Introduction to ArcCatalog

11 Introduction to ArcCatalog

Topics

What do we use ArcCatalog for and getting familiar with the ArcCataloginterface and with its main functions like map and (meta)databrowsing and data exploration

Introduction

In this exercise you will explore ArcCatalog and learn how it is used withinthe wider ArcGIS environment You will practice the most important functions only If necessary additional functions will be introduced later in the course First you will familiarize with the interface then with specific functions such as browsing and exploring data creating metadata etc Finally you will learn that ArcCatalog can be used as a gateway to ArcMap

Data necessary to complete this exercise can be found in this yearrsquos Blackboard course Principles of Geographic Information Systems under Assignments Copy the entire folder ldquoExerciserdquo to your personal directory

12 Starting ArcCatalogthe user interfaceBefore you start working with the data first have a look at the interface We assume that this is the first time that you use the software We will therefore briefly show the components of ArcCatalogrsquos desktop

Start ArcCatalog

1048713 StartProgramsArcGISArcCatalog (see Fig 11)

Fig 11 Open ArcCatalog fromdesktop

1048713 Maximize ArcCatalog to occupy the whole screen see Fig12

The ArcCatalog window

When ArcCatalog starts the Main Menu and the Standard Toolbar appear by default Toolbars are areas in the interface of ArcGIS with buttons that activate various features and functions Different ArcGIS applications may have application-specific toolbars A toolbar can be made visible (activated) or hidden (de-activated) The position of the toolbars within the interface is flexible they can float on the desktop and you can reposition them at any time Alternatively the toolbars can be docked to any side of the ArcCatalog window Other than the default toolbars can be activated to perform additional tasks using the menu View then toolbars But for this exercise all of the toolbars needed are already visibleIn ArcCatalog commands and functions can be accessed through

Menus contain commands (by topic) in a list Buttons and menu items execute a command when you click them Tools require interaction of the user and generally display a dialog before a command is executedCombo boxes let you choose options from a dropdown list Text boxes or edit boxes allows input of parameters

For the rest of the exercise you will work with the data that you have copied on your personal drive

Metadata toolbar Geography toolbar

Type of data sets Contents Preview and Metadata tabs

Menus

Catalog

Status bar

Location Tool bar

Standard Tool bar

13 Why use ArcCatalog

ArcCatalog is a software designed for two main purposes1048713 It allows you to manage access and explore existing geographic datairrespective of the format in which the data is stored or its location (on alocal disc or on the network) You can best compare this with WindowsExplorer but specifically tailored to Geo-spatial data

1048713 You can also change the structure of the data For instance you can createa new geodatabase load existing data into your geodatabase and delete or add fields in attribute tables This exercise mainly focuses on the exploratory part of ArcCatalog

Browse for maps and data

Like in Windows Explorer you can view the content of a folder or database inthe Contents tab and choose how to see the contents as small or large icons in a list with details or as snapshots showing the geographic content(Fig 13)

Explore the data

For a general understanding of the geographic extent of the data the thumbnail view will do But to examine the geographic data more closely the Preview tab allows a detailed display of the data Using the appropriate buttons from the Geography toolbar you can zoom pan the geography or identify(get a text description of) features in your data

Fig 13 lsquoSnapshotrsquo Preview ofvarious types of geographicdata which can be managedwith ArcCatalog

Alternatively you can switch the display from Geography to Table and viewthe attribute table associated with the geography

Fig14 Detailed Preview of the geographic data

View and create metadata

Metadata contains properties and documentation describing the data Properties are derived from the data source like data type (eg shapefile) andgeometry type (eg polygon) Documentation is additional information thathelps to understand origin and content eg title summary description ownership publication date language of the dataset date of metadata creation A popular definition of metadata is lsquodata about datarsquo

Fig 15 Preview of the attributes associated with the geographic data

Fig 16 Metadata describes the properties and documents thedata

ArcCatalog has a built-in metadata editor The metadata editor can be usedto store additional information or to create new metadata when no metadataexist

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

Once you have examined the data using ArcCatalog you may want to dosome analyses or create a map using ArcMap You can open ArcMap by1048713 double-clicking on an ArcMap document ArcMap documents can berecognized by the following icon and the extension mxd1048713 pressing the ArcMap button on the Standard toolbar

Manage data sources

ArcCatalog contains functionalities to manage and organize your data Management functions include deleting copying or renaming data sets To organize a well-ordered library of spatial data (either on your local hard drive or in the network environment) ArcCatalog includes functions such as creatingnew folders and new geo-databases

14 Basic functions of ArcCatalog

You will now use some basic functions to illustrate some of the functionalities

mentioned in the previous section

Browse for maps and data

To browse data you first have to establish a connection to the locationwhere the data is stored This location can be a local disk (C or D

drive) orsome network drive You were asked to copy the data from Blackboard

toyour personal directory - on x - so you have to establish a connection to your M drive

1048713 In the Standard toolbar (see Fig 12) find the Connect to Folder

button and click on it

1048713 In the Dialog Window navigate to the XExcercize see Fig 17

1048713 Click OK

fig 17 Connect to Folder dialog window

Notice that the E drive is now added in the Catalog tree

1048713 Click on the plus sign next to the icon of the XExercize in the Catalog tree to expand the tree one level and see its contents

1048713 Select the Exercise folder by clicking once on its icon You will see all the files datasets and subfolders stored under the selected folder

Letrsquos have a closer look at the content of the subfolders of the Exercise

Browse for data

1048713 Continue to expand the tree double-click on the icons o f ExercisegtIndia_sd

Notice that the content in the folder India is displayed with a different icon in the Contents tab This is because lsquoIndiamdbrsquo is a Personal Geodatabase

Explore the contents of the Personal Geodatabase

Double click on the icon of the lsquoIndiamdbrsquo Personal Geodatabase

The layers in the Personal Geodatabase are now displayed Layers within aPersonal Geodatabase are called Feature Classes

Explore the buttons from the Standard toolbar Which button allows you tofind out the type of these data

Answer

Notice that if you leave the mouse cursor on a button for a few seconds a tool tip with the name of the button will appear

Encircle the data type of each of the following feature classes

Hint analyse the feature class properties

Buildings Points - Lines ndash Polygons

India_ds Points ndash Lines - Polygons

india_placename Points

india_st Points - Lines ndash Polygons

railways Points - Lines ndash Polygons

india_roads Points - Lines ndash Polygons

waterways Points - Lines ndash Polygons

To learn more about the data types refer to the Help menu lsquoArcGIS DesktopHelprsquo on the Contents tab Data management with ArcCatalog Gettingstarted with ArcCatalog Whatrsquos in the Catalog

In the Standard toolbar one of the view options is Thumbnails A thumbnail is a snapshot of the geography of a file

Change the view to Thumbnails Locate the appropriate button by moving the mouse over each button of the Standard toolbar

Wait for the tool tip that shows

Make sure that you have the Contents tab selected (see Fig 13)

Although the view is set to thumbnails you see that only some featureclasses are displayed as thumbnails while the others are simply displayedas large icons This is because thumbnails are not created automatically but you need to specifically create them

Create Thumbnail

In the Contents tab select a Feature Class without thumbnail Select the Preview tab

ArcCatalog displays a preview of the geography of the selected Feature Class This preview can now be used to create a snapshot (Thumbnail)

From the Geography toolbar select Create Thumbnail and click once

Next return to the Contents tab and notice the icon has changed into a small image of the preview

Convert all remaining icons in the sub-subfolder map elements into Thumbnails

Explore the data

You have learnt to browse data from different sources In the next sectionyou will explore the data by displaying both its geography and its attributes

Exploring Geographic data

Most GIS data sets have a geographic and a tabular component ArcCatalogallows you to preview either of them you can toggle between them using the dropdown list at the bottom of the Preview window

Use the Preview tab

Fig 18 Result of producing the Thumbnails within the Contentstab

Fig 19 Toggle the contents of the Preview window

Select the file India_ boundary Feature Class from the Catalog tree

Select the Preview tab

What you see now in the preview is a vector dataset with the boundaries ofindia_sd of the You can use the Geography toolbar to explore the geographic data (Fig 110)

The Zoom In Out buttons allow you to control the level of detail or the extent of the area that is displayed in the preview window

Select an area of interest

Click the Zoom In button from the Geography toolbar

Click and drag a box over your area of interest then release the mouse The area you have defined will now enlarge to occupy the entire display area of the Preview window

Fig 110 The buttons of the Geographic toolbar

You have now enlarged the central part of the Feature Class the part that falls outside the Preview window it is not displayed To maintain the same scale and see the data beyond the display select the Pan button The Pan button allows you to drag the display in any direction

Fig 111 Defining the geographicarea to enlarge

Fig 112 Preview of the geographyat an enlarged scale

Click and drag a box to define your area of interest

The selected area at an enlarge scale

Click on Zoom

Use Pan button

Select the Pan button from the Geographic Toolbar

Click and hold the mouse button at any point in the display window

Move the mouse and notice that the display will follow the movements of the mouse

Release the mouse and the display will refresh

Practice the Pan button to move around the data maintaining the same visualization scale

When you are finish exploring the data at a selected zoom level the Full Extent button allows you to return to the full extent of the feature class

Use Full extent button

Click the Full Extent button and notice that the whole area is now

displayed

The Identify button allows you to retrieve attribute information of a feature -here the name of a neighborhood - if you point at it with the mouse

Click inside theneighborhoodfor which youwant the to

All the attributesof the selectedneighborhoodare displayed in aseparate

Fig 113 Process to identify theattributes of a feature

Use the Identify button

Click the Identify button

Click inside one of the neighborhoods in the india_sd area

Study the Identify Results window Yoursquoll notice that one of the attributes displayed is the name of the india_sd

You can click inside other neighborhoods to view their attributes

If you are finished viewing the attributes in this way close the

Identify results window (click on the little cross in the top right corner)

Exploring Tabular data

Now look at the attribute table of the india_sd Feature Class

Preview tables

Change the dropdown list in the Preview to Table (Fig 15 19)

There are several options that allow you to personalize the display of the tablein the preview

Change how tables look

If you want to change the appearance of the table (eg to improve the readabilityof the text) you can change the default settings Eg you may highlighta selection in lsquodark greenrsquo in stead of the default lsquopale bluersquo and youmay set the font size to 10pt

Change default settings

Click on the heading of one of the columns Notice that the whole column turns from white to pale blue

From the menu Tools select Options

A tabbed dialog window appears Select the tab Tables

Change the default settings to match the settings indicated above

Examine the visual result in the table

Change the width of a column

Depending on the font size and length of records some of the informationmay be hidden andor not readable To increase readability you may want to change the width of the columns

Change width of a column

Position the mouse over the extreme right edge of the column

heading DST_ID (notice the pointer of the cursor changes to )

Click here to selectthe color you wantto use to highlightselections

Click here to typethe new font size

Fig 114 Dialog window to setArcCatalog options

Double-click with the left mouse button The column width will

now be adjusted to the width of the longest entry in that column

Alternatively click and drag the columnrsquos edge to an acceptable width

Release the mouse

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session the default column width will be restored

Change the position of a column

Sometimes tables contain many columns In order to work efficient you maywant to rearrange the columns and to position the ones you need next to each other

Reposition a column

Click the column heading DST_ID (notice that the whole column

changes to the default color you have just selected)

Click the column again and hold down the mouse button

Drag the column heading to the location between the columns SHAPE and OBJECTID (notice a red line indicates the new location of the column ID_)

Release the mouse button

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session the columns will resume their default positions

Freeze a column

Sometimes you may want to compare the values in one column with the values

in the another columns This can be facilitated by lsquofreezingrsquo them

FreezeUnfreeze Columns

Right-click on the column heading DISTRICT

Click FreezeUnfreeze Column

Scroll horizontally by moving the horizontal slider to the right Notice that the column NAME1_ remains visible

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session all columns will be automatically unfrozen

Sorting columns

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

Sort Records

Right-click the column DISTRICT

In the drop-down list click Sort Ascending

Scroll down the list and notice that the numbers increase

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session records will resume their default order

Calculate statistics

You can display the basic statistics of numeric fields in an attribute table

Calculate statistics

Right-click the heading AREA_

In the drop-down list select the option Statistics

The Statistics dialog box pops up and displays all information about the values in the column AREA_

Adding a column

It is possible to add a column in the attribute table of a geodata layer and todefine its properties Notice however that ArcCatalog will not allow you toenter andor modify the data in the records You will see the editing processlater in exercise 2 when dealing with ArcMap functions

Add a field to a table

Click the button Options at the bottom of the Preview window and click Add Field See Fig 115

In the dialog window of Add Field fill in the name of the new column Leave the rest of the properties as they are (we will treat this later)

Click OK

View and editing metadata

Metadata describes data in a standardized way Metadata are used tosearch for and exchange data Examples of metadata are file name dataformat data quality data accuracy reference system ownership availability creation date update status description of attribute names etc

By looking at the metadata of a data set you should be able to decide if theset can be used for your application Eg do you need to adapt data to integrate it into your application (eg change its projection) can you access the data who to contact to get it are there cost involved etc

Fig 115 Preview window ndash table mode

There are a several standards for metadata Standards provide commonterminology and definitions for the documentation of digital data For geospatial data the two main standards are defined by

the International Organization for Standardizations (ISO) with the document

19115 ldquoGeographic Information ndash Metadatardquothe Federal Geographic Data Committees (FGDC) of the United States

It is very important to study the metadata before you use geospatial data obtained

from somebody else and to accurately describe the metadata for the geospatial data that

you produce

Have a look at the metadata of the Feature Class india_dsExplore metadata

In the Catalog tree select india_ds

In the view area click the Metadata tab to visualize the metadata information window

Scroll through the metadata and study itsrsquo contents

As explained in section 13 metadata consist of properties and documentationProperties are derived from the data itself and documentation is additionaldescriptive information generally supplied by the data creator But anyuser with writing access can change or add content to the metadata

ArcCatalog offers a number of ways to display the metadata using differentlsquoStylesheetsrsquo Stylesheets define the way in which the metadata is displayed By default ArcCatalog displays metadata using the FGDC ESRI stylesheet

Changing stylesheets

Select any of the stylesheets

Notice the changes in the format of the metadata

Editing metadata

You can create the metadata for a new data set or change existing metadata

Fig 116 Metadata windowndash Default Style sheet

Fig 117 Choosing a Metadata Stylesheet

by using ArcCatalogrsquos metadata editor For example change the metadataof the india_ds Feature Class The data set was produced by -and obtained from - IIRS India You will add informationabout the IIRS to give them the credits they deserve and include them as distributor The address details are as follows

Organisation Indian Institute of Remote SensingAddress Kalidas RoadDehradunProvince UtteranchalPostal code India

