South Dakota ArcGIS Helpful Hint
Tip/Hint Title: Toolkit 2004 - ArcGIS GPS Download/Upload
Submitted by: Kevin Wegenke, GIS Specialist, South Dakota State Office Date: April 2005
Purpose: This guide is to instruct the user in downloading GPS data from the Garmin Map76 into a
Customer Folder in Customer Service Toolkit and vice versa. It assumes the use of MN DNR Garmin version 4.4.2.
Instructions/Steps To Download GPS’ed Data: 1 – After collecting GPS’ed Waypoint or Track data with the Garmin Map76 GPS receiver, attach the Garmin receiver to your computer using a GARMIN PC Interface cable to an open serial port. 2 – Check out a customer folder in CST2004 3 – Turn the GPS on, place it in Simulator mode (refer to your owner's manual for instructions) and verify that the Interface Mode (found under the Main Menu page, refer to your owner's manual for instructions) is set to GARMIN. 3 – Open the DNRGarmin application by going to All Programs→DNRGarmin→DNRGarmin 4 – After connection is verified, if you have never done so, set your projection parameters by going to the file menu item→set projection, and setting datum to NAD83 and projection to UTM zone14N (or 13N if you’re West of -102 degrees longitude). Click OK. If you think you have previously set these parameters you can verify them by going to the file menu item→get projection. 5 – Click on the waypoint or track menu item→download. Once the DNRGarmin table appears you can delete individual records before saving by selecting one or more records and clicking on the red X on the left of the table. You can also delete fields by clicking on the field name and hitting the delete key on your keyboard. 6 – Go to the file menu item again and select file→save to→file. Navigate to the folder you want to save the waypoint(s) or track(s) in (e.g. C:\customer files toolkit\
\engineering). For the Save as type: option, select ArcView Shapefile (Projected) (*.shp). For the File name: option, name the file something meaningful (best to have no spaces in the
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name). In the case of a track, you’ll be asked to specify what format you want to save the track(s) in, point, line or polygon; select the proper option. Click the Save button. 7 – You can load the waypoint or track shapefile into ArcMap by opening ArcMap, clicking on the Add data button (big plus sign), navigating to the customer folder\engineering and selecting the shapefile you created.
Instructions/Steps To Upload Shapefile Data to GPS Receiver: 1 – If your dataset is in a geodatabase format (e.g. PLU or practices created in CST2004) you’ll need to convert it to a shapefile format before uploading into the Garmin receiver. If you’re not sure whether your layer is in a geodatabase or shapefile format, one way to check is to right-click on the layer name in ArcMap→select properties→select the source tab. In the data source box, it will say Data Type: Shapefile Feature Class if the layer is a shapefile, or Data Type: Personal Geodatabase Feature Class if the layer is a geodatabase layer. The DNRGarmin application will not recognize the geodatabase format. To do the conversion, right-click on the layer name, select data→export data. By default ArcMap may want to put this shapefile in the same location as the source geodatabase layer is in. DO NOT STORE THE SHAPEFILE HERE! If you do bad things may happen when you check the customer back into the NCPDB. Navigate to C:\customer files toolkit\\engineering (or some other logical place) by clicking on the browse button and navigating to the proper folder. For the Save as type: option, select Shapefile. For the File name: option, name the file something meaningful (best to have no spaces in the name). 2 – Once you have a shapefile created, attach the Garmin receiver to your computer using a GARMIN PC Interface cable to an open serial port. 3 – Turn the GPS on, place it in Simulator mode (refer to your owner's manual for instructions) and verify that the Interface Mode (found under the Main Menu page, refer to your owner's manual for instructions) is set to GARMIN. 4 – Open the DNRGarmin application by going to All Programs→DNRGarmin→DNRGarmin 5 – Go to the file menu item and select file→load from→file. Navigate to the folder you want to load the waypoint(s) or track(s) from (e.g. C:\customer files toolkit\\engineering). For the Files of type: option, select ArcView Shapefile (*.shp). Select the shapefile you want to upload and click Open. Once the DNRGarmin table appears you can delete individual records before loading to the receiver by selecting one or more records and clicking on the red X on the left of the table. You can also delete fields by clicking on the field name and hitting the delete key on your keyboard. 6 – Select the Waypoint or Track menu item→Upload. The software will upload the waypoints or track points into the Garmin receiver. When done, you’ll get a message stating that the transfer is complete and the number of points which were uploaded. Enjoy!
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