon to edit the mask symbol properBes (Figure 5).

Procedure for Thicker Symbol Line Width (Con@nued)

Figure 5
F. Set the Fill color to None and the outline width to an acceptable
thickness (1.7). Set the Outline Color to match the symbol color you
have chosen. Click OK to keep these sehngs.
G. This results in a cleaner line than just sehng the halo color and size
for some reason. Click OK on this dialog (Figure 6) and the next, so
we can Apply the changes in the map display.

Procedure for Thicker Symbol Line Width (Con@nued)

Figure 6
H. Click Apply, then you will see the thicker line width in your map
display (Figure 7).

Procedure for Thicker Symbol Line Width (Con@nued)

Before

AYer

Figure 7

This turned out to be a good soluBon for the map display we

needed. I hope it helps you out.

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Title: Speed Up Load Times of Stored Displays
Author: William Cra[, GISP
Posi@on: Lead, GIS System Administra@on
Company: CenterPoint Energy

Descrip@on:
SomeBmes Stored Displays can take quite a while to load in ArcMap,
mostly due to a high number of layers and tables within the Table of
Contents. The connecBon properBes of each layer and table are
automaBcally checked for vericaBon before the stored display will fully
load. In cases where a stored display may have around 100 layers, the
wait Bme can be costly (and frustraBng).
The connecBon properBes for every layer and table are stored in BLOB
format within the Geodatabase. As such, the database needs to read in
the informaBon within the BLOB mulBple Bmes. In many cases, these
reads may be performed from disk which makes the overall process
even slower.
When the database can read data from memory rather than an array,
the wait Bme is reduced because there is no disk I/O involved. One
soluBon for minimizing the wait Bme is to pin the stored displays
content into memory. Oracle allows you to force a number of database
objects to persist in memory without gehng ushed out by other data
moving in and out of the buer. This can be accomplished by pinning
those objects to the KEEP buer pool (cache). Depending on the size of
your stored displays as well as the amount of memory allocated to your
database server, pinning the right objects into the KEEP buer pool will
reduce the wait Bme when loading stored displays.

Speed Up Load Times of Stored Displays (Con@nued)

Direc@ons:
Figure 1 below provides the steps required to pin the stored displays to
memory, assuming you have already congured the KEEP buer pool
size appropriately:











Figure 1

When comparing the Stored Display load Bme results between two
geodatabases where one had the applicable objects pinned to memory
and one did not, a 20% - 25% performance improvement was seen in
terms of wait Bme reducBon.




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Title: Expor@ng a Fiber Manager Report
Author: Brian A. Higgins, GISP
Posi@on: Senior Consultant
Company: SSP Innova@ons

Descrip@on:
There are mulBple, outstanding reports that are produced by Schneider
Electrics Fiber Manager. Several of my clients have asked if there is a
way to use these reports in MicrosoY Excel. Even though there is no
Magic buJon to export directly to Excel, we can leverage the fact that
the reports uBlize Internet Explorer to render.
To export, run the desired report tool (i.e., Splice Report) from the Fiber
Manager Toolbar. When the report come up in Internet Explorer (Figure
1),

Figure 1

Expor@ng a Fiber Manager Report (Con@nued)

Direc@ons:
A.Click the Tools BuJon.
B.Select File
C.Choose the Save as opBon
D.When the user clicks Save As, the Save Webpage Interface appears
(Figure 2). Save the le in a HTML format in a known locaBon.

Figure 2

Expor@ng a Fiber Manager Report (Con@nued)

E. Open up Excel (Figure 3), and open the exported le (*.htm). The
user may have to change the le type for the le to be visible for
selecBon.
F. Edit away!

Figure 3

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Title: GIS Art in PowerPoint
Author: Brian A. Higgins, GISP
Posi@on: Senior Consultant
Company: SSP Innova@ons

Descrip@on:
Everyday Esris ArcMap amazes me with its funcBonality. That being
said, by its nature, ArcMap must obey spaBal rules. There are Bmes that
rules need to be broken for presentaBon impact. An easy way to do this
is in MicrosoY PowerPoint. All one has to do is export their data view as
an Enhanced Windows Metale (*.emf) format.
Direc@ons:
A.To do this, we rst make a simple map as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1

GIS Art in PowerPoint (Con@nued)

B. Export the map by choosing File, and then Export Map. The Export
Map Interface appears (Figure 2).

Figure 2
C. Export the map in an EMF Format. Open MicrosoY PowerPoint, and
add the EMF le as a picture (Figure 3).