Edit metadata

Click the button Edit metadata in the Metadata toolbar

A dialog window opens Notice that a number of fields have the word ldquoREQUIREDrdquo(IN RED) and a brief description of the type of information expectedin that field The red font is meant to emphasize that these fields arepart of the minimum information required by the metadata standard For thetime being add some of the required data Follow the numerical sequenceas indicated in Fig 118 and 119

First select Distribution at the top of the dialog window (Fig 118)

Next click on the Distribution tab then click on the Detailshellip

button 3 This will open another dialog window

21

1

2

Select the Organization 4 option and click on the Address 5 tab

Enter name 6 and address of the organization 7 in the appropriate

fields

Click OK and Save

3

4

6

7

5

Fig 118 Example of steps to edit metadata

Fig 119 Editing contactinformation with the Arc-

View the updated information in the metadata window Note that some part of the stylesheet will not include all the metadata To check the updated information select the FGDC stylesheet and click on the Distribution Information link

Manage data sources

In ArcCatalog you can manage your data in a similar way as in Windows ExplorerYou can copy move delete and rename any item that appears in the Catalog tree or in the Contents window As example create a new folder and copy some existing data into it

Create a new folder

In the Catalog tree select your XExercise folder

Right click to open the context menu

Select New and click Folder

Fig 120 Creating a new folder with ArcCatalogArc-Catalog metadata editor

Type a new name for the folder you have just created eg

lsquoMy_folderrsquo

Copy the Personal Geodatabase ldquoLarge_enschedemdbrdquo to the

new folder

Make sure that none of the Feature Classes is active You should seenothing displayed in the Contents the Preview and the Metadata windowsIf any of the Feature Classes is active ArcCatalog locks the PersonalGeodatabase and returns an error when you try to copy itIt is easy to manage files and folders in ArcCatalog You can also create(empty) geo-spatial data sets You will learn this later in the course together with filling these data sets with new data through ArcMap

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

You have now explored some functions of ArcCatalog and seen that its mainpurpose is data browsing and basic data management If you want to editgeo-spatial data analyse it or create maps you need another application of the ArcGIS suite ArcMap Most of the exercises that follow will be about the basics of geoinformation processing with ArcMap

Access ArcMap

From the Standard toolbar select the ArcMap Icon

When ArcMap opens you will be prompted to select one of the followingan empty map a new template or an existing mapYou will do this in the next exercise So can stop here and exit ArcMap

In the ArcMap dialog window ignore the different options and

click OK From the File menu select Exit

11 Introduction to ArcCatalog

Topics

What do we use ArcCatalog for and getting familiar with the ArcCataloginterface and with its main functions like map and (meta)databrowsing and data exploration

Introduction

In this exercise you will explore ArcCatalog and learn how it is used withinthe wider ArcGIS environment You will practice the most important functions only If necessary additional functions will be introduced later in the course First you will familiarize with the interface then with specific functions such as browsing and exploring data creating metadata etc Finally you will learn that ArcCatalog can be used as a gateway to ArcMap

Data necessary to complete this exercise can be found in this yearrsquos Blackboard course Principles of Geographic Information Systems under Assignments Copy the entire folder ldquoExerciserdquo to your personal directory

12 Starting ArcCatalogthe user interfaceBefore you start working with the data first have a look at the interface We assume that this is the first time that you use the software We will therefore briefly show the components of ArcCatalogrsquos desktop

Start ArcCatalog

1048713 StartProgramsArcGISArcCatalog (see Fig 11)

Fig 11 Open ArcCatalog fromdesktop

1048713 Maximize ArcCatalog to occupy the whole screen see Fig12

The ArcCatalog window

When ArcCatalog starts the Main Menu and the Standard Toolbar appear by default Toolbars are areas in the interface of ArcGIS with buttons that activate various features and functions Different ArcGIS applications may have application-specific toolbars A toolbar can be made visible (activated) or hidden (de-activated) The position of the toolbars within the interface is flexible they can float on the desktop and you can reposition them at any time Alternatively the toolbars can be docked to any side of the ArcCatalog window Other than the default toolbars can be activated to perform additional tasks using the menu View then toolbars But for this exercise all of the toolbars needed are already visibleIn ArcCatalog commands and functions can be accessed through

Menus contain commands (by topic) in a list Buttons and menu items execute a command when you click them Tools require interaction of the user and generally display a dialog before a command is executedCombo boxes let you choose options from a dropdown list Text boxes or edit boxes allows input of parameters

For the rest of the exercise you will work with the data that you have copied on your personal drive

Metadata toolbar Geography toolbar

Type of data sets Contents Preview and Metadata tabs

Menus

Catalog

Status bar

Location Tool bar

Standard Tool bar

13 Why use ArcCatalog

ArcCatalog is a software designed for two main purposes1048713 It allows you to manage access and explore existing geographic datairrespective of the format in which the data is stored or its location (on alocal disc or on the network) You can best compare this with WindowsExplorer but specifically tailored to Geo-spatial data

1048713 You can also change the structure of the data For instance you can createa new geodatabase load existing data into your geodatabase and delete or add fields in attribute tables This exercise mainly focuses on the exploratory part of ArcCatalog

Browse for maps and data

Like in Windows Explorer you can view the content of a folder or database inthe Contents tab and choose how to see the contents as small or large icons in a list with details or as snapshots showing the geographic content(Fig 13)

Explore the data

For a general understanding of the geographic extent of the data the thumbnail view will do But to examine the geographic data more closely the Preview tab allows a detailed display of the data Using the appropriate buttons from the Geography toolbar you can zoom pan the geography or identify(get a text description of) features in your data

Fig 13 lsquoSnapshotrsquo Preview ofvarious types of geographicdata which can be managedwith ArcCatalog

Alternatively you can switch the display from Geography to Table and viewthe attribute table associated with the geography

Fig14 Detailed Preview of the geographic data

View and create metadata

Metadata contains properties and documentation describing the data Properties are derived from the data source like data type (eg shapefile) andgeometry type (eg polygon) Documentation is additional information thathelps to understand origin and content eg title summary description ownership publication date language of the dataset date of metadata creation A popular definition of metadata is lsquodata about datarsquo

Fig 15 Preview of the attributes associated with the geographic data

Fig 16 Metadata describes the properties and documents thedata

ArcCatalog has a built-in metadata editor The metadata editor can be usedto store additional information or to create new metadata when no metadataexist

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

Once you have examined the data using ArcCatalog you may want to dosome analyses or create a map using ArcMap You can open ArcMap by1048713 double-clicking on an ArcMap document ArcMap documents can berecognized by the following icon and the extension mxd1048713 pressing the ArcMap button on the Standard toolbar

Manage data sources

ArcCatalog contains functionalities to manage and organize your data Management functions include deleting copying or renaming data sets To organize a well-ordered library of spatial data (either on your local hard drive or in the network environment) ArcCatalog includes functions such as creatingnew folders and new geo-databases

14 Basic functions of ArcCatalog

You will now use some basic functions to illustrate some of the functionalities

mentioned in the previous section

Browse for maps and data

To browse data you first have to establish a connection to the locationwhere the data is stored This location can be a local disk (C or D

drive) orsome network drive You were asked to copy the data from Blackboard

toyour personal directory - on x - so you have to establish a connection to your M drive

1048713 In the Standard toolbar (see Fig 12) find the Connect to Folder

button and click on it

1048713 In the Dialog Window navigate to the XExcercize see Fig 17

1048713 Click OK

fig 17 Connect to Folder dialog window

Notice that the E drive is now added in the Catalog tree

1048713 Click on the plus sign next to the icon of the XExercize in the Catalog tree to expand the tree one level and see its contents

1048713 Select the Exercise folder by clicking once on its icon You will see all the files datasets and subfolders stored under the selected folder

Letrsquos have a closer look at the content of the subfolders of the Exercise

Browse for data

1048713 Continue to expand the tree double-click on the icons o f ExercisegtIndia_sd

Notice that the content in the folder India is displayed with a different icon in the Contents tab This is because lsquoIndiamdbrsquo is a Personal Geodatabase

Explore the contents of the Personal Geodatabase

Double click on the icon of the lsquoIndiamdbrsquo Personal Geodatabase

The layers in the Personal Geodatabase are now displayed Layers within aPersonal Geodatabase are called Feature Classes

Explore the buttons from the Standard toolbar Which button allows you tofind out the type of these data

Answer

Notice that if you leave the mouse cursor on a button for a few seconds a tool tip with the name of the button will appear

Encircle the data type of each of the following feature classes

Hint analyse the feature class properties

Buildings Points - Lines ndash Polygons

India_ds Points ndash Lines - Polygons

india_placename Points

india_st Points - Lines ndash Polygons

railways Points - Lines ndash Polygons

india_roads Points - Lines ndash Polygons

waterways Points - Lines ndash Polygons

To learn more about the data types refer to the Help menu lsquoArcGIS DesktopHelprsquo on the Contents tab Data management with ArcCatalog Gettingstarted with ArcCatalog Whatrsquos in the Catalog

In the Standard toolbar one of the view options is Thumbnails A thumbnail is a snapshot of the geography of a file

Change the view to Thumbnails Locate the appropriate button by moving the mouse over each button of the Standard toolbar

Wait for the tool tip that shows

Make sure that you have the Contents tab selected (see Fig 13)

Although the view is set to thumbnails you see that only some featureclasses are displayed as thumbnails while the others are simply displayedas large icons This is because thumbnails are not created automatically but you need to specifically create them

Create Thumbnail

In the Contents tab select a Feature Class without thumbnail Select the Preview tab

ArcCatalog displays a preview of the geography of the selected Feature Class This preview can now be used to create a snapshot (Thumbnail)

From the Geography toolbar select Create Thumbnail and click once

Next return to the Contents tab and notice the icon has changed into a small image of the preview

Convert all remaining icons in the sub-subfolder map elements into Thumbnails

Explore the data

You have learnt to browse data from different sources In the next sectionyou will explore the data by displaying both its geography and its attributes

Exploring Geographic data

Most GIS data sets have a geographic and a tabular component ArcCatalogallows you to preview either of them you can toggle between them using the dropdown list at the bottom of the Preview window

Use the Preview tab

Fig 18 Result of producing the Thumbnails within the Contentstab

Fig 19 Toggle the contents of the Preview window

Select the file India_ boundary Feature Class from the Catalog tree

Select the Preview tab

What you see now in the preview is a vector dataset with the boundaries ofindia_sd of the You can use the Geography toolbar to explore the geographic data (Fig 110)

The Zoom In Out buttons allow you to control the level of detail or the extent of the area that is displayed in the preview window

Select an area of interest

Click the Zoom In button from the Geography toolbar

Click and drag a box over your area of interest then release the mouse The area you have defined will now enlarge to occupy the entire display area of the Preview window

Fig 110 The buttons of the Geographic toolbar

You have now enlarged the central part of the Feature Class the part that falls outside the Preview window it is not displayed To maintain the same scale and see the data beyond the display select the Pan button The Pan button allows you to drag the display in any direction

Fig 111 Defining the geographicarea to enlarge

Fig 112 Preview of the geographyat an enlarged scale

Click and drag a box to define your area of interest

The selected area at an enlarge scale

Click on Zoom

Use Pan button

Select the Pan button from the Geographic Toolbar

Click and hold the mouse button at any point in the display window

Move the mouse and notice that the display will follow the movements of the mouse

Release the mouse and the display will refresh

Practice the Pan button to move around the data maintaining the same visualization scale

When you are finish exploring the data at a selected zoom level the Full Extent button allows you to return to the full extent of the feature class

Use Full extent button

Click the Full Extent button and notice that the whole area is now

displayed

The Identify button allows you to retrieve attribute information of a feature -here the name of a neighborhood - if you point at it with the mouse

Click inside theneighborhoodfor which youwant the to

All the attributesof the selectedneighborhoodare displayed in aseparate

Fig 113 Process to identify theattributes of a feature

Use the Identify button

Click the Identify button

Click inside one of the neighborhoods in the india_sd area

Study the Identify Results window Yoursquoll notice that one of the attributes displayed is the name of the india_sd

You can click inside other neighborhoods to view their attributes

If you are finished viewing the attributes in this way close the

Identify results window (click on the little cross in the top right corner)

Exploring Tabular data

Now look at the attribute table of the india_sd Feature Class

Preview tables

Change the dropdown list in the Preview to Table (Fig 15 19)

There are several options that allow you to personalize the display of the tablein the preview

Change how tables look

If you want to change the appearance of the table (eg to improve the readabilityof the text) you can change the default settings Eg you may highlighta selection in lsquodark greenrsquo in stead of the default lsquopale bluersquo and youmay set the font size to 10pt

Change default settings

Click on the heading of one of the columns Notice that the whole column turns from white to pale blue

From the menu Tools select Options

A tabbed dialog window appears Select the tab Tables

Change the default settings to match the settings indicated above

Examine the visual result in the table

Change the width of a column

Depending on the font size and length of records some of the informationmay be hidden andor not readable To increase readability you may want to change the width of the columns

Change width of a column

Position the mouse over the extreme right edge of the column

heading DST_ID (notice the pointer of the cursor changes to )

Click here to selectthe color you wantto use to highlightselections

Click here to typethe new font size

Fig 114 Dialog window to setArcCatalog options

Double-click with the left mouse button The column width will

now be adjusted to the width of the longest entry in that column

Alternatively click and drag the columnrsquos edge to an acceptable width

Release the mouse

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session the default column width will be restored

Change the position of a column

Sometimes tables contain many columns In order to work efficient you maywant to rearrange the columns and to position the ones you need next to each other

Reposition a column

Click the column heading DST_ID (notice that the whole column

changes to the default color you have just selected)

Click the column again and hold down the mouse button

Drag the column heading to the location between the columns SHAPE and OBJECTID (notice a red line indicates the new location of the column ID_)

Release the mouse button

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session the columns will resume their default positions

Freeze a column

Sometimes you may want to compare the values in one column with the values

in the another columns This can be facilitated by lsquofreezingrsquo them

FreezeUnfreeze Columns

Right-click on the column heading DISTRICT

Click FreezeUnfreeze Column

Scroll horizontally by moving the horizontal slider to the right Notice that the column NAME1_ remains visible

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session all columns will be automatically unfrozen

Sorting columns

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

Sort Records

Right-click the column DISTRICT

In the drop-down list click Sort Ascending

Scroll down the list and notice that the numbers increase

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session records will resume their default order

Calculate statistics

You can display the basic statistics of numeric fields in an attribute table

Calculate statistics

Right-click the heading AREA_

In the drop-down list select the option Statistics

The Statistics dialog box pops up and displays all information about the values in the column AREA_

Adding a column

It is possible to add a column in the attribute table of a geodata layer and todefine its properties Notice however that ArcCatalog will not allow you toenter andor modify the data in the records You will see the editing processlater in exercise 2 when dealing with ArcMap functions

Add a field to a table

Click the button Options at the bottom of the Preview window and click Add Field See Fig 115

