Taking projects and data to the field

Once a project has been created (and published if applicable), the day-to-day work of data collection can begin. This functionality is typically accessed through the Terra Office Field Data dockable window with the required project set as current. To toggle the visibility of the dockable window, click Terra Office Field Data on the toolbar.

In the TerraFlex Cloud workflow, the project is ready to be used in the TerraFlex field workflow for new data collection shortly after it is published, as described in Creating and managing projects. No additional steps are required.

For workflows that require existing data to be edited in the field, TerraFlex provides data maintenance functionality through tasks. Tasks are groups of features with a title.

  1. Using any feature selection tool or workflow available in ArcGIS Pro (interactive or by location / attribute queries), select existing features in project layers. You do not need to worry about only selecting features in project layers as this filtering will happen automatically.

    Strictly speaking, features do not need to be selected prior to the next three steps; you can still change the selected features up until step 4 below.

  2. Click the Send Features tab.

  3. In the updated dockable window area, provide a Name, and optionally Notes.

  4. Click Create Task.

To close or delete existing tasks, select the required task in the Current tasks list then click either Close Task or Delete Task.

In either case, duplicate features will not be created in the TerraFlex Cloud. If features have previously been sent to the TerraFlex Cloud in tasks, they will be updated. Only features not sent previously will be added as new. If you click the Upload Selected Features (outside of a task) link text, the same selected features will be sent to the TerraFlex Cloud but no task will be created.

If it is necessary to limit the task assignment to a subset of users or groups, that can be done through the Connect Map Viewer.

In the TerraFlex Local workflow, you need to save the project to a TerraFlex Projects file (.tfin) and transfer it to the TerraFlex field device using any supported file transfer mechanism.

  1. In the Terra Office Field Data dockable window, click the Check-out tab.

  2. In the updated dockable window area, select optional tasks to include with the project (more information in section below).

  3. Specify an existing or new file by clicking the … button next to the TerraFlex Projects file (.tfin) entry box. A file can contain one or more projects.

  4. Click Check-out to save the file.

  5. As an alternative to steps 1-4, if there is no need to save tasks with the project, you can also initiate a check-out from the Manage Terra Office Projects window described earlier. With the desired TerraFlex Local project selected, click the Check-out button and specify a new or existing file.

  6. After the file is saved, use any file transfer mechanism supported by your organization (USB, email, file sharing services, etc.) to transfer the TerraFlex file to one or more field devices.

  7. Once the file has been transferred to the field device and opened in TerraFlex, the user can proceed with collecting new features into the empty schema.

For workflows that require the user to edit existing data in the field, TerraFlex provides data maintenance functionality through tasks; tasks are groups of features with a title. ArcGIS Pro selection tools (interactive or by location/attribute queries) can be used to select existing data in project layers. After selection, this data can then be sent to the field in TerraFlex tasks. You do not need to worry about only selecting features in project layers as this filtering will happen automatically.

  1. Using any feature selection tool or workflow available in ArcGIS Pro (interactive or by location/attribute queries) select existing features in project layers. You do not need to worry about only selecting features in project layers as this filtering will happen automatically.

  2. In the Check-out tab of the Terra Office Field Data dockable window, provide a Name and optionally, Notes for the task.

  3. Click Create Task. This will create an in-memory version of the task and it will be listed in the Select tasks to include in a TerraFlex Projects file (.tfin) list on the right side of the screen.

  4. You can now refer to the steps above for including tasks in the project when saving it to the TerraFlex Projects file.