Parcel Fabric Migration

Project Status and Overview

Karen Terry, GISP
GIS Mapping Supervisor
Harris County Appraisal District
June 1, 2016

Harris County, Texas

Home to Houston, Texas
Americas 4th Largest City
Largest City in Texas by Population
Harris County = 14th largest in Texas in terms of
size (land area)
1.7 Million Parcels in Harris County
Phenomenal Growth Rate
Booming Economy
HCAD is currently considering migrating ESRIs
SDE database to parcel fabric

Houston, Texas

Parcel Fabric Overview

What exactly is parcel fabric?
ESRI Product
Provides a seamless, continuous network of
parcels
3 Pieces:

Data Model
Tools
Workflow

Parcel Fabric Overview

LGIM (Local Government Information
Model)
Data Model
Defines Parcel Types (similar to subtypes)

Includes layers common to local

government uses

Parcel Fabric Overview

Tools
Edit tools designed to be used specifically with Fabric
Parcel Fabric Editor Toolbar
Parcel Details Window (Traverse Tool)
Workflows
Merge Parcels (Combinations)
Parcel Split (Splitouts)
Import DWGS from CAD for New Subs
Others

Workflow Tasks
Vary depending on what is selected in Workflow Manager
Window

Import DWGs to subs

Merge Parcels
Splits
Etc.

Designed to Automate Edits/Processes Step-by- Step

Pros and Cons to Workflows

Parcel Fabric Overview

Status of HCAD Project
Sidwell (an ESRI Business Partner) will do the
migration for HCAD
2 Pilot Project Test Areas:
The Heights
Northwest Harris County (Southwest of New
ExxonMobil campus)

Parcel Fabric Pilot Project Areas

Exxon Mobile Campus Pilot
Area

The Heights

The Heights Area

Northwest Harris County

Status of Data
HCAD has had a digital basemap for 20+ years
Before 1995 pre-ESRI (System 9)
Early ESRI 1996-2004 (ArcMap Version 8)
Current ESRI 2005-present
SDE Data Environment

HCAD Data Status Map

Reasons for Selecting the Pilot

Areas
Several other pilot areas were considered

Most did not have the right mix of data

Some were rejected because near water
What was ultimately selected had a good mix of data
from the three (3) time periods and curves vs. straight
lines

Rejected Areas

Rejected Areas

Chosen Areas
For Pilot Project

The Heights Area

Northwest Harris County

Parcel Fabric Overview

Status of Project
Pilot Project Kick-Off with Sidwell February 9, 2016
All 2015 regular files have already been worked.
2016 files in the pilot areas were worked up until February
1, 2016.

Some new subdivisions were worked; others in the pilot

areas were held to be worked after the pilot project was
completed.
Update: As of 6/1/2016 all subs (in-and-out of pilot areas)
are finished.

Parcel Fabric Overview

Once the pilot is complete, we will section off the County and rotate out
areas, holding off working in these areas until the data comes back
from Sidwell. (Plan to send off ~50,000 100,000 parcels at a time)
Then we will work them in the fabric.

Until the migration is completed, we will have 2 production databases:

1) Current Fabric, and 2) Parcel Fabric (New)
In some cases (ie. high dollar files or property owner requests) we will
need to work the current fabric and then work again in the parcel fabric.
We will continue in this manner until parcel fabric migration is
completed.

Update: We finished working in the pilot areas as of 6/1/2016, and will

migrate data by ISD into the parcel fabric starting in September of 2016

Proposed Grid of Harris County by ISD

Approximately 50,000 100,000 Parcels can be migrated at one time

Parcel Fabric Overview

HCAD Data Must be Prepped for Migration
Topology Errors
No errors can be present at all or else parcel fabric import will
fail

6 Topology Rules that are required for LGIM:

Line features must be covered by polygons*

Lines must not self-overlap (line covered by line)
Lines must not self-intersect*
Lines must be single part
Lines must not intersect or touch interior*
Polygons must be covered by Lines

* HCAD topology rules already in place

Parcel Fabric Requirements

Data Cleanup

How much do we do in-house vs. How much does Sidwell do?

Will find that out after the pilot project is completed

Parcel Fabric Requires True Curves

2 Point Curves vs. Multi-Line/Vertices Connected Segments

Curve Creation/Arc Tools introduced in ArcMap Version 8.3
Convert data into true curves for migration into parcel fabric
Use Curves and Lines Toolbar to convert old data to true curves

vs.

