Geography 387 Fall 2011 Lab 1 Exploring ArcGIS Lab 1 Exploring ArcGIS 1 Purpose To familiarize you with the following The main modules of ESRI s ArcGIS software Displaying data searching data and publishing data Navigating the ArcGIS help files Basic cartography Provide the background necessary for future lab exercises 2 Introduction and background In this course we will be working with ESRI s ArcGIS 10 x software ArcGIS is widely used in industry by 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 older which used command line interfaces in DOS or UNIX Working in ArcGIS typically uses three main modules Catalog 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 give some basic principles of cartography This portion of the lab will provide you with the basic guidelines and requirements for all maps handed in with lab assignments We will have a more in depth lab on cartography in Lab 4 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 1 Geography 387 Fall 2011 Lab 1 Exploring ArcGIS 3 Getting Started Lab equipment It is strongly recommended that you purchase a flash pen thumb USB drive for storing your lab materials and data Logging in To log into the GIS Lab computers you use your SSU Seawolf user name and password Creating a Work Directory Keeping track of the files you use and create with the GIS tools is very important The GIS software will work most efficiently if you work with your data on the local hard drive C drive However the lab computers are not a reliable place to leave files from one week to the next Files left on the lab computer MAY NOT be there when you return Therefore keeping your data on a portable storage device of your own such as a flash drive will make it necessary to copy data to the local drive of the computer you are using and when you are done working to copy the data back to your flash drive Each computer in the lab has a directory at C WorkSpace You are strongly urged to use this directory and create a temporary subdirectory in it each time you use a lab computer Double click on the My Computer icon or go to Start Programs Windows Explorer or push the window key on the keyboard then the E key window key and M will minimize everything if you get lost in multiple windows Open the C WorkSpace folder Then right click in the white space and select New Folder Always give your temporary folder a logical name e g what you re working on say jeff lab1 The path to this folder is then C Workspace jeff lab1 Note To avoid problems in ArcGIS DO NOT put spaces or punctuation in the names of files folders feature datasets or feature classes Use the character instead to separate parts of names Copying Data You need to download the data for Lab 1 to your work directory To get the data go to the class website and download the data for Lab 1 Save the downloaded zipped data file to your work directory in your flash drive network drive or a folder you created in C Workspace You need to unzip the file Find the downloaded zip file for lab1 in Windows Explorer Double click on lab1 zip and WinZip will open Click the Extract button to extract the Zip archive 2 Geography 387 Fall 2011 Lab 1 Exploring ArcGIS contents to your work directory After you successfully extract the files you can close WinZip Then in My Computer open the lab1 folder to verify that the files and folders have been extracted The data that we will be using in this lab are Geodatabases cotati rohnert park mdb a file geodatabase containing Cotati and Rohnert Park streets land parcels city limits and schools usa geog a file geodatabase containing state boundaries of the lower 48 states Shapefiles uscnty Shapefile of the counties in the lower 48 states usriv Shapefile of rivers in the lower 48 states usroad Shapefile of roads in the lower 48 states Maps school map mxd ArcMap document file displaying the schools of Cotati and Rohnert Park This map uses the features found in the cotati rohnert park geodatabase Turning in Lab exercises There is no capability in the lab for printing All lab exercises maps Word and other documents will be turned in electronically as email attachments to your lab instructor As your work through this lab this document has questions in gray boxes You need to create a new Word document to contain your answers and when you are done email the Word document to the lab instructor for your section 4 About ArcGIS Introduction to ArcMap ArcMap is the central module of ArcGIS used for displaying organizing browsing managing and processing your data and working with map documents The other two main modules ArcCatalog and ArcToolbox are accessible from within the ArcMap application Starting ArcMap Now we will start ArcMap and explore its contents To start ArcMap click on the Start button and navigate to All Programs ArcGIS ArcMap 10 3 Geography 387 Fall 2011 Lab 1 Exploring ArcGIS What is in ArcMap When ArcMap starts it asks you what map document you want to create or work with At this point just click on OK to have ArcMap start with a blank map document Your ArcMap application will look very much like this 4 Geography 387 Fall 2011 Lab 1 Exploring ArcGIS ArcMap looks similar to many Windows applications There is a menu across the top of the window with items such as File Edit View and Help Under the menu there are one or more rows of small icons representing convenient shortcuts to often used actions On the left side of the application is a window with the subtitle Table Of Contents The large window in the rest of the application is the map area it has no subtitle and is where the map data are displayed On the right edge of the window are two small sideways icons one says Catalog and the other says Search By moving the mouse cursor over an icon along the top and letting it rest there without clicking the application will pop up a brief hint of what action that icon performs when clicked Question 1 What is the action of each of the following icons a b c d e f 5 Geography 387 Fall 2011 Lab 1 Exploring ArcGIS