LAB 1: Introduction to ArcGIS
Time for completion: One Week
Outline
- Purpose
- Introduction and background
- Getting Started
- About ArcCatalog
- About ArcToolbox
- About ArcMap
- Conclusion
- To turn in
- Extra Credit
To familiarize you with the following:
- The main modules of ESRI's ArcGIS software
- Data display, queries, and publication
- Navigating the ArcGIS help files
- Basic cartography
- Geography department computer network
2.0 Introduction and background
About the software
In this course, we will be working with ESRI's ArcGIS 9.2 software.
ArcGIS is considered to be the industry standard for professional GIS
users. Since version 8.0 , ArcGIS has been a Windows-based GIS program
-- a significant departure from the structure of versions 7.x and below,
which used command line DOS- or UNIX-based interfaces. ArcGIS 9.2
includes all the enhancements of the ArcView and ArcEditor Desktop GIS
products: geoprocessing framework, labels and annotation, enhanced raster
support, quality, and performance.
ArcGIS 9.2 is structured around three main modules: ArcCatalog, ArcToolbox, and ArcMap. These modules represent the three basic necessities of GIS: data management, data analysis, and data output/mapping. In this lab we will cover these modules in greater depth, as well as discover some of their key functionality.
Cartography
In this lab we will also discuss some basic principles of cartography.
For those familiar with cartography, or who have completed prior GIS courses
which involved creation of cartographic products, this will likely be
a review. This portion of the lab will provide you with the basic
guidelines and requirements for all maps and cartographic products handed
in with lab assignments.
Additional information
Additional information on ArcGIS software can be found through the ArcGIS
web site, and through the ESRI
Virtual Campus web site, which offers several free tutorials on ArcGIS
and ArcGIS extensions.
Lab equipment
It is strongly recommended that you purchase a removable
disk (Zip, Jump/Flash/etc.) for storing your lab material and data, or
use personal storage space on your department network (if provided).
As the Star Lab computers are used and abused by a large number of students,
there is no guarantee that any work you save will be there the next time
you visit the lab! Furthermore, the more files that are haphazardly dumped
on the hard drive, the more likely it is to crash. To help prevent this,
we recommend copying your lab files to a Zip disk, or onto some other
media, and deleting any copy from your Star Lab PC.
Other information about the labs
Be sure you have looked through the Lab
Syllabus and the other important information on the homepage
such as Survival
Skills For This Course and Understanding
the Lab Format.
When you are printing the lab instructions, your lab answer sheets or maps, be sure to first click on Properties and choose "Print on Both Sides" and change the Pages per Sheet to 2. This lab uses A LOT of paper -- do your part to conserve paper and use the double sided double page option.
Your TA will notice if you choose to use the double sided option.
You need to copy the data for Lab 1 to your computer. To copy the data right click here and select Save Link As, or Save Target As depending on which browser you are using. Save the zipped data file to an appropriate location such as your Zip disk or a folder you created in C:\Workspace\lab_1.
You need to unzip the file. Find the .zip file in Windows Explorer. Double click on lab_1.zip and WinZip will open. Click the Extract button and make sure you extract the files to C:\Workspace\lab_1. After you successfully extract the files you can close WinZip. Then in My Computer open the "lab_1" folder to verify that the files and folders have been extracted.
The data that we will be using in this lab are:
Geodatabases:
- sbco - Santa Barbara County geodatabase - contains streets, railroads, streams, blockgroups, and "points of interest"
- usageog - Coverage of the lower 48 states
- uscnty - Shapefile of counties in the lower 48 states
- usriv - Shapefile of rivers in the lower 48 states
- usroad - Shapefile of roads in the lower 48 states
- sbcomap - Map file displaying the sbco data
ArcCatalog is the ArcGIS module used for organizing, browsing, and managing your data and map files, as well as for viewing and editing metadata. In many ways, ArcCatalog is similar to Windows Explorer. For instance, when you modify a file's location, or create or delete a file, you do not need to save the changes -- it is done automatically. Since it is easy to delete files this way, you should be careful to delete only when you are sure that you will not need the file any longer.
Starting ArcCatalog
Now we will start ArcCatalog and explore its contents. To start
ArcCatalog, click on the 
button and navigate to Programs -> ArcGIS -> ArcCatalog.
