Specify a Time Stamp
When you import a time slice file, you need to set a time stamp so that SpaceStat can link the start and end dates or times with other datasets. You can time stamp the entire file with the same start and end dates, such as a shapefile or gdb file with datasets, or a file of coordinate data that also includes datasets. Alternatively, you can use different dates for the geography and the datasets. In many cases, you will want to time stamp the geography so that a long time period is covered, especially if it is something like state or county boundaries that rarely change. Other datasets may be imported in several columns that will be grouped and time stamped with shorter durations. You can also import datasets on their own, and merge them with a geography, which again will require that you set the time stamp for the datasets.
To set a stamp for the entire file (geographic objects and all datasets), choose the "Set" button by the "Geography time stamp" field in the import dialog. You will see the following dialog:
Type or use the up and down arrow key buttons to specify the Start and End dates and/or times (if applicable). You also must specify whether your dates and times are inclusive. For this example, the values entered above define the time period for this geography as starting on January 1, 1990, and ends on the last day of December in 2020 (note the "inclusive" box is not checked for our end date of January 1, 2021).
To set a stamp for individual datasets within a file that includes both a geography and datasets, first set a time for the geography (to tell SpaceStat when the points or polygons are valid). Then choose "Specify dataset time stamps" to set the time stamps for columns in the shapefile's DBF (for a polygon geography), or for datasets included in the same file as coordinate data (in a text, Excel, or DBF file).
WARNING: Once you have set the dataset time stamps, DO NOT click the "Set" button again, or all of the dataset timestamps will be changed to the timestamp for the geography.