FOR557 – ‘05
Exercise 1
Maps and Terminology
Overview
In any new venture one of the first things you have to do is learn the terminology. In FOR557
this means learning the terminology of maps and the terminology of the softwares we will be
using – ESRI’s ArcGIS 9.1. Those of you who have used ArcView 3.x will find the basic
concepts about the same but the user interface for 9.1 is very different from 3.3.
This exercise deals only with the terminology and operational concepts of ArcView 9.1 and basic
GIS. Almost all the questions asked are from Module 1 of the on-line ESRI course “learning
ArcGIS 9.” The rest are from Chapters 1 and 2 of “Practical Vector GIS”. You are expected to
know the names of the various parts of the software’s user interface and the location and names
of various tools in the software. This exercise is designed to help you do this. It will be
followed by a quiz (#2) to determine how much you have learned from reading Chapters 1and 2
in the reader Practical Vector GIS1 and carrying out the first module of the ESRI on-line course.
You will find some definitions in the Dictionary part of the ArcGIS help.
Assignment
The following pages contain tables with the various terms you need to know and diagrams of the
parts and tool bars of the software. I suggest that you fill the forms out in the computer and then
print two copies – one for yourself and one to turn in.
Notes
There are some errors in the Practical Vector GIS reader. Those I know about are listed below.
Text to be deleted is in bold with a strikethrough and the new text is in italics.
•
Chapter 1:
o Page 1, Section What is GIS, near bottom of page 3 lines up. “To make things even
more confusing one person’s data information is another’s data!”
o Page 6, Section Making change, first bullet, it is Glacier National Park!
o Page 8, Section Planning, bullet #5 on this page. 5 lines down. “ (database: Tax.dbf)
containing that information that has have to be …..”
•
Chapter 2:
o Page 2, first paragraph, just below the numeric calculation, “This fraction is the
numeric ratio scale”
1
Reader #20053-1036 available at the Copy Center in Marshal Square Mall. If you can find it you can use last
year’s reader since they are identical.
E:\lpherrin\557\Exercises\2005_Exercises\Ex1_05.doc
8/30/2005
Page 1 of 6
FOR557 – 04
Exercise 1
Maps and Terminology – Hand in these pages only!
Name on upper right corner of back of last page
1) On the map to the left what is the ratio
scale (you will have to get a ruler to figure
this out!)
B
A
2) Why is there no ratio scale shown on the
map?
___________________________________
ÅC
3) What is the map component TYPE
marked “A”
D
___________________________________
4) What is the map component marked “B”? _________________________________________
5) What is the map component marked “C” __________________________________________
6) What is the map component marked “D” __________________________________________
Map Definitions
Term
Neatline
Scale
Legend
Feature (object)
Feature types (3 or
4)
Definition
FOR557 – 04
Exercise 1
Maps and Terminology – Hand in these pages only!
Name on upper right corner of back of last page
Geographic data
Location data
Longitude
Latitude
Coordinate System
(example)
Attribute data
Albers equal area
conic (Help,
maybe?)
Rhumb (ditto )
ArcView 9 terminology
Term
.mxd file
Table of Contents
(TOC)
Data Frame
Shape
Feature
Bookmark
Map
Toolbox
Attribute data
Feature ID
Definition
FOR557 – 04
Exercise 1
Maps and Terminology – Hand in these pages only!
Name on upper right corner of back of last page
ArcView 9 terminology continued
Layout view
Data view
Metadata
ArcView 9 User Interface
The image to the left
is of the ArcView 9
user interface. Some
elements of the
interface have been
identified by letter.
Answer the following
questions using those
letters.
ÅF
A
C
ÅB
1) letter that identifies the Data or map
window ____
2) Letter that identifies scale value
____
3) Location of the
coordinate values of
some feature _____
ÅD
4) Letter that identifies a layer _____
ÅE
5) Letter that identifies the Table of
Contents (TOC). _______________
6) What is the name of the interface element (NOT the icon) at D?
___________________________________________________________________
FOR557 – 04
Exercise 1
Maps and Terminology – Hand in these pages only!
Name on upper right corner of back of last page
The TOOLS toolbar is shown below. For each of the tools indicate its function
(Probably not on yours – but guess!)
What is this tool used for?
And this one?
and how about this?
and this (hint it is the opposite of
soon as you click it)?
and it not a tool – it’s a button that does something as
FOR557 – 04
Exercise 1
Maps and Terminology – Hand in these pages only!
Name on upper right corner of back of last page
Now for some information about you. This information will help me generate a course that fits
the class.
1. What level of study are you in?
BS
MS
MPS Ph.D. continuing Ed
2. What is your area of study? (Like botany, silviculture, LA, hydrology, etc.)
3. Why are you taking the course – what do you want to get out of it?
4. What are your computer skills? - none, novice, pretty good, good, really good, expert
5. What GIS experience do you have (Courses or work)?
6. Comments?