In the dialog window of Add Field fill in the name of the new column Leave the rest of the properties as they are (we will treat this later)

Click OK

View and editing metadata

Metadata describes data in a standardized way Metadata are used tosearch for and exchange data Examples of metadata are file name dataformat data quality data accuracy reference system ownership availability creation date update status description of attribute names etc

By looking at the metadata of a data set you should be able to decide if theset can be used for your application Eg do you need to adapt data to integrate it into your application (eg change its projection) can you access the data who to contact to get it are there cost involved etc

Fig 115 Preview window ndash table mode

There are a several standards for metadata Standards provide commonterminology and definitions for the documentation of digital data For geospatial data the two main standards are defined by

the International Organization for Standardizations (ISO) with the document

19115 ldquoGeographic Information ndash Metadatardquothe Federal Geographic Data Committees (FGDC) of the United States

It is very important to study the metadata before you use geospatial data obtained

from somebody else and to accurately describe the metadata for the geospatial data that

you produce

Have a look at the metadata of the Feature Class india_dsExplore metadata

In the Catalog tree select india_ds

In the view area click the Metadata tab to visualize the metadata information window

Scroll through the metadata and study itsrsquo contents

As explained in section 13 metadata consist of properties and documentationProperties are derived from the data itself and documentation is additionaldescriptive information generally supplied by the data creator But anyuser with writing access can change or add content to the metadata

ArcCatalog offers a number of ways to display the metadata using differentlsquoStylesheetsrsquo Stylesheets define the way in which the metadata is displayed By default ArcCatalog displays metadata using the FGDC ESRI stylesheet

Changing stylesheets

Select any of the stylesheets

Notice the changes in the format of the metadata

Editing metadata

You can create the metadata for a new data set or change existing metadata

Fig 116 Metadata windowndash Default Style sheet

Fig 117 Choosing a Metadata Stylesheet

by using ArcCatalogrsquos metadata editor For example change the metadataof the india_ds Feature Class The data set was produced by -and obtained from - IIRS India You will add informationabout the IIRS to give them the credits they deserve and include them as distributor The address details are as follows

Organisation Indian Institute of Remote SensingAddress Kalidas RoadDehradunProvince UtteranchalPostal code India

Edit metadata

Click the button Edit metadata in the Metadata toolbar

A dialog window opens Notice that a number of fields have the word ldquoREQUIREDrdquo(IN RED) and a brief description of the type of information expectedin that field The red font is meant to emphasize that these fields arepart of the minimum information required by the metadata standard For thetime being add some of the required data Follow the numerical sequenceas indicated in Fig 118 and 119

First select Distribution at the top of the dialog window (Fig 118)

Next click on the Distribution tab then click on the Detailshellip

button 3 This will open another dialog window

21

1

2

Select the Organization 4 option and click on the Address 5 tab

Enter name 6 and address of the organization 7 in the appropriate

fields

Click OK and Save

3

4

6

7

5

Fig 118 Example of steps to edit metadata

Fig 119 Editing contactinformation with the Arc-

View the updated information in the metadata window Note that some part of the stylesheet will not include all the metadata To check the updated information select the FGDC stylesheet and click on the Distribution Information link

Manage data sources

In ArcCatalog you can manage your data in a similar way as in Windows ExplorerYou can copy move delete and rename any item that appears in the Catalog tree or in the Contents window As example create a new folder and copy some existing data into it

Create a new folder

In the Catalog tree select your XExercise folder

Right click to open the context menu

Select New and click Folder

Fig 120 Creating a new folder with ArcCatalogArc-Catalog metadata editor

Type a new name for the folder you have just created eg

lsquoMy_folderrsquo

Copy the Personal Geodatabase ldquoLarge_enschedemdbrdquo to the

new folder

Make sure that none of the Feature Classes is active You should seenothing displayed in the Contents the Preview and the Metadata windowsIf any of the Feature Classes is active ArcCatalog locks the PersonalGeodatabase and returns an error when you try to copy itIt is easy to manage files and folders in ArcCatalog You can also create(empty) geo-spatial data sets You will learn this later in the course together with filling these data sets with new data through ArcMap

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

You have now explored some functions of ArcCatalog and seen that its mainpurpose is data browsing and basic data management If you want to editgeo-spatial data analyse it or create maps you need another application of the ArcGIS suite ArcMap Most of the exercises that follow will be about the basics of geoinformation processing with ArcMap

Access ArcMap

From the Standard toolbar select the ArcMap Icon

When ArcMap opens you will be prompted to select one of the followingan empty map a new template or an existing mapYou will do this in the next exercise So can stop here and exit ArcMap

In the ArcMap dialog window ignore the different options and

click OK From the File menu select Exit

Fig 11 Open ArcCatalog fromdesktop

1048713 Maximize ArcCatalog to occupy the whole screen see Fig12

The ArcCatalog window

When ArcCatalog starts the Main Menu and the Standard Toolbar appear by default Toolbars are areas in the interface of ArcGIS with buttons that activate various features and functions Different ArcGIS applications may have application-specific toolbars A toolbar can be made visible (activated) or hidden (de-activated) The position of the toolbars within the interface is flexible they can float on the desktop and you can reposition them at any time Alternatively the toolbars can be docked to any side of the ArcCatalog window Other than the default toolbars can be activated to perform additional tasks using the menu View then toolbars But for this exercise all of the toolbars needed are already visibleIn ArcCatalog commands and functions can be accessed through

Menus contain commands (by topic) in a list Buttons and menu items execute a command when you click them Tools require interaction of the user and generally display a dialog before a command is executedCombo boxes let you choose options from a dropdown list Text boxes or edit boxes allows input of parameters

For the rest of the exercise you will work with the data that you have copied on your personal drive

Metadata toolbar Geography toolbar

Type of data sets Contents Preview and Metadata tabs

Menus

Catalog

Status bar

Location Tool bar

Standard Tool bar

13 Why use ArcCatalog

ArcCatalog is a software designed for two main purposes1048713 It allows you to manage access and explore existing geographic datairrespective of the format in which the data is stored or its location (on alocal disc or on the network) You can best compare this with WindowsExplorer but specifically tailored to Geo-spatial data

1048713 You can also change the structure of the data For instance you can createa new geodatabase load existing data into your geodatabase and delete or add fields in attribute tables This exercise mainly focuses on the exploratory part of ArcCatalog

Browse for maps and data

Like in Windows Explorer you can view the content of a folder or database inthe Contents tab and choose how to see the contents as small or large icons in a list with details or as snapshots showing the geographic content(Fig 13)

Explore the data

For a general understanding of the geographic extent of the data the thumbnail view will do But to examine the geographic data more closely the Preview tab allows a detailed display of the data Using the appropriate buttons from the Geography toolbar you can zoom pan the geography or identify(get a text description of) features in your data

Fig 13 lsquoSnapshotrsquo Preview ofvarious types of geographicdata which can be managedwith ArcCatalog

Alternatively you can switch the display from Geography to Table and viewthe attribute table associated with the geography

Fig14 Detailed Preview of the geographic data

View and create metadata

Metadata contains properties and documentation describing the data Properties are derived from the data source like data type (eg shapefile) andgeometry type (eg polygon) Documentation is additional information thathelps to understand origin and content eg title summary description ownership publication date language of the dataset date of metadata creation A popular definition of metadata is lsquodata about datarsquo

Fig 15 Preview of the attributes associated with the geographic data

Fig 16 Metadata describes the properties and documents thedata

ArcCatalog has a built-in metadata editor The metadata editor can be usedto store additional information or to create new metadata when no metadataexist

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

Once you have examined the data using ArcCatalog you may want to dosome analyses or create a map using ArcMap You can open ArcMap by1048713 double-clicking on an ArcMap document ArcMap documents can berecognized by the following icon and the extension mxd1048713 pressing the ArcMap button on the Standard toolbar

Manage data sources

ArcCatalog contains functionalities to manage and organize your data Management functions include deleting copying or renaming data sets To organize a well-ordered library of spatial data (either on your local hard drive or in the network environment) ArcCatalog includes functions such as creatingnew folders and new geo-databases

14 Basic functions of ArcCatalog

You will now use some basic functions to illustrate some of the functionalities

mentioned in the previous section

Browse for maps and data

To browse data you first have to establish a connection to the locationwhere the data is stored This location can be a local disk (C or D

drive) orsome network drive You were asked to copy the data from Blackboard

toyour personal directory - on x - so you have to establish a connection to your M drive

1048713 In the Standard toolbar (see Fig 12) find the Connect to Folder

button and click on it

1048713 In the Dialog Window navigate to the XExcercize see Fig 17

1048713 Click OK

fig 17 Connect to Folder dialog window

Notice that the E drive is now added in the Catalog tree

1048713 Click on the plus sign next to the icon of the XExercize in the Catalog tree to expand the tree one level and see its contents

1048713 Select the Exercise folder by clicking once on its icon You will see all the files datasets and subfolders stored under the selected folder

Letrsquos have a closer look at the content of the subfolders of the Exercise

Browse for data

1048713 Continue to expand the tree double-click on the icons o f ExercisegtIndia_sd

Notice that the content in the folder India is displayed with a different icon in the Contents tab This is because lsquoIndiamdbrsquo is a Personal Geodatabase

Explore the contents of the Personal Geodatabase

Double click on the icon of the lsquoIndiamdbrsquo Personal Geodatabase

The layers in the Personal Geodatabase are now displayed Layers within aPersonal Geodatabase are called Feature Classes

Explore the buttons from the Standard toolbar Which button allows you tofind out the type of these data

Answer

Notice that if you leave the mouse cursor on a button for a few seconds a tool tip with the name of the button will appear

Encircle the data type of each of the following feature classes

Hint analyse the feature class properties

Buildings Points - Lines ndash Polygons

India_ds Points ndash Lines - Polygons

india_placename Points

india_st Points - Lines ndash Polygons

railways Points - Lines ndash Polygons

india_roads Points - Lines ndash Polygons

waterways Points - Lines ndash Polygons

To learn more about the data types refer to the Help menu lsquoArcGIS DesktopHelprsquo on the Contents tab Data management with ArcCatalog Gettingstarted with ArcCatalog Whatrsquos in the Catalog

In the Standard toolbar one of the view options is Thumbnails A thumbnail is a snapshot of the geography of a file

Change the view to Thumbnails Locate the appropriate button by moving the mouse over each button of the Standard toolbar

Wait for the tool tip that shows

Make sure that you have the Contents tab selected (see Fig 13)

Although the view is set to thumbnails you see that only some featureclasses are displayed as thumbnails while the others are simply displayedas large icons This is because thumbnails are not created automatically but you need to specifically create them

Create Thumbnail

In the Contents tab select a Feature Class without thumbnail Select the Preview tab

ArcCatalog displays a preview of the geography of the selected Feature Class This preview can now be used to create a snapshot (Thumbnail)

From the Geography toolbar select Create Thumbnail and click once

Next return to the Contents tab and notice the icon has changed into a small image of the preview

Convert all remaining icons in the sub-subfolder map elements into Thumbnails

Explore the data

You have learnt to browse data from different sources In the next sectionyou will explore the data by displaying both its geography and its attributes

Exploring Geographic data

Most GIS data sets have a geographic and a tabular component ArcCatalogallows you to preview either of them you can toggle between them using the dropdown list at the bottom of the Preview window

Use the Preview tab

Fig 18 Result of producing the Thumbnails within the Contentstab

Fig 19 Toggle the contents of the Preview window

Select the file India_ boundary Feature Class from the Catalog tree

Select the Preview tab

What you see now in the preview is a vector dataset with the boundaries ofindia_sd of the You can use the Geography toolbar to explore the geographic data (Fig 110)

The Zoom In Out buttons allow you to control the level of detail or the extent of the area that is displayed in the preview window

Select an area of interest

Click the Zoom In button from the Geography toolbar

Click and drag a box over your area of interest then release the mouse The area you have defined will now enlarge to occupy the entire display area of the Preview window

Fig 110 The buttons of the Geographic toolbar

You have now enlarged the central part of the Feature Class the part that falls outside the Preview window it is not displayed To maintain the same scale and see the data beyond the display select the Pan button The Pan button allows you to drag the display in any direction

Fig 111 Defining the geographicarea to enlarge

Fig 112 Preview of the geographyat an enlarged scale

Click and drag a box to define your area of interest

The selected area at an enlarge scale

Click on Zoom

Use Pan button

Select the Pan button from the Geographic Toolbar

Click and hold the mouse button at any point in the display window

Move the mouse and notice that the display will follow the movements of the mouse

Release the mouse and the display will refresh

Practice the Pan button to move around the data maintaining the same visualization scale

When you are finish exploring the data at a selected zoom level the Full Extent button allows you to return to the full extent of the feature class

Use Full extent button

Click the Full Extent button and notice that the whole area is now

displayed

The Identify button allows you to retrieve attribute information of a feature -here the name of a neighborhood - if you point at it with the mouse

Click inside theneighborhoodfor which youwant the to

All the attributesof the selectedneighborhoodare displayed in aseparate

Fig 113 Process to identify theattributes of a feature

Use the Identify button

Click the Identify button

Click inside one of the neighborhoods in the india_sd area

Study the Identify Results window Yoursquoll notice that one of the attributes displayed is the name of the india_sd

You can click inside other neighborhoods to view their attributes

If you are finished viewing the attributes in this way close the

Identify results window (click on the little cross in the top right corner)

Exploring Tabular data

Now look at the attribute table of the india_sd Feature Class

Preview tables

Change the dropdown list in the Preview to Table (Fig 15 19)

There are several options that allow you to personalize the display of the tablein the preview

Change how tables look

If you want to change the appearance of the table (eg to improve the readabilityof the text) you can change the default settings Eg you may highlighta selection in lsquodark greenrsquo in stead of the default lsquopale bluersquo and youmay set the font size to 10pt

Change default settings

Click on the heading of one of the columns Notice that the whole column turns from white to pale blue

From the menu Tools select Options

A tabbed dialog window appears Select the tab Tables

Change the default settings to match the settings indicated above

Examine the visual result in the table

Change the width of a column

Depending on the font size and length of records some of the informationmay be hidden andor not readable To increase readability you may want to change the width of the columns

Change width of a column

Position the mouse over the extreme right edge of the column

heading DST_ID (notice the pointer of the cursor changes to )

Click here to selectthe color you wantto use to highlightselections

Click here to typethe new font size

Fig 114 Dialog window to setArcCatalog options

Double-click with the left mouse button The column width will

now be adjusted to the width of the longest entry in that column

Alternatively click and drag the columnrsquos edge to an acceptable width

Release the mouse

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session the default column width will be restored

Change the position of a column

Sometimes tables contain many columns In order to work efficient you maywant to rearrange the columns and to position the ones you need next to each other

Reposition a column

Click the column heading DST_ID (notice that the whole column

changes to the default color you have just selected)

