Some Concepts That Underpin GIS - Introducing Geographic Information Systems with ArcGIS - page 34

use ArcCatalog to rename and copy spatial data sets. You can use a part of ArcCatalog, called the Catalog
Tree, to place data into ArcMap.
You use ArcCatalog or ArcMap to access ArcToolbox, which provides immense geo-processing and
analysis capability. It has tools to do 3-D analysis, spatial analysis, and spatial statistical analysis, to
convert from one spatial data paradigm to another (vector to raster, and vice versa), and to convert
spatial data into myriad geographic projections.
These three packages are fundamental to ArcGIS, but you have probably noticed many other Arc Xxxxxxx
terms floating around. As a scalable product, ArcGIS desktop allows you to purchase what you need. The
different levels of capability are bundled into four different packages. In terms of increasing utility (and
cost) they are as follows:
ArcReader (free)
ArcView (as of version 10.1 of the software it is called “Basic”)
ArcEditor (“Standard”)
ArcInfo (“Advanced”)
Knowing the capabilities of each is not important for our immediate purposes. You should know that
some of these terms are recycled from earlier Esri product names. In particular, ArcView 10.x is a different
animal from ArcView 3.x. ArcView 10.x is a level of capability of ArcGIS Desktop; ArcView 3.x is an older,
but still supported and useful, independent software package.