The lay of the land, or, What is in ArcCatalog?
ArcCatalog is similar in structure to Windows Explorer -- on the left hand side is a view of the Catalog "tree" showing how the data is organized. The right hand side provides options for exploring the contents of the data shown in the Catalog tree. You will notice that there are different icons used to represent the available folders and their contents. When ArcCatalog is started up, it automatically looks for folders containing spatial data. Any spatial data it finds will be given a special icon to indicate the specific type of data in the file or folder. Specific database tables will also be seen (.dbf & .xls), and you can configure ArcCatalog to recognize other files as well.
Outside of the areas for exploring the
catalog folders and their contents, there are several menus and toolbars
associated with ArcCatalog. To find out what a particular button
does, hold your cursor over the button for several seconds. A tool
tip will appear telling the function associated with the button, and a
more informative description will appear on the bottom of the ArcCatalog
window -- if you hold your cursor over the upward pointing arrow (the
first button directly under 'File'), you will see a note reading 'Up One
Level,' and the bottom of the window will read 'Go to the next level up
in the catalog tree'). When the tool tip does not provide enough
information, you can click the "What's This?" button
and then click most places on the interface to get additional
information. This is useful when you want to find out what a
button does without clicking it.
| Question 1: What is the function of each of the following buttons? (You will run into these icons as you go through the lab.)
|
To access your data in ArcCatalog you have several choices. If there is already a connection to the drive with your data, you can navigate down the catalog tree until you find your data folder. This, however, has the potential for causing quite a bit of clutter and confusion if your data is more than one or two folders down from the drive connection. A second option is to create a direct connection to your data. A direct connection will help avoid clutter in that you can make a connection straight to the folder holding your data, rather than having to navigate through other folders. It is also a necessary step if the drive with your data is not shown in the Catalog tree (i.e.,if you are using data saved on your network drive or a flash drive). An example of a direct connection can be seen in the graphic above. -- D:\Lab1_Data is a direct connection to a local data folder.
- To connect to your data, click on the
"Connect to Folder" button.
| Navigate to the folder containing
your data for this lab- in this example: D:\data. Select the folder (it will be highlighted in blue), and then click "OK." A direct connection to your data folder will now appear in the CatalogTree. |
 |
Try this out and connect to your network drive, flash drive, or to the local folder that you will be using for your work.
What can be done in ArcCatalog?
Earlier in the lab, it was mentioned that ArcCatalog is used for "organizing, browsing, and managing your data and map files, as well as for viewing and editing metadata." Let's explore that a bit more:
For organizing data, ArcCatalog is quite easy to use. However, if you delete, move, or otherwise alter the data using ArcCatalog, it is permanent (i.e., if you delete a coverage, it is GONE - you cannot retrieve it). Data organizing in ArcCatalog is very similar to that in Windows Explorer - you can drag and drop coverages, shapefiles, or geodatabases into new workspaces, or you can use the Windows shortcut keys (Ctrl-x and Ctrl-v).
Try this out by copying and pasting your lab data into a new folder.
Browsing through your data is simple using ArcCatalog - the Catalog tree displays in a hierarchical fashion all of the items in the Catalog - much like how data browsing is done through programs such as Windows Explorer. A folder that contains files will have a box with a plus or minus sign to the left of the file name. This indicates whether or not the folder has been expanded.
Take a moment to explore the data in the Catalog tree - you can use the arrow buttons on your keyboard, or your mouse to navigate. While navigating, pay attention to the changes that take place on the right hand side of the ArcCatalog window.
The right hand side of the Catalog allows you to examine the data further. For instance, select the usageog coverage. If you then click on the "Contents" tab on the right hand side of the window, you will see a list of the files that comprise the coverage. You can also see these files if you click on the plus sign to the left of the usageog icon.
If you click on the "Preview" tab, you
will see a preview of the data geography or the data attribute table.
