ArcGIS Tricks

Since I now use ArcGIS for my job (instead of QGIS, which I used for everything else, except for Drupal, where I use OpenLayers), I have to re-learn everything I once knew.  Part of this involves the nitpicky issues that span both ESRI’s programming choices and their documentation.  I will continue to update this post as I learn more.

ArcGIS 10.1:

  • When using the Contour tool, there cannot be any spaces in the output path.  Not just the filename, but the whole path to that file.  The full list of characters you can’t use (just to be safe) is here (even though the output is a vector).
    • Errors you may get: 010328 : Syntax error, 010267 : Syntax error in parsing grid expression.
  • When exporting a shapefile that has a joined table (i.e., to create a new shapefile so you can query the joined data), the filename of the table that is being joined needs to be pretty short.  Otherwise, the shapefile is not exported completely and there are no errors–Arc actually “finishes” and lets you add the new shapefile.  Taking spaces out of the filename probably can’t hurt either.

yweather help

In case you want more out of your yweather script when you use it for Geektool, here are some other switches you can use:

I’ve figured out some of it, so I guess my only tip is to not try to use more than one argument at a time (except as shown below with the units example) and therefore to use a bunch of geeklets if you want to show a lot of information.

Also, I believe that ‘weather.png’ in the images folder is the current weather, so you should be able to show it using an image geeklet.

Yahoo Weather Information

Usage:
./yweather.pl -ct Displays current temperature

In case you want more out of your yweather script when you use it for Geektool, here are some other switches you can use:

I’ve figured out some of it, so I guess my only tip is to not try to use more than one argument at a time (except as shown below with the units example) and therefore to use a bunch of geeklets if you want to show a lot of information.

Also, I believe that ‘weather.png’ in the images folder is the current weather, so you should be able to show it using an image geeklet.

Yahoo Weather Information

Usage:
	./yweather.pl -ct	Displays current temperature

Arguments:
	-lc 			City
	-lr			Region
	-lt			Country
	-cc			Weather Code (used for images)
	-ct			Current Temperature
	-cw			Current Weather Description
	-cd			Current Date
	-ah			Current Humidity
	-av			Current Visibilty
	-ap			Current Barometric Pressure
	-ar			Change in Barometric Pressure
	-sr			Time of Sunrise
	-ss			Time of Sunset
	-wc			Current Wind Chill
	-wd			Current Wind Direction
	-ws			Current Wind Speed
	-ut			Temperature Unit
	-ud			Distance Unit
	-up			Pressure Unit
	-us			Speed Unit
	-fd1			Today's Day
	-fg1			Today's Date
	-fl1			Today's Low Temp
	-fh1			Today's High Temp
	-ft1			Today's Description
	-fc1			Today's Weather Code
	-fd2			Tomorrow's Day
	-fg2			Tomorrow's Date
	-fl2			Tomorrow's Low Temp
	-fh2			Tomorrow's High Temp
	-ft2			Tomorrow's Description
	-fc2			Tomorrow's Weather Code
	--copyimage		Copy Appropriate Image to Current Image (deprecated)
	--update		Update xml source file

All data is returned without units. To get data with units,
use a combination of commands.

Example: (Displays Current temperature with unit)
	./yweather.pl -ct && ./yweather.pl -ut

http://macenstein.com/default/2009/11/how-to-add-a-bunch-of-useless-stuff-to-your-desktop-with-geektool-yahoo-widgets-and-more/
http://code.google.com/p/yweather/wiki/howtousage