Analysis of GIS Data by Simple Examination - Introducing Geographic Information Systems with ArcGIS - page 398

2. Navigate to the map North_Islands_map3.mxd in
___IGIS-Arc_ YourInitials \Digitize&Transform.
Double-click the name to start ArcMap. Zoom in on the square island.
3. Because of your previous copying actions Houses, Power_lines, and Wells are feature classes in
___IGIS-Arc_ YourInitials \Digitize&Transform
\Islands.mdb\UTM_Zone_2
Add them as data. Show the wells as green circles of size five. Accept ArcMap's choice of
symbol for the power line. Change the color of the houses to black. Looking at the attribute
tables: How many houses are there? ________. How long is the power line? ________. How
many wells are there? ________.
4. Examine the attribute tables of houses and wells. Note that both are dull, as befits basic point
feature class tables.
5. Measure the diagonal distance across the island. Obviously, the distance from any feature to
any other feature cannot be greater than this number. Write it here. _____________ meters.
6. Use the search facility button to locate the Near (Analysis) tool. Type “near tool” (no quotes)
into the search box. You will get several groups, each of which consists of three lines of text,
which are links. You are interested in the group that starts off with Near (Analysis) (Tool). 8
First line: Near (Analysis) (Tool). If you hover the mouse cursor over the word Near you may get
a brief description of the tool. If you click the word Near the tool itself will start, displaying a
Near window. Click Near. Observe the window, then Cancel it.
Second line: Determines the distance from each feature . . . If you click this line you may get a
detailed description of the tool—basically a help file with an extensive discussion of the tool of
the tool.
Third line: toolboxes\system toolboxes\analysis tools.tbx . . . If you click this line you may get
response from the Catalog Tree. It will show you the path to the tool. Try clicking this line. What
is the path to the Near tool?
Toolboxes > ___________________________________________.
7. Right-click the tool and click Open. Show Help for the Near tool, if it is not already there. Click
Help within the Help panel. Expand and read the Usage Tips. Dismiss the ArcGIS Desktop
Help window.
8. For Input Features, click the drop-down menu arrow (since the layers are already represented in
ArcMap, they will appear) and choose Houses. For Near Features (which means those features
8 The effect of clicking on a link and hovering over a link seems to vary from one version 10 of the software to another.
Experiment to find out what your version does.