Ag Leader SMS Basic and Advanced Manual - Manual (Page 142)

SMS Basic and Advanced Manual
5. Now select data filters to define what Fields from a selected Operation will be provided for possible assignment
to your import data. So if you are importing Soil Lab Results you would more than likely select the Soil Sampling
operation to limit the available fields for linking to your import file to ones that contain soil sampling points.
6. Then click Next> when done.
7. The Edit Data Filter Results dialog will now be displayed and provides a tree view of all the datasets that met
your filter selections on the previous dialog. You can remove any datasets that are listed that you do not want
their associated fields listed for on the next dialog. Click the FINISH button once you are satisfied with the
datasets listed.
8. The Select Field Name Column dialog will now be displayed. Select the Field Names Not Available option if the
non-spatial import file does not contain a column with a field name or other management item that separates
results from different fields. Select Select Field Name Column if the non-spatial import file contains a column
that identifies field names for the data. Then pick a column header name that represents the field name. Click
NEXT> once you have made your selection.
9. The Assign Import Data by Field Names dialog will not be displayed. This dialog provides a list of available fields
from the system based on the filters you set above and then a list of field names from the import file. You then
assign the field names from the system to their matching field name in the import file. Once you have assigned
all the fields you desire to import, click the FINISH button.
10. In order to link the data contained in the import file, i.e. lab results, to the data, i.e. soil sample points,
contained in the system, a reference attribute must be chosen to link an attribute in existing and import dataset.
This will help ensure that point one in the sample point dataset is properly matched with the first sample values
in the import file. Most often the Feature ID in the systems soil sampling dataset will be selected and matched
with an attribute in the import file such as Sample ID or Point Name. Click NEXT> once a reference attribute has
been selected.
11. You must now assign attributes to the attributes that you wanted imported into the system and used to fill in the
soil sampling attributes that are contained in your soil sampling dataset for example. Set the required reference
attribute that you selected in the previous step to an attribute in the import set that will be used to link entries in
the two datasets. Then assign the soil sampling attributes in the system to the columns in the import dataset that
correspond to these attributes and that you want stored and displayed.
12. Once you have setup the attribute columns for import you can save and import template that can be loaded the
next time you import lab results with identical formatting.
13. Click the FINISH button to link and import the lab results into your soil sampling dataset.
14. The imported results data can now be viewed by mapping the dataset they were linked to, on the summary, or in
and editor for the dataset.
How to export an ASCII text file.
Follow these steps to export an ASCII text file from the software:
1. Select the data in the Management Tree, below the Field level, that you would like to export or select a layer
in the active map.
2. Go to the File menu and select Export. The Select an Export Method... dialog will now appear.
3. Select the Export to a Generic File Format button and then click the Start...button.
4. Now select Comma or Tab delimited text formats from the list of available formats.
5. If you would like to customize the formatting of the text export click on the Export Settings button. You can
save and load export templates on the Export Settings dialog. Once you are ready to continue, click the OK
button on the Export dialog.
6. Depending on what data you would like to export and what data is contained in the dataset/layer that is
being exported select from the available export options that are provided.
7. Select a location and name to save the text file.
8. Click Save.
How to import data using a template.
Follow these steps to use an import template to import data into the system:
1. Now go to the FILE menu or the main toolbar and select READ FILE(S)...
2. A dialog will now appear with three options on it for reading files into the software. To import files from a
generic source, select the third option IMPORT A FILE FROM A GENERIC SOURCE. The option is
selected if there is a green check mark over the top right corner of the file icon. Once the option is
selected, click the START IMPORTING GENERIC FILES... button.
3. A dialog will now appear that provides a list of the file formats or groups of formats that can be imported.
Select the radio button labeled as IMPORT A FILE USING A SAVED TEMPLATE. Now click the
BROWSE... button and select one of the available import template files, which end in the extension *.imt.
Then click the SELECT FILE(S) TO IMPORT... button.
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