Click the column again and hold down the mouse button

Drag the column heading to the location between the columns SHAPE and OBJECTID (notice a red line indicates the new location of the column ID_)

Release the mouse button

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session the columns will resume their default positions

Freeze a column

Sometimes you may want to compare the values in one column with the values

in the another columns This can be facilitated by lsquofreezingrsquo them

FreezeUnfreeze Columns

Right-click on the column heading DISTRICT

Click FreezeUnfreeze Column

Scroll horizontally by moving the horizontal slider to the right Notice that the column NAME1_ remains visible

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session all columns will be automatically unfrozen

Sorting columns

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

Sort Records

Right-click the column DISTRICT

In the drop-down list click Sort Ascending

Scroll down the list and notice that the numbers increase

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session records will resume their default order

Calculate statistics

You can display the basic statistics of numeric fields in an attribute table

Calculate statistics

Right-click the heading AREA_

In the drop-down list select the option Statistics

The Statistics dialog box pops up and displays all information about the values in the column AREA_

Adding a column

It is possible to add a column in the attribute table of a geodata layer and todefine its properties Notice however that ArcCatalog will not allow you toenter andor modify the data in the records You will see the editing processlater in exercise 2 when dealing with ArcMap functions

Add a field to a table

Click the button Options at the bottom of the Preview window and click Add Field See Fig 115

In the dialog window of Add Field fill in the name of the new column Leave the rest of the properties as they are (we will treat this later)

Click OK

View and editing metadata

Metadata describes data in a standardized way Metadata are used tosearch for and exchange data Examples of metadata are file name dataformat data quality data accuracy reference system ownership availability creation date update status description of attribute names etc

By looking at the metadata of a data set you should be able to decide if theset can be used for your application Eg do you need to adapt data to integrate it into your application (eg change its projection) can you access the data who to contact to get it are there cost involved etc

Fig 115 Preview window ndash table mode

There are a several standards for metadata Standards provide commonterminology and definitions for the documentation of digital data For geospatial data the two main standards are defined by

the International Organization for Standardizations (ISO) with the document

19115 ldquoGeographic Information ndash Metadatardquothe Federal Geographic Data Committees (FGDC) of the United States

It is very important to study the metadata before you use geospatial data obtained

from somebody else and to accurately describe the metadata for the geospatial data that

you produce

Have a look at the metadata of the Feature Class india_dsExplore metadata

In the Catalog tree select india_ds

In the view area click the Metadata tab to visualize the metadata information window

Scroll through the metadata and study itsrsquo contents

As explained in section 13 metadata consist of properties and documentationProperties are derived from the data itself and documentation is additionaldescriptive information generally supplied by the data creator But anyuser with writing access can change or add content to the metadata

ArcCatalog offers a number of ways to display the metadata using differentlsquoStylesheetsrsquo Stylesheets define the way in which the metadata is displayed By default ArcCatalog displays metadata using the FGDC ESRI stylesheet

Changing stylesheets

Select any of the stylesheets

Notice the changes in the format of the metadata

Editing metadata

You can create the metadata for a new data set or change existing metadata

Fig 116 Metadata windowndash Default Style sheet

Fig 117 Choosing a Metadata Stylesheet

by using ArcCatalogrsquos metadata editor For example change the metadataof the india_ds Feature Class The data set was produced by -and obtained from - IIRS India You will add informationabout the IIRS to give them the credits they deserve and include them as distributor The address details are as follows

Organisation Indian Institute of Remote SensingAddress Kalidas RoadDehradunProvince UtteranchalPostal code India

Edit metadata

Click the button Edit metadata in the Metadata toolbar

A dialog window opens Notice that a number of fields have the word ldquoREQUIREDrdquo(IN RED) and a brief description of the type of information expectedin that field The red font is meant to emphasize that these fields arepart of the minimum information required by the metadata standard For thetime being add some of the required data Follow the numerical sequenceas indicated in Fig 118 and 119

First select Distribution at the top of the dialog window (Fig 118)

Next click on the Distribution tab then click on the Detailshellip

button 3 This will open another dialog window

21

1

2

Select the Organization 4 option and click on the Address 5 tab

Enter name 6 and address of the organization 7 in the appropriate

fields

Click OK and Save

3

4

6

7

5

Fig 118 Example of steps to edit metadata

Fig 119 Editing contactinformation with the Arc-

View the updated information in the metadata window Note that some part of the stylesheet will not include all the metadata To check the updated information select the FGDC stylesheet and click on the Distribution Information link

Manage data sources

In ArcCatalog you can manage your data in a similar way as in Windows ExplorerYou can copy move delete and rename any item that appears in the Catalog tree or in the Contents window As example create a new folder and copy some existing data into it

Create a new folder

In the Catalog tree select your XExercise folder

Right click to open the context menu

Select New and click Folder

Fig 120 Creating a new folder with ArcCatalogArc-Catalog metadata editor

Type a new name for the folder you have just created eg

lsquoMy_folderrsquo

Copy the Personal Geodatabase ldquoLarge_enschedemdbrdquo to the

new folder

Make sure that none of the Feature Classes is active You should seenothing displayed in the Contents the Preview and the Metadata windowsIf any of the Feature Classes is active ArcCatalog locks the PersonalGeodatabase and returns an error when you try to copy itIt is easy to manage files and folders in ArcCatalog You can also create(empty) geo-spatial data sets You will learn this later in the course together with filling these data sets with new data through ArcMap

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

You have now explored some functions of ArcCatalog and seen that its mainpurpose is data browsing and basic data management If you want to editgeo-spatial data analyse it or create maps you need another application of the ArcGIS suite ArcMap Most of the exercises that follow will be about the basics of geoinformation processing with ArcMap

Access ArcMap

From the Standard toolbar select the ArcMap Icon

When ArcMap opens you will be prompted to select one of the followingan empty map a new template or an existing mapYou will do this in the next exercise So can stop here and exit ArcMap

In the ArcMap dialog window ignore the different options and

click OK From the File menu select Exit

Menus contain commands (by topic) in a list Buttons and menu items execute a command when you click them Tools require interaction of the user and generally display a dialog before a command is executedCombo boxes let you choose options from a dropdown list Text boxes or edit boxes allows input of parameters

For the rest of the exercise you will work with the data that you have copied on your personal drive

Metadata toolbar Geography toolbar

Type of data sets Contents Preview and Metadata tabs

Menus

Catalog

Status bar

Location Tool bar

Standard Tool bar

13 Why use ArcCatalog

ArcCatalog is a software designed for two main purposes1048713 It allows you to manage access and explore existing geographic datairrespective of the format in which the data is stored or its location (on alocal disc or on the network) You can best compare this with WindowsExplorer but specifically tailored to Geo-spatial data

1048713 You can also change the structure of the data For instance you can createa new geodatabase load existing data into your geodatabase and delete or add fields in attribute tables This exercise mainly focuses on the exploratory part of ArcCatalog

Browse for maps and data

Like in Windows Explorer you can view the content of a folder or database inthe Contents tab and choose how to see the contents as small or large icons in a list with details or as snapshots showing the geographic content(Fig 13)

Explore the data

For a general understanding of the geographic extent of the data the thumbnail view will do But to examine the geographic data more closely the Preview tab allows a detailed display of the data Using the appropriate buttons from the Geography toolbar you can zoom pan the geography or identify(get a text description of) features in your data

Fig 13 lsquoSnapshotrsquo Preview ofvarious types of geographicdata which can be managedwith ArcCatalog

Alternatively you can switch the display from Geography to Table and viewthe attribute table associated with the geography

Fig14 Detailed Preview of the geographic data

View and create metadata

Metadata contains properties and documentation describing the data Properties are derived from the data source like data type (eg shapefile) andgeometry type (eg polygon) Documentation is additional information thathelps to understand origin and content eg title summary description ownership publication date language of the dataset date of metadata creation A popular definition of metadata is lsquodata about datarsquo

Fig 15 Preview of the attributes associated with the geographic data

Fig 16 Metadata describes the properties and documents thedata

ArcCatalog has a built-in metadata editor The metadata editor can be usedto store additional information or to create new metadata when no metadataexist

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

Once you have examined the data using ArcCatalog you may want to dosome analyses or create a map using ArcMap You can open ArcMap by1048713 double-clicking on an ArcMap document ArcMap documents can berecognized by the following icon and the extension mxd1048713 pressing the ArcMap button on the Standard toolbar

Manage data sources

ArcCatalog contains functionalities to manage and organize your data Management functions include deleting copying or renaming data sets To organize a well-ordered library of spatial data (either on your local hard drive or in the network environment) ArcCatalog includes functions such as creatingnew folders and new geo-databases

14 Basic functions of ArcCatalog

You will now use some basic functions to illustrate some of the functionalities

mentioned in the previous section

Browse for maps and data

To browse data you first have to establish a connection to the locationwhere the data is stored This location can be a local disk (C or D

drive) orsome network drive You were asked to copy the data from Blackboard

toyour personal directory - on x - so you have to establish a connection to your M drive

1048713 In the Standard toolbar (see Fig 12) find the Connect to Folder

button and click on it

1048713 In the Dialog Window navigate to the XExcercize see Fig 17

1048713 Click OK

fig 17 Connect to Folder dialog window

Notice that the E drive is now added in the Catalog tree

1048713 Click on the plus sign next to the icon of the XExercize in the Catalog tree to expand the tree one level and see its contents

1048713 Select the Exercise folder by clicking once on its icon You will see all the files datasets and subfolders stored under the selected folder

Letrsquos have a closer look at the content of the subfolders of the Exercise

Browse for data

1048713 Continue to expand the tree double-click on the icons o f ExercisegtIndia_sd

Notice that the content in the folder India is displayed with a different icon in the Contents tab This is because lsquoIndiamdbrsquo is a Personal Geodatabase

Explore the contents of the Personal Geodatabase

Double click on the icon of the lsquoIndiamdbrsquo Personal Geodatabase

The layers in the Personal Geodatabase are now displayed Layers within aPersonal Geodatabase are called Feature Classes

Explore the buttons from the Standard toolbar Which button allows you tofind out the type of these data

Answer

Notice that if you leave the mouse cursor on a button for a few seconds a tool tip with the name of the button will appear

Encircle the data type of each of the following feature classes

Hint analyse the feature class properties

Buildings Points - Lines ndash Polygons

India_ds Points ndash Lines - Polygons

india_placename Points

india_st Points - Lines ndash Polygons

railways Points - Lines ndash Polygons

india_roads Points - Lines ndash Polygons

waterways Points - Lines ndash Polygons

To learn more about the data types refer to the Help menu lsquoArcGIS DesktopHelprsquo on the Contents tab Data management with ArcCatalog Gettingstarted with ArcCatalog Whatrsquos in the Catalog

In the Standard toolbar one of the view options is Thumbnails A thumbnail is a snapshot of the geography of a file

Change the view to Thumbnails Locate the appropriate button by moving the mouse over each button of the Standard toolbar

Wait for the tool tip that shows

Make sure that you have the Contents tab selected (see Fig 13)

Although the view is set to thumbnails you see that only some featureclasses are displayed as thumbnails while the others are simply displayedas large icons This is because thumbnails are not created automatically but you need to specifically create them

Create Thumbnail

In the Contents tab select a Feature Class without thumbnail Select the Preview tab

ArcCatalog displays a preview of the geography of the selected Feature Class This preview can now be used to create a snapshot (Thumbnail)

From the Geography toolbar select Create Thumbnail and click once

Next return to the Contents tab and notice the icon has changed into a small image of the preview

Convert all remaining icons in the sub-subfolder map elements into Thumbnails

Explore the data

You have learnt to browse data from different sources In the next sectionyou will explore the data by displaying both its geography and its attributes

Exploring Geographic data

Most GIS data sets have a geographic and a tabular component ArcCatalogallows you to preview either of them you can toggle between them using the dropdown list at the bottom of the Preview window

Use the Preview tab

Fig 18 Result of producing the Thumbnails within the Contentstab

Fig 19 Toggle the contents of the Preview window

Select the file India_ boundary Feature Class from the Catalog tree

Select the Preview tab

What you see now in the preview is a vector dataset with the boundaries ofindia_sd of the You can use the Geography toolbar to explore the geographic data (Fig 110)

The Zoom In Out buttons allow you to control the level of detail or the extent of the area that is displayed in the preview window

Select an area of interest

Click the Zoom In button from the Geography toolbar

Click and drag a box over your area of interest then release the mouse The area you have defined will now enlarge to occupy the entire display area of the Preview window

Fig 110 The buttons of the Geographic toolbar

You have now enlarged the central part of the Feature Class the part that falls outside the Preview window it is not displayed To maintain the same scale and see the data beyond the display select the Pan button The Pan button allows you to drag the display in any direction

Fig 111 Defining the geographicarea to enlarge

Fig 112 Preview of the geographyat an enlarged scale

Click and drag a box to define your area of interest

The selected area at an enlarge scale

Click on Zoom

Use Pan button

Select the Pan button from the Geographic Toolbar

Click and hold the mouse button at any point in the display window

Move the mouse and notice that the display will follow the movements of the mouse

Release the mouse and the display will refresh

Practice the Pan button to move around the data maintaining the same visualization scale

When you are finish exploring the data at a selected zoom level the Full Extent button allows you to return to the full extent of the feature class

Use Full extent button

Click the Full Extent button and notice that the whole area is now

displayed

The Identify button allows you to retrieve attribute information of a feature -here the name of a neighborhood - if you point at it with the mouse

Click inside theneighborhoodfor which youwant the to

All the attributesof the selectedneighborhoodare displayed in aseparate

Fig 113 Process to identify theattributes of a feature

Use the Identify button

Click the Identify button

Click inside one of the neighborhoods in the india_sd area

Study the Identify Results window Yoursquoll notice that one of the attributes displayed is the name of the india_sd

You can click inside other neighborhoods to view their attributes

If you are finished viewing the attributes in this way close the

Identify results window (click on the little cross in the top right corner)

Exploring Tabular data

Now look at the attribute table of the india_sd Feature Class

Preview tables

Change the dropdown list in the Preview to Table (Fig 15 19)

There are several options that allow you to personalize the display of the tablein the preview

Change how tables look

If you want to change the appearance of the table (eg to improve the readabilityof the text) you can change the default settings Eg you may highlighta selection in lsquodark greenrsquo in stead of the default lsquopale bluersquo and youmay set the font size to 10pt

Change default settings

Click on the heading of one of the columns Notice that the whole column turns from white to pale blue

From the menu Tools select Options

A tabbed dialog window appears Select the tab Tables

Change the default settings to match the settings indicated above

Examine the visual result in the table

Change the width of a column

Depending on the font size and length of records some of the informationmay be hidden andor not readable To increase readability you may want to change the width of the columns

Change width of a column

Position the mouse over the extreme right edge of the column

heading DST_ID (notice the pointer of the cursor changes to )

