THE HONG KONG POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF LAND SURVEYING &

GEO-INFORMATICS

LSGI521 PRINCIPLES OF GIS

Student name:

Student ID:

Table of Content

Working with files, folders, various software and hardware…………………………………………….2

Exercise 1 – Data preparation for LIC Basemap ...................................................................................... 6 A. Import data from e00 to coverage ............................................................................................... 6

B. Merge data .................................................................................................................................. 7

Exercise 2 – Displaying data and Querying data ...................................................................................... 8

A. Symbolize your data ................................................................................................................... 8

B. Label your data.......................................................................................................................... 11

C. Display the attributes of a particular feature on a view ............................................................. 11

D. Select features with the mouse .................................................................................................. 11

E. Select features with graphics ..................................................................................................... 12

F. Select features by querying attribute table ................................................................................ 13

G. Find features by spatial query ................................................................................................... 13

Exercise 3 - Editing data ........................................................................................................................ 15

A. Start an edit session ................................................................................................................... 16

B. Set the snapping environment ................................................................................................... 16

C. Skills of working with mouse ................................................................................................... 17

D. Digitize features ........................................................................................................................ 17

E. Stop editing and save you work................................................................................................. 17

F. Calculate Value ......................................................................................................................... 18

Exercise 4 - Plotting your map ............................................................................................................... 19

A. Create a layout.......................................................................................................................... 19

B. Control scale ........................................................................................................................... 20

C. Add elements on the map ......................................................................................................... 20

D. Make grid line .......................................................................................................................... 20

Exercise 5 - Making 3D TIN model and terrain analysis ....................................................................... 22

A. Create TIN model ..................................................................................................................... 22

B. 3D Visualization....................................................................................................................... 23

C. Analysis slope aspect with TIN model ..................................................................................... 23

Assignments to be submitted. ................................................................................................................. 25

2

Working with files, folders, various software and hardware

How to get the lecture notes and other related facilities

1. Using computers inside LSGI computing labs,

Start Menu � LSGI, PolyU Directory � Homework Submit- Students paste any online

submission.

Local D Drive - Access the local D drive of your

occupied computer.

Network_Home_Folders_(All students) – Students keep

any storage inside the LSGI server.

Teaching Materials – Students download any teaching

materials here.

Please click LSGI521 for downloading both the lecture notes and lab handouts.

OR

2. Using Intranet of LSGI website

Go to LSGI Website and click Intranet ���� Student. After the insertion of username and password,

please click “I agree & answer truthfully” for proceeding.

Homework Submit

Teaching

FoldersMaterial

Local_D_Drive

Network_Home_Folders_

(All students)

3

Come to a new page and select “Download Resources”, click “Teaching Materials”. You can similarly

retrieve to the above materials.

How to access your own student directory

In Room FG311/FG307, every time you finish doing something and before you leave the room, it is

extremely important and safe to save the file (i.e. the folder and/or data you created) into your own

student directory in both ways:

Start – Programs – LSGI, PolyU Directory – Local D drive. You can save your files temporarily in

d:\00-temp\. Here, you’ll create a folder with your own student no. Once you finish every practical,

please backup your files into Student Storage inside LSGI server or MYDRIVE system every time.

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After you have inputted the required username and password to access the MYDRIVE, you may click

to this page “Access myStore” for storage.

How to open ArcView 9.2

Go to start -> All Programs -> ArcGIS. ArcView 9.2 is composed of ArcCatalog, ArcMap, ArcToolbox

and so on.

ArcCatalog is used for:

• Browse your graphical or textual data

• Manage and define your data

• Set and view metadata

ArcMap is used for perfoming map-based tasks such as mapping, editing, queries, analysis, graphing

and reporting.

ArcToolbox is used for data conversion and advanced geoprocessing functions.

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In the exercise, you will use ArcCatalog and ArcMap frequently. You can try to browse data in

ArcCatalog and add data into ArcMap in this lesson.

