nickrsan
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9 years ago Open nickrsan opened 9 years ago
nickrsan
commented
9 years ago nickrsan
commented
9 years ago Original comment by CJ January (Bitbucket: cj_january, ).
I agree with many of the comments Alyssa made on her "Pisces Questions" doc on HipChat. I ran into the same issues with the Generate Species Matrix tool (not having a dropdown selection). Adding a link to the species group or codes in the Generate Species Matrix documentation would be helpful, too, if it’s an option.
Documentation>Tutorials>Editing Species Ranges: Add layer to editing.mxd from map output: “1. Open map output Table of Contents” This section wasn’t initially clear to me. If I’m just walking through the tutorials to learn how to use PISCES, this was confusing. (I just completed selecting my HUC’s, now I have 2 maps open?) I agree with Alyssa’s suggestion for a “Getting Started” section. The tutorials can then stand on their own as separate entities.
Nick mentioned it in HipChat, but otherwise I would not have known that the Generate Map tool doesn't interact with the current map. I would have been under the impression that you select the HUC12s that you want the map data for and a map is generated for those areas.
In the Generate Map tool, it would be helpful to know if there were bad combinations of map requests. It failed on me several times before I was able to generate a map.
Documentation>Tutorials>Setting up a blank map: Add HUC 12 Layer: Steps 2 & 3 are duplicated in this section & on the next page in the “Make HUC12s the only Selectable Layer” tutorial. This is fine if going through the tutorials separately, but was a little confusing if moving from one tutorial to the next.
Original report by Nicholas Santos (Bitbucket: nickrsan, GitHub: nickrsan).
Conversation with Alyssa highlighting documentation troubles:
nick I read most of the documentation and looked at the Nick oops I'm just having a really hard time getting started Nick Santos 2:47 PM ok Alyssa Obester 2:47 PM I know that's really broad Nick Santos 2:47 PM that's understandable no, that makes sense let's see if we can clarify do you know where to start looking in the documentation? or is it that you don't know what to do with the software? Alyssa Obester 2:47 PM I think more that I don't know what to do with the software Nick Santos 2:48 PM ok that's great (really) that's good feedback Alyssa Obester 2:48 PM haha Nick Santos 2:48 PM I think that's something I'll need to put on a webpage, but also in a getting started context what do you already know about PISCES? in summary? Alyssa Obester 2:51 PM a database of fish species range data? and a way to map it Nick Santos 2:51 PM I realize that's also broad, but just trying to assess whether I should be sharing with you what PISCES is or how to do things with it ok, yeah yeah, if that's how you think of PISCES< that's a pretty good summary what have you tried already, as far as starting points? I think what I'd like you to try is to generate some maps with it and maybe that terminology isn't good Alyssa Obester 2:52 PM well I read the setup, tools and importing data sections on the documentation Nick Santos 2:52 PM ok, interesting Alyssa Obester 2:53 PM and I did the tutorials (one of which I couldn't get to work) Nick Santos 2:53 PM (I think, sensible) ok which one didn't work? Alyssa Obester 2:53 PM I couldn't add the toolbox to a new map document Nick Santos 2:53 PM ok using the full documentation? Alyssa Obester 2:54 PM I made a note and can give a more detailed description if you want Nick Santos 2:54 PM ok what if you use the PDF you edited yesterday oh wait it doesn't describe that fully but it'll show you how to find the PISCES install folder Alyssa Obester 2:54 PM I used the last few steps of that to get started, which helped Nick Santos 2:55 PM ok have you found the toolbox? is that the problem - that you can't find it? Alyssa Obester 2:55 PM no, the problem was that after I add the tools, they done show up in the commands box dont Nick Santos 2:55 PM hmmm can I share your screen to watch? because you've added toolboxes before, correct? or no? Alyssa Obester 2:56 