To change from geography view to table view (or vice versa), change the
value listed in the preview pulldown menu at the bottom of the Window.
| Question 2 When previewing data, a new set of icons become active in the menu bar. Why? What do they do? Are they always active when previewing data? Question 3: |
| Finding
data in ArcCatalog
When previewing tabular data in ArcCatalog, it is possible to search for specific entries in the table. To do this, open to the table view, and click on the Options button, then Find. You may need to expand the width of ArcCatalog to see the Options button. When a table is not sufficiently wide enough to display the Options button, you will see a small arrow on the bottom right in its place without the word Options. Clicking on the Find option will open the Find window where you can enter a text string to search for. You can search down the attribute list, up the attribute list, or search all of the attribute list. Once the first match has been found, you can look for further matches by clicking on the 'Find Next' button.
As well as finding data, you can also add fields to the table, restore the column widths if they have been altered, reload the table to view recent changes, print the table, or export the table as a .dbf file (a format readable by many spreadsheet programs, including Microsoft Excel), a text file, or a number of other formats commonly used in ArcGIS Desktop applications. |
| Question 4: Using the uscnty shapefile, find the state or states to which the following counties belong. Note that there may be more than one state with a county of that name.
|
What can be done in ArcCatalog? (cont.)
Using the usageog coverage, if you
select the "Metadata" tab you will see any metadata (or data about the
data) that is associated with the coverage. No metadata has been
created for any of the data that we are using in this lab, so most of
the metadata file is not filled in. ArcGIS automatically fills in
a few fields in the metadata -- under the Spatial and Attribute headings.
In a later lab we will be creating our own metadata.
| Question 5: Why do you think these fields are automatically filled in, and the fields under the description are not? |
Managing
your data
Managing your data is also done in ArcCatalog. You can examine and/or
modify the properties of your data simply by right-clicking on the coverage,
shapefile, or geodatabase and selecting Properties. Try this
with the usageog coverage file.
 |
For the usageog file you should
see a window similar to the image on the left. This is the properties
page for the whole coverage - there are individual properties pages
for the feature classes within the coverage which we will explore
in a moment.
General -- describes the feature classes inside the coverage and provides information such as whether or not they have topology, number of features, and data precision. Projection -- describes the projection of the data Tics & Extent -- describes the geographic extent of the coverage and the location of the four (or more) Tic marks Tolerances -- Shows the tolerances used when the coverage was last edited When you are done exploring the coverage properties,click on OK to exit. |
On your own, explore the property sheets
for each of the feature classes for usageog. To do this,
expand the usageog coverage by clicking on the plus sign next to
the coverage icon, right-click on the one of the feature classes (arc,
polygon, tic, label), and select Properties.
| Question 6: What spheroid is the usageog dataset using? |
Introduction
to ArcToolbox
ArcToolbox is the ArcGIS module used for data processing, analysis, and
conversion. It contains a large set of Tools that allow for more specialized
or complicated operations than those available in the various other modules.
ArcToolbox also provides a means for the user to write scripts and create
customized tools to fit specialized needs.
| Starting
ArcToolbox
To start ArcToolbox, you can click
on the ArcToolbox icon |
in ArcCatalog, ArcMap, etc.
The lay of the land,
or, What is in ArcToolbox?
Although ArcToolbox is one of the major ArcGIS modules, it is actually
"embedded" in the other modules such as ArcCatalog -- rather
than standing alone, it appears as a docked window inside them when you
call it up:
ArcToolbox is organized in a fashion similar to the catalog tree in ArcCatalog.
If you click on any of the headings, a short description of the tools
under that heading is listed at the bottom of the ArcToolbox window.
By clicking on the + next to a tool heading (Data Management Tools,
Analysis Tools, etc.) you can view the tools available under that heading.
For an overview of all of the functions of a tool set, click help after right-clicking.
To run a tool, simply double-click on the specific tool you want to use. This will open a window for setting the various file inputs and outputs and other options related to the tool.
Take a few minutes to explore the Toolbox
and get a sense of what kinds of tools are available.
| Question 7: Use the toolbox Search tab to find all tools related to overlay operations. List these tools along with a brief description of their function. |
ArcMap is the ArcGIS module used for mapping
-- creating, viewing, querying, editing, composing, and publishing maps. ArcMap
is what you will be using for the majority of your GIS work.
Starting ArcMap
ArcMap can be opened via the Start menu (Start -> Programs -> ArcGIS
-> ArcMap) or from any other module such as ArcCatalog (click on the ArcMap
icon
in the toolbar).