How to submit assignments

You should submit your assignments before deadline either using Homework_Submit\LSGI521\

“Submission No” \Stud ID, or using LSGI website with same path.

Practical for Continuous Assessment: 50%

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Exercise 1 – Data preparation for LIC Basemap

In this exercise, you will learn how to import Basemap data into ArcView 9.2 software. Since Hong

Kong basemap data supplied by the Government (Land Information Centre, Survey and Mapping

Office of Lands Department) is provided in ArcInfo export format – e00, data should be converted

from e00 to coverage format and therefore you can view data in this software.

A. Import data from e00 to coverage

Please download the Basemap folder inside the lab folder of LSGI521teaching materials.

In this part, you learn to convert e00 files into ArcInfo coverage format for BLDG and CONT layers.

And you have to convert total 14 tiles (11swa, 11swb, 11swc, 11swd, 11sea, 11seb, 11sec, 11sed,

15nwa, 15nwb, 15nea, 15neb, 15nec, 15ned). Inside it, there are 13 files showing the topographic

information in Hong Kong.

These tiles are B5000 Hong Kong digital maps in a scale of 1:5000, supplied by the Lands Department.

The reason why you do such data conversion is the e00 cannot be directly read by the ArcGIS software.

Steps:

1. Copy e00 files in teaching materials server.

2. Create a new folder to store coverage files temporarily in local d drive, e.g d:\00-temp\stud-

id\LSGI521\coverage\

3. In ArcCatalog, click the View menu, click Toolbars, then click the ArcView 8.x Tools toolbar.

4. Click the Conversion tools drop-down menu and click Import from Interchange File. (It is

a conversion program that converts an ARC/INFO interchange file created on any other

operating system into an ARC/INFO 7.x coverage. If you receive ARC/INFO data in

interchange format you can use ArcToolbox to convert it to a data source in a format that can

be added to map document in ArcView 9.2).

5. Click the Input file Browse

button and navigate to the .e00

file to be imported.

6. Click the .e00 file and click

Open.

7. Click the

Output

dataset

Browse

button and

navigate to

the location

for the

output

dataset to be

stored, then

click Save.

8. Click OK.

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9. Run in batch mode

The utility in ArcToolbox can be

run in batch mode which is

faster way to convert many tiles.

You can write batch file to

automatically run the utility.

In the popup box, you can click

on batch button and then a table

appears. You can convert more

than one file here. Click on Add

Row button you can define

the paths for export one more

file.

10. Using the same procedure in

point 4 to export building data in

all tiles. After you finished

setting the paths for all data, click OK.

B. Merge data

In this part, you will learn to append the features of several layers into an ArcMap environment. After

conversion, you have to merge building and contour layers into identical shapefiles.

Steps:

1. Start ArcCatalog.

2. Open the toolbox window and

choose the Merge ���� General

tool in the Data Management

toolbox.

3. Choose the layers with the same

feature classes that are going to be

part of the new feature class, i.e.

add all building layers of 14 tiles.

4. Define and create the output name.

Run the function. 14 layers are

merged into one shapefile.

5. Do the same steps for contour

layers.

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Exercise 2 – Displaying data and Querying data

In this exercise, you will learn the basic functions of ArcView 9.2 software. It involves representing

our data by different color and symbols and querying spatial data by attribute table and their spatial

relationships.

Please download the Coverage folder into your local D drive.

A. Symbolize your data

You will learn how to symbolize your data involves choosing colors and symbols that will represent

features. It also involves grouping or classifying features according to their attribute values.

Drawing a layer using a single symbol

Steps:

1. Add wanchai_road.shp in ArcMap .

2. In the table of contents, right click wanchai_road layer you want to draw with a single symbol

and click properties.

3. Click the

Symbology tab.

4. Click Features.

Because Single

symbol is the

only option,

ArcMap

automatically

selects it.

5. Click the Symbol

button to change

the symbol.

6. In the Symbol

Selector dialog

box, click a new

symbol or change

specific properties,

e.g. color and width of the symbol.

