9 replies to this topic

[ErikS]

I have spearheaded a little project at work, using address data to track year over year growth patterns for our families.

The old free program I used before http://batchgeo.com/ is still free, but now costs 99.00 per month for full funtionality (exporting kml. files to Google Earth, multiple users, hes res maps, etc.) which use to be free.

Before I go forward with it, just wondering if anyone else is using this program, or if there are better versions out there for the same cost.

I know I have seen a few GIS people on here, so any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

[ErikS]

So, with all the small business people on here, not a peep from this?

[gilber33]

I only have experience with ArcGIS.

[ErikS]

gilber33, on 08 December 2011 - 02:15 AM, said:

I only have experience with ArcGIS.

Second person to say that on two forums today. Looked at it, tell me why I can't get that kind of data on my own.

[gilber33]

ErikS, on 08 December 2011 - 02:42 AM, said:

Second person to say that on two forums today. Looked at it, tell me why I can't get that kind of data on my own.

Get what kind of data? What are you trying to get on your own? Are you using address data to to pinpoint houses? Your city should have an address layer for Houston, I'm sure you can request it if it's not already available. If not, there may be a department at a local university that will have it, should be able to acquire it easily. Then you can create your own attribute data. Or you can get the orthophotos of Houston and create your own points with the address of the house your tracking and create attribute data on your own. The only expensive part is acquiring ArcGIS since it's expensive as balls. Luckily, whenever I'm in a class that uses it, I get a "one year subscription" to it and I have sitll have another copy I haven't used yet.

[ErikS]

gilber33, on 08 December 2011 - 02:49 AM, said:

Get what kind of data? What are you trying to get on your own? Are you using address data to to pinpoint houses? Your city should have an address layer for Houston, I'm sure you can request it if it's not already available. If not, there may be a department at a local university that will have it, should be able to acquire it easily. Then you can create your own attribute data. Or you can get the orthophotos of Houston and create your own points with the address of the house your tracking and create attribute data on your own. The only expensive part is acquiring ArcGIS since it's expensive as balls. Luckily, whenever I'm in a class that uses it, I get a "one year subscription" to it and I have sitll have another copy I haven't used yet.

Pinpointing houses is the easy part, if that's what you mean by address layers.

I'm not a student.

I'm tracking "customer" patterns of neighborhoods, not individual houses. I'm looking at the growth of 700 addresses to over 1200 in large metro cities over a 4 year period looking for trends (housing prices, demographic information, HHI, population growth.) If you have an extra subscription copy of ArcGIS, I might want to see if you'd like to help a fellow VS'er out.

I don't know if it has the information I am looking for though.

[gilber33]

So you're basically trying to find where your customers are from and live and how the neighborhood has changed over a period of time?

[ErikS]

gilber33, on 08 December 2011 - 03:08 AM, said:

So you're basically trying to find where your customers are from and live and how the neighborhood has changed over a period of time?

I know where they live, I want to know why they are choosing to live there, and where more of them will live in the future.

[gilber33]

ErikS, on 08 December 2011 - 03:10 AM, said:

I know where they live, I want to know why they are choosing to live there, and where more of them will live in the future.

That's what I meant. That sounds interesting though. I've done a couple similar projects like that. The hardest part of using ArcGIS is retrieving the data, your city should have the data on file, but there's usually an application process of some sort.

I may be willing to give up my other copy of ArcGIS, I have to see when my current subscription expires and what my upcoming classes are in the Spring, if I don't have a GIS class at all, I can't get another copy and I usually use it for projects whenever I can.

[bdimag]

ErikS, on 08 December 2011 - 02:42 AM, said:

Second person to say that on two forums today. Looked at it, tell me why I can't get that kind of data on my own.

lol I was going to say ArcGIS too... only because the name's come up a few times at work. but I have no business in here