Adding bathymetry data to the BIS geodatabase (Bathymetry Solution)

The Add Bathymetry tool establishes the link between the BAG datasets and the Bathymetry Information System (BIS) geodatabase. During the process of adding bathymetry, the BIS geodatabase stores and tracks each dataset’s location within the system tables while your bathymetry datasets remain at their physical locations (that is, local drive, network path, or DVD). By doing this, the system is referencing your actual bathymetry data holdings, not a copy, which keeps physical storage requirements down. You can create links to multiple BAG datasets across a variety of storage locations in a single batch process.

Before you can add bathymetry to your selected BAG files, you will need to define the extended metadata fields for each file. Extended metadata fields can be updated on the datasets individually, across datasets in a particular folder location, or to all listed datasets. Optionally, you can apply a Collection feature to each BAG dataset individually, across datasets in a particular folder location, or to all listed datasets; however, you will not be able to update the collection metadata.

Learn more about editing an existing collection

You can configure the metadata field display for the Collection and Extended Metadata sections of the Add Bathymetry dialog box by adding new fields, adding field drop-down values, and hiding fields. The Internal Metadata fields are read directly from the BAG dataset and have stricter limitations in the types of field modifications you can make.

Learn more about metadata display configuration

Only users with Data Owner privileges on the BIS geodatabase can add bathymetric data.

All BIS users, both administrator and nonadministrator users, will need to have Read/Write access to the bathymetry dataset storage location. The bathymetry datasets need to be stored on a shared network path following the UNC conventions (for example, \\MachineName\Folder\Data).

If working in a multiuser environment, it is strongly recommended that only one user at a time adds bathymetry data to the BIS geodatabase.

Note:

The following steps use the default metadata fields that come with the Bathymetry Solution. If you have configured your own metadata fields, then your experience with these steps will be different.

Steps:

1. Start ArcMap.
2. On the main menu, click Customize > Toolbars > Bathymetry.
3. Click the Add Bathymetry button on the Bathymetry toolbar.

   The Add Bathymetry dialog box appears. Initially, the list of BAG files to add is empty.
4. Click Add Datasets to List.

   The Select BAG files to add dialog box appears.
5. Navigate to the location containing the BAG files you want to add.
   Note:

   If a folder connection has not been created for the location of the BAG files, you will need to create the folder connection.

6. Select the datasets you want to add to the BIS geodatabase.

   You can select multiple datasets.

7. Click Add to add the datasets to the list.
8. If necessary, you can delete a dataset from the list:

   To remove a single item	Click the icon next to the dataset.
   To remove all datasets from the list	Click the icon next to the parent folder.

9. If you want to copy the data to another location, perform the following steps.

   There may be cases when you need to create a local copy of your BAG data, rather than accessing it across a network connection. The Add Bathymetry dialog box allows you to set a location to which source data will be copied. This location overrides any copy locations set in the Manage BIS Settings dialog box, the Manage Collections dialog box, and the Create BIS Database dialog box.

   1. Check the Copy data to (Optional) check box.
   2. Click the ellipsis (...) to browse to a new location where the source data will be copied.

      The Select a folder dialog box appears.

   3. Browse to and select the new location where the source data will be copied.
   4. Click OK.
10. If you want the new datasets to be part of a collection, click the Collections drop-down arrow in the Collection Metadata section and choose the collection.
    Note:

    A dataset is not required to be part of a collection. When a collection is chosen, the dialog box will display the Collection, Extended, and Internal Metadata of the file. Clicking Full XML View will display internal metadata in an XML metadata viewer. This is for display purposes only; metadata cannot be edited in the viewer.

11. Click the Value cell next to IHO Survey Order in the Extended Metadata section, click the drop-down arrow that appears, and choose a value.
    • Order 1a
    • Order 1b
    • Order 2
    • Order 1 (deprecated)
    • Order 3 (deprecated)
    Note:

    If you customized your Extended Metadata fields, the values for steps 11 through 14 may vary slightly from those listed below.

12. Click the Value cell next to Sensor, click the drop-down arrow that appears, and choose a value.
    • Sensor 1
    • Sensor 2
    • Sensor 3
13. Click the Value cell next to Vessel, click the drop-down arrow that appears, and choose a value.
    • Vessel 1
    • Vessel 2
    • Vessel 3
14. Click the Value cell next to Data Type, click the drop-down arrow that appears, and choose a value.
    • Multibeam
    • Single Beam
    • Interferometry
    • LiDAR
    Tip:

    Internal metadata can be extended to include any custom information.

15. Click OK.

When the data has finished loading, a progress dialog box indicates that the datasets have been added successfully.

In addition to loading data into the BIS geodatabase, the Add Bathymetry tool will calculate statistics on the import rasters, create pyramids, create overviews, and calculate statistics on the bathymetric data index.