Click here to selectthe color you wantto use to highlightselections

Click here to typethe new font size

Fig 114 Dialog window to setArcCatalog options

Double-click with the left mouse button The column width will

now be adjusted to the width of the longest entry in that column

Alternatively click and drag the columnrsquos edge to an acceptable width

Release the mouse

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session the default column width will be restored

Change the position of a column

Sometimes tables contain many columns In order to work efficient you maywant to rearrange the columns and to position the ones you need next to each other

Reposition a column

Click the column heading DST_ID (notice that the whole column

changes to the default color you have just selected)

Click the column again and hold down the mouse button

Drag the column heading to the location between the columns SHAPE and OBJECTID (notice a red line indicates the new location of the column ID_)

Release the mouse button

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session the columns will resume their default positions

Freeze a column

Sometimes you may want to compare the values in one column with the values

in the another columns This can be facilitated by lsquofreezingrsquo them

FreezeUnfreeze Columns

Right-click on the column heading DISTRICT

Click FreezeUnfreeze Column

Scroll horizontally by moving the horizontal slider to the right Notice that the column NAME1_ remains visible

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session all columns will be automatically unfrozen

Sorting columns

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

Sort Records

Right-click the column DISTRICT

In the drop-down list click Sort Ascending

Scroll down the list and notice that the numbers increase

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session records will resume their default order

Calculate statistics

You can display the basic statistics of numeric fields in an attribute table

Calculate statistics

Right-click the heading AREA_

In the drop-down list select the option Statistics

The Statistics dialog box pops up and displays all information about the values in the column AREA_

Adding a column

It is possible to add a column in the attribute table of a geodata layer and todefine its properties Notice however that ArcCatalog will not allow you toenter andor modify the data in the records You will see the editing processlater in exercise 2 when dealing with ArcMap functions

Add a field to a table

Click the button Options at the bottom of the Preview window and click Add Field See Fig 115

In the dialog window of Add Field fill in the name of the new column Leave the rest of the properties as they are (we will treat this later)

Click OK

View and editing metadata

Metadata describes data in a standardized way Metadata are used tosearch for and exchange data Examples of metadata are file name dataformat data quality data accuracy reference system ownership availability creation date update status description of attribute names etc

By looking at the metadata of a data set you should be able to decide if theset can be used for your application Eg do you need to adapt data to integrate it into your application (eg change its projection) can you access the data who to contact to get it are there cost involved etc

Fig 115 Preview window ndash table mode

There are a several standards for metadata Standards provide commonterminology and definitions for the documentation of digital data For geospatial data the two main standards are defined by

the International Organization for Standardizations (ISO) with the document

19115 ldquoGeographic Information ndash Metadatardquothe Federal Geographic Data Committees (FGDC) of the United States

It is very important to study the metadata before you use geospatial data obtained

from somebody else and to accurately describe the metadata for the geospatial data that

you produce

Have a look at the metadata of the Feature Class india_dsExplore metadata

In the Catalog tree select india_ds

In the view area click the Metadata tab to visualize the metadata information window

Scroll through the metadata and study itsrsquo contents

As explained in section 13 metadata consist of properties and documentationProperties are derived from the data itself and documentation is additionaldescriptive information generally supplied by the data creator But anyuser with writing access can change or add content to the metadata

ArcCatalog offers a number of ways to display the metadata using differentlsquoStylesheetsrsquo Stylesheets define the way in which the metadata is displayed By default ArcCatalog displays metadata using the FGDC ESRI stylesheet

Changing stylesheets

Select any of the stylesheets

Notice the changes in the format of the metadata

Editing metadata

You can create the metadata for a new data set or change existing metadata

Fig 116 Metadata windowndash Default Style sheet

Fig 117 Choosing a Metadata Stylesheet

by using ArcCatalogrsquos metadata editor For example change the metadataof the india_ds Feature Class The data set was produced by -and obtained from - IIRS India You will add informationabout the IIRS to give them the credits they deserve and include them as distributor The address details are as follows

Organisation Indian Institute of Remote SensingAddress Kalidas RoadDehradunProvince UtteranchalPostal code India

Edit metadata

Click the button Edit metadata in the Metadata toolbar

A dialog window opens Notice that a number of fields have the word ldquoREQUIREDrdquo(IN RED) and a brief description of the type of information expectedin that field The red font is meant to emphasize that these fields arepart of the minimum information required by the metadata standard For thetime being add some of the required data Follow the numerical sequenceas indicated in Fig 118 and 119

First select Distribution at the top of the dialog window (Fig 118)

Next click on the Distribution tab then click on the Detailshellip

button 3 This will open another dialog window

21

1

2

Select the Organization 4 option and click on the Address 5 tab

Enter name 6 and address of the organization 7 in the appropriate

fields

Click OK and Save

3

4

6

7

5

Fig 118 Example of steps to edit metadata

Fig 119 Editing contactinformation with the Arc-

View the updated information in the metadata window Note that some part of the stylesheet will not include all the metadata To check the updated information select the FGDC stylesheet and click on the Distribution Information link

Manage data sources

In ArcCatalog you can manage your data in a similar way as in Windows ExplorerYou can copy move delete and rename any item that appears in the Catalog tree or in the Contents window As example create a new folder and copy some existing data into it

Create a new folder

In the Catalog tree select your XExercise folder

Right click to open the context menu

Select New and click Folder

Fig 120 Creating a new folder with ArcCatalogArc-Catalog metadata editor

Type a new name for the folder you have just created eg

lsquoMy_folderrsquo

Copy the Personal Geodatabase ldquoLarge_enschedemdbrdquo to the

new folder

Make sure that none of the Feature Classes is active You should seenothing displayed in the Contents the Preview and the Metadata windowsIf any of the Feature Classes is active ArcCatalog locks the PersonalGeodatabase and returns an error when you try to copy itIt is easy to manage files and folders in ArcCatalog You can also create(empty) geo-spatial data sets You will learn this later in the course together with filling these data sets with new data through ArcMap

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

You have now explored some functions of ArcCatalog and seen that its mainpurpose is data browsing and basic data management If you want to editgeo-spatial data analyse it or create maps you need another application of the ArcGIS suite ArcMap Most of the exercises that follow will be about the basics of geoinformation processing with ArcMap

Access ArcMap

From the Standard toolbar select the ArcMap Icon

When ArcMap opens you will be prompted to select one of the followingan empty map a new template or an existing mapYou will do this in the next exercise So can stop here and exit ArcMap

In the ArcMap dialog window ignore the different options and

click OK From the File menu select Exit

13 Why use ArcCatalog

ArcCatalog is a software designed for two main purposes1048713 It allows you to manage access and explore existing geographic datairrespective of the format in which the data is stored or its location (on alocal disc or on the network) You can best compare this with WindowsExplorer but specifically tailored to Geo-spatial data

1048713 You can also change the structure of the data For instance you can createa new geodatabase load existing data into your geodatabase and delete or add fields in attribute tables This exercise mainly focuses on the exploratory part of ArcCatalog

Browse for maps and data

Like in Windows Explorer you can view the content of a folder or database inthe Contents tab and choose how to see the contents as small or large icons in a list with details or as snapshots showing the geographic content(Fig 13)

Explore the data

For a general understanding of the geographic extent of the data the thumbnail view will do But to examine the geographic data more closely the Preview tab allows a detailed display of the data Using the appropriate buttons from the Geography toolbar you can zoom pan the geography or identify(get a text description of) features in your data

Fig 13 lsquoSnapshotrsquo Preview ofvarious types of geographicdata which can be managedwith ArcCatalog

Alternatively you can switch the display from Geography to Table and viewthe attribute table associated with the geography

Fig14 Detailed Preview of the geographic data

View and create metadata

Metadata contains properties and documentation describing the data Properties are derived from the data source like data type (eg shapefile) andgeometry type (eg polygon) Documentation is additional information thathelps to understand origin and content eg title summary description ownership publication date language of the dataset date of metadata creation A popular definition of metadata is lsquodata about datarsquo

Fig 15 Preview of the attributes associated with the geographic data

Fig 16 Metadata describes the properties and documents thedata

ArcCatalog has a built-in metadata editor The metadata editor can be usedto store additional information or to create new metadata when no metadataexist

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

Once you have examined the data using ArcCatalog you may want to dosome analyses or create a map using ArcMap You can open ArcMap by1048713 double-clicking on an ArcMap document ArcMap documents can berecognized by the following icon and the extension mxd1048713 pressing the ArcMap button on the Standard toolbar

Manage data sources

ArcCatalog contains functionalities to manage and organize your data Management functions include deleting copying or renaming data sets To organize a well-ordered library of spatial data (either on your local hard drive or in the network environment) ArcCatalog includes functions such as creatingnew folders and new geo-databases

14 Basic functions of ArcCatalog

You will now use some basic functions to illustrate some of the functionalities

mentioned in the previous section

Browse for maps and data

To browse data you first have to establish a connection to the locationwhere the data is stored This location can be a local disk (C or D

drive) orsome network drive You were asked to copy the data from Blackboard

toyour personal directory - on x - so you have to establish a connection to your M drive

1048713 In the Standard toolbar (see Fig 12) find the Connect to Folder

button and click on it

1048713 In the Dialog Window navigate to the XExcercize see Fig 17

1048713 Click OK

fig 17 Connect to Folder dialog window

Notice that the E drive is now added in the Catalog tree

1048713 Click on the plus sign next to the icon of the XExercize in the Catalog tree to expand the tree one level and see its contents

1048713 Select the Exercise folder by clicking once on its icon You will see all the files datasets and subfolders stored under the selected folder

Letrsquos have a closer look at the content of the subfolders of the Exercise

Browse for data

1048713 Continue to expand the tree double-click on the icons o f ExercisegtIndia_sd

Notice that the content in the folder India is displayed with a different icon in the Contents tab This is because lsquoIndiamdbrsquo is a Personal Geodatabase

Explore the contents of the Personal Geodatabase

Double click on the icon of the lsquoIndiamdbrsquo Personal Geodatabase

The layers in the Personal Geodatabase are now displayed Layers within aPersonal Geodatabase are called Feature Classes

Explore the buttons from the Standard toolbar Which button allows you tofind out the type of these data

Answer

Notice that if you leave the mouse cursor on a button for a few seconds a tool tip with the name of the button will appear

Encircle the data type of each of the following feature classes

Hint analyse the feature class properties

Buildings Points - Lines ndash Polygons

India_ds Points ndash Lines - Polygons

india_placename Points

india_st Points - Lines ndash Polygons

railways Points - Lines ndash Polygons

india_roads Points - Lines ndash Polygons

waterways Points - Lines ndash Polygons

To learn more about the data types refer to the Help menu lsquoArcGIS DesktopHelprsquo on the Contents tab Data management with ArcCatalog Gettingstarted with ArcCatalog Whatrsquos in the Catalog

In the Standard toolbar one of the view options is Thumbnails A thumbnail is a snapshot of the geography of a file

Change the view to Thumbnails Locate the appropriate button by moving the mouse over each button of the Standard toolbar

Wait for the tool tip that shows

Make sure that you have the Contents tab selected (see Fig 13)

Although the view is set to thumbnails you see that only some featureclasses are displayed as thumbnails while the others are simply displayedas large icons This is because thumbnails are not created automatically but you need to specifically create them

Create Thumbnail

In the Contents tab select a Feature Class without thumbnail Select the Preview tab

ArcCatalog displays a preview of the geography of the selected Feature Class This preview can now be used to create a snapshot (Thumbnail)

From the Geography toolbar select Create Thumbnail and click once

Next return to the Contents tab and notice the icon has changed into a small image of the preview

Convert all remaining icons in the sub-subfolder map elements into Thumbnails

Explore the data

You have learnt to browse data from different sources In the next sectionyou will explore the data by displaying both its geography and its attributes

Exploring Geographic data

Most GIS data sets have a geographic and a tabular component ArcCatalogallows you to preview either of them you can toggle between them using the dropdown list at the bottom of the Preview window

Use the Preview tab

Fig 18 Result of producing the Thumbnails within the Contentstab

Fig 19 Toggle the contents of the Preview window

Select the file India_ boundary Feature Class from the Catalog tree

Select the Preview tab

What you see now in the preview is a vector dataset with the boundaries ofindia_sd of the You can use the Geography toolbar to explore the geographic data (Fig 110)

The Zoom In Out buttons allow you to control the level of detail or the extent of the area that is displayed in the preview window

Select an area of interest

Click the Zoom In button from the Geography toolbar

Click and drag a box over your area of interest then release the mouse The area you have defined will now enlarge to occupy the entire display area of the Preview window

Fig 110 The buttons of the Geographic toolbar

You have now enlarged the central part of the Feature Class the part that falls outside the Preview window it is not displayed To maintain the same scale and see the data beyond the display select the Pan button The Pan button allows you to drag the display in any direction

Fig 111 Defining the geographicarea to enlarge

Fig 112 Preview of the geographyat an enlarged scale

Click and drag a box to define your area of interest

The selected area at an enlarge scale

Click on Zoom

Use Pan button

Select the Pan button from the Geographic Toolbar

Click and hold the mouse button at any point in the display window

Move the mouse and notice that the display will follow the movements of the mouse

Release the mouse and the display will refresh

Practice the Pan button to move around the data maintaining the same visualization scale

When you are finish exploring the data at a selected zoom level the Full Extent button allows you to return to the full extent of the feature class

Use Full extent button

Click the Full Extent button and notice that the whole area is now

displayed

The Identify button allows you to retrieve attribute information of a feature -here the name of a neighborhood - if you point at it with the mouse

Click inside theneighborhoodfor which youwant the to

All the attributesof the selectedneighborhoodare displayed in aseparate

Fig 113 Process to identify theattributes of a feature

Use the Identify button

Click the Identify button

Click inside one of the neighborhoods in the india_sd area

Study the Identify Results window Yoursquoll notice that one of the attributes displayed is the name of the india_sd

You can click inside other neighborhoods to view their attributes

If you are finished viewing the attributes in this way close the

Identify results window (click on the little cross in the top right corner)

Exploring Tabular data

Now look at the attribute table of the india_sd Feature Class

Preview tables

Change the dropdown list in the Preview to Table (Fig 15 19)

There are several options that allow you to personalize the display of the tablein the preview

Change how tables look

If you want to change the appearance of the table (eg to improve the readabilityof the text) you can change the default settings Eg you may highlighta selection in lsquodark greenrsquo in stead of the default lsquopale bluersquo and youmay set the font size to 10pt

Change default settings

Click on the heading of one of the columns Notice that the whole column turns from white to pale blue

From the menu Tools select Options

A tabbed dialog window appears Select the tab Tables

Change the default settings to match the settings indicated above

Examine the visual result in the table

Change the width of a column

Depending on the font size and length of records some of the informationmay be hidden andor not readable To increase readability you may want to change the width of the columns

