FANR 5620/7620- Exercise 1
Introduction to ArcGIS
January 11th
Due Date: January 13th
Objectives:
1. Become familiar with the ArcMap user interface
2. Access and organize multiple sources of spatial data in a Data View
3. Apply basic cartographic concepts to display spatial data effectively
4. Create a map using an ArcMap Layout View
Introduction:
Points, arcs, and polygons are all examples of vector data. ArcGIS calls spatial data in the
vector format a feature. A spatial data layer can contain one or more vector features (arc,
point, and polygon). Alternatively, a spatial data layer can also consist of a raster dataset or an
image. In ArcMap, all of these layers are organized and displayed within a data frame. The
user can add layers to a data frame and manipulate these layers to answer land management
questions. Below is a figure showing two layers displayed in Data View.
Data
Frame
Table of
Contents
(TOC)
A layout is an electronic document that is used to arrange and display views, tables, charts,
legends, annotations, and other elements of spatial information. Layouts are commonly used to
create maps that communicate the results of data analyses and help people visualize different
land management options.
In addition to displaying spatial data, maps must include a title, a legend, a numerical scale, a
north arrow, the date the map was printed, and an author and/or other relevant source
information.
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Here is the same map as above, but shown in layout view (change between data and layout
view under the View main menu).
Data
Frame
All of your activities in ArcMap (creating views, tables and layouts) are stored together in a
map document (*.mxd). ArcMap documents do NOT store spatial data. An .mxd contains a list
of formatting instructions, query formulae, and pointers to the locations of the data referenced
in the data frame(s). This means that if you move the data locations independent of where the
map document is located, you will no longer have the correct links to your data when you next
open your map. This is important to remember when organizing your data and moving data
around. The best way to keep this from becoming an issue is to keep all of the data and maps
for specific projects in the same subdirectory.
You may at some point experience opening an ArcMap document and encountering red
exclamation points in the TOC? Well, this is because ArcMap defaults to storing the “absolute
path names to data sources”. This means that if you are working on one machine on a memory
stick drive that is mapped to the computer as drive H:\ and save your map file, but then try to
access the map on another computer where your memory stick is mapped as G:\ the map file
cannot find H:\ We get around this by telling ArcMap to store the “relative path name”.
To do this, click on File > Document Properties > Data Source Options and change the click
button to “Store relative path names to data sources”. You will need to do this EVERY lab in
this class.
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In this exercise you will work with point, line, and polygon data within a data frame in
ArcMap, then create a layout (map). This exercise should give you plenty of practice
navigating the ArcMap interface and practicing good map-making skills (good visual
communication).
Procedures:
Begin by opening Windows Explorer and copying the Ex1 folder from the network drive
Class\FANR5620_7620\Ex1 (where * - the assigned drive letter - may be different depending
if you are an undergraduate or graduate student) to your local C:\workspace folder. This
folder contains the data you will need for this lab.
The C:\workspace\ folder is the location where you will do all of your work while in lab.
When you are done with the lab period, you will copy the entire lab1 folder to your T:\ drive
which will allow you to access this folder from any computer in Warnell.
To Start ArcMap:
1. Go to “Start”, “Programs”, “ArcGIS”, “ArcMap”
2. In the dialog that appears, select “A new empty map” and click “OK”
Doing the exercise
Procedures for the lab exercise are given below.
WARNING: Save your work – and save FREQUENTLY as you proceed. ArcMap
may shut down on you unexpectedly and you should always have a recent saved
version of your project to use when you restart.
Call the map file Exercise1.mxd (the mxd is the default extension for ArcMap documents)
1) Give the complete drive:\path\filename.mxd to where this ArcMap document is
stored on the computer – is this where it should be? If not, use File > Save As to save
it to the correct location.
Name the Data Frame
Name the Data Frame: Athens Area
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Use the “plus” button
to begin adding data to your data frame (where the mapped data is
displayed). This will bring up an Add Data window. Navigate to your “Ex1” directory on
c:\workspace\ folder and…
Add “Clarke_bnd.shp” layer to the Data Frame
You will see a “Clarke” entry appear in the window to the left of your view frame. This
window is called the Table of Contents (TOC), and lists the spatial data layers that are available
within the data frame for display and analysis.
You have just placed a pointer in your ArcMap document file that directs the software to
"connect" the ArcGIS Shapefile, Clarke_bnd.shp, (the Clarke county boundary data) to the
Athens Area Data Frame.
Set the Display Units of the Data Frame
Right-click on the Data Frame label and select properties. On the “general” tab there will be a
place to select the display units. Set the Display Units to meters
You may have noticed when you went to add data that there are many pre-defined locations
that you could have selected that point to different locations on local and network drives.
ArcMap and ArcCatalog call these “Connections” and these can be created to help streamline
the navigation process. If you do not already see a connection to C:\workspace\Ex1, create it by
clicking on the “plus” button again, and this time clicking on the Yellow arrow that points to
the right
(if you “mouse-over” that icon, it will bring up an information box that says,
“Connect to Folder”) and navigate to c:\workpace\Ex1 and click OK. Now you will have a
shortcut to that directory for future labs.
