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2010 GIS Summer Workshop Skills

Table of Contents
Copy Data Files to the Desktop
Create a Personal Geodatabase
Add a Base Map to Your Map Document
Table of Contents: Display and Source Tabs
Joining Tables
Using Selections to Analyze Data
Create an Attribute Selection Using a Formula
Save your Selection as a new Layer
Create a Selection Based on Location
Change the Symbology
Design a Map Layout

Krista White
GIS Support Specialist
x 3926
Kwhite2@drew.edu
Office HS 337
T, Th 8:00AM-12:00PM, 1:00PM-4:00PM
F 8:00-11:30AM

Catherine A. Riihimaki
Assistant Professor
Environmental Studies and Sustainability
x 3349
criihimaki@drew.edu
Office HS 100

Copy Data Files to the Desktop

To complete this tutorial, you will need to copy the Geocoding folder from the O:\envstudies\2010 GIS Summer Workshops folder to the desktop of your computer. If you have done this already, skip to the next section, Start a New Map Document.

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1. Right click anywhere in the blank, blue space on the Desktop. Choose the Paste option. You should now see the Project folder on your Desktop.

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Create a Personal Geodatabase

A Personal Geodatabase is a tool that keeps all of your data for a map document in one convenient location. Creating a Geodatabase helps users to organize and conceptualize the data they have. This makes it easier to work with the data later. Some tools created for ArcGIS require the use of a Geodatabase to function properly.

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To rename the database, click twice slowly on the name. When the name of the Geodatabase is highlighted in blue with a thick, black line around it, type in the new name – whatever you want to call your new map document.

1. Close ArcCatalog.

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Add a Base Map to Your Map Document

Base maps are the foundation of all ArcGIS map documents. In the Geocoding tutorial, you learned to add base map from the ArcGIS server. Hawth's Tools has some very specific requirements for map creation that are not met by the ArcGIS server maps. Other kinds of base maps are freely available from many sources. You can find many of these resources at the Drew University Environmental Studies and Sustainability GIS Resources web page.

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The Data Frame should now contain a map (if you added a shape file).



The Display tab in the Table of Contents – located on the left hand side of the screen – should now display the name of the maps shape file you just added.

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Table of Contents: Display and Source Tabs

Data files like .dbf and .csv files will not show up in the Table of Contents when you are viewing it with the Display tab. Display is the default mode for viewing files in the Table of Contents. To view all files you've imported to the map document, click on the Source tab at the bottom of the Table of Contents.

Different types of files can be identified in the Source tab by the icons that represent them.

The icon that looks like a file folder with an overlaid map is indicates the file path for the entire map document. This lets you know where all the files for this map document are stored.
An icon that looks like a spreadsheet table indicates a data file of some type. Usually a .dbdf or .csv file.

An icon that looks like a cylinder indicates a Geodatabase. Any elements appearing indented and underneath the Geodatabase icon are files stored in that Geodatabase.

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Joining Tables

Any time you want to add external data (.dbf or .csv file) to a map file, you need to join the data from the external file to the data table contained in the map. To Join one or more tables, there has to be a common field among them. In many cases, a geographic identifier – like a Census designation for a Block or region – is the common field. Common fields can be any element – so long as they match the data from one file to another correctly.

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Choose the field in this layer that the join will be based on: This will be the field in the first file that has identical values to a field in the second file.
Choose the table to join to this layer: This is the second file.
Choose the filed in the table to base the join on
This is the field in the second file that has identical values to a field in the first file.
This common element of identical values in the fields of each file provides the reference point to add the data from one table to another.
Join Options: Keep all records

1. Click OK

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Using Selections to Analyze Data

ArcGIS allows users to display information on maps by selecting certain sets and subsets of data available in the map. This can be useful for eliminating data or highlighting data specific to user needs for a particular function.

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This example will use Attribute Selection. I want to select the addresses of commuter students I've mapped that are no farther than 10 miles away from Drew.

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Create an Attribute Selection Using a Formula

1. Choose Select by Attributes. A dialog box will appear.
   1. Under Layer: choose the layer from which you want to select the attributes

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1. 1. Double-click on "ComDist" in the box above.
   2. Double-click on the < = button.
   3. Type a space and then key in the number 10. Make sure that there is only once space between the < = symbol and the number 10.
2. Click OK. Now all of the elements in our Selection – addresses 10 miles or fewer from Drew – are highlighted in the map in cyan.

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Save your Selection as a new Layer

If you save your Selection as a new layer, you will be able to work with and Symbolize the selected elements of the map without changing the original base data you took the Selection from.

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1. Remove the cyan highlights by clicking on the Selections pull down menu and choosing Clear Selected Features.

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Create a Selection Based on Location

One of the most frequent uses for location based Selections comes from creating buffers and then analyzing data points that intersect with those buffers.

Create a Buffer

Buffers are a tool used to indicate an area of proximity for one or more data points. Instead of locating addresses within 10 miles of Drew using an Attribute Selection, we can also do it with a buffer.

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When in doubt, set your Dissolve Type to ALL.
When your Buffer is done rendering, it will appear in the Table of Contents with the name you specified in the Ouput Feature Class field. Your feature(s) will be surrounded by a halo representing the linear unit or field you specified.

Intersect Features with Buffer

You can now do an intersect analysis to Select any features that intersect with the buffer created.

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1. Right click on the layer from which the selected features were chosen (from the "I want to" – section 2a. – above). Save the Selected Features as a Layer File.

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Change the Symbology

Symbology indicates what kind of icon and color represent your data points or other features on the map. Size, color, and type of symbol can be crucial in creating an easy to read map. To change symbols for your map,

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1. Click OK twice to see the new Symbology.

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Design a Map Layout

1. Choose Layout View from the View menu to see how your map would look on a printed or exported page.

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