Change width of a column

Position the mouse over the extreme right edge of the column

heading DST_ID (notice the pointer of the cursor changes to )

Click here to selectthe color you wantto use to highlightselections

Click here to typethe new font size

Fig 114 Dialog window to setArcCatalog options

Double-click with the left mouse button The column width will

now be adjusted to the width of the longest entry in that column

Alternatively click and drag the columnrsquos edge to an acceptable width

Release the mouse

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session the default column width will be restored

Change the position of a column

Sometimes tables contain many columns In order to work efficient you maywant to rearrange the columns and to position the ones you need next to each other

Reposition a column

Click the column heading DST_ID (notice that the whole column

changes to the default color you have just selected)

Click the column again and hold down the mouse button

Drag the column heading to the location between the columns SHAPE and OBJECTID (notice a red line indicates the new location of the column ID_)

Release the mouse button

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session the columns will resume their default positions

Freeze a column

Sometimes you may want to compare the values in one column with the values

in the another columns This can be facilitated by lsquofreezingrsquo them

FreezeUnfreeze Columns

Right-click on the column heading DISTRICT

Click FreezeUnfreeze Column

Scroll horizontally by moving the horizontal slider to the right Notice that the column NAME1_ remains visible

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session all columns will be automatically unfrozen

Sorting columns

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

Sort Records

Right-click the column DISTRICT

In the drop-down list click Sort Ascending

Scroll down the list and notice that the numbers increase

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session records will resume their default order

Calculate statistics

You can display the basic statistics of numeric fields in an attribute table

Calculate statistics

Right-click the heading AREA_

In the drop-down list select the option Statistics

The Statistics dialog box pops up and displays all information about the values in the column AREA_

Adding a column

It is possible to add a column in the attribute table of a geodata layer and todefine its properties Notice however that ArcCatalog will not allow you toenter andor modify the data in the records You will see the editing processlater in exercise 2 when dealing with ArcMap functions

Add a field to a table

Click the button Options at the bottom of the Preview window and click Add Field See Fig 115

In the dialog window of Add Field fill in the name of the new column Leave the rest of the properties as they are (we will treat this later)

Click OK

View and editing metadata

Metadata describes data in a standardized way Metadata are used tosearch for and exchange data Examples of metadata are file name dataformat data quality data accuracy reference system ownership availability creation date update status description of attribute names etc

By looking at the metadata of a data set you should be able to decide if theset can be used for your application Eg do you need to adapt data to integrate it into your application (eg change its projection) can you access the data who to contact to get it are there cost involved etc

Fig 115 Preview window ndash table mode

There are a several standards for metadata Standards provide commonterminology and definitions for the documentation of digital data For geospatial data the two main standards are defined by

the International Organization for Standardizations (ISO) with the document

19115 ldquoGeographic Information ndash Metadatardquothe Federal Geographic Data Committees (FGDC) of the United States

It is very important to study the metadata before you use geospatial data obtained

from somebody else and to accurately describe the metadata for the geospatial data that

you produce

Have a look at the metadata of the Feature Class india_dsExplore metadata

In the Catalog tree select india_ds

In the view area click the Metadata tab to visualize the metadata information window

Scroll through the metadata and study itsrsquo contents

As explained in section 13 metadata consist of properties and documentationProperties are derived from the data itself and documentation is additionaldescriptive information generally supplied by the data creator But anyuser with writing access can change or add content to the metadata

ArcCatalog offers a number of ways to display the metadata using differentlsquoStylesheetsrsquo Stylesheets define the way in which the metadata is displayed By default ArcCatalog displays metadata using the FGDC ESRI stylesheet

Changing stylesheets

Select any of the stylesheets

Notice the changes in the format of the metadata

Editing metadata

You can create the metadata for a new data set or change existing metadata

Fig 116 Metadata windowndash Default Style sheet

Fig 117 Choosing a Metadata Stylesheet

by using ArcCatalogrsquos metadata editor For example change the metadataof the india_ds Feature Class The data set was produced by -and obtained from - IIRS India You will add informationabout the IIRS to give them the credits they deserve and include them as distributor The address details are as follows

Organisation Indian Institute of Remote SensingAddress Kalidas RoadDehradunProvince UtteranchalPostal code India

Edit metadata

Click the button Edit metadata in the Metadata toolbar

A dialog window opens Notice that a number of fields have the word ldquoREQUIREDrdquo(IN RED) and a brief description of the type of information expectedin that field The red font is meant to emphasize that these fields arepart of the minimum information required by the metadata standard For thetime being add some of the required data Follow the numerical sequenceas indicated in Fig 118 and 119

First select Distribution at the top of the dialog window (Fig 118)

Next click on the Distribution tab then click on the Detailshellip

button 3 This will open another dialog window

21

1

2

Select the Organization 4 option and click on the Address 5 tab

Enter name 6 and address of the organization 7 in the appropriate

fields

Click OK and Save

3

4

6

7

5

Fig 118 Example of steps to edit metadata

Fig 119 Editing contactinformation with the Arc-

View the updated information in the metadata window Note that some part of the stylesheet will not include all the metadata To check the updated information select the FGDC stylesheet and click on the Distribution Information link

Manage data sources

In ArcCatalog you can manage your data in a similar way as in Windows ExplorerYou can copy move delete and rename any item that appears in the Catalog tree or in the Contents window As example create a new folder and copy some existing data into it

Create a new folder

In the Catalog tree select your XExercise folder

Right click to open the context menu

Select New and click Folder

Fig 120 Creating a new folder with ArcCatalogArc-Catalog metadata editor

Type a new name for the folder you have just created eg

lsquoMy_folderrsquo

Copy the Personal Geodatabase ldquoLarge_enschedemdbrdquo to the

new folder

Make sure that none of the Feature Classes is active You should seenothing displayed in the Contents the Preview and the Metadata windowsIf any of the Feature Classes is active ArcCatalog locks the PersonalGeodatabase and returns an error when you try to copy itIt is easy to manage files and folders in ArcCatalog You can also create(empty) geo-spatial data sets You will learn this later in the course together with filling these data sets with new data through ArcMap

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

You have now explored some functions of ArcCatalog and seen that its mainpurpose is data browsing and basic data management If you want to editgeo-spatial data analyse it or create maps you need another application of the ArcGIS suite ArcMap Most of the exercises that follow will be about the basics of geoinformation processing with ArcMap

Access ArcMap

From the Standard toolbar select the ArcMap Icon

When ArcMap opens you will be prompted to select one of the followingan empty map a new template or an existing mapYou will do this in the next exercise So can stop here and exit ArcMap

In the ArcMap dialog window ignore the different options and

click OK From the File menu select Exit

Explore the data

For a general understanding of the geographic extent of the data the thumbnail view will do But to examine the geographic data more closely the Preview tab allows a detailed display of the data Using the appropriate buttons from the Geography toolbar you can zoom pan the geography or identify(get a text description of) features in your data

Fig 13 lsquoSnapshotrsquo Preview ofvarious types of geographicdata which can be managedwith ArcCatalog

Alternatively you can switch the display from Geography to Table and viewthe attribute table associated with the geography

Fig14 Detailed Preview of the geographic data

View and create metadata

Metadata contains properties and documentation describing the data Properties are derived from the data source like data type (eg shapefile) andgeometry type (eg polygon) Documentation is additional information thathelps to understand origin and content eg title summary description ownership publication date language of the dataset date of metadata creation A popular definition of metadata is lsquodata about datarsquo

Fig 15 Preview of the attributes associated with the geographic data

Fig 16 Metadata describes the properties and documents thedata

ArcCatalog has a built-in metadata editor The metadata editor can be usedto store additional information or to create new metadata when no metadataexist

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

Once you have examined the data using ArcCatalog you may want to dosome analyses or create a map using ArcMap You can open ArcMap by1048713 double-clicking on an ArcMap document ArcMap documents can berecognized by the following icon and the extension mxd1048713 pressing the ArcMap button on the Standard toolbar

Manage data sources

ArcCatalog contains functionalities to manage and organize your data Management functions include deleting copying or renaming data sets To organize a well-ordered library of spatial data (either on your local hard drive or in the network environment) ArcCatalog includes functions such as creatingnew folders and new geo-databases

14 Basic functions of ArcCatalog

You will now use some basic functions to illustrate some of the functionalities

mentioned in the previous section

Browse for maps and data

To browse data you first have to establish a connection to the locationwhere the data is stored This location can be a local disk (C or D

drive) orsome network drive You were asked to copy the data from Blackboard

toyour personal directory - on x - so you have to establish a connection to your M drive

1048713 In the Standard toolbar (see Fig 12) find the Connect to Folder

button and click on it

1048713 In the Dialog Window navigate to the XExcercize see Fig 17

1048713 Click OK

fig 17 Connect to Folder dialog window

Notice that the E drive is now added in the Catalog tree

1048713 Click on the plus sign next to the icon of the XExercize in the Catalog tree to expand the tree one level and see its contents

1048713 Select the Exercise folder by clicking once on its icon You will see all the files datasets and subfolders stored under the selected folder

Letrsquos have a closer look at the content of the subfolders of the Exercise

Browse for data

1048713 Continue to expand the tree double-click on the icons o f ExercisegtIndia_sd

Notice that the content in the folder India is displayed with a different icon in the Contents tab This is because lsquoIndiamdbrsquo is a Personal Geodatabase

Explore the contents of the Personal Geodatabase

Double click on the icon of the lsquoIndiamdbrsquo Personal Geodatabase

The layers in the Personal Geodatabase are now displayed Layers within aPersonal Geodatabase are called Feature Classes

Explore the buttons from the Standard toolbar Which button allows you tofind out the type of these data

Answer

Notice that if you leave the mouse cursor on a button for a few seconds a tool tip with the name of the button will appear

Encircle the data type of each of the following feature classes

Hint analyse the feature class properties

Buildings Points - Lines ndash Polygons

India_ds Points ndash Lines - Polygons

india_placename Points

india_st Points - Lines ndash Polygons

railways Points - Lines ndash Polygons

india_roads Points - Lines ndash Polygons

waterways Points - Lines ndash Polygons

To learn more about the data types refer to the Help menu lsquoArcGIS DesktopHelprsquo on the Contents tab Data management with ArcCatalog Gettingstarted with ArcCatalog Whatrsquos in the Catalog

In the Standard toolbar one of the view options is Thumbnails A thumbnail is a snapshot of the geography of a file

Change the view to Thumbnails Locate the appropriate button by moving the mouse over each button of the Standard toolbar

Wait for the tool tip that shows

Make sure that you have the Contents tab selected (see Fig 13)

Although the view is set to thumbnails you see that only some featureclasses are displayed as thumbnails while the others are simply displayedas large icons This is because thumbnails are not created automatically but you need to specifically create them

Create Thumbnail

In the Contents tab select a Feature Class without thumbnail Select the Preview tab

ArcCatalog displays a preview of the geography of the selected Feature Class This preview can now be used to create a snapshot (Thumbnail)

From the Geography toolbar select Create Thumbnail and click once

Next return to the Contents tab and notice the icon has changed into a small image of the preview

Convert all remaining icons in the sub-subfolder map elements into Thumbnails

Explore the data

You have learnt to browse data from different sources In the next sectionyou will explore the data by displaying both its geography and its attributes

Exploring Geographic data

Most GIS data sets have a geographic and a tabular component ArcCatalogallows you to preview either of them you can toggle between them using the dropdown list at the bottom of the Preview window

Use the Preview tab

Fig 18 Result of producing the Thumbnails within the Contentstab

Fig 19 Toggle the contents of the Preview window

Select the file India_ boundary Feature Class from the Catalog tree

Select the Preview tab

What you see now in the preview is a vector dataset with the boundaries ofindia_sd of the You can use the Geography toolbar to explore the geographic data (Fig 110)

The Zoom In Out buttons allow you to control the level of detail or the extent of the area that is displayed in the preview window

Select an area of interest

Click the Zoom In button from the Geography toolbar

Click and drag a box over your area of interest then release the mouse The area you have defined will now enlarge to occupy the entire display area of the Preview window

Fig 110 The buttons of the Geographic toolbar

You have now enlarged the central part of the Feature Class the part that falls outside the Preview window it is not displayed To maintain the same scale and see the data beyond the display select the Pan button The Pan button allows you to drag the display in any direction

Fig 111 Defining the geographicarea to enlarge

Fig 112 Preview of the geographyat an enlarged scale

Click and drag a box to define your area of interest

The selected area at an enlarge scale

Click on Zoom

Use Pan button

Select the Pan button from the Geographic Toolbar

Click and hold the mouse button at any point in the display window

Move the mouse and notice that the display will follow the movements of the mouse

Release the mouse and the display will refresh

Practice the Pan button to move around the data maintaining the same visualization scale

When you are finish exploring the data at a selected zoom level the Full Extent button allows you to return to the full extent of the feature class

Use Full extent button

Click the Full Extent button and notice that the whole area is now

displayed

The Identify button allows you to retrieve attribute information of a feature -here the name of a neighborhood - if you point at it with the mouse

Click inside theneighborhoodfor which youwant the to

All the attributesof the selectedneighborhoodare displayed in aseparate

Fig 113 Process to identify theattributes of a feature

Use the Identify button

Click the Identify button

Click inside one of the neighborhoods in the india_sd area

Study the Identify Results window Yoursquoll notice that one of the attributes displayed is the name of the india_sd

You can click inside other neighborhoods to view their attributes

If you are finished viewing the attributes in this way close the

Identify results window (click on the little cross in the top right corner)

Exploring Tabular data

Now look at the attribute table of the india_sd Feature Class

Preview tables

Change the dropdown list in the Preview to Table (Fig 15 19)

There are several options that allow you to personalize the display of the tablein the preview

Change how tables look

If you want to change the appearance of the table (eg to improve the readabilityof the text) you can change the default settings Eg you may highlighta selection in lsquodark greenrsquo in stead of the default lsquopale bluersquo and youmay set the font size to 10pt

Change default settings

Click on the heading of one of the columns Notice that the whole column turns from white to pale blue

From the menu Tools select Options

A tabbed dialog window appears Select the tab Tables

Change the default settings to match the settings indicated above

Examine the visual result in the table

Change the width of a column

Depending on the font size and length of records some of the informationmay be hidden andor not readable To increase readability you may want to change the width of the columns

Change width of a column

Position the mouse over the extreme right edge of the column

heading DST_ID (notice the pointer of the cursor changes to )

Click here to selectthe color you wantto use to highlightselections

Click here to typethe new font size

Fig 114 Dialog window to setArcCatalog options

Double-click with the left mouse button The column width will

now be adjusted to the width of the longest entry in that column

Alternatively click and drag the columnrsquos edge to an acceptable width

Release the mouse

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session the default column width will be restored

