NPS AlaskaPak Toolkit for ArcView 3.x

Updated May 23, 2002

AlaskaPak is an extension for use with ArcView 3.x. It provides a suite of general utilities for use in a variety of GIS projects. Designed and programmed by the GIS Team of the National Park Service's Alaska Support Office, the utilities are particularly useful for natural resource and cultural resource needs. The extension is free to download, and all code is available within the extension for public use or modification. This extension is offered as is; please back up any pertinent data before using this extension, as we do not accept responsibility for its use. For more information contact Greg Daniels or Danelle Malget.

Download AlaskaPak Toolkit for ArcView 3.x

What does AlaskaPak do?

All GUIs

Buttons:
• Help - provides direct access to the appropriate page in the Online Help document. Select this tool, then click on any of the AlaskaPak utilities (buttons, tools, menu items) and the appropriate help page will appear.

Help menu:

• AlaskaPak Help Topics - is available under the Help menu of all GUIs. This provides an online help document for the AlaskaPak extension.

Project GUI

Buttons:

• Copy a Document - makes a copy of an existing document in the project.

AlaskaPak menu:

• Resize Project to Monitor - resizes the project window and all open documents to fit within the current monitor settings.
• Export documents to a file - exports ArcView documents to an ODB file so that they can be imported into other ArcView projects.
• Import documents from a file - imports ArcView documents that have been previously saved to an ODB file.

View GUI

AlaskaPak menu:

• Layout Wizard - Creates a NPS Graphics compliant layout from the active view that can be customized for any NPS unit.
• Zoom to a Saved Extent - recalls the parameters of a saved view extent.
• Save a View Extent - saves the parameters of your current view extent to a file.
• Add XY to Attributes - adds XY coordinates of features in a theme to the attributes table.
• Add Acres/Miles to Attributes - adds fields to a polygon or line theme attributes table for area and length in acres and miles. Note perim_miles and length_miles are converted to perim_mile and length_mil when saved to dbf (as a shapefile).
• Successive Point Distances - calculates the distance between successive points locations. Points must be stored in order.
• Import GPS data
• Import Excel-macro PLGR output as shapefile - takes a PLGR GPS csv file and creates a new ArcView shapefile from it.
• Import Raw PLGR output as event theme - takes Raw PLGR ASCII OUT file and displays it as an event theme in your view.
• Import Collar Data
- imports several different collar formats (ATS, Telonics, ARGOS) into a new Table document.
• Convert Graphic to Shape - converts graphic elements in your view to a shape file.
• Create Random Sites - creates a new point shapefile with a user-specified number of random sites. Sites may be within view extent and/or selected polygons of the active theme.
• Select Random Features - creates a new selection set of randomly selected features in the active theme.
• Closest Features - determines the closest feature in a theme from each selected feature in the active theme. Adds the distance to the attributes table, and optionally adds the ID of the feature.
• Point Theme to Polygon/Polyline - converts a point theme into a polygon or polyline theme. Points must be stored in order.
• Point Density - calculates the density of points of the active point theme within the selected features of a polygon theme.
• Minimum Convex Polygon - creates a minimum convex polygon shapefile encompassing the selected points of the active point theme.
• Run Additional Scripts:
• Build an Image Catalog - builds an image catalog for viewing multiple image themes.
• Obscure sensitive data points - creates either a new polygon shapefile of buffer circles that contain, but are not centered on, the data points, or it creates a point theme where each point is offset within a distance ranges in a random direction.
• Animate Date/Time Data - redraws the active point using date/time attributes to determine the order and speed of animation.
• Closest Feature in Time Interval - for each selected feature in the active theme determines the closest feature occurring within a specified time interval.
• Tools:
• Zoom to Scale - sets the zoom scale from a standard set of scales and pans to a user selected center.
• Connect Points to Polygon - on-screen digitize a new polygon feature snapping to selected features within the active point themes.
• Connect Points to Polyline - on-screen digitize a new polyline feature snapping to selected features within the active point themes.
• Digitize with ID - on-screen digitize new points in the active point theme, adding ID attribute information interactively as you digitize.

Table GUI

AlaskaPak menu:

• Source Info - provides a message box with general information about a table source and field formats.
• Search and Replace - does a search and replace of text values in the selected field of the active table.
• Append Tables - append to data from another table to the end of the active table. Field properties must be identical between tables. Also works for shapefiles.
• Add Unique Value Field - adds a new field to the active table and populates it with a unique number for each record. The user specifies both the initial value and the increment used to generate subsequent values.
• Convert Units - adds a new field to the active table converting numeric data of the active field to a different unit of measure.
• LatLong to Decimal Degrees - converts latitude and longitude fields in a table to decimal degrees.
• Calculate Successive Differences - calculate the difference between successive rows of the selected numeric field of the active table.

Layout GUI

Tools:

• Add Text File - adds a textbox containing text from a *.txt file to a layout at the cursor location.
• Measure - measures distances on the layout in inches. Works just as the measure tool does in View documents.

AlaskaPak menu:

• Draw Palettes - creates a layout document for printing of the each loaded palette, for a selected palette type. If the palette type is color, the layout will include the RGB values of each color.