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U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 344

Software

ArcGIS Project

The map documents and shapefiles used to create the vibracore maps provided in this report can be found in the bss-shapefiles.zip file located in the ARC folder. This folder also contains a readme file that describes the GIS project in detail. Map documents were created using ESRI ArcGIS 8.3 software. Shapefiles provided may be viewed using other versions of ArcGIS, ArcView, or the public domain software ArcExplorer (http://www.esri.com/software/arcexplorer/).

Digitizing Methods

The digitizing method is described in the Digitizing Processing document (DOC) by Flocks (this volume) and can be found in the Digitizing Methods folder. This method describes how to convert the core description sheets (PDF) into a spreadsheet format (Microsoft Excel, XLS) using a digitizing tablet (Wacom) and software (Didger 3). A macro-processing program (Flocks, this volume) was used to process the digitized description spreadsheets and convert the files into numerical and text format, which can be considered the unprocessed or raw digitized format (XLS spreadsheets).

The Digitizing Macro (XLS) captures all of the symbol, text, and quantitative attributes included on the description sheets using a translation process that relates the position of an attribute in defined two-dimensional space to the value that the attribute represents.  The relationship between position and data value is dependent on a key table that is customized to the type and format of data being converted.

The digitizing macro is compatible with both PC and Macintosh operating systems. These macro scripts are provided as examples only. They may need to be modified to run on another system. Please follow the instructions on how to use or modify the macro script in the digitizing processing document (DOC). Contact James Flocks (jflocks@usgs.gov) for more detailed information.