In addition, you can open ArcMap by double-clicking on a map file 
in ArcCatalog.
When you first start ArcMap, you may see the "Welcome to ArcMap" window - this window provides the options to 1.) Create a new map, 2) Creating a new map using a map template, 3) Open an existing map, or 4) Open the last map you were using. This quarter we will most often use options 1 and 3 (creating a new map, and opening existing maps). When you want to open an existing map from this dialog, highlight "Browse for maps..." and click OK.
If you do not see the Welcome window, someone
has probably turned this option off - don't worry, you can still access
all of the options through the main menu. For the sake of
description, open the prepared map file provided with the lab data (sbcomap.mxd
)- you can open this from the Welcome window, or when ArcMap is open,
click on File -> Open File, and navigate to the location of the map file.
You will notice that the sbcomap file is not particularly stunning
from a cartographic standpoint. Later in the lab, you will fix up
the map to make it a bit more cartographically pleasing.
The lay of the land,
or, What is in ArcMap?
The top portion of the ArcMap window contains the menu and toolbars. You can change which toolbars are displayed by right-clicking on the top portion of the window (the gray part) and selecting which toolbars you need or don't need.
The left portion of ArcMap shows a tree display of the layers (the "layer tree", or the "Table of Contents" as ESRI likes to call it) added to the map (and whether or not they are currently displayed). There are two ways which the included data can be explored - by "Display" or "Source" or "Selection". You can toggle among the three by selecting the appropriate tab on the bottom of the layer tree:
The Display tab shows the layer name,whether or not the layer is displayed (if there is a check mark in the box next to the name, the layer is being displayed), and how the layer is displayed (to see this, click on the + to the left of the name to expand the display). The Source tab shows the appropriate layer icon (same as seen in ArcCatalog), as well as the location (or "source") of the data. Lastly, the selection tap shows what layers can be selected from with the Select Features tool found on the Tools toolbar.
The right portion of ArcMap
provides a view of the data (similar to ArcView). You can select
to view the data in "data view" or in "layout view": 
.
These buttons are near the bottom of the map display.
The globe icon represents the 'data view', and the sheet of paper icon represents the 'layout view'. There is also a refresh and a pause drawing button you can experiment with.
In the data view, you can zoom in and out, pan, identify, select, etc. the data in this portion by using the available tools:
Switch to data view and try zooming in and out and
otherwise exploring the data using the above tools.
The lay of the land, or, What is in ArcMap? (Cont.)
After exploring the data view, go to the layout view - you can do this by either clicking on the sheet of paper icon at the bottom of the view window, or by selecting View-> Layout View.
The layout view is similar to the layout in ArcView. A new set of tools are provided for exploration of the layout:
In layout view, you also may use the tools to zoom in / out / pan, etc. that are available in the data view. However, these will only affect the spatial data being displayed, not the layout - just as the layout tools will not zoom in on the geographic area being displayed. You can also toggle draft mode of frame graphics using the third tool from right side, make active data frame the target for graphics you draw and you can change the layout by selecting a predefined template.
To insert a title, legend, neatline, etc. on your map, click on Insert and select the object that you would like to add. Experiment with adding information to your map - try adding a title, legend, scalebar, north arrow, and your name. You will use this map file later in the lab, so you will want to save your changes.
Adding data / creating your own map
Now that we have spent some time with an already created map file, let's make our own. In ArcMap, you cannot have two map files open at the same time, so to open a new map file, we either need to open a new ArcMap window or close the existing map file. Since we will not need to use the sbcomap for this portion of the lab, click on File -> New (or you can use the shortcut key "Ctrl-n" or click on the new file button on the menu bar), and select "Blank document" in the My Template tab.
To add data to a map file, there are several options:
1. Use the "Add data" button on the ArcMap toolbar
2. Navigate to File -> Add data
3. Drag and drop data from ArcCatalog. With both ArcCatalog and ArcMap open, left click on the data that you want to add to your map file- hold the mouse button down, do not release the button yet. If you can see both the Catalog tree in ArcCatalog and the view window in ArcMap, drag the data straight from ArcCatalog to the view window in ArcMap. Release the mouse button and drop the data in ArcMap. If you can not see both the Catalog tree and the ArcMap view window, click on the data in ArcCatalog, drag it down over the ArcMap button in the menu bar (still pressing the mouse button) until the ArcMap window opens. Then drop the data in the ArcMap view window.
