Overview

DataShare is the new data portal that replaces Vicmap and the Spatial Datamart.

https://datashare.maps.vic.gov.au/

Ordering data

Here’s a step by step process to order once-off data.

Visit the site

Go here: https://datashare.maps.vic.gov.au/

Search for your data

Here I’m searching for “road”.

Open

And I find Vicmap Transport Road Network dataset.

Open

Add to the order

Click “Add to order”.

Proceed to Order Confirmation

Next, Proceed to Order Confirmation and sign in. You can sign up with your own details (recommended), or my details can be found in the Engineering 1Password. I have no special privileges right now so there’s really no point.

Side note — they’re using Cognito.

Select the order specifics

Use these specific details for the order. Select Projection “Geographicals on GDA2020' or “Geographicals on GDA94”.

(Projection: Crisisworks expects asset data in SHP or TAB files with the GDA2020 (EPSG:7844) projection, but can also accept GDA94 (EPSG:3283) or WGS84 "Web Mercator" (EPSG:3857).

These will need to be compressed into a ZIP file for importing into Crisisworks)

Next, click “Select map area” where you can type in an LGA or select the whole state.

Finalise the order

Finally, clickity-click through to finalise the order.

Retrieve the order

When ready, you’ll get an email with a link — click it to download a zip file, then extract it. Within the extracted folder, find the sub-folder where the shp file you want lives — that’s the data.

Preparing the data for Crisisworks

Follow these steps to prepare the file for import.

Unzip the file

First, unzip the file from DataShare. It has a nested series of sub-folders.

Find the folder containing the data you wish to import

A bit of familiarity with the data comes in handy here. Vicmap files contain a nested series of folders, and typically the data you want is in the last one. In the screenshot above, I’ve selected VMTRANS which is the name of the layer we want.

Re-zip that folder

Crisisworks expects a zip file with a shp file and the associated prj, dbf and other support files.

Once you’ve found the folder, re-zip it. That file will be used for Crisisworks.

Now, upload into Crisisworks

Using Crisisworks' import tool, select the appropriate data type, import parser and import options.

Select the correct type

You almost always want to select “Asset” as the data type, when pulling data from DataShare.

Select the correct import parser

Crisisworks has inbuilt support for a number of Vicmap geospatial data. Select the one related to the file you downloaded.

If you do not see an option for the data, contact Datalink’s service desk for help and we can create a parsing ruleset for the data you’re trying to import.

In this example, I’ve selected “Asset Road Import Using Vicmap Generated Data”.

Upload the zip file and select the import options

Finally we get to the part where we upload the zip file and select the import options.

Here I’ve:

• Uploaded the file

• Selected the region manually, because in this case the import data will not identify its region

• Selected “insert only”

• As I’m inserting, I don’t worry about the matching ID which is only used for updates

I also set “test only” and “rollback on error” as safety features in this import.

Finally, click Import

Click Import to get the job going. You can then monitor the job on the following screen.

When to use “test only” and/or “rollback on error”

The “rollback on error” option is a good safety feature in case there is an error or unsupported record in the data. In this case, the entire import will be rolled back.

The “test only” feature can be used to see what will happen. In this mode, the system will import data and will then roll it back irrespective of whether it passed or failed. It’s a good idea to use this for the first import of a given type.

Conclusion

This guide has demonstrated how to download geospatial data (in this case, Vicmap Road Network data) and import the assets into Crisisworks.

If you need support for other data sources, contact Datalink’s friendly service desk and we can create an import parser.