Hawth's Analysis Tools for ArcGIS

I have found this ArcGIS analysis tool very useful. Probably some of the functionalities are now available with latest version of ArcGIS. But, those who are still using previous versions of the software try this handy but powerful tool.

You can create and manipulate both vector and raster files with this tool. Here is a brief list of the functionalities of the tool…

Create line with XY data
Create vector grid (both lines and polygons)
Clip raster
Extract raster edge
Count points in polygons
Generate random points
Add area and length field to table

The tool has been developed by Hawthorne L. Beyer and available at free of cost (thanks to Hawth!). Two versions of the tool (for ArcGIS 9.x and 8.x) are available in the following link. Installation instructions are also available in the page.

http://www.spatialecology.com/htools/download.php

Description of each tool along with help files could be found in the following link …

http://www.spatialecology.com/htools/tooldesc.php

Mountaineering Training and Trekking in Bangladesh

Are you interested in mountain adventure? Then you can consider to join a mountaineering training and trekking event in Teknaf, Cox’s Bazar starting from 21 Jan 2009. It will be organized by North Alpine Club Bangladesh (NACB) in association with Incitaa Tourism.

Contact Email: nalpineclub@gmail.com, incitaa@gmail.com

Fins more information in the following link…
http://www.prothom-alo.com/print.php?t=f&nid=MzQxNzk=

Constituency Maps of Bangladesh

This year Bangladesh Election Commission has updated it's website with constituency maps. You can find the map of your constituency in the following link...

http://www.ecs.gov.bd/English/constituency_map.php

What you have to do is to select the name of the District and Area from pull-down menu. Alternatively you can also type the name of the constituency.

On the above you can find Trangail-2 Constituency map (click to view enlarged version) which was downloaded from the above mentioned site.

How to create a point in the center of a polygon

Centroid is a point in the center of a polygon. Creating centroid for polygon features is quite simple but little lengthy process. In ArcGIS you can do that by 4 steps.


Step 1: Add two blank fields in the attribute table of the polygon feature to store X and Y Coordinates of the Centroid.


Step 2: Populate those fields with X and Y Coordinates of the Centroid using Calculate Geometry tool.


Step 3: Export the populated table.


Step 4: Create a point feature layer using the exported X and Y Coordinates of the Centroid.

I believe most of the users of ArcGIS is familier with steps 1, 3 and 4. I'm providing details about setp 2. Let me know if anybody wants to learn more about the other steps.


Calculating area, length, and other geometric properties (Step 2)


1. Start an edit session. You can make calculations without being in an editing session; however, in that case, there is no way to undo the results.


2. Right-click the layer and click Open Attribute Table. You can only perform geometric calculations on attribute tables.


3. Right-click the field heading for which you want to make a calculation and click Calculate Geometry.


4. Click the geometric property you want to calculate. Different properties are available depending on the type of layer you're using.


5. Click to use either the coordinate system of the data source or the coordinate system of the data frame.


6. Click the units of the output calculations.


7. Optionally, if you have selected records in the table, choose whether to apply the calculations to all records or just the selected ones.


8. Click OK.



Note:

Geometry calculations in ArcGIS are planimetric—in other words, take place in projected space, not spherical or geodesic space. You can only calculate the area, length, or perimeter of features if the coordinate system being used is a projected coordinate system. If the data source uses a geographic coordinate system such as WGS 1984, and is therefore unprojected, you can use the projected coordinate system of the data frame to perform the calculations. Alternately, you can project the data source.

Calculate Geometry works with any numeric or text field. For the most precise results, use a field of type double, with the desired number of decimal places. If you use an integer field, the result will be rounded up to a whole number. If you use a text field you can include unit abbreviation, choose the format, and so on to it is easy to make a ready-to-use field for labeling.

Satellite View of Shahid Buddhijibi Graveyeard

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Mirpur, Dhaka

Satellite View of Rayer Bazar Boddo Bhumi

Satellite View of Rayer Bazar Boddo Bhumi


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Bangladeshi GIS Mapping Company Featured in Direction Magazine

Today a Bangladeshi GIS mapping organization, UNCL (Universal Network Company Limited) has been featured in Direction Magazine. About a month earlier, UNCL uploaded several maps in the Map Gallery of the Magazine. One of the maps, titled City of Dhaka, was featured in the “Off the Beaten Path” section of the Magazine. However, the actual title of the map is "Magnitude of Child Labour by Age Group in Dhaka City Corporation by Ward".

It is good to see a Bangladeshi GIS company has been featured in such a reputed Geospatial Journal. However, after little bit of Googling, I have found that UNCL is actually a sister concern of BRB Group, reputed for one of it’s products, BRB Cables. And Universal Mapping (in short UniMap) is the GIS mapping unit of UNCL.

In a press release (dated October 26, 2008), it was said that "UniMap is committed to serve high precision and high accuracy GIS Topographic Map, 3D City Modeling, DTM Contour Generation, Aerial triangulation and Ortho-photo preparation. To launch UniMap Wing, already UNCL have appointed two technical personnel those have 5 to 8 years working experience in GIS, RS and Photogrammetric field. The board of directors of BRB Group’s also invites the interested Western and European Photogrammetric Company to work in cooperation with UNCL in Bangladesh."

Contact Details of the organization is as follows…
Universal Mapping (unimap@brb-group.com)
Phone: +880-2-8620555

You can find more about BRB Group in the following site…
http://www.brb-group.com/

I wish a bright future of the company!