GIS Art in PowerPoint (Con@nued)

Figure 3
D. Select the inserted image, right-click, select Group from the menu,
and then Ungroup. A message appears warning the user that the
program is going to convert the image to an Oce drawing object.
Click the Yes buJon.
E. AYer doing this, the user can select any state as a separate object.
In this example, I have selected a state randomly (Figure 4).

Figure 4

GIS Art in PowerPoint (Con@nued)

F. AYer random state selecBon we can easily grab a corner and
exaggerate the size (Figure 5).

Figure 5
G. Those familiar with PowerPoint, the user can then add a random
background image and conduct other graphics alteraBons (Figure 6).
Because the state is now a separate object, it can also y in with
animaBon.

GIS Art in PowerPoint (Con@nued)

Figure 6
H. CATS. Cats! Cats! Cats!

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Title: New vs. Classic Editor Toolbar
Author: MaMhew Stuart
Posi@on: Senior Consultant
Company: SSP Innova@ons

Descrip@on:
The two slides below summarize Esris new Editor Toolbar and how to
switch between it and the Classic one.

Slide 1

New vs. Classic Editor Toolbar (Con@nued)

Slide 2

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Title: Responder Customer List Report
Author: MaMhew Stuart
Posi@on: Senior Consultant
Company: SSP Innova@ons

Descrip@on:
The slide below summarizes Responders Customer List Report.

Slide 1
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Title: Responder Incident Cancella@on
Author: MaMhew Stuart
Posi@on: Senior Consultant
Company: SSP Innova@ons

Descrip@on:
Canceling an incident is preJy straight-forward (as shown in the slide
below). Should a canceled incident be moved to Archive Explorer? Or
just dropped altogether? Most people dont want to see canceled
incidents, but there is an opBon in Responder Archive to show them.

Slide 1
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Title: Complex Symbology Altera@on
Author: John Coleman
Posi@on: So[ware Consultant
Company: SSP Innova@ons

Descrip@on:
Want to duplicate or change the value eld of complex symbology
without having to recreate it all?

Direc@ons:
A.Go to Layer ProperBes -> Symbology tab, then select Import (Figure
1).



Figure 1


B.Here you can import symbology from another layer (or a shapele
copy of the same layer). This will also give you the opBon to change the
value eld that gets applied to all symbols (Figure 2). This is especially
useful when migraBng to Feeder Manager 2.0 elds.

Figure 2
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Title: Scroll Wheel Modica@on
Author: John Coleman
Posi@on: So[ware Consultant
Company: SSP Innova@ons

Descrip@on:
This procedure will modify the funcBonality of the the scroll wheel to
work as it does in Google Maps.

Direc@ons:
A. Go to Customize -> ArcMap OpBons... -> General tab.
B. Near the boJom of the dialog, there is an opBon to Roll Forward/
Drag Up to Zoom in or out of the map (Figure 1).

Figure 1

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Title: Selec@on with Box
Author: John Coleman
Posi@on: So[ware Consultant
Company: SSP Innova@ons

Descrip@on and Direc@ons:

Having trouble selecBng a point or line feature? Instead of clicking to
select, draw a selecBon box around the point(s) and/or line(s), grabbing
any features within that box. Then, if necessary, hold the ShiY key to
unselect the unwanted points/lines, leaving just the desired selecBon
remaining.


Title:

Snapping Override

Author: Kyle Anderson

Posi@on: Senior Consultant
Company: SSP Innova@ons

Descrip@on and Direc@ons:

When ediBng in a congested part of the map and robust snapping
sehngs has the cursor snapping to undesired features, hold down the
space bar to temporarily turn o snapping.

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Title: ArcToolbox Trick
Author: Terry Iand, PMP
Posi@on: Project Specialist
Company: NiSource

Descrip@on and Direc@ons:

In ArcCatalog, you can avoid the agony of navigaBng to a le, le
geodatabase, features, etc. while using the tools there. Simply click on
the desired entry in the catalog tree, and drag and drop it into the
correct entry in the ArcCatalog tool you are using.

