ArcGIS Data Management
Data in the Clusters
• When you log in almost all of the
computers on campus your personal profile
is installed from a SU server.
• You have 50 meg of storage
• Stuff left on the desktop does not really
reside there
• In is stored under C:\Documents and
settings
• This location has spaces in the path…
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How to manage YOUR data
• SO DO NOT STORE DATA THERE BECAUSE
ARC GIS CAN NOT USUALLY SEE IT
BECAUSE OF THE SPACES!
• AND DON’T LEAVE DATA IN C:\WORKSPACE
BECAUSE THE MACHINES ARE CLEANED OFF
EVERY DAY OR SO
• 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) or on your
SU 50 meg of storage
• Put it in a workspace called “xxx”*
• When you fire up a campus machine
– 1- erase everything in C:\workspace
– 2- copy “XXX” into C:\workspace from your flash stick
• When you are done copy (drag) the “xxx” folder back onto
your memory stick or move it to your desktop.
• If you are a nice person you will then delete your “xxx”
folder from C:/workspace!
* “xxx” is a stand-in for, say, an execise. Example: for
Exercise 3 then you might call your personal workspace
folder ”EX_3”
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Why?
• There are at least 2 reasons that you
should work from C:\workspace
– ArcGIS does not like some thumb drives
– Thumb drives are slow and you may find
that the exercises are painfully slo
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For Example
On your flash memory stick
On one of the ESF computer
cluster machines
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Booby Trap 1
• A .mxd file (your map document) does NOT
contain ANY data!
• It stores only paths to the data (Pointers)
• So, for example, if you were to move the
data files to a new location the .mxd would
not be able to find the data.
• This is a booby trap. If this happens you
get a red “!” after the data file name. Click
on it to browse for the data
• However, there is a better way...
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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 your flash data structure is
Z:\Eustis\data and on a cluster ‘puter it
is C:\Workspace\Eustis\data every
thing will work just fine! 
• To set up Relative Paths …
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1
So how to you do that?
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Booby Trap 2
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 as: mystuff1, second save as
mystuff2,….mystuffn
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