Have you ever wondered where a feature class came from as you've browsed over one of your geodatabases in ArcCatalog? I think most of us have, and probably more often than we'd like to admit. In the example shown here to the left, I made these datasets a few weeks ago, and I have no idea what "GN" means, and if or how I selected, simplified, or dissolved the data.
There are a couple of things we can do to avoid that puzzled feeling: standardize your feature class naming convention; standardize your geoprocessing. With the naming convention, I started doing the right thing here, but failed to follow through and leave myself the necessary clues. The data in the image above was also the result of a complex workflow, so rather than start with that, let's cover the basics. Read More...
