The AIS environment

There are two data model schemas used with the Aeronautical Solution:

• Aeronautical Information System (AIS)—Contains the feature classes, tables, and relationships for primary data storage
• AIS Charting—Adds additional information (tables/feature classes) on top of the AIS schema to support cartography

These schemas are stored in configuration files with the extension .xml. The AIS_GX.xml is the aeronautical schema (parent feature classes). AISCharting_GX.xml is the aeronautical schema and the cartographic schema combined. The aeronautical cartographic model contains objects required for cartography. Both of these XMLs are applied to the geodatabase through the Import XML Workspace Document command in ArcCatalog. The difference between the AIS and AIS Charting schemas is the presence of cartographic feature classes (named with the suffix _C) in the AIS Charting schema. Cartographic feature classes contain attribution needed for cartography on a particular chart. A master feature may be associated with one or many cartographic features depending on how many charts the feature will appear on.

For GX schemas, only one schema is applied depending on the environment. A single geodatabase environment would only have AISCharting_GX.xml applied, while a two-geodatabase environment would have AIS_GX applied to the master geodatabase and the AISCharting_GX.xml applied to the charting geodatabase. An example of a two-database environment would be an organization that has a data steward group and a charting group. Geodatabase replication should then be used between these geodatabases to keep the master data synchronized.

Setting up the AIS entails the following procedures:

• Creating the product library: The product library stores and manages configuration components of the software and is referenced by many tools in the Aeronautical Solution. You, or a database administrator, should create the product library.

  Included in the product library database are the masking rules tables, rules for the Visual Specification Tool (VST), views, and more. The product library stores information about the charts, including the extents, that will be produced and are accessed from a tree structure.

  The product library is a series of tables for a given product class (for example, Enroute) that allows the organizational setup of a production environment and/or hard-copy map production.

  To establish a product library, you or a database administrator must first create a new product class in the Product Library tree. At a minimum, the name field should be populated. Upon creating the product class, a series of tables and feature classes (PCAT_<name>_SERIES, PCAT_<name>_PRODUCT, PCAT_<name>_INSTANCE, and PCAT_<name>_AOI) are created.

  In each of the PCAT tables, a PARENTID field exists that must contain the GFID of its parent. This parent/child relationship must be maintained throughout the product library table structure down to the Area of Interest (AOI) level.

• Creating the production database: The production database is the basic data storage or production database and is central to all users. You or a database administrator should create the production database.

  The production database is the primary database that contains the geographic data that can be used directly or to create and maintain the charts, maps, and cells for production. It is built from a valid Aeronautical Solution data model.

  Users may choose to enable geodatabase archiving on their production database. Geodatabase archiving is ArcGIS functionality to maintain an archive of all changes to a geodatabase. Through archiving, it is possible to view data as it existed at any point in the past.

  The Change Reporter tool within the Aeronautical Solution reads the archive tables and allows you to specify a date range and view a list of all changes made between those dates. It is beneficial in chart maintenance to view the changes made since the last chart production cycle.

• Defining the properties: Once the product library and production database are created, your client machine needs to be set to point to these databases on the Production Properties dialog box.
• Configuring validation: Data Reviewer can be used for data control and quality management that helps identify where geometric corrections, extraneous feature edits, and feature attribution changes must be made to the spatial data and its attributes, as well as digitize the locations of missing features.

  To see how Data Reviewer is used in a data information management and chart production environment, see the sample production tutorials that are available with the Aeronautical Solution setup.

  Learn more about Data Reviewer.