Sub lines vs. Polygons

Parcels in Parcel Fabric (vs. lines)

Lines must be 2-point lines
ROW Polygons (converted from ROW Lines)
Closed Polygons all polys must be closed (no gaps) or import will fail

Data Accuracy

Control Points for New Subs for Data from 2005 current
Control Points are important, but not needed for initial data migration

Parcel Fabric Overview

Annotation Layer vs. Labeling in Fabric
Pros and Cons to each
Labeling is recommended for the parcel fabric

Right now there are 4.6 million pieces of Annotation in the HCAD Dimensions layer
alone (almost to capacity)
Annotation offers more flexibility in terms of placement and what text says
Labels are static
Labeling labels off of real data in attribute table

Labels would come from a DIM field, which would be the annotation from the current
layer
Use MapPlex for labeling
Anno takes longer to draw

(provides more flexibility)

Annotation vs. Labeling

Pros

Cons

FeatureLinked to SDE
Layers

Dimensions
Layer is
largest layer in
SDE Long
refresh/draw
times

More
Flexibility

Placement is
timeconsuming

Not to Tied to
an ATT Table
Comply with
Texas State
Law for
Basemap
Maintenance

Pros

Cons

Takes up less
disk space
(smaller size
of file)

Static

(Requires
MapPlex Extension
for more flexibility)

Tied to ATT
Table (cant be
any errors)
?

P.F. Migration Process

Site Visits to other Appraisal Districts:
Dallas County Appraisal District (DCAD)

Jefferson CAD - Beaumont/Port Arthur, Texas

January 2016
Bexar CAD San Antonio, TX
February 2016

Map of County Locations in

TX

Parcel Fabric Migration Comparison

Jefferson
CAD
Number of
Parcels in
County

Rank
(Population)

121,000

Bexar
CAD

Dallas
CAD

600,000

20

Harris
CAD

664,340

1,400,000

Platform
PreConversion

ESRI
Coverages

ESRI SDE ESRI

Libraries

Time to
Convert/Year

9 Months
2012

9 Months
2011

18 Months
?
2011-2012 2016-2017

Number of
Edits Per Year

4100 (not

12,000

5000-7000 +
1400 New
Subs

Used a Third
Party Vendor to
Assist with
Migration Effort

including new
subs)

Yes

No

No

ESRI SDE

7000-8000
+ 1700
New subs

Yes

Parcel Fabric Migration Comparison:

Results
Jefferson CAD
Did the Pros
of converting
outweigh the
cons?

Yes, because were on

coverages. (Could no
longer edit covs in ArcMap
after Ver 8.3)

Control Point
Network in
Parcel Fabric?

No

Using
Automated
Workflows?

No

(Edits are faster

outside of them)

Was the conversion

worth the effort?

Yes (went from

coverages to SDE, and had
COGO data on lines that
converted to dimensions.
Also least squares adj.
supported in fabric has led
to better
positioning/accuracy of data
over time)

Bexar CAD

Dallas CAD

Topology is
automagically
maintained. P. F.
stores more info
about curves

Yes, because were

on libraries (outdated

No

Yes, recently, but

not used for
adjustments. (Only
to find POBs)

No (were not available

data format)

Yes (now - a select

early on)

few)

Yes (Migration was

painful but topology is
automatically maintained
in fabric, which saves
time)

Yes (Fabric tracks

historical changes to the
data over time in a
history layer)

Lessons Learned from Site Visits

Make sure your vendor is familiar with your data
up-front

Everyone wished they knew more about the process

going in.
More error correction and up-front cleanup on their
data before importing/migrating into parcel fabric.
More training!!

Concern Will ESRI migrate the parcel fabric into ArcGIS Pro platform?

(Yes)

Things to Do Better
Not enough up-front clean up of data

Conversion Process Itself

Can be painful

Not enough training afterwards on how to

use Parcel Fabric
Annotation vs. Labels ?

Proposed Benefits Of Migrating to Parcel Fabric for HCAD

Topology is automatically maintained in parcel

fabric
Consistency in how edits and processes are
performed across editors via Automated Workflows
Time Saved Doing Redraws due to Parcel Fabric
Editing Process. Choice to hold the old or force
the old to the new data

Increased Productivity as a Result of the Above

HCAD Parcel Fabric Migration Status

Pilot Project Kick-Off February 9-19, 2016

Sidwell on-site
Interviews with my editing group to see
current workflows. Sidwell needs a workflow
from us.

Sidwell came back for training in March

2016

Summary
Largest parcel fabric migration attempted 1.4 - 1.7
million parcels
Harris CAD 3rd largest CAD behind Los Angeles, CA
and Chicago, IL
Will know how much time required for conversion after
pilot parcels are converted
Will conversion be worth the effort?
Stay tuned . . .

Questions?
Karen Terry, GISP
GIS Mapping Supervisor
Harris County Appraisal District
June 1, 2016
katerry@hcad.org