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Geography 393-593 - GPS - GIS

Spring Quarter, 1997

Introduction to ArcView v.3.0

I. ESRI ArcView GIS software (v.3.0)

            This lab will use ESRI, Inc. ArcView and Arc/Info software for the bulk of our
GPS computer exercises. ArcView is primarily a Geographic Information System (GIS)
and is used extensively for the purpose of storing, organizing, querying, and manipulating
large spatial databases. ArcView and Arc/Info are the most popular GIS software
products available today, used by thousands of companies to manage their geospatial
data. The remainder of this section will be a short ArcView tutorial designed to give you
the basics needed to use ArcView.

A. Getting started with ArcView - basic information

1. To start ArcView, double click on the Shortcut to ArcView icon. It
            takes a 15-20 seconds for ArcView to appear, so be patient.
2. Open an ArcView project file by going to File>>Open Project…Path
            to the following file -
            c:\usr\local\apps\esri\av_gis30\avtutor\arcview\qstart.apr .
3. When qstart.apr opens, it should look like this…:



4. The "qstart.apr" window is known as the ArcView Project window and
            it is used to manage the various window components. View
            windows display your maps, Table windows display tabular data
            related to your maps, Chart windows display charts you have
            created, Layout windows contain your map compositions, and
            Script windows are used to view Avenue code which is used to
            customize ArcView functions. The three Views currently available
            are Atlanta, United States, and World. To open up a new view,
            click on the New button. Open up the United States view window
            by selecting United States, and clicking on the Open button.
5. The United States View window should appear and look like this…...

6. You will need to familiarize yourself with the various features of this
            ArcView window.
            There are 3 bars you need to know about:
            a. The Menu Bar (File, Exit, View, etc.); to access ArcView online
                        Help, go to Help>>Help Topics
            b. The Button Bar (starting with the floppy disc icon); many of
                        these buttons are merely shortcuts to Menu Bar functions
            c. The Tool Bar (starting with the "i" or information icon); also the
                        current map scale and cursor/mouse pointer location are
                        shown on the right side
            The U.S. map is shown in the View window, and to the left the various
                        map Themes are shown in the Table of Contents window. A
                        theme is a set of geographic features in a view. Each theme
                        represents a source of geographic data such as an ARC/INFO
                        coverage, an ArcView shapefile, a CAD drawing, an image data
                        source such as a satellite photo, a raster grid data source, etc.
                        Many themes supplied with ArcView software can be found in the
                        directory c:\usr\local\apps\esri\esridata .
            The order of Themes may be changed in the Table of Contents by
                        selecting and then dragging the Theme to the desired location.
                        Note that the ordering controls that way themes are drawn in the
                        View window. A checked theme means that it is viewable.
                        You can also delete themes by selecting the theme(s), then go to
                        Edit>>Delete Themes from the Menu bar. Theme>>Properties…
                        will allow you to change certain properties like the theme's name.
7. You can manage your ArcView View, Table, Layout, and other
            windows easily by going to the Windows menu and selecting the
            desired window to make it active. You perform certain operations
            (using Menus, Buttons, and Tools) on the active windows.

B. Saving Your Work and Exiting ArcView

1. ArcView project files (with the .apr extension) are rather sensitive, and
            prone to corruption (aren't you glad to know that?). Therefore, it is
            important that you save your work often, and it's not a bad idea to
            make a backup copy of your APR file on a floppy disc or elsewhere
            in your UNIX directory.
            To save a project file, with the View window active go to
            File>>Save Project, or with the Project window active go to File
            >>Save Project As… Make sure that the Drives and Directories
            parts of the Save window correspond with each other. Give the file
            a name, and click on the OK button.
2. To exit ArcView, go to File>>Exit. Don't exit from this tutorial yet!