Try each of these methods, and add the usageog coverage, and the uscnty, usroad, and usriv shapefiles to your new map file.
Since it is likely that you will open data from both your network drive and from copies on your local drive, it is helpful to use a "relative path" to your data. This will be handy if you copy your lab data folder to a local drive to work, or if you move it from one drive to another - if you do not store your data sources as relative path names, you will run into the problem of ArcMap looking for the data on the last drive which you used (e.g., if you create a map file with your data located in D:\lab1 - and you then copy the entire folder to another drive, when you open the map file from the new folder, it will still look for the data in D:\lab1. The relative path name tells ArcMap to look for the data in the same relative location to the map file- e.g., in the same data folder, or wherever it is in relation to the map file).
To set your map file to use relative path names, click on File -> Document Properties, select Data Source Options,and "Store relative path names." Click OK. Note: You will probably want to do this with ALL map files that you create in this course.
Occasionally, even if you set the map file
to use relative path names you will still have problems with "broken sources."
These will be indicated by a red ! next
tothe layer's name: 
.
To fix this problem, go to Properties ->
Source ,and re-set the appropriate data source by clicking on the "Set
Data Source" button.
 |
Order of data layers:
Depending on the order in which you added the data, your states
may be "on top" of your counties - you can change this by clicking
and dragging data layers up or down.
This example shows moving the blockgroups_polygon layer "on top" of the railroads_arc layer. Data layers can only be dragged up or down from the Display tab which is at the bottom of the Table of Contents. |
Data properties: In ArcMap, to view the properties of a data layer,
double click on the data layer's name. This will take
you to the properties window. Note: The ArcMap properties window will
provide different information than was found in the ArcCatalog
Properties window.
You can also do this by right clicking on the data layer and selecting the properties option. From the properties window you can view and modify the display properties of a dataset - including the layer's transparency, labeling options, symbology, and source. This lab will only cover a few of the options (display, symbology, and labels), but you will want to take a few moments to familiarize yourself with the other functions in the properties window.
Symbology: Under the symbology tab are the options for changing the display of data. From here you can decide to display the data as Features (single symbol), Categories (unique values, unique values many fields,or match to symbols in a field), Quantities (graduated colors, graduatedsymbols, proportional symbols), or Multiple attributes (quantity by category). You can also decide what color(s) and symbol(s) to use to represent the data.
For example, if you want to use usroad to display type of road rather than simply location - double-click on usroad to open the Properties window, and click on the Symbology tab. As the default, usroad is drawn as a single symbol -since we want to show all of the different road values, we will use Categories -> Unique values.
Let's divide the road by
administrative class (Value Field = ADMN_CLASS). To add these
values to the display, select "Add all values." If you do not
want all of the values to be displayed, you can add values individually
using the "Add values" button. To change the symbology of other
data layers (even of other types of data -- shapefile, coverage, or
geodatabase) the process is the same.
| Question 8: What information is provided in the symbology tab when we select the ADMIN_CLASS field? From this window, in what ways can we change data representation? |
Symbology and data appearance (Cont.)
To change the representation of Interstate, State Highway, and US Highway, double click on the line next to the name and select an appropriate line symbol from the Symbol Selector. Change to appropriate symbols. Since there are no "other values," you can deselect the all other values symbol. When the display is to your liking, click OK.
An important feature on the display tab is the option to set transparency. This allows for a layer to be seen through another layer - for instance, with the uscnty layer displayed, the usageog layer can not be seen. By setting the top layer to some level of transparency, both layers can be seen. With the transparency function, you can even display a raster layer transparently to give a 3-D effect!
To explore this, we'll make
the uscnty layer partly transparent. Open the properties
window for uscnty and select the Display tab. Under
"% Transparent" enter 75 and click OK. Now the state boundaries
are shown clearly, and the county boundaries are less pronounced in
the display.
| Question 9: Where else do you think the transparency function might be (more) useful? |
Using the labels tab under
properties is an easy way of inserting the names of features on a map.
