GIS Lab

The Stanford Geospatial Center lab is housed in the Branner Earth Sciences Library on the second floor of the Mitchell Earth Science building. Click here for the map.

The SGC lab provides nine high power desktop machines for GIS project related work. The SGC lab network drive provides a centralized location for users to manage GIS projects as well a large repository of base and thematic data for starting projects.

Hours: The GIS lab hours are the same as the Branner Earth Science Library.

Please check here for notices about lab use issues and temporary lab closures.

Long log in times: Users with base sponsored SUnet IDs will experience very long log in times (up to 45 minutes). Only fully sponsored SUnet IDs are supported in the GIS lab. If you are a visiting scholar, student or other Stanford affiliate with a base sponsored SUnet ID you will need to upgrade your account to a paid SUnet ID. Please see this page for more information.

Corrupt file downloads: Large GIS files may become corrupt when saved directly to the Downloads folder in your AFS space. Right click on file links and choose 'Save As...' (or change the default download location in your browser) to save the files to the local E drive instead. Remember to move any downloaded files you intend to keep to your Q drive folder.

SGC lab access is restricted to GIS users only. New users should contact David Medeiros to be added to the lab workgroup. Users who wish to make a reference appointment must have prior ArcGIS experience or have taken our Introduction to GIS workshop.

• Contact Branner GIS staff for lab access here.
• Login to GIS computers using your regular SUNet username and password.
• A folder will be created for you on the Q drive using your SUNet username.
• Store all of your project data in your SUNet folder; do not rename this folder or create new folders outside of this folder.
• Q: Network drive for GIS projects. Folders assigned by SUNet ID. You can connect to this folder from any computer on the Stanford Network (instructions here).
• R: Provides a shortcut to your personal folder on the Q drive.
• G: Local hard drive on each machine with fast access to most commonly used large datasets.
• E: Temporary scratch drive. Use this local drive for fast temporary access to large datasets that may run slowly across the network. Remember to move files you want to keep back to our Q drive before logging out. The E drive is periodically erased without notice.
• C: DO NOT USE. Main hard drive on computer, not for data storage.
• Desktop/Documents/Downloads folders: do not store data here; ArcGIS may have trouble connecting to these locations. Always use your Q drive folder.
• If you are experiencing slow processing or frequent crashes, check your AFS space, it might be full. Clean up your desktop, downloads, and recycle folders to free up space.

Contact David Medeiros if you are experiencing any issues with the lab hardware or software.

• ArcGIS Desktop Advanced 10.5.1
• ArcGIS Pro 2.1
• QGIS 2.18 LTS
• Google Earth Pro
• GDAL/OGR
• Python 2.7
• OpenRefine/GoogleRefine