Change the position of a column

Sometimes tables contain many columns In order to work efficient you maywant to rearrange the columns and to position the ones you need next to each other

Reposition a column

Click the column heading DST_ID (notice that the whole column

changes to the default color you have just selected)

Click the column again and hold down the mouse button

Drag the column heading to the location between the columns SHAPE and OBJECTID (notice a red line indicates the new location of the column ID_)

Release the mouse button

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session the columns will resume their default positions

Freeze a column

Sometimes you may want to compare the values in one column with the values

in the another columns This can be facilitated by lsquofreezingrsquo them

FreezeUnfreeze Columns

Right-click on the column heading DISTRICT

Click FreezeUnfreeze Column

Scroll horizontally by moving the horizontal slider to the right Notice that the column NAME1_ remains visible

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session all columns will be automatically unfrozen

Sorting columns

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

Sort Records

Right-click the column DISTRICT

In the drop-down list click Sort Ascending

Scroll down the list and notice that the numbers increase

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session records will resume their default order

Calculate statistics

You can display the basic statistics of numeric fields in an attribute table

Calculate statistics

Right-click the heading AREA_

In the drop-down list select the option Statistics

The Statistics dialog box pops up and displays all information about the values in the column AREA_

Adding a column

It is possible to add a column in the attribute table of a geodata layer and todefine its properties Notice however that ArcCatalog will not allow you toenter andor modify the data in the records You will see the editing processlater in exercise 2 when dealing with ArcMap functions

Add a field to a table

Click the button Options at the bottom of the Preview window and click Add Field See Fig 115

In the dialog window of Add Field fill in the name of the new column Leave the rest of the properties as they are (we will treat this later)

Click OK

View and editing metadata

Metadata describes data in a standardized way Metadata are used tosearch for and exchange data Examples of metadata are file name dataformat data quality data accuracy reference system ownership availability creation date update status description of attribute names etc

By looking at the metadata of a data set you should be able to decide if theset can be used for your application Eg do you need to adapt data to integrate it into your application (eg change its projection) can you access the data who to contact to get it are there cost involved etc

Fig 115 Preview window ndash table mode

There are a several standards for metadata Standards provide commonterminology and definitions for the documentation of digital data For geospatial data the two main standards are defined by

the International Organization for Standardizations (ISO) with the document

19115 ldquoGeographic Information ndash Metadatardquothe Federal Geographic Data Committees (FGDC) of the United States

It is very important to study the metadata before you use geospatial data obtained

from somebody else and to accurately describe the metadata for the geospatial data that

you produce

Have a look at the metadata of the Feature Class india_dsExplore metadata

In the Catalog tree select india_ds

In the view area click the Metadata tab to visualize the metadata information window

Scroll through the metadata and study itsrsquo contents

As explained in section 13 metadata consist of properties and documentationProperties are derived from the data itself and documentation is additionaldescriptive information generally supplied by the data creator But anyuser with writing access can change or add content to the metadata

ArcCatalog offers a number of ways to display the metadata using differentlsquoStylesheetsrsquo Stylesheets define the way in which the metadata is displayed By default ArcCatalog displays metadata using the FGDC ESRI stylesheet

Changing stylesheets

Select any of the stylesheets

Notice the changes in the format of the metadata

Editing metadata

You can create the metadata for a new data set or change existing metadata

Fig 116 Metadata windowndash Default Style sheet

Fig 117 Choosing a Metadata Stylesheet

by using ArcCatalogrsquos metadata editor For example change the metadataof the india_ds Feature Class The data set was produced by -and obtained from - IIRS India You will add informationabout the IIRS to give them the credits they deserve and include them as distributor The address details are as follows

Organisation Indian Institute of Remote SensingAddress Kalidas RoadDehradunProvince UtteranchalPostal code India

Edit metadata

Click the button Edit metadata in the Metadata toolbar

A dialog window opens Notice that a number of fields have the word ldquoREQUIREDrdquo(IN RED) and a brief description of the type of information expectedin that field The red font is meant to emphasize that these fields arepart of the minimum information required by the metadata standard For thetime being add some of the required data Follow the numerical sequenceas indicated in Fig 118 and 119

First select Distribution at the top of the dialog window (Fig 118)

Next click on the Distribution tab then click on the Detailshellip

button 3 This will open another dialog window

21

1

2

Select the Organization 4 option and click on the Address 5 tab

Enter name 6 and address of the organization 7 in the appropriate

fields

Click OK and Save

3

4

6

7

5

Fig 118 Example of steps to edit metadata

Fig 119 Editing contactinformation with the Arc-

View the updated information in the metadata window Note that some part of the stylesheet will not include all the metadata To check the updated information select the FGDC stylesheet and click on the Distribution Information link

Manage data sources

In ArcCatalog you can manage your data in a similar way as in Windows ExplorerYou can copy move delete and rename any item that appears in the Catalog tree or in the Contents window As example create a new folder and copy some existing data into it

Create a new folder

In the Catalog tree select your XExercise folder

Right click to open the context menu

Select New and click Folder

Fig 120 Creating a new folder with ArcCatalogArc-Catalog metadata editor

Type a new name for the folder you have just created eg

lsquoMy_folderrsquo

Copy the Personal Geodatabase ldquoLarge_enschedemdbrdquo to the

new folder

Make sure that none of the Feature Classes is active You should seenothing displayed in the Contents the Preview and the Metadata windowsIf any of the Feature Classes is active ArcCatalog locks the PersonalGeodatabase and returns an error when you try to copy itIt is easy to manage files and folders in ArcCatalog You can also create(empty) geo-spatial data sets You will learn this later in the course together with filling these data sets with new data through ArcMap

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

You have now explored some functions of ArcCatalog and seen that its mainpurpose is data browsing and basic data management If you want to editgeo-spatial data analyse it or create maps you need another application of the ArcGIS suite ArcMap Most of the exercises that follow will be about the basics of geoinformation processing with ArcMap

Access ArcMap

From the Standard toolbar select the ArcMap Icon

When ArcMap opens you will be prompted to select one of the followingan empty map a new template or an existing mapYou will do this in the next exercise So can stop here and exit ArcMap

In the ArcMap dialog window ignore the different options and

click OK From the File menu select Exit

Alternatively you can switch the display from Geography to Table and viewthe attribute table associated with the geography

Fig14 Detailed Preview of the geographic data

View and create metadata

Metadata contains properties and documentation describing the data Properties are derived from the data source like data type (eg shapefile) andgeometry type (eg polygon) Documentation is additional information thathelps to understand origin and content eg title summary description ownership publication date language of the dataset date of metadata creation A popular definition of metadata is lsquodata about datarsquo

Fig 15 Preview of the attributes associated with the geographic data

Fig 16 Metadata describes the properties and documents thedata

ArcCatalog has a built-in metadata editor The metadata editor can be usedto store additional information or to create new metadata when no metadataexist

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

Once you have examined the data using ArcCatalog you may want to dosome analyses or create a map using ArcMap You can open ArcMap by1048713 double-clicking on an ArcMap document ArcMap documents can berecognized by the following icon and the extension mxd1048713 pressing the ArcMap button on the Standard toolbar

Manage data sources

ArcCatalog contains functionalities to manage and organize your data Management functions include deleting copying or renaming data sets To organize a well-ordered library of spatial data (either on your local hard drive or in the network environment) ArcCatalog includes functions such as creatingnew folders and new geo-databases

14 Basic functions of ArcCatalog

You will now use some basic functions to illustrate some of the functionalities

mentioned in the previous section

Browse for maps and data

To browse data you first have to establish a connection to the locationwhere the data is stored This location can be a local disk (C or D

drive) orsome network drive You were asked to copy the data from Blackboard

toyour personal directory - on x - so you have to establish a connection to your M drive

1048713 In the Standard toolbar (see Fig 12) find the Connect to Folder

button and click on it

1048713 In the Dialog Window navigate to the XExcercize see Fig 17

1048713 Click OK

fig 17 Connect to Folder dialog window

Notice that the E drive is now added in the Catalog tree

1048713 Click on the plus sign next to the icon of the XExercize in the Catalog tree to expand the tree one level and see its contents

1048713 Select the Exercise folder by clicking once on its icon You will see all the files datasets and subfolders stored under the selected folder

Letrsquos have a closer look at the content of the subfolders of the Exercise

Browse for data

1048713 Continue to expand the tree double-click on the icons o f ExercisegtIndia_sd

Notice that the content in the folder India is displayed with a different icon in the Contents tab This is because lsquoIndiamdbrsquo is a Personal Geodatabase

Explore the contents of the Personal Geodatabase

Double click on the icon of the lsquoIndiamdbrsquo Personal Geodatabase

The layers in the Personal Geodatabase are now displayed Layers within aPersonal Geodatabase are called Feature Classes

Explore the buttons from the Standard toolbar Which button allows you tofind out the type of these data

Answer

Notice that if you leave the mouse cursor on a button for a few seconds a tool tip with the name of the button will appear

Encircle the data type of each of the following feature classes

Hint analyse the feature class properties

Buildings Points - Lines ndash Polygons

India_ds Points ndash Lines - Polygons

india_placename Points

india_st Points - Lines ndash Polygons

railways Points - Lines ndash Polygons

india_roads Points - Lines ndash Polygons

waterways Points - Lines ndash Polygons

To learn more about the data types refer to the Help menu lsquoArcGIS DesktopHelprsquo on the Contents tab Data management with ArcCatalog Gettingstarted with ArcCatalog Whatrsquos in the Catalog

In the Standard toolbar one of the view options is Thumbnails A thumbnail is a snapshot of the geography of a file

Change the view to Thumbnails Locate the appropriate button by moving the mouse over each button of the Standard toolbar

Wait for the tool tip that shows

Make sure that you have the Contents tab selected (see Fig 13)

Although the view is set to thumbnails you see that only some featureclasses are displayed as thumbnails while the others are simply displayedas large icons This is because thumbnails are not created automatically but you need to specifically create them

Create Thumbnail

In the Contents tab select a Feature Class without thumbnail Select the Preview tab

ArcCatalog displays a preview of the geography of the selected Feature Class This preview can now be used to create a snapshot (Thumbnail)

From the Geography toolbar select Create Thumbnail and click once

Next return to the Contents tab and notice the icon has changed into a small image of the preview

Convert all remaining icons in the sub-subfolder map elements into Thumbnails

Explore the data

You have learnt to browse data from different sources In the next sectionyou will explore the data by displaying both its geography and its attributes

Exploring Geographic data

Most GIS data sets have a geographic and a tabular component ArcCatalogallows you to preview either of them you can toggle between them using the dropdown list at the bottom of the Preview window

Use the Preview tab

Fig 18 Result of producing the Thumbnails within the Contentstab

Fig 19 Toggle the contents of the Preview window

Select the file India_ boundary Feature Class from the Catalog tree

Select the Preview tab

What you see now in the preview is a vector dataset with the boundaries ofindia_sd of the You can use the Geography toolbar to explore the geographic data (Fig 110)

The Zoom In Out buttons allow you to control the level of detail or the extent of the area that is displayed in the preview window

Select an area of interest

Click the Zoom In button from the Geography toolbar

Click and drag a box over your area of interest then release the mouse The area you have defined will now enlarge to occupy the entire display area of the Preview window

Fig 110 The buttons of the Geographic toolbar

You have now enlarged the central part of the Feature Class the part that falls outside the Preview window it is not displayed To maintain the same scale and see the data beyond the display select the Pan button The Pan button allows you to drag the display in any direction

Fig 111 Defining the geographicarea to enlarge

Fig 112 Preview of the geographyat an enlarged scale

Click and drag a box to define your area of interest

The selected area at an enlarge scale

Click on Zoom

Use Pan button

Select the Pan button from the Geographic Toolbar

Click and hold the mouse button at any point in the display window

Move the mouse and notice that the display will follow the movements of the mouse

Release the mouse and the display will refresh

Practice the Pan button to move around the data maintaining the same visualization scale

When you are finish exploring the data at a selected zoom level the Full Extent button allows you to return to the full extent of the feature class

Use Full extent button

Click the Full Extent button and notice that the whole area is now

displayed

The Identify button allows you to retrieve attribute information of a feature -here the name of a neighborhood - if you point at it with the mouse

Click inside theneighborhoodfor which youwant the to

All the attributesof the selectedneighborhoodare displayed in aseparate

Fig 113 Process to identify theattributes of a feature

Use the Identify button

Click the Identify button

Click inside one of the neighborhoods in the india_sd area

Study the Identify Results window Yoursquoll notice that one of the attributes displayed is the name of the india_sd

You can click inside other neighborhoods to view their attributes

If you are finished viewing the attributes in this way close the

Identify results window (click on the little cross in the top right corner)

Exploring Tabular data

Now look at the attribute table of the india_sd Feature Class

Preview tables

Change the dropdown list in the Preview to Table (Fig 15 19)

There are several options that allow you to personalize the display of the tablein the preview

Change how tables look

If you want to change the appearance of the table (eg to improve the readabilityof the text) you can change the default settings Eg you may highlighta selection in lsquodark greenrsquo in stead of the default lsquopale bluersquo and youmay set the font size to 10pt

Change default settings

Click on the heading of one of the columns Notice that the whole column turns from white to pale blue

From the menu Tools select Options

A tabbed dialog window appears Select the tab Tables

Change the default settings to match the settings indicated above

Examine the visual result in the table

Change the width of a column

Depending on the font size and length of records some of the informationmay be hidden andor not readable To increase readability you may want to change the width of the columns

Change width of a column

Position the mouse over the extreme right edge of the column

heading DST_ID (notice the pointer of the cursor changes to )

Click here to selectthe color you wantto use to highlightselections

Click here to typethe new font size

Fig 114 Dialog window to setArcCatalog options

Double-click with the left mouse button The column width will

now be adjusted to the width of the longest entry in that column

Alternatively click and drag the columnrsquos edge to an acceptable width

Release the mouse

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session the default column width will be restored

Change the position of a column

Sometimes tables contain many columns In order to work efficient you maywant to rearrange the columns and to position the ones you need next to each other

Reposition a column

Click the column heading DST_ID (notice that the whole column

changes to the default color you have just selected)

Click the column again and hold down the mouse button

Drag the column heading to the location between the columns SHAPE and OBJECTID (notice a red line indicates the new location of the column ID_)

Release the mouse button

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session the columns will resume their default positions

Freeze a column

Sometimes you may want to compare the values in one column with the values

in the another columns This can be facilitated by lsquofreezingrsquo them

FreezeUnfreeze Columns

Right-click on the column heading DISTRICT

Click FreezeUnfreeze Column

Scroll horizontally by moving the horizontal slider to the right Notice that the column NAME1_ remains visible

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session all columns will be automatically unfrozen

Sorting columns

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

Sort Records

Right-click the column DISTRICT

In the drop-down list click Sort Ascending

Scroll down the list and notice that the numbers increase

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session records will resume their default order