7. Click OK on the Symbol Selector dialog box.

8. Click OK.

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Drawing a layer showing unique values

Steps:

1. Add bldg.shp in ArcMap .

2. In the table of contents, right click the building layer you want to draw showing unique values

and click Properties.

3. Click the Symbology tab.

4. Click Categories. ArcMap automatically selects the Unique values option.

5. Click the Value

Field dropdown

arrow and select

Type from value

field.

6. Click the Color

Scheme

dropdown arrow

and click a color

scheme.

7. Click Add All

Values. This

adds all unique

values to the list.

Alternatively,

click the Add

Values button to

choose which

unique values to

display.

8. Since BLK value

represents no

building, set blank

color for BLK

value and set

same color for the

other values.

9. You can group

other types into

one type. Select

other types and

right click.

Choose Group

Values.

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10. If you want to

have more

descriptive labels,

click a label in

the Label column

and type a new

one, e.g.

buildings.

11. Click OK.

12. Add the other

layers:

coastline.shp,

bus_stop.shp and

set symbols for

those layers.

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B. Label your data

You will learn how to label layers with information from attribute tables. You can also add additional

information by typing text directly on your map. It is useful to label building name, road name etc

when producing map.

Steps:

1. Select

wanchai_road

layer.

2. Right click �

properties �

click Labels Tab.

3. Tick the option

‘Label Features in

this layer. Select

Label Field is

STREET_ENG.

And you can set

the font size and

color of labels by

clicking Symbol

button. Press OK.

4. Therefore, the

road layer is

labeled with English road name.

C. Display the attributes of a particular feature on a view

The Identify tool

lets you display the

attributes of features on

a view by clicking on

them with the mouse.

Choose the Identify tool

and click on any feature

on the map to display its

attributes. Click the

Layers dropdown arrow

in the dialog box to

specific which layers

you want to identify.

Try to use the identify Tool until you feel familiar with it.

D. Select features with the mouse

The Select Feature tool lets you select features with the mouse by pointing at them or by

dragging a selection box over them. Features that fall partly or wholly inside the box you define will be

selected. Features will be selected from all of layers (default).

To specific which layer(s) to be selected, click Selection on the main menu and click Set Selectable

Layers.

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You can also select features in attribute table.

Steps:

1. Select the layer.

2. Right click Open Attribute Table button. The attribute table is displayed and the records for

the features you selected are highlighted.

3. To display the highlighted records only, click Selected button at the button of table.

4. You can deselect the selected features in the layer by clicking Selection menu � the Clear

Selected Features button .

Try to use Select Feature tool to select some features, show selected records and clear selection until

you feel familiar with these tools.

E. Select features with graphics

Using the Drawing tool palette you can draw a circle, rectangle or irregular graphic to select features. If

you can’t find the draw tool bar, go to View menu � Toolbar � Tick Draw.

Steps:

1. Click Polygon button from draw toolbar and draw the polygon on the map.

2. To specific which layer(s) to be selected, click Selection on the main menu and click Set

Selectable Layers. For example, you make wanchai_road is selectable only.

3. Click Selection menu � Select by Graphics .

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F. Select features by querying attribute table

Build a query with the when you want to select features according to their

attribute values.

Steps:

1. Suppose you are going to find out all

buildings in the “building” layer

whose area is larger than 500 square

metres. Make the “building” them

active.

2. Click on the Select menu � Select By

Attributes.

3. Select building layer and specify you

conditions as shown in the following

figure.

4. Click the Apply button.

5. If there are any features satisfying the

conditions, they will be selected and

highlighted in yellow in the view

window.

Try using this method to find features from your

layers and record your queries (no less than 3)

in the following table.

Query Query conditions in Query builder Number of selected features

Select buildings which are not

BLK type and area > 500

Select the name of Wan Chai

roads include this word

“QUEEN”

Select road with name

starting with the letters “R to

Z”

G. Find features by spatial query

You will learn how to do spatial query using the tool to make queries of

spatial relationship like “within distance of” and “completely within (i.e. inside)”.

