ArcView practices practice 1 introduction to the arcview interface

In this first practice, you will learn a few important fundamentals about ArcViews graphical user interface (GUI) as well as how to locate yourself on a map. In this first practice you will also become familiar with some of the data that you will be using in later practices. Getting familiar with your data is an important beginning step when using a GIS. These fundamentals will help you be more efficient during the next practices in this project. In this practice you will leam how to open ArcView (version 3.2), start a new project, add a view, and set the working directory (where you save the files that you create). You will also leam how to add themes to a view, turn them on, arrange an appropriate draw order, and change the symbols. In this practice you will take time to get familiar with many of the menus, buttons, and tools that you will use in the next practices. Also, from the next practice, you will also leam how to open an attribute table and perform a simple query. Last, but not least, in this practice you will leam about map coordinates, scale and changing map projections.

Data

Terms to know 1 

ArcView Steps 1 

Step 1 Start ArcView 1 

Step 2 Add a New View to the Project 2 

Step 4 Set the Working Directory 3 

Step 5 Create the Project 3 

Step 6 Add a Theme to the View 3 

Step 7 Turn on the Themes and arrange the draw order 4 

Step 8 Change the theme symbology 4 

Step 9 Give the Themes and View meaningful names 4 

Step 10 Zooming in and out 5 

Step 11 Change the way we see the Europe 5 

Step 12 Locating Sheffield (or your area) on the Globe 6 

In this first practice, you will learn a few important fundamentals about ArcView's graphical user interface (GUI) as well as how to locate yourself on a map In this first practice you will also become familiar with some of the data that you will be using in later practices Getting familiar with your data is an important beginning step when using a GIS These fundamentals will help you be more efficient during the next practices in this project

In this practice you will leam how to open ArcView (version 3.2), start a new project, add a view, and set the working directory (where you save the files that you create) You will also leam how to add themes to a view, turn them on, arrange an appropriate draw order, and change the symbols In this practice you will take time to get familiar with many of the menus, buttons, and tools that you will use in the next practices Also, from the next practice, you will also leam how to open an attribute table and perform a simple query Last, but not least, in this practice you will leam about map coordinates, scale and changing map projections

Terms to know

• Shapefile: a file storage unit that ArcView uses

• Theme: the type of data you are looking at For example, roads, rivers, soil, mountain

peaks, or wildemess areas Each theme will be either a point, line, or polygon shape Think of it as a "theme of a party!" (The theme ofmy 'point' party is 'mountain peaks')

• Attribute: characteristics about a theme that are contained in a table Every theme has an

attribute table

• Query: when you select a portion of a theme based on an attribute in the table you are

making a query You are asking the table or the spatial data a question

• Coordinates: locations on the surface of earth where a feature is located Measured in

latitude and longitude or decimal degrees

• Feature: one or more features make a theme, for example, one road in the roads theme is

a feature

• Projection: a perspective of the surface of the earth that will distort the shape, area,

distance, or direction of the features in a theme

• Scale: the units on the ground as compared to the units on the map For example, a scale

of 1:25,000 means that 1 unit on the map equals 25,000 units on the ground The unit is usually a measure of distance (i.e inches, feet, miles, meters, or kilometers)

ArcView Steps

Step 1 Start ArcView

To access ArcView from the university server, you need to download ArcView package internally in your computer The below picture illustrates the procedure to access Arc View: Select Start and then, Application, Academic, Social Science, and finally ArcView GIS

After clicking 'ArcView GIS' button from the Windows XP, you can see a pop-up menu, 'Distributing Application: ArcView GIS' and then, it takes several minutes (depends on university server performance) to log in ArcView (version 3.2) If you cannot see the menu or have problems to log

in, ask demonstrator to solve

Start ArcView by double-clicking with the mouse on the ArcView icon ( )in the ArcView program group or directory on your hard drive After ArcView opens on your desktop, you will see

a 'Welcome to ArcView GIS' window that will ask you to choose a new view, a blank project, or an existing project Click on the

CANCEL button for now

Step 2 Add a New View to

the Project

You will now notice a menu

bar along the top of the

ArcView window and

document icons along the left

side of the ArcView window

Documents are Views, Tables,

Charts, Layouts and Scripts

You use the documents to

create a Project let's start by

adding a View (our first

document) to a Project we will

create

Add a view by clicking once

with your mouse on the Views icon ( ) and then the New button ( )

Make the windows larger You might want to be able to see the menu bars, the project menu (Untitled), and the 'View1' window all at the same time Ask your demonstrator for help is ne cessary

Step 4 Set the Working Directory

Before we add a theme to the view, it is good practi ce to set the working directory first, a working directory is where you save the files that you create You will want to save your workto a directory on your hard chive Ask your demonstrator where you shculd save your work

To change this directory, click File (on the menu bar) and choose 'Set Working Directory ' from the pull-down menu Type the path to the directory where you will save your work (e.g., c:\temp or u:\ERS120\),

then click OK The

directory you type in

needs to be currently

existed If you need

help creating a new

directory then ask your

demonstrator

Step 5 Create the Project

Before we add a theme to 'View1', it is good practice to create a Project first To create a Project, click on the top bar of the Project window (Untitled) to make it active On the menu bar click on 'File', choose 'Save Project As ' from the dropdown menu The directory should already

be set, if not, navigate to the directory where you want to save your work Replace 'proj1.apr' with 'pract1.apr' or your own name as your project name and click 'OK' You will then notice that the file name you are specified appears where 'Untitled' was on your Project window

