Geographic and Attribute Data: Selection, Input, and Editing - Introducing Geographic Information Systems with ArcGIS - page 295

CHAPTER 5 STEP-BY-STEP

Geographic and
Attribute Data: Selection,
Input, and Editing

Open your Fast Facts File.

Open the Color Figures file.

You will want ArcCatalog to display file extensions and to indicate data set projections. Relevant
information on setting this up should be in your Fast Facts File—recorded from the early steps in Chapter
1. Also, for exercises in this chapter you will need 3D Analyst and Spatial Analyst.

Exercise 5-1 (Warm-Up)

Looking at Areal Representations of the Real World

The land of the Earth is partitioned into areas. Nature started this. First take a look at a Globe view of the
planet.

1. Start ArcCatalog. Hide ArcToolbox if it is present. Disconnect from all folders except for
IGIS-Arc, your personal workspace folder, and C:\. Click Folder Connections in the Catalog Tree.
Choose View > Refresh. You are going to be looking for Esri ArcGlobeData. The first place to
look might be

C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Desktop10.x\ArcGlobeData.

2. Expand ArcGlobeData. Click wsiearth.tif. Click the Preview tab. The geography preview doesn't
give you any hint that the world is spherical, so click Globe View in the Preview drop-down menu.
If necessary, click once on the black background that appears. You get a version of the Earth
that can only be described as neat, especially when you:

Rotate it by dragging the mouse cursor, and

❏

Zoom by holding the right mouse button down and dragging back and forth. 1

❏

1 If you have a “wheel mouse,” you can zoom with the wheel.