Steps:

1. Suppose you want to find out bus stop which are within the buildings, i.e those stops may has

problem.

2. Select building layer � Properties � Definition Query � Query Builder. Select type is

not equal to BLK. Therefore, only type is not equal to BLK will be displayed. Since blank

polygons are also in the building layer, if we don’t exclude those polygons, the software will

query the bus_stops and blank polygons and therefore all bus stops will be selected.

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3. Go to Select menu �

Select by Location.

4. Select bus_stop.

5. Select Interest first

combo box and select

layer which overlay

with building layer.

6. Click Apply.

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Here, you are required to use at least two more spatial relations, “intersect” and “complete contain”.

You are encouraged to try all spatial relationships available in the tool. Record you spatial queries (no

less than 4) in the following table.

(a) Name of

layers(s) to select

features from

(the first

dropdown box)

The shape type of (a)

(e.g. line, point or

polygon)

the spatial

relation

(b) Name of layer

to select by

The shape type of

(b)

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Exercise 3 - Editing data

In this exercise, you will learn editing skills for spatial data. You shall create one line shapefile and one

polygon shapefile in ArcCatalog to practise the following edit functions.

Preparation - Creating a new shapefile

1. Select a folder or folder connection in the Catalog tree.

2. Click the File menu, point to New, and click Shapefile.

3. Click in the Name text box and type a name for the new shapefile.

4. Click the Feature Type drop-down arrow and click the type of geometry the shapefile will

contain.

5. Click OK.

The new shapefile appears in the folder's contents.

A. Start an editing session

1. Add the shapefile you want to edit in ArcMap by clicking the Add Data button . If the

shapefile is already added, skip this step.

2. Click Editor and click Start Editing. If you can’t find Editor toolbar, click View � Toolbars

� Editor.

3. Click Create New Feature in the Task dropdown arrow.

4. Click the Target layer you want to edit.

5. Click the tool palette dropdown arrow and click the Sketch tool.

B. Set the snapping environment

When you edit the lines, you may not sure whether the line is snapped and therefore it may affect the

data accuracy. Setting the snapping environment can help snap the lines automatically.

Steps:

1. Go to Editor � Start editing.

2. Go to Editor � Snapping.

3. In the Snapping Environment dialog,

choose which layer you want to snap and

also you want to snap to vertex, edge and

end.

4. If you want to set snapping tolerance, go to

Editor � options � General tab.

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C. Skills of working with mouse

Before you can successfully draw any features, skills listed below are basic for you to do edit.

Using the mouse,

Single click on left button – add a vertex

Double click on left button – finish digitizing one feature

Single click on right button – view popup menu

D. Digitize features

Switch the Target shapefile in order to digitize different kind of features.

Steps:

1. Position the cursor at the desired feature on the digital image and click left button of the

mouse.

2. Continue pressing left button of the mouse to digitize several vertices for the feature.

3. Double left click to end digitizing the feature.

4. Right click to see the popup menu.

5. From the popup menu, you can choose to insert vertex, delete vertex or delete sketch.

Above are only basic procedures to create and edit features. There are many functions help to split, cut,

mirror and reshape etc features. For more information about editing, please read the help provided in

ArcMap. Choose Editing in ArcMap from the contents.

Please digitise 10 records each in both line and polygon files, with at least 1 new attribute to be created

inside these files.

E. Stop editing and save you work When you finish digitizing features, click Editor and click Stop Editing. It is wise to save your work

(Save Edits) from time to time during the process digitizing/drawing.

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F. Calculate Value

When editing the attribute table, you can use Field Calculator to calculate the value of the field. For

example, you can calculate length and area.

Steps:

1. Open the attribute table.

2. Choose Start Editing from the Editor toolbar.

3. Add a numeric field to the table e.g length, click the name of the field to select it.

4. Click the length column and right click and choose the Calculate button to display the

Field Calculator dialog.

