1. DNRGarmin/DNRGPS Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow NPS Webinar Series 4/21/2014 1

2. Agenda History DNRGarmin to DNRGPS What’s New Other Tools Questions 2

3. DNRGarmin - 2000 DNR Conservation Officers wanted to view a real-time point on a map in their truck over an air photo. DNRGarmin was born VB6 application PCOGarmin.ocx control – Ron Whately Communicates with Garmin’s published protocol. Code for reading/writing shapefiles Projections – Proj4 Work with Arcview 3.x Save to Theme Load from Theme Real-Time Tracking Placed on the DNR Web Page 3

4. DNRGarmin - 2008 Incorporate ArcGIS Incorporate Google Earth (kml) Calculate Circular Error of Probability (CEP) Image Hotlinking 4

5. DNRGarmin - 2008 5

6. DNRGarmin to DNRGPS - 2012 A major update was needed to the old application. 6

7. Why Updating? Keep Up With New Technology ESRI Garmin 7

8. Why Updating? Built On Old Technology Visual Basic 6 1998 – Released 2008 – No longer supported Reliance on Dead Controls Garmin Communication Shapefile Writer 8

9. What Kind of Update? 9

10. Why Open Source? Large Worldwide User Community Data collection in National Parks 10

11. Why Open Source? Large Worldwide User Community Data collection in National Parks Alligator surveys in Louisiana 11

12. Why Open Source? Large Worldwide User Community Data collection in National Parks Alligator surveys in Louisiana Elephant Tracking in South Africa 12

13. Why Open Source? Large Worldwide User Community Data collection in National Parks Alligator surveys in Louisiana Elephant Tracking in South Africa Mapping Freshwater Wells in Iraq 13

14. Why Open Source? Large Worldwide User Community Data collection in National Parks Alligator surveys in Louisiana Elephant Tracking in South Africa Mapping Freshwater Wells in Iraq Michael Fay’s “Mega Flyover” 14

15. Why Open Source? Wide array of Customization Requests Offers To Provide Resources Makes for a more dynamic program – Went 4 years without an update. More updates possible, faster bug fixes. 15

16. Challenge Develop New Standards Rewrite 10 years of code (~15,000 lines) Robust Efficient Familiar Interface Rewrite Docs Consolidate Improve Installation Package Organize partners 16

17. Developed New Standards C# - Development Language.NET 4.0 - Framework GPS Babel – GPS Communications PROJ.4 – Projections GDAL – Shapefile, Geodatabase ESRI 10.x – Non-Open formats Sphinx – Documentation Assembla – Code Repository 17

18. Developed New Standards C# - Development Language DNR Standard Open Source File Geodatabase wrapper written in C# If upgrading from a VB6 app should go with VB.NET. More copy/paste and less complete rewrites. 18

19. Developed New Standards.NET 4.0 – Framework 3.5 vs 4.0 vs 4.5 Most have 3.5. Have come across non-4.0 machines and upgrading can be a hassle for users with restricted rights. 19

20. Developed New Standards GPS Babel – GPS Communications Fast Works with multiple GPS brands Good for saving between GPS brands Used for Garmin Protocol Included GPS Babel front end with install for testing Does not have its own projection engine Limited in File Types – GPS to GPS formats 20

21. Developed New Standards PROJ.4 – Projections Familiar Piece Fast Accurate Works hand in hand with GDAL Conversions between projection types (PRJ, POSC, etc) is not accurate 100% of the time. 21

22. Developed New Standards GDAL – Shapefile, Geodatabase Provides ability to save to many different file formats with a standard interface, minimizing code. Works with Proj.4 to convert between multiple projection definitions (PRJ, POSC, etc) Still nuances between file types that require plenty of if/then statements Field Types Value restrictions File Structures – File vs Geodatabase Bugs Hoped to include tons of file types but too much work! 22

23. Developed New Standards ESRI 10.x – Non-Open formats Read from any Feature Layer in ArcMap Wrote a stand-alone DLL that communicates with ArcMap (not an Add-In nor toolbar) – Regan Sarwas (NPS) User has no extra steps when installing DNRGPS A BEAR to get working – Communication Protocol had changed since ArcMap 9.3.1 to become more restrictive and less flexible. The protocol changed again between version 10.0 and 10.1. Grr! A separate DLL is required for each major increment release (10.0, 10.1, 10.2, …) 23

24. Developed New Standards Sphinx - Documentation Open Source Produces Clean HTML and PDF No User-Friendly Front End 24

25. Developed New Standards Assembla.com - Code Repository www.assembla.com/spaces/dnrgps Code – Browsable or Check-out Bug/Task Lists Documentation 25

26. Installation Package No Installation Package!! Copy folder to your machine and run the DNRGPS.exe. Avoids need for administrative permissions Can be run directly from a networked drive Reduced installation errors to nil. 26

27. Organized Partners Put a call out to thousands on our announce list Personally contacted people who offered time or money in the past Ended up with: 1 non-DNR coder (yay NPS!) Numerous beta testers 27

