Monday, May 13, 2013

3D Geospatial Visualization Using GeoFlow Slides

Tonight I had the opportunity to give a GeoFlow presentation titled 3D Geospatial Visualization Using GeoFlow to OKCSQL. Thanks to all who attended for some great discussion. The slides are available here.

Abstract:

Learn what GeoFlow is and how to use it for 3D visualization of data that can be time-stamped. You can create static charts or interactive animated tours. GeoFlow is one of Microsoft’s latest releases in the BI spectrum.

Friday, May 10, 2013

Analyzing Against Weather Data using GeoFlow

I had been wondering what would be a good use of multiple layers within GeoFlow. Today I finally realized that they could be used when analyzing a measure against weather temperatures. For example, you might want to analyze sales revenue at stores against the local temperature. In my example below, I used real weather data against fake customer count data for the first week in May.

The following are the key points that I followed:

1) I selected City and State for the Geography and clicked Map It

2) I then clicked the check boxes for Mean Temp and Date. Next I selected HeatMap as the Chart Type. For the Value I selected Mean Temp with No Aggregation. I used Date for the Time.


2) I clicked the Add Layer button in the ribbon. For the second layer, I selected Customer Count and Date. I selected Column as the Chart Type. For Height, I selected Customer Count with No Aggregation. I used Date for the Time.


3) I then performed other standard tasks like adding my title via text box and renaming my layers.

Then end result allowed me to compare customer counts against weather temperatures. Below are screenshots from the resulting GeoFlow tour.

Warmer weather had higher customer counts


 Colder Weather had lower customer counts


The real weather data came from an free on-line source. Below is the overall dataset that I used. I added in the State and Customer Count columns.


I'll be speaking at OKCSQL next week on GeoFlow. Now I have a great answer to "Why would you want to use two layers?"