Step 6 Add a Theme to the View

Click on the top bar of the 'View1' window to make it active Click the Add Theme button ( ) once (the second button on the button bar) In the 'Add Theme' menu, navigate to the directory for ‘C:\ESRI\AV_GIS30\esridata\europ e' (you may need to ask your demonstrator for the

complete folder/directory path) Hold down the Shift-key on the keyboard and use your mouse to select the theme cities.shp, country.shp, mjrivers.shp, mjurban.shp at one time Click OK These

four themes will be added to your view

Step 7 Turn on the Themes and arrange the draw order

Now you will see the four themes listed in the view window This

is the legend and should look something like this

Click on the boxes to the left of each theme name to add a

check-mark next to the name of each theme as you see above This

turns on or draws each theme in the view As the themes draw you

may notice that a theme may cover another theme and you will not

be able to see a theme anymore When this happens you can

change the draw order To do this you may click on a theme name

in the legend that you want to move (the area will appear raised or

3-D) and then drag it up or down in the list with your mouse The

theme that is on the bottom of the list will draw on the bottom in the

view Do this now and arrange the themes so they are in the same

order as in the graphic on the right

Step 8 Change the theme symbology

You will now learn how to use the legend editor When you first add a theme to the view, ArcView chooses colours for you To change these colours and symbols for each theme you can double-click on the symbol shown in the legend for any of the themes This opens a 'Legend Editor' menu You can then double-click on the symbol in the legend editor This will open a symbology palette

You may change fill patterns , line symbols , marker symbols , text symbols , and colors For now, lets click In the colour palette button , and choose a colour for the theme you selected Click 'Apply' on the Legend Editor' menu, and then close the colour palette and the legend editor menu The theme will redraw and you will see the new colour for the theme you had selected Repeat this step for each theme in the legend

Step 9 Give the Themes and View meaningful names

Now that you have created such a great view, you may want to give it a name Click on the view window to make it active, then click on 'View' in the menu bar, then click on 'Properties' in the drop-down list In the 'View Properties' menu change the name t o 'The Europe' Click OK

You will now see the new name ill the top bar of the view window

Now let's change the name of the themes Click on the Cities shp theme to make it active, this should be the first theme in the legend You will know that a theme is active when it appear

3-D or raised in the legend Click on 'Theme' in the menu bar, then 'Properties' in the drop-down list In the 'Theme Properties ' menu change the theme name to 'Major cities' Click OK

Repeat this step to rename the other themes Renme Country.shp to 'All Countries', rename mjrives.shp to 'Major rivers', and rename mjurban.s hp to 'Urban areas' Your legend should now look like this Although your colours may be different

Step 10 Zooming in and out

We will now get a closer look at the Europe and any coutry you want With the view active, you will notice two zooming tools on the tool bar The tool will allow you to zoom in

to an area on the view, and the tool will allow you to zoom out or away from an area Let's use these tools to first zoom in on the UK or any country Click on the tool, move your mouse to the view, click and drag a box around the UK, then release the mouse You will notice that your mouse pointer looks like the tool you are using If you zoom to the wrong area, click the button, and you will be returned to the full extent of all themes

Once you are zoomed in to the UK, you will notice England However Sheffield, for example,

is still too small for us to see what it really looks like (We assume you all know where Sheffield is

in England!) Let's zoom in to Sheffield the same way you did for the UK If you zoom in too close, you can use the tool to zoom out You may want to practice zooming in and out of your view and to other areas of the world When you are done, use the button to zoom back out to the full extent of all the themes

Step 11 Change the way we see the Europe

In this step you will change the projection so that we can view the Europe in a different

perspective With the view active, click on 'View' in the menu bar Click on 'Properties' in the drop-down menu The View Properties menu opens, the name of the view should be 'The Europe

Click on the 'Projection ' button which is located approximately in the middle of the menu A Projection Properties menu opens For Category, 'Projections of the World' should be selected For Type, click on the down arrow, scroll to the bottom of the list and choose 'The World from Space' Click OK On the View Properties menu next to Projection, it should now read

'Orthographic' Click OK You'll now notice that your view of the world looks like a globe (See the graphic below) Also you can change the view to 'National Grids' in the Projection Properties menu like 'The World from Space' Then you should read 'Transverse Mercator' Click OK

Compare your view to the graphic below Compare your views with the three projections

Step 12 Locating Sheffield (or your area) on the Globe

Come back to original projection format ('Projections of the World' and 'geographic') Let's take

a closer look at Sheffield You can zoom in closer to Sheffield by either clicking on the 'Major cities theme', or the 'Urban areas' theme, and then click on the button Or you can use the tool like you did in Step 10

To see where Sheffield is located on globe, we will look at the coordinates (latitude and longitude) The coordinate measurements are in decimal degrees for the Orthographic projection

At the right end of the tool bar you will notice some numbers

These numbers tell you what scale

of data you are seeing in the view, and the coordinates of the view For example, a scale of 1:6,912,764 could be read as one unit on the map equals 6,912,764 units on the ground The units can be anything you want (i.e inches, feet, miles, etc.) The coordinates are the x and y location of a quadrant Click on the pointer tool Place your cursor on

Sheffield of the UK (you don't need to click) and look at the numbers with the vertical and

horizontal arrows next to them The number that has the horizontal arrow next to it (top) is the latitude of that location, which should be approximately 1.4 The bottom number, which has the vertical arrow next to it is the longitude of that location, which should be approximately 53.3 Now change the projection of the view you have done in the previous steps and compare latitude and longitude coordinates of Sheffield

Last modified: Oct 22, 2009

ERS 120: Introduction to Geographic Information Systems /