ARCGIS Desktop

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ARCGIS Desktop

• John H. Porter

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History of ESRI Products

• ARC/INFO developed 1980s
• Couples INFO database with graphical tools for
  display and analysis
• Data structures
• Coverages
• Point
• Arc/Line
• Polygon
• Dates in this lecture are approximate

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Brief History of ESRI Products

• ArcView 1.0 early 1990s
• Very limited functionality
• Display only
• Buggy crashes often
• ARC/INFO continues to be enhanced by adding new
  commands
• ARCTOOLS graphical interface attempts to make
  things simpler

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Brief History of ESRI Products

• ARCView versions 2 and 3 mid to late 1990s
• Greatly expanded capabilities
• Data editing and analysis
• AVENUE programming language allows extensions to
  be added to ARCVIEW
• Data Structures
• Shape Files (editable)
• Coverages (display only)
• Images
• Grids (with extensions)

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Brief History of ESRI Products

• ArcGIS Desktop 1999- present
• Subsumes both ARC/INFO and ArcView
• Restricted to Windows NT-family operating system
• Arcview is a limited version of ARCGIS Desktop
• Data Structures
• Shape Files
• Geodatabases
• Script/Programming Language Visual Basic

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A Brief History of ESRI Products

• ArcGIS Workstation
• Traditional ARC/INFO
• Command-line driven
• Includes some functions not available in ArcGIS
  Desktop
• Runs on multiple operating systems

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ArcGIS Components

• ArcCatalog
• Manage data
• ArcMap
• Create maps
• Analysis
• ArcToolbox
• Stand-alone Analysis and Conversion
• ArcScene
• 3-D display

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ArcCatalog
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ARCGIS Components

• ARC Catalog

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ArcCatalog

• Locate Data for use with ARCGIS
• What data is available?
• Local Disks
• Databases
• Internet/Online
• What are the properties of that data?

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ArcCatalog - Preview

• Preview Geodata and Tables

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Metadata

• ArcCatalog will also display or allow editing of
  simplified Metadata

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ArcCatalog

• Internet Savy can connect to online map
  databases
• Easy use of data without having to import it
• Also talks to database servers and Geocoding
  services

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ArcMap
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ARGIS Components

• ARCMAP

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ArcMap

• ArcMap is designed to help you create
  publication-quality maps
• It extends the display capabilities of ArcView 3
  but uses an entirely new interface
• Everything is there, but you will need to work to
  locate it

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ArcMap Display Enhancements

• Transparency
• You can set layers to be partly transparent so
  that other layers show through
• Projections
• Automatically reprojects data to match the map
  projection (now you can mix and match UTM and
  Lat-Lon coverages)
• But only if the source projection is defined

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ArcMap Toolbars

• Unlike Arcview which uses extensions to create
  new top bar options, ArcMap uses movable
  toolbars
• You select the toolbars you want from the View
  menu

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• Toolbars can be moved or put in separate windows

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Tips

• Most of the things that affect a single layer
  such as properties, display attributes or zooming
  (similar to the AV Theme Legend menus) are
  found by hitting the RIGHT mouse button when
  selecting a layer

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Terminological Changes

• ArcGIS also introduces (yet another) whole new
  vocabulary for creation of maps
• ArcView Projects become ArcGIS Map Documents
• ArcView Views become ArcGIS Data Frames
• ArcView Themes become ArcGIS Layers

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Layouts

• Unlike ArcView there are not separate views and
  layouts
• You can use the Data View and Layout View
  options in the View menu
• Layout Views and Data Views have separate zoom
  controls etc.
• Instead there is a single map document that
  contains one or more data frames each of which
  can contain one or more layers

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Data Structures

• As ARC products have evolved, so have their data
  structures
• The initial structure was the COVERAGE
• Files are stored in two directories
• Coverage name unique files for the coverage
• INFO files for all the coverages in that
  workspace/directory
• Exchanged using ARC/INFO Exchange Files (.E00)

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Coverages

• Coverages can be point, line or polygon
• A single coverage can have points and lines, or
  lines and polygons, but never points and polygons
• Polygon coverages partition the area into
  polygons
• No overlap allowed between polygons
• All areas in the coverage are part of some polygon

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Coverages

• Coverages are created using the BUILD and CLEAN
  commands
• CLEAN attempts to fix problems in topology,
  sometimes moving points and lines
• BUILD assumes the topology is clean and fails
  if topological problems are encountered
• It creates Point, Arc and Polygon attribute tables

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Grids

• Grids were introduced to allow ARC to deal with
  RASTER (gridded) data
• Each grid cell contains a single number
• Like a coverage, files are stored in several
  directories, so to move a grid it is safest to
  EXPORT it
• Grids have a .VAT or Value Attribute Table that
  relate codes in the grid to associated attributes

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Shapefiles

• Next to evolve were Shapefiles
• Comprised of 4 files coverage.shp, .sbn, .sbx
  and .dbf
• The .dbf file contains the attribute data and can
  be opened with Excel, Access and other database
  editors that understand the .dbf format

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Shapefiles

• Polygons in shapefiles CAN overlap
• This means that while POLYGON COVERAGES are
  easily converted to SHAPEFILES, SHAPEFILES are
  NOT easily converted to POLYGON COVERAGES
• Overlaps need to be eliminated
• When converted, polygons in the shapefile become
  REGIONS in the coverage
• Regions are a set of polygons sharing certain
  attributes (e.g., the attributes of the shapefile
  polygons that generated them)

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Geodatabases

• Geodatabase An object-oriented geographic
  database that provides services for managing
  geographic data. These services include
  validation rules, relationships, and topological
  associations. A geodatabase contains feature
  datasets and is hosted inside of a relational
  database management system.

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Geodatabases

• Geodatabases are stored in relational databases
• Many large GIS users have large Oracle-based
  database systems that are used for GIS data using
  the ESRI Spatial Database Engine for conversion
• You can also have Personal Geodatabases that
  are maintained on the local machine

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Data Forms

• Arc/INFO works with coverages (vector) and
  grids (raster)
• ArcView prefers to work with Shapefiles (but
  can display coverages)
• Spatial Analyst allows work with grids
• ArcGIS prefers to work with Geodatabases and
  Shapefiles (but can display and do limited
  manipulation of coverages)

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ArcToolbox
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ArcToolbox

• The ArcToolbox component of ArcGIS contains sets
  of stand-alone wizards designed to help you
  perform specific tasks

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ArcToolbox

• One of the biggest differences between the
  ArcView version of ArcGIS Desktop and the
  Arc/INFO version of ArcGIS is the variety of
  analysis tools
• The ArcView version has only about 20 tools
  (mostly conversion projection)
• The full version has over 150 tools
• Analysis and manipulation

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ArcScene
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ArcScene 3 D Data Viewer

• ArcScene is a 3-D data viewer that allows you to
  get different perspectives on three-dimensional
  landscapes
• Tilt and rotate
• View from a point

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ArcReader

• Free!

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ArcReader

• ArcReader is a FREE stand-alone tool designed for
  DISPLAY and printing of local and web-accessible
  geodata
• It requires that the map to be displayed be
  published to a special PMF file using an ARCGIS
  extension