PM yes and yeah Nick Santos 2:56 PM ok, that's what I thought Alyssa Obester 2:56 PM let me get it opened up Nick Santos 2:57 PM ok - and then I'll send you a code - on that computer, will you go to http://support.cws.ucdavis.edu Alyssa Obester 2:58 PM should i login? Nick Santos 2:59 PM nope, one sec Ok, so if you reload that page it should have an option to join a session by typing in a code the code is "Alyssa" Alyssa Obester 3:00 PM do you want to watch me do this? Nick Santos 3:00 PM yeah, that'd be great ok what if you use the same tool as in the tutorial "Generate Map" same deal one sec oh can I try something? Alyssa Obester 3:02 PM yup! Nick Santos 3:06 PM I'm not sure what was going on it seems like it works now but I definitely saw what was happening it's like it all of a sudden loaded Alyssa Obester 3:06 PM yeah... ok, sorry about that Nick Santos 3:06 PM no need to be sorry I don't think you did anything wrong it's worth followup for now, skip creating the toolbar maybe and try to use the tools in the toolbox directly the toolbar isn't a super critical component it's just another way to access the tools in the toolbox Alyssa Obester 3:07 PM ok Nick Santos 3:07 PM ok - I'll leave you to your computer? Alyssa Obester 3:08 PM sure Nick Santos 3:08 PM do you still feel like you don't have a whole lot of direction with it though? Alyssa Obester 3:08 PM yeah Nick Santos 3:08 PM we solved the specific issue, but not the general Alyssa Obester 3:08 PM yes Nick Santos 3:08 PM ok so, I think next, it'd be great if you took a look at using the Generate Map tool and the Generate Matrix (or whatever that one's called) tool and see if you can get a feel for them Alyssa Obester 3:09 PM ok-should I be using the editing mxd? Nick Santos 3:09 PM and what the options provide sure, if you'd like it'll make some actions easier and make you able to skip the setup and let me know if you get more than a few minutes into all of that and still feel directionless Alyssa Obester 3:10 PM so I was doing that earlier Nick Santos 3:10 PM I know I'm sending you into a task that's confusing (I'm expecting that, but it's part of the process, so sorry :)), but right here I don't want you to bang your head against it to much earlier ok and still not sure about it? ok, one sec Alyssa Obester 3:10 PM am I just supposed to select some HUCs and then use the generate map tool? Nick Santos 3:10 PM I'm going to talk to lawrence for a moment and then I'll be right back Alyssa Obester 3:11 PM ok Nick Santos 3:23 PM ok, sorry back so for the generate map tool no need to select HUCs Alyssa Obester 3:23 PM ok Nick Santos 3:23 PM it's a tool in the toolbox, but it doesn't really interact with the current map it's just an interface to the data Alyssa Obester 3:23 PM ok Nick Santos 3:24 PM (this is all really useful though - usually, people get hands on training, but the questions you're asking will help me and Andy to write documentation that makes this clearer to people we don't sit down with) Alyssa Obester 3:24 PM I'm glad this is actually helpful then Alyssa Obester 3:26 PM so I just tried to generate a map of All Diversity and selected Fish as the Species and Groups and it failed 3:27 PM Andy Bell joined the room. Andy Bell 3:32 PM @ Alyssa that's expected. That map output doesn't take individual species or groups as inputs. It runs the diversity calcs for all species Alyssa Obester 3:33 PM oh ok Andy Bell 3:35 PM one additional thing to try to do is to add and remove species observations. There is a temp species called ZZZ01 in the database that can be used for testing. Alyssa Obester 3:37 PM what does that do? Andy Bell 3:38 PM The tool "add or modify data" can be used to add records for a selection of HUC12s. The species code ZZZ01 is just a dummy species that I created to experiment with. Alyssa Obester 3:39 PM ok Nick Santos 3:43 PM thanks for stepping in Andy Alyssa Obester 3:43 PM I guess I was overthinking this Nick Santos 3:43 PM haha, no way I think it's ok if you are Alyssa Obester 3:44 PM well now I have some species range maps Nick Santos 3:44 PM with software testing, it's important to figure out how different people respond to the software