Introduction to GIS

Week 2 – Introduction to GIS

For week two assignment we learned about essential map elements and we learn how to use associated tools in ArcMap.  Some essential map elements are a title, scale bar, and north arrow. These items should always be part of your map. Some of the associated tools we learned about, were adding a new data frame to the layout area, we also learned how to clip unwanted data from a given area.  We also learned how to add an insert map. Insert map is a smaller map featured on the same page as the main map: it helps to focus your attention to a given area on your main map.

This was a good lab assignment. I have been using ArcMap at work for some time now. Most of what I know is from what I learned on my own and from several seminars I have attended.  Learning how to clip on wanted data will be a big help when I am making maps for work.  I am looking forward to further my knowledge about ArcMap and how to get more out of it. 

Overview of ArcGIS

Week 1 - ArcGIS Overview

For our first assignment we were given an overview ArcGIS from Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI). ArcGIS has many components, the two we will work with the most are ArcCatalog and ArcMap.  ArcCatalog is use to organize, manage and view the data you have.  ArcMap is where you use the data to start making your map by importing your data.  For this assignment we used shapefile: which are vector type layers made up of as many as 6 files.  ArcMap has two areas: data view and layout view.  Data view is the area where you import your data and where a lot of tools are, to help you display the data in different ways so you can understand it better by changing its symbols in size and color.  In data view we also used the attribute table which is where you can view the date and the information that’s part of it. Depending on the shapefile it can have a lot of information or very little. It generally looks like a spreadsheet with rows and columns and heading for the rows.

The layout view is the area that is use for making of the map for display or printing.  It’s like having a piece of paper in front of you and you put the information for the map in its palace you can add titles to your map, insert a north arrow, scale bar and a legend and change the background color of your map and add text to your map if needed.  For this assignment we were asked to map a simple map. I am sure by the end of this course they will have a lot more details.