Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
includes others advanced spatial analysis tools. Each of the three advanced
products actually consists of two applications on the computer:
ArcMap
and
ArcCatalog
, which handle specific tasks. The user interface is the same across all
the products, so it is easy to move from one to the other.
Entire books have been written on GIS and tools like ArcGIS, so we can't
begin to cover the topic, but we will examine a simple case of displaying a map
with some user-provided data points, and suggest books such as
Getting to
Know ArcGIS
(Ormsby, 2001) for a more in-depth description.
Example
Creating a Map Project in ArcGIS
Start the
ArcMap
application from
Start-
ArcMap
.
From the
ArcMap
dialog choose the
A new empty map
radio button.
>
All Programs-
>
ArgGIS-
>
Select the
Add Data
button
A file dialog will open, navigate to the ESRI-
USA folder. Using Ctrl-
Click to select multiple items, select COUNTIES.shp, LAKES.shp, Rivers.shp
>
ESRIDATA-
>
and STATES.shp, and then click
Add
. A map of the whole United States will
open and we'll need to zoom in on New England. In the tool palette
select the
Zoom In
tool , and then click-drag the mouse to select the
region you are interested in. You can do this multiple times until the correct
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