C. Views and Tables

1. Add a theme to the View window by clicking on the Add Theme button
            (or you can go to View>>Add Theme…). In the Add Theme
            window, your Data Source Type should read "Feature Data
            Source". Add the theme c: \usr\local\apps\esri\esridata\usa\counties.shp .
            Note this is a shapefile (.shp extension). ArcView shapefiles are a
            simple, non-topological format for storing the geometric location
            and attribute information of geographic features. Arc/Info
            coverages may be added in the same manner.
2. Before you make the theme viewable by clicking on its check box,
            select it in the Table of Contents to make it the active theme. Then
            click on the Open Theme Table button (or go to Theme>>Table).
            The table shows all of the attribute information for the theme such
            as county and state names, area, population, etc. All of these
            attributes are directly tied to corresponding geographic features in
            the View. The vertical columns of tabular information are Fields,
            while the horizontal records are known as Rows. Note that when
            the Table window is active, new pull-down menus, buttons, and
            tools appear.
3. Now close the Table, and click on the Query Builder button (or go to
            Theme>>Query). When the counties.shp window appears, note
            that the fields are listed on the left side, mathematical operators in
            the middle, and values on the right. Double click on the field
            "State_name", single click on the "=" sign, and double click on the
            value "Utah". Click on the New Set button and then close the
            Query Builder window.
4. Go to Theme>>Convert to Shapefile… Select the appropriate drive
            and directory, and give the shapefile a new name (i.e., utcounties.shp).
            Click OK. When the window appears asking you if you want to
            "add shapefile as theme to the view", click on the Yes button.
5. Select the Counties.shp theme name and go to Edit>>Delete Theme.
            Click on the Yes button to delete the theme.
6. Select utcounties.shp and then go to Theme>>Properties, and change the
            theme name to "Utah Counties".
7. Click on the utcounties.shp theme name checkbox to make it visible.
            Then double click on the theme name to bring up the Legend Editor.
            The Legend Editor will now appear which will allow you to classify
            using graduated colors/symbols, create pie charts and dot maps, and
            change the symbol style, size and color. Double click on the symbol
            to bring up the Symbol Window. Here you can change colors,
            patterns, line style and width, etc. You can also choose other point
            marker symbols and change text styles, sizes,. and colors using this
            window. Finally, you can load other symbol sets from the Load
            Palette (with the artist's palette icon) by selecting from the sets in
            he c:\usr\local\apps\esri\av_gis20\arcview\symbols directory.
            Change the county symbol color if necessary.
8. With the View window active, go to View>>Properties. Here you can
            change such items as the view's name, map and distance units, and
            projection. Note that the map units are in "miles" and the distance
            units are in "miles". If the view has been projected, map units are
            the units into which this data is being projected in the view.
            Distance units are the units used by ArcView to display or indicate
            the results of measurements you make on a view. For most
            projections, you should set distance units to "meters" and map units
            to whatever unit you want to use based on the scale of your map.

D. Layouts and Printing a Map

            A layout is a map that lets you display views, charts, tables, imported
                        graphics, and graphic primitives, and it readies the map for printing.
            1. There are two ways to open up a layout.
                        a. With the View window active, go to View>>Layout. Choose a layout
                                    template (i.e., if your map is longer in the east-west extent, choose
                                    Landscape). Your map should look like the one below…:

            b. The second way to get a layout is to make the Project window
                        activeand then double click on the Layouts icon to start a
                        blank layout. Each of the map components in the layout on
                        the previous page (view, legend, scale bar, north arrow) can
                        be drawn on this blank layout page using one of the frame
                        tools (the last tool icon on the tool bar). Note that this is a
                        pull down tool menu, and each icon is briefly described at
                        the bottom of the ArcView window. To create a map from
                        your View window, draw a box on your Layout using the
                        View Frame tool. Creating a layout this way is recommended
                        when you want to have better control over the placement of
                        the map components.
2. A layout can be dynamic because it allows you to make specific
            graphics live. When a graphic is live, it reflects the current status of
            the data. For example, if the data in a view changes, the layout
            automatically reflects the change. To view the properties of a
            specific map component, double click on it in the view. For
            example, double click on the View frame. Notice that several
            options are available including a box to deselect/select "live link".
            Deselecting live link will temporarily break the link between the
            View and the Layout.
3. Once you have placed the map components where you want them to be
            on the layout, you can select them and go to Graphics>>Simplify to
            ungroup the individual features of the map component.
            Be Careful! You must simplify the View frame last, or else you
            will lose the scale bar and legend!!
4. You can add text and graphics (lines, squares, rectangles, circles, etc.)
            to the Layout using the Text and the Draw tools, respectively.
            Both of these tools are also available when the View window is
            active.
5. Choosing Layout>>Properties will allow you to name the layout, and
            control the snap to grid option (sometimes it's best to turn it off).
            Choosing Layout>>Page Setup will let you change the page size,
            orientation, margins, and output resolution (set to high).
6. With the layout window active, go to File>>Print… Here you can
            send the file to a printer. It is recommended that you choose the
            600dpi setting to get the maximum resolution on your printout.
            You may also wish to export (File>>Export…) your layout as an
            EPS or other output formats.

This concludes your whirlwind tour through ArcView (v.3.0). Remember to log off of the
PC as described on page 2. If you have any questions regarding ArcView, don't
forget to look at the online help. It is pretty good, and should have the answers you are
looking for. Other sources of ArcView help can be found on the Internet at… ...

1. ESRI ArcView web site - http://www.esri.com/base/products/arcview/usrconnect.html
2. ArcView-l mailing list archive - gopher://gopher.gis.umn.edu/11/rsgis/lists/arcview-l