Next add the following layers to your Data Frame:
clarke_road.shp
clarke_streams.shp
clarke_lake059.shp
cities.shp
landuse.shp
Note: You can add all of these layers at once by using the shift key and clicking on the layers
you want to add to your map.
If the layers do not show up on you map, turn them on (check the box in the TOC) so they are
drawn in the data frame. Notice that the features are drawn in the same order as they are listed
in the TOC. Features at the bottom of the list are drawn first and ones higher up in the list are
displayed over those listed lower. Try rearranging the drawing order by clicking on a feature
name and dragging it up or down in the data frame list. Before you continue, make sure that all
of the features are visible.
Note: ArcMap has three different ways to display data in the TOC. If you are clicked on the
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Display tab in the table of contents, you will be able to re-arrange the order of data. If,
however, you are in the Source tab, which shows the stored location of the data being
displayed, you will NOT be able to reorder data.
Next, you need to change the display parameters to make your map easier to read, and to
convey some useful information to viewers. For example, we need to create a legend for roads
so that it displays different types of roads (highways, streets, etc.) in different sizes and/or
colors.
Change the display of the roads layer
Right-click on the roads layer in the TOC, then select properties. Select the symbology tab and
proceed to experiment with various types of symbols for roads.
You will want to ultimately use “categories” and the sub-heading “unique values”. In the value
field, choose “type” and click on “add all values” below. Then you can change the symbols
one by one to make lines that will indicate the varying types of roads present in the layer. You
can change the individual symbols simply by double-clicking on the symbol itself.
Change the display of the rivers layer
Change the display of the lakes layer
Change the display of the cities layer
Use a single-symbol legend for these features, which displays all objects of a given feature
using the same symbol. Select symbols and colors that show up well, and are clearly
distinguishable from one another (you don’t want viewers to confuse roads with streams). You
will notice that you can simply click the symbol in the TOC to bring up the symbol editor; there
is no need to go to the properties page first for single-symbol changes.
2) Describe your choice of “order” for the drawing of the layers and why you chose that
particular order?
Working with scale
Any map that you use or create has a specific scale that is indicated by a ratio (i.e. 1:24,000,
1:100,000, 1:200,000). These ratios are unitless because both the numerator and the
denominator have the same units. The scale 1:24,000 means one inch on the map is equal to
the length of 24,000 inches “on the ground”. Likewise, 1:250,000 means that one inch on the
map is equal to the length of 250,000 inches “on the ground”. By convention, 1:24,000 is
considered a larger “map scale” than 1:250,000, even though a 1:24,000 scale map
encompasses a smaller mapped area than 1:250,000 scale map. To keep “map scale” clear in
your head, think of the size of the fraction – 1 over 24,000 is a much larger number than 1 over
250,000 and hence it has a larger “map scale.” We will discuss other uses of the word “scale”
in lecture.
Change the viewing scale
Find the measuring tool icon
above the View window.
Set the viewing scale to 1:24,000
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3) What is the straight-line distance from Athens to Watkinsville, measured in feet?
Now add the “landuse” data layer to your map
Change the symbology to make sense.
Remember that land use is categorical (discrete types of land use as opposed to continuous
elevation data), so chose a symbology scheme that is appropriate to categorical data. Use the
attribute table to explore what attribute to use when displaying these data.
Now switch to the “layout view” so you can compose a map
Create your layout displaying your thematic layer plus: roads, lakes, and rivers in the greater
Athens area.
Set up the Layout from the main menu under “File”, “Page and Print Setup”
Page Size:
Orientation:
Letter
Landscape
Add a title to the Map (“Insert”, “Title”)
Layout title: (Come up with a brief but descriptive title)
Size the title to fit your layout
Add a north arrow to the Layout (“Insert”, “North Arrow”)
Add a legend to the Layout (“Insert”, “Legend”)
Add a graphic scale bar to the Layout (“Insert”, “Scale bar”)
Units:
Other settings:
(miles or kilometers)
use a small number of divisions and play with the size until it
looks good
Add the other features that make a good map composition (source, date, others?)
You can use either the drop-down menu “insert” , “text”; or if your drawing toolbar is active
(turn it on by right-clicking on the header menu where “File”… “Help” are located), you can
simply click on the bold letter A on the toolbar which is the same tool.
When you have completed your map document, export the file as a tiff and import the image
into a word document. Select File > Export Map, navigate to c:\workspace\Ex1\, save the file as
an appropriate name (your choice) and “Save as type: Tiff”. Then open Word and Insert >
Image > From File.
What to Turn In
Please type your answers to questions 1-3 using complete sentences and insert your map into a
Word Document. Please print this page before lab or using the GIS/419 printer (NOT
PLOTTER) before the start of the next class period. Remember to include your name in the
document and on the map. Also remember that while I encourage you to work together to
figure things out and discuss solutions in lab, turn in your own work.
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