Title: Esri Disconnect Tool
Author: Philip Davenport
Posi@on: GIS QA/QC Supervisor
Company: Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corpora@on

Descrip@on and Direc@ons:
In order to minimize updates to features on a circuit, we will use the Esri
disconnect tool to disconnect an area from the network, perform our
work, and then reconnect it. This eliminates many thousands of edits
downstream. If the connect buJon is not run, the circuit will remain
disconnected and will conBnue to have the FM1 info. When the
disconnect tool is run it gives the disconnected span its own network
juncBons, so at both ends there will be coincident juncBons. The
Intersect tool from the toolbox locates these, and allows us to correct
them.

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Title: Hidden Tools
Authors: Mul@ple (Specied Below)

This sec-on describes lesser-known tools that may benet the user.

Tool(s): Find Connected/Disconnected
Author: Kyle Anderson, Senior Consultant
Company: SSP Innova@ons

Descrip@on:
When troubleshooBng higher level applicaBons and funcBons that
depend on a Geometric Network, use simple Esri Find Connected and
Find Disconnected trace solvers to gain quick understanding of
disconnected features. Many Bmes using a Find Disconnected trace
across the enBre dataset is a very enlightening experience.


Tool(s): Con@nuous Pan/Zoom and Add Open/Close to Switch Order
Author: Trey Price, Electric Engineering GIS Analyst
Company: Denton Municipal Electric

Descrip@on:
These tools (Figure 1) are encouraged by Trey.

Figure 1

Hidden Tools (Con@nued)

Tool(s): Pause BuMon
Author: Trey Price, Electric Engineering GIS Analyst
Company: Denton Municipal Electric

Descrip@on:
Try the pause buJon (Figure 2) when calculaBng!

Figure 2

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Title: Pan/Zoom and Feature Selec@on Short Cuts
Authors: Mul@ple (Specied Below)

This sec-on describes some Pan/Zoom and Feature Selec-on Short Cuts
that may benet the user.

Tool(s): Pan/Zoom and Feature Selec@on
Author: Skye Perry, Principal Consultant/Founder
Company: SSP Innova@ons

Descrip@on:
Z key in ArcMap auto changes your tool to the Zoom In
Center mouse (roller) buJon clicked down will use the Pan Tool
Tools ->ArcFM OpBons -> AJribute Editor tab -> Turn on Enable
automaBc tab acBvaBon and Always automaBcally expand feature
selecBon for faster feature selecBon interacBon.


Tool(s): Pan/Zoom
Author: Kyle Anderson, Senior Consultant
Company: SSP Innova@ons

Descrip@on:
While holding down the B buJon on the keyboard and the leY mouse
buJon, you are placed into zoom-in/zoom-out mode.
While holding down the B buJon on the keyboard and the right
mouse buJon, you are placed into pan mode.

Pan/Zoom and Feature Selec@on Short Cuts (Con@nued)

Tool(s): Selectable Layers Reduc@on
Author: Skye Perry, Principal Consultant/Founder
Company: SSP Innova@ons

Descrip@on:
Reduce the selectable layers on the selecBon tab in the Table of
Contents to only be applicable to the layers you are acBvely working
with in each ArcFM Stored Display or ArcMap Project (*.mxd). This
pracBce GREATLY increases the speed of selecBng features on the map
and spaBal ediBng as well.

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---

This ebook you've just read gives a snapshot of some of the more popular
Bps, tricks, hints and short cuts in the ArcFM/GIS user community right now.
Of course, we've only scratched the surface here.

Could you use help supporBng your GIS

customizaBons? Need leadership for

implementaBon, integraBon,

customizaBon development or GIS

upgrades?



SSP InnovaBons provides some of the
most sought-aYer talent in GIS consulBng

in the US, employing consultants with

decades of experience implemenBng Esri

and Schneider Electric soluBons.

With extensive work in electric, gas, water, and ber uBlity implementaBons,
SSPs team is primed to help you exceed your GIS and operaBonal goals.

Whether youre looking for SE/Esri product implementaBon, GIS integraBon
to other applicaBons, customizaBon, or a work management system that
comes pre-integrated to the GIS, you can rely on SSPs leadership.

Visit us at www.sspinnovaBons.com to learn more.

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