5. In dialog, click on the Length field name so that it looks pushed down. Then, right click the

function Calculate Values. The following window prompts. Check the Advanced box. Type

the following VBA script inside that box.

Dim length as double

Dim pCurve as ICurve

Set pCurve = [Shape]

Length = pCurve.Length

Then also type “pCurve.Length” in the Length box, and then click OK.

6. Think about how to get the area, perimeter, x or y coordinates using VBA Script code.

Remark: For more information about making field calculations, please go to ArcGIS Desktop

help and search ‘making field calculations’ about the VBA script details.

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Exercise 4 - Plotting your map

After having done analysis, you have to plot your result in previous exercise in paper map. In this

section, you learn to design and produce quality map and plot it out in A3 size.

A. Create a layout

Steps:

1. At the left lower corner, switch to Layout View .

2. In the Layout toolbar, you can change the template by using select template button .

3. Select the template you want.

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B. Control scale

Steps:

1. Click View � Data Frame

Properties.

2. Set Map and Display units to

Meters.

3. Select Data Frame Tab, you can

choose Fix Scale, e.g. 1:5000.

C. Add elements on the map

Steps:

1. Go to Insert menu, you can add new

components to a layout such as scale

bar, north arrow frame, text, image

and chart.

2. You can also use draw toolbar to

add graphics such as neatlines,

boxes, circles and arrows anywhere

on your layout.

D. Make grid line Steps:

1. Click View � Data Frame

Properties.

2. Select Grids Tab.

3. Click New Grid and select

Measure Grid. Click Next.

4. Select Grid and labels. Type

in the interval is 500. You

can change symbol style by

clicking Style button. Click

Next.

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5. You can change the style for border and the font size.

6. Tick the options in Measured Grid Border and Neatline. Click Finish.

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Exercise 5 - Making 3D TIN model and terrain analysis

For this final exercise, you will learn to TIN model by using contour data. Also, you will perform some

terrain analysis based on the TIN model. To perform this exercise using the Coverage folder, 3D

analyst extension is required.

A. Create TIN model

Steps:

1. Go to View � Toolbars � 3D Analyst.

2. Also, go to Tool menu � Extensions �

Tick 3D Analyst Option. Otherwise, the

function in 3D Analyst toolbar will be

enabled.

3. In ArcMap, add Contour layer by Add Data

button and select one part of contour.

4. In 3D Analyst toolbar, go to Create/Modify

TIN � Create TIN from features.

5. In the dialog, tick Contour layer, select you

Cont_ht from Height source and input as hard

or soft breaklines. Define the output file path

and name. Then press OK.

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B. 3D Visualization

With TIN model, you can have 3D view of terrain. Go to All Programs � ArcGIS � ArcScene. All

the tin layer in ArcScene and therefore you can visual 3D view of the terrain model.

C. Analysis slope aspect with TIN model

One of application for TIN model is to analysis

slope aspect. Slope aspect is useful for

engineering project to indicate the steepness of

slope, especially for those slopes near roads.

Steps:

1. In ArcMap or ArcScene, click the 3D

Analyst menu on the toolbar, point to

Surface Analysis, and click Slope.

2. Select the surface

from which you want

to derive a raster of

slope values.

3. Click Degree or

Percent.

4. Type a z-factor. This

is calculated

automatically if the

input has a defined

spatial reference that

includes z unit

information.

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5. Type an output cell size.

6. Type the name of the output raster.

7. Click OK.

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Submission Criteria

1. Tables in Section F and G of Exercise 2.

2. One line and polygon shapefiles after performing editing functions in Exercise 3.

After editing your shapefiles inside ArcMap, you are necessary to select and copy your shapefiles.

A group of 5 or 6 relevant files with the same file name (e.g. bus_stop, coast) with 5 or 6 different

extensions. Please keep save all relevant files for submission.

3. The A3 paper map in digital format saved as student ID.

In order to export your map in jpeg or pdf format, goto File � Export Map. Save your map as

either jpeg or pdf format.

4. The printed screen images for the result of section A, B and C in exercise 5.