We will try this out with the usriv layer and add labels for river
names. Go to the labels tab in the usriv property window.
To insert labels, check the "Label Features" box and select which field
to use for labeling (we will use "Name"). From here you can change
the style, symbol, font, font size, and location of the labels by selecting
from the button options under "Label" in the window. Take a few
minutes to explore these options.
| Question 10: How would you remove duplicate labels? |
| While ArcCatalog allowed us to find
text strings in attribute tables, as you can see in the image to the
right, ArcMap provides significantly more options for querying data.
Let's explore these options using the attribute table from the counties
shapefile.
Right-click on the counties shapefile,and select "open attribute table." This will open a new, floating window containing the attributes of the shapefile. The window has a button for "options" - by selecting this, you will have available the options seen to the right. Again, you may see a small arrow on the right instead of an options button if your table is not sufficiently wide enough to display the options button. The functions explained: Find & Replace - to find text strings in the attribute table and/or replace them with another string Select By Attributes / Select All / etc. - allows for writing a query to select records matching the criteria specified in a structured query, allows for changing of the selection Add Field - allows for fields to be added from ArcMap (rather than switching to ArcCatalog) Turn All Fields On - allows for fields to be turned on that were previously turned off via the field properties of the layer Restore Default Column Widths - allows for altered fields to be returned to their default widths Related Tables - lists which tables are connected as "Related tables" Create Graph / Add table to map layout - options for displaying the attribute table data Reload Cache - Re-loads the table, in case of changes Print - sends table to a printer Reports - allows access to two different report generating applications Export - Exports the table as a .dbf file, text file, or a number of other formats commonly used in a ArcGIS Appearance - Changes the way in which the table is viewed (i.e., selected record highlight color) |
 |
Querying data
in ArcMap
Choose the Select By Attributes option, and select the "Help" option
in the new window. Read the help file on building a query and then
write a query to select the counties that meet the following criteria:
- Name - Washington
- Population per square mile (1990) - at least 115
- Area - greater than 800
- Not located in Arkansas
When doing searches of this type, it can be handy to display only those records selected. To do this, change the option to show selected:
Notice that the selected counties are highlighted in the attribute table and the display map.
| Question 11: In which state is the selected county? Write out (as you typed it) the formula that you used to find the answer. |
Miscellaneous bells and whistles in ArcMap
When you have zoomed to an area of interest, you can set a spatial bookmark. A spatial bookmark will allow you to zoom to the area whenever you want. To set the bookmark, select View -> Bookmarks -> Create. Now if you navigate away from this location, you can always return by selecting View -> Bookmarks.
|
(VERY) Basic principles of cartography Cartographic Guidelines (courtesy of David Jones) 1. Data in maps: 2. Titles: 3. Scalebars: 4. Borders: 5. North Arrows: 6. Legends: 7. Text on Map: 8. Name on Map: 9. WHITE SPACE: |
| Your maps for Lab 1:
Map 1 Using the usageog, uscnty, usriv, and usroad data, zoom to your favorite state and make a map of it. Follow the above listed principles of cartography. Include whatever features (rivers, roads, counties) you feel are necessary (at least one must be included). Turn in this map with your lab answer sheet. Map 2 |
In this lab, the basic functions of ArcGIS's ArcCatalog, ArcToolbox, and ArcMap have been covered. Hopefully you will now feel comfortable navigating around the software, the Geography Department network, and the lab computers. If not, the best way to become comfortable is to keep at it - spend as much time as possible working with the software and with the computers!
As with any new software, these basics do not come close to being comprehensive, however - to really grasp the software, you will need to spend quite a bit of time just exploring, trying out different functions, seeing what works (and what doesn't), and just clicking on buttons, menus, bits of data, and especially the help files.
In the remaining labs this quarter, we will spend time examining more specific ArcGIS functions.
- The question sheet, with typed answers (Word document)
- One map of your favorite state
- One corrected SBCoMap
Created by Sean Benison, Sunhui Sim, and Jordan Hastings
Based on previous lab by Sarah Battersby
and Nicholas Matzke
UC Santa Barbara, Department of Geography
© 2000-2005, Regents of the University of California
This page was last modified on Jan. 9, 2008 by Indy Hurt