ArcGIS
Programs & user
interface
Overview
• ArcGIS is composed of two programs
– ArcMap
– ArcCatalog
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Overview
• ArcGIS is composed of two
Applications
– ArcCatalog
• The data management and step 1 of data
creation
– ArcMap
• The data creation (step 2),assembly,
analysis, and mapping application
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• ArcGIS is an encapsulation of
ArcMap and ArcCatalog
• ArcGIS comes in 3 license levels –
from low power to high “power”
Student – ArcView – the basic software
– ArcEdit
– ArcInfo – the most powerful software
Increasing tools and options
BUT…Booby Trap
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ArcCatalog Interface
Catalog Tree
Preview Pane
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ArcMap Interface
Main Menu
Standard toolbar
Table of Contents
Tools Toolbar
Map display area
Drawing toolbar
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Data Management
How to manage YOUR data
• Problem: You can’t store data on the
public machines – they get wiped
clean every day or so.
• You really have to work with data in
the folder C:/Workspace
• And so does everyone else!
• So…
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So…
• Keep your data on a memory stick (flash
memory)
• In a workspace called “yourname”*
• When you fire up a campus machine
– 1- erase everything in C:/workspace
– 2- copy Yourname into workspace
• When you are done copy (drag) yourname
back into your memory stick.
• If you are a nice person you will delete
your “yourname” folder from C:/workspace!
* “yourname” is a stand-in for your name. Example: if you
are Eustis B Nifkin then you might call your personal
workspace EUSTIS
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For Example
On your flash memory stick
On one of the ESF computer
cluster machines
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There is more to this…
• A .mxd file (your map document) does
NOT contain ANY data!
• Only paths to the data
• So, for example, if you were to move
the data files the .mxd would not be
able to find the data.
• This is a booby trap too.
• However...
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However…
• You can set up your .mxd so that as long as
the data and the .mxd are in the same
relative relationship in a data tree then you
don’t have to worry about this problem
• So if you flash data structure is
Z:\Eustis\data and on a cluster ‘puter it
is C:\Workspace\Eustis\data every
thing will work just fine! 
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So how to you do that?
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Map Lab
• I asked a poor question on the map
exercise lab.
• It was supposed to have you calculate
the scale of an enlarged map.
• But it was a little confusing.
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Computing Scale
• If you know the distance between any
two points on a map you can calculate
the map’s scale
Scale = 1 unit one the map / number of units on the ground
If the distance between 2 points is scaled off or known to be
2 miles and the distance between the points on the map is 10 inches
Then the scale is (10 inches)/(2 miles) or
5in/1mi= 5/(5280 *12)in = 5in/5268in = 1/1053.6
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Booby Trap 1
WARNING
Never, ever create a
path to ArcGIS data
that has spaces in it. If
you do
ArcGIS will not find
the data!
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Booby Trap 2
Save the .mxd often!
ArcGIS has a habit of crashing at the most
critical part of a project!
When doing something that you do not want
to lose it is a good idea to increment saves.
First save: mystuff1, second save
mystuff2,….mystuffn
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