28. User Tracking Identify Impact of Software Who is using it? Where? Why? Helps to justify further development or identify reasons to abandon ship and move on. 28

29. User Tracking OVERT Users Register Software Announce Lists Discussion Lists Email/Phone Communication Bug Tracking COVERT Track # Downloads Track User Information Google Searches 29

30. User Tracking OVERT Users Register Software Announce Lists Discussion Lists Email/Phone Communication Bug Tracking COVERT Track # Downloads Google Searches Track User Information 30

31. User Tracking - Overt Announce List One-way Announcing new versions 1700+ signed up Discussion List Two-way User interaction 500+ signed up 31

32. User Tracking - Overt Email/Phone Communication Informal Questions Bug Tracking “Submit a Bug” button Bugs stored at https://www.assembla.com/spaces/dnrgps/ticketshttps://www.assembla.com/spaces/dnrgps/tickets User able to add email to bug so they are notified of updates. 32

33. User Tracking - Covert Google Searches 7,990 results for “DNRGPS” 25,800 results for “DNRGarmin” Custom Documentation YouTube Videos Training Materials Project References Chat rooms 33

34. User Tracking - Covert Track User Information Check for Software Updates IP Address Not unique to a computer Allows for rough locational data Number of Starts One IP has > 13,100 starts Software Version Date of last start 34

35. User Tracking - Covert 109,914 Unique Ips IP to Lat/Long lookup service at http://www.ipinfodb.comhttp://www.ipinfodb.com 45,935 spatial matches 35 As of 2012: 115+ Countries #Users? 1,148,409 Starts ~10 starts per IP As of 2012: 115+ Countries #Users? 1,148,409 Starts ~10 starts per IP

36. Connections NMEA COM, USB, COM  USB Adaptor Garmin Protocol (Old) COM, USB, COM  USB Adaptor Garmin Protocol (New) USB (Drive) USB (Device) 36

37. GPX Format Extensions New(er) GPXX format Garmin - 2014 258.635468 2013-11-07T20:04:59Z 001 NOTE Lodge 16.764204 SymbolAndName DNRGarmin 0 ENDSUR 07:48 12-OCT-10 GPS 12 Map 43 22 DNRGPS 277.94470214843801 2013-11-06T11:26:33Z W1 03-APR-12 10:40 Hunting A WAYPOINT 45.0 33.0 37

38. Projections EPSG file 38

39. Projections EPSG file Custom Projections 39

40. Projections EPSG file Custom Projections ESRI vs EPSG 40

41. Arcmap Communication DLL DnrGps_ArcMap.dll No registration issues (isn’t registered at all) Slowness Commands originating from outside Arcmap’s realm are REALLY slow. Load from Arcmap unbearable for high volume Save to Arcmap is OK. 41

42. Other Garmin Tools Mapwel – www.mapwel.comwww.mapwel.com Custom IMG background maps from shapefiles Snowmobile Trails – Routing Parcel Boundaries Forest Stand Bdrys Park Trails 42

43. Other Garmin Tools Export to Image -- http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/mis/gis/tools/arcgis/index.html http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/mis/gis/tools/arcgis/index.html Arcmap to JPG or KMZ Image to Points – Exif X/Y to Feature Class tool in MNDNR Tools Toolbox 43

44. Other Garmin Tools DNR Survey – robert.wright@state.mn.usrobert.wright@state.mn.us Field Data Collection with Arcmap Custom Forms Pt, Ln, Py, Voice Recording NPS (Steve Windels), USFS, Manitoba Conservation and Water, WA Dept of Fish and Wildlife, Bands of Lake Superior Chippewa, etc. 44

45. Questions? When can we expect DNRGPS to work "inside" ArcGIS 10.x? 10.1/10.2 Beta to be released within a week. Will DNRGPS work with the Monterra, Fenix, Quatix and Virb? The Beta should handle “devices” and has been tested with a Monterra. Newer Garmin GPS units have a camera which embeds the coordinates in the EXIF field but does not associate with a waypoint will DNRGPS be able to extract that position and then add it with the filename to a shape or kml file? http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/mis/gis/tools/arcgis/index.html 45

46. Questions? Batch manipulate symbols in DNR Garmin table? No, but you can copy/paste multiple cells at once (similar to Excel) or copy/paste from Excel. How does Garmin treat you? You have made and kept making their products usable for fire and natural resource mapping, a market niche they apparently ignore. In so doing you have generated a lot of business for them. To what extent do they support your work? 0% 46

47. Acknowledgements Robert Lipe - GPS Babel Gerald Evenden - Proj.4 Frank Warmerdam – GDAL Regan Sarwas – Developer, NPS Sphinx -- http://sphinx-doc.org/http://sphinx-doc.org/ Ron Whately - PCOGarmin.ocx MN DNR Staff DNR GPS (DNR Garmin) User Community 47

48. More Questions? Chris Pouliot Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Christopher.pouliot@state.mn.us http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/mis/gis/index.html 48