ArcGIS Programs & user

interface

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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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BUT…Booby Trap• ArcGIS is an encapsulation of

ArcMap and ArcCatalog• ArcGIS comes in 3 license levels –

from low power to high “power”– ArcView – the basic software– ArcEdit– ArcInfo – the most powerful software

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Student

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ArcCatalog Interface

Catalog Tree

Preview Pane

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ArcMap Interface

Drawing toolbar

Table of Contents

Standard toolbarMain Menu

Map display area

Tools Toolbar

Data Management

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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 one of the ESF computer cluster machines

On your flash memory stick

COPY or

Drag

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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 be2 miles and the distance between the points on the map is 10 inchesThen 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 1WARNING

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 2Save 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