Exercise 1: Creating GIS data

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Exercise 1 Creating GIS datapoints lines and
polygons

• A very common method of creating vector data is
  to physically create these files through
  on-screen digitizing.
• In Arc, you will need to create the shapefiles
  first (as blanks) and then fill in the features
  (points, lines, polygons). To do this we will
  use ArcCatalog to create the blank files then
  bring them into ArcMap to draw the shapes.
• Start ArcCatalog and navigate to your folder.
  Select New and Shapefile and polygon DONT
  close this window yet.
• In the coordinate system box youll see it is
  empty. Click Edit and Import
• Navigate to your folder (ON V) and select the
  campus1.img file click Add
• The information for the campus1.img projection
  should be in the box. Click OK
• Click Ok again to create the shapefile (you
  dont need to check any of the additonal boxes).
• Repeat these steps for a point and a line feature
  
• When youve created the 3 files, start ArcMAP and
  add the campus1.img image to your blank map

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• Add the 3 new shapefiles and the campus1.img
  image to the map. Youll notice the shapefiles
  are empty.
• Start an editing session (Editor pulldown menu)
  and make sure your polygon layer is the target
  file listed and that Create New Feature is the
  task.
• Remember Tool-----Task-----Target when editing
  or creating features.

3. When you have the editing session started,
click the down arrow next to the pencil icon.
This is the selection of tools you can use to
create and edit your new shapefile. For now stay
with the sketch (pencil) tool.
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With the sketch tool you are going to draw
polygons by hand. Every click will drop a vertex
into the map. The more vertices you have, the
more detail in your polygons. NOTE Square
features may only need 4 vertices so there is no
need to add 40. However, some irregular features
like the pond will require several. You can go
back and add, delete or move vertices to your
shapefiles OR to others if needed.

• When you have created your first polygon. Right
  click on the layer and open the attribute table.
  Here you will see that Arc created a table entry
  for your new polygon. It will do this for each
  one you draw. In future labs well see how to
  merge these together if needed but initially it
  is better to have them as separate entries.
• To add a field to the table go to options and
  add field NOTE The edit session will need to
  be off for this to work so for now just create
  your polygons, points, lines (Stop editing and
  SAVE EDITS OCCASIONALLY then re start).
• When you have drawn your features go to the
  tables and add the appropriate fields such as
  AREA, PERIMETER, LENGTH, Class (or land use etc.)
  Latitude (Y) and Longitude (X).
• NOTE Number fields are Double format while
  classes will be Text

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Part 1 Assignment Create a basic landcover
map for a selected area of the WCU campus using
point, line and polygon features. Keep it simple
but make sure it makes sense too. Youll be going
back to name these features and will be turning
in a table. Id suggest about 4-6 types of
features at the most. For each feature type
(point, line, poly) open the attribute tables and
add the following fields (go to options, add
field) 1. Class (your system of
classification) (format will be text) 2. Area,
length, perimeter, X, Y, as appropriate. (Format
is Double) 3. Other numeric (double) or
categorical (text) as needed. Naming your
classes Select all of your polygons for any
given class, right click in the table ON THE
CLASS COLUMN and select Calculate Values. Type
whatever name you assign to those polygons.
Repeat until all of your features are titled.
Calculating Length, Area, Perimeter, X and Y
First clear out any selected features
(selection, clear selection features) To add
text to a table you can highlight the row(s) you
want to fill in and right click on the COLUMN you
need name or calculate and select FIELD
CALCULATOR Numbers go in directly and text
needs to be in QUOTES To calculate AREA,
LENGTH, PERIMETER and Lat/Lon right click on
appropriate column. Select Calculate Geometry.
Here you will be given a choice for Area, Length,
Perimeter, X and Y coordinates. Just make sure
you are right clicking on the appropriate column
when you select.
To turn in A single Layout with the
following 1. The landcover map containing your
point, line and polygon features 2. Legend,
scale bar and N. arrow for your map window. 3.
Figure caption explaining the map.