4 replies to this topic

[snowgage]

I am not much of a programmer and have some tasks I'd like to automate.

Each day I'll be receiving an email with a table of observations. The observations are referenced through a US zipcode and have a value (1-10) that represents a score for each entry.

What I am doing with the data each day is
1) Join data to shapefile of zip code points
2) Krig data across US using value (1-10)
3) Extract raster to extent of US Lower 48
4) Classify raster based on set color/stat parameters
5) Change dataframe projection
6) Export PNG of data

I then do some photoshop work, cropping and clipping away white space and resave the png. Finally, I upload the png onto a server where it feeds into a web-based map.

I'll be doing this everyday for about three months. It will be some excellent work but I am wondering if the process could be automated. Once I get in a rhythm, I'll probably be able to do it in about 10- minutes.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Should I just bite the bullet and do it manually for a few months? Figure out how to automate the whole process?

thanks for any suggestions..

-j

[Hans van der Maarel]

I think I could do that with FME, maybe even including the uploading. Certainly willing to give it a try if you send me some sample data. However, 10 minutes for the manual option isn't a whole lot of time, so automating it would only be worthwile if that can be done relatively cheaply (or if you want it to run even when you've got a day off)

[dsl]

If you are using ArcGIS with spatial analyst or geostatistical analyst, then the easiest method would be to take your steps and place them in a model with modelbuilder. Most of the tools that accomplish these tasks can simply be dragged over to the model and then modify the settings.

If you are using Manifold or Mapinfo, then you can look into their scripting languages. That will be a balance between the time you think you'll save and the time it takes to learn and write the script. It doesn't need to be a pretty script as long as it does the job you need.

Hope that helps,
David

[snowgage]

Good points. This is one of those situations where I could probably figure out how to automate it or hire someone to script it out. Even though its only 10 minutes/day, there are many days when I'd prefer not to turn the computer on. I'll consider my options.

thanks,
j

[frax]

Maybe you can learn something useful in the process as well!