Calculate statistics

You can display the basic statistics of numeric fields in an attribute table

Calculate statistics

Right-click the heading AREA_

In the drop-down list select the option Statistics

The Statistics dialog box pops up and displays all information about the values in the column AREA_

Adding a column

It is possible to add a column in the attribute table of a geodata layer and todefine its properties Notice however that ArcCatalog will not allow you toenter andor modify the data in the records You will see the editing processlater in exercise 2 when dealing with ArcMap functions

Add a field to a table

Click the button Options at the bottom of the Preview window and click Add Field See Fig 115

In the dialog window of Add Field fill in the name of the new column Leave the rest of the properties as they are (we will treat this later)

Click OK

View and editing metadata

Metadata describes data in a standardized way Metadata are used tosearch for and exchange data Examples of metadata are file name dataformat data quality data accuracy reference system ownership availability creation date update status description of attribute names etc

By looking at the metadata of a data set you should be able to decide if theset can be used for your application Eg do you need to adapt data to integrate it into your application (eg change its projection) can you access the data who to contact to get it are there cost involved etc

Fig 115 Preview window ndash table mode

There are a several standards for metadata Standards provide commonterminology and definitions for the documentation of digital data For geospatial data the two main standards are defined by

the International Organization for Standardizations (ISO) with the document

19115 ldquoGeographic Information ndash Metadatardquothe Federal Geographic Data Committees (FGDC) of the United States

It is very important to study the metadata before you use geospatial data obtained

from somebody else and to accurately describe the metadata for the geospatial data that

you produce

Have a look at the metadata of the Feature Class india_dsExplore metadata

In the Catalog tree select india_ds

In the view area click the Metadata tab to visualize the metadata information window

Scroll through the metadata and study itsrsquo contents

As explained in section 13 metadata consist of properties and documentationProperties are derived from the data itself and documentation is additionaldescriptive information generally supplied by the data creator But anyuser with writing access can change or add content to the metadata

ArcCatalog offers a number of ways to display the metadata using differentlsquoStylesheetsrsquo Stylesheets define the way in which the metadata is displayed By default ArcCatalog displays metadata using the FGDC ESRI stylesheet

Changing stylesheets

Select any of the stylesheets

Notice the changes in the format of the metadata

Editing metadata

You can create the metadata for a new data set or change existing metadata

Fig 116 Metadata windowndash Default Style sheet

Fig 117 Choosing a Metadata Stylesheet

by using ArcCatalogrsquos metadata editor For example change the metadataof the india_ds Feature Class The data set was produced by -and obtained from - IIRS India You will add informationabout the IIRS to give them the credits they deserve and include them as distributor The address details are as follows

Organisation Indian Institute of Remote SensingAddress Kalidas RoadDehradunProvince UtteranchalPostal code India

Edit metadata

Click the button Edit metadata in the Metadata toolbar

A dialog window opens Notice that a number of fields have the word ldquoREQUIREDrdquo(IN RED) and a brief description of the type of information expectedin that field The red font is meant to emphasize that these fields arepart of the minimum information required by the metadata standard For thetime being add some of the required data Follow the numerical sequenceas indicated in Fig 118 and 119

First select Distribution at the top of the dialog window (Fig 118)

Next click on the Distribution tab then click on the Detailshellip

button 3 This will open another dialog window

21

1

2

Select the Organization 4 option and click on the Address 5 tab

Enter name 6 and address of the organization 7 in the appropriate

fields

Click OK and Save

3

4

6

7

5

Fig 118 Example of steps to edit metadata

Fig 119 Editing contactinformation with the Arc-

View the updated information in the metadata window Note that some part of the stylesheet will not include all the metadata To check the updated information select the FGDC stylesheet and click on the Distribution Information link

Manage data sources

In ArcCatalog you can manage your data in a similar way as in Windows ExplorerYou can copy move delete and rename any item that appears in the Catalog tree or in the Contents window As example create a new folder and copy some existing data into it

Create a new folder

In the Catalog tree select your XExercise folder

Right click to open the context menu

Select New and click Folder

Fig 120 Creating a new folder with ArcCatalogArc-Catalog metadata editor

Type a new name for the folder you have just created eg

lsquoMy_folderrsquo

Copy the Personal Geodatabase ldquoLarge_enschedemdbrdquo to the

new folder

Make sure that none of the Feature Classes is active You should seenothing displayed in the Contents the Preview and the Metadata windowsIf any of the Feature Classes is active ArcCatalog locks the PersonalGeodatabase and returns an error when you try to copy itIt is easy to manage files and folders in ArcCatalog You can also create(empty) geo-spatial data sets You will learn this later in the course together with filling these data sets with new data through ArcMap

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

You have now explored some functions of ArcCatalog and seen that its mainpurpose is data browsing and basic data management If you want to editgeo-spatial data analyse it or create maps you need another application of the ArcGIS suite ArcMap Most of the exercises that follow will be about the basics of geoinformation processing with ArcMap

Access ArcMap

From the Standard toolbar select the ArcMap Icon

When ArcMap opens you will be prompted to select one of the followingan empty map a new template or an existing mapYou will do this in the next exercise So can stop here and exit ArcMap

In the ArcMap dialog window ignore the different options and

click OK From the File menu select Exit

View and create metadata

Metadata contains properties and documentation describing the data Properties are derived from the data source like data type (eg shapefile) andgeometry type (eg polygon) Documentation is additional information thathelps to understand origin and content eg title summary description ownership publication date language of the dataset date of metadata creation A popular definition of metadata is lsquodata about datarsquo

Fig 15 Preview of the attributes associated with the geographic data

Fig 16 Metadata describes the properties and documents thedata

ArcCatalog has a built-in metadata editor The metadata editor can be usedto store additional information or to create new metadata when no metadataexist

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

Once you have examined the data using ArcCatalog you may want to dosome analyses or create a map using ArcMap You can open ArcMap by1048713 double-clicking on an ArcMap document ArcMap documents can berecognized by the following icon and the extension mxd1048713 pressing the ArcMap button on the Standard toolbar

Manage data sources

ArcCatalog contains functionalities to manage and organize your data Management functions include deleting copying or renaming data sets To organize a well-ordered library of spatial data (either on your local hard drive or in the network environment) ArcCatalog includes functions such as creatingnew folders and new geo-databases

14 Basic functions of ArcCatalog

You will now use some basic functions to illustrate some of the functionalities

mentioned in the previous section

Browse for maps and data

To browse data you first have to establish a connection to the locationwhere the data is stored This location can be a local disk (C or D

drive) orsome network drive You were asked to copy the data from Blackboard

toyour personal directory - on x - so you have to establish a connection to your M drive

1048713 In the Standard toolbar (see Fig 12) find the Connect to Folder

button and click on it

1048713 In the Dialog Window navigate to the XExcercize see Fig 17

1048713 Click OK

fig 17 Connect to Folder dialog window

Notice that the E drive is now added in the Catalog tree

1048713 Click on the plus sign next to the icon of the XExercize in the Catalog tree to expand the tree one level and see its contents

1048713 Select the Exercise folder by clicking once on its icon You will see all the files datasets and subfolders stored under the selected folder

Letrsquos have a closer look at the content of the subfolders of the Exercise

Browse for data

1048713 Continue to expand the tree double-click on the icons o f ExercisegtIndia_sd

Notice that the content in the folder India is displayed with a different icon in the Contents tab This is because lsquoIndiamdbrsquo is a Personal Geodatabase

Explore the contents of the Personal Geodatabase

Double click on the icon of the lsquoIndiamdbrsquo Personal Geodatabase

The layers in the Personal Geodatabase are now displayed Layers within aPersonal Geodatabase are called Feature Classes

Explore the buttons from the Standard toolbar Which button allows you tofind out the type of these data

Answer

Notice that if you leave the mouse cursor on a button for a few seconds a tool tip with the name of the button will appear

Encircle the data type of each of the following feature classes

Hint analyse the feature class properties

Buildings Points - Lines ndash Polygons

India_ds Points ndash Lines - Polygons

india_placename Points

india_st Points - Lines ndash Polygons

railways Points - Lines ndash Polygons

india_roads Points - Lines ndash Polygons

waterways Points - Lines ndash Polygons

To learn more about the data types refer to the Help menu lsquoArcGIS DesktopHelprsquo on the Contents tab Data management with ArcCatalog Gettingstarted with ArcCatalog Whatrsquos in the Catalog

In the Standard toolbar one of the view options is Thumbnails A thumbnail is a snapshot of the geography of a file

Change the view to Thumbnails Locate the appropriate button by moving the mouse over each button of the Standard toolbar

Wait for the tool tip that shows

Make sure that you have the Contents tab selected (see Fig 13)

Although the view is set to thumbnails you see that only some featureclasses are displayed as thumbnails while the others are simply displayedas large icons This is because thumbnails are not created automatically but you need to specifically create them

Create Thumbnail

In the Contents tab select a Feature Class without thumbnail Select the Preview tab

ArcCatalog displays a preview of the geography of the selected Feature Class This preview can now be used to create a snapshot (Thumbnail)

From the Geography toolbar select Create Thumbnail and click once

Next return to the Contents tab and notice the icon has changed into a small image of the preview

Convert all remaining icons in the sub-subfolder map elements into Thumbnails

Explore the data

You have learnt to browse data from different sources In the next sectionyou will explore the data by displaying both its geography and its attributes

Exploring Geographic data

Most GIS data sets have a geographic and a tabular component ArcCatalogallows you to preview either of them you can toggle between them using the dropdown list at the bottom of the Preview window

Use the Preview tab

Fig 18 Result of producing the Thumbnails within the Contentstab

Fig 19 Toggle the contents of the Preview window

Select the file India_ boundary Feature Class from the Catalog tree

Select the Preview tab

What you see now in the preview is a vector dataset with the boundaries ofindia_sd of the You can use the Geography toolbar to explore the geographic data (Fig 110)

The Zoom In Out buttons allow you to control the level of detail or the extent of the area that is displayed in the preview window

Select an area of interest

Click the Zoom In button from the Geography toolbar

Click and drag a box over your area of interest then release the mouse The area you have defined will now enlarge to occupy the entire display area of the Preview window

Fig 110 The buttons of the Geographic toolbar

You have now enlarged the central part of the Feature Class the part that falls outside the Preview window it is not displayed To maintain the same scale and see the data beyond the display select the Pan button The Pan button allows you to drag the display in any direction

Fig 111 Defining the geographicarea to enlarge

Fig 112 Preview of the geographyat an enlarged scale

Click and drag a box to define your area of interest

The selected area at an enlarge scale

Click on Zoom

Use Pan button

Select the Pan button from the Geographic Toolbar

Click and hold the mouse button at any point in the display window

Move the mouse and notice that the display will follow the movements of the mouse

Release the mouse and the display will refresh

Practice the Pan button to move around the data maintaining the same visualization scale

When you are finish exploring the data at a selected zoom level the Full Extent button allows you to return to the full extent of the feature class

Use Full extent button

Click the Full Extent button and notice that the whole area is now

displayed

The Identify button allows you to retrieve attribute information of a feature -here the name of a neighborhood - if you point at it with the mouse

Click inside theneighborhoodfor which youwant the to

All the attributesof the selectedneighborhoodare displayed in aseparate

Fig 113 Process to identify theattributes of a feature

Use the Identify button

Click the Identify button

Click inside one of the neighborhoods in the india_sd area

Study the Identify Results window Yoursquoll notice that one of the attributes displayed is the name of the india_sd

You can click inside other neighborhoods to view their attributes

If you are finished viewing the attributes in this way close the

Identify results window (click on the little cross in the top right corner)

Exploring Tabular data

Now look at the attribute table of the india_sd Feature Class

Preview tables

Change the dropdown list in the Preview to Table (Fig 15 19)

There are several options that allow you to personalize the display of the tablein the preview

Change how tables look

If you want to change the appearance of the table (eg to improve the readabilityof the text) you can change the default settings Eg you may highlighta selection in lsquodark greenrsquo in stead of the default lsquopale bluersquo and youmay set the font size to 10pt

Change default settings

Click on the heading of one of the columns Notice that the whole column turns from white to pale blue

From the menu Tools select Options

A tabbed dialog window appears Select the tab Tables

Change the default settings to match the settings indicated above

Examine the visual result in the table

Change the width of a column

Depending on the font size and length of records some of the informationmay be hidden andor not readable To increase readability you may want to change the width of the columns

Change width of a column

Position the mouse over the extreme right edge of the column

heading DST_ID (notice the pointer of the cursor changes to )

Click here to selectthe color you wantto use to highlightselections

Click here to typethe new font size

Fig 114 Dialog window to setArcCatalog options

Double-click with the left mouse button The column width will

now be adjusted to the width of the longest entry in that column

Alternatively click and drag the columnrsquos edge to an acceptable width

Release the mouse

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session the default column width will be restored

Change the position of a column

Sometimes tables contain many columns In order to work efficient you maywant to rearrange the columns and to position the ones you need next to each other

Reposition a column

Click the column heading DST_ID (notice that the whole column

changes to the default color you have just selected)

Click the column again and hold down the mouse button

Drag the column heading to the location between the columns SHAPE and OBJECTID (notice a red line indicates the new location of the column ID_)

Release the mouse button

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session the columns will resume their default positions

Freeze a column

Sometimes you may want to compare the values in one column with the values

in the another columns This can be facilitated by lsquofreezingrsquo them

FreezeUnfreeze Columns

Right-click on the column heading DISTRICT

Click FreezeUnfreeze Column

Scroll horizontally by moving the horizontal slider to the right Notice that the column NAME1_ remains visible

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session all columns will be automatically unfrozen

Sorting columns

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

Sort Records

Right-click the column DISTRICT

In the drop-down list click Sort Ascending

Scroll down the list and notice that the numbers increase

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session records will resume their default order

Calculate statistics

You can display the basic statistics of numeric fields in an attribute table

Calculate statistics

Right-click the heading AREA_

In the drop-down list select the option Statistics

The Statistics dialog box pops up and displays all information about the values in the column AREA_

Adding a column

It is possible to add a column in the attribute table of a geodata layer and todefine its properties Notice however that ArcCatalog will not allow you toenter andor modify the data in the records You will see the editing processlater in exercise 2 when dealing with ArcMap functions

Add a field to a table

Click the button Options at the bottom of the Preview window and click Add Field See Fig 115

In the dialog window of Add Field fill in the name of the new column Leave the rest of the properties as they are (we will treat this later)

Click OK

View and editing metadata

Metadata describes data in a standardized way Metadata are used tosearch for and exchange data Examples of metadata are file name dataformat data quality data accuracy reference system ownership availability creation date update status description of attribute names etc

By looking at the metadata of a data set you should be able to decide if theset can be used for your application Eg do you need to adapt data to integrate it into your application (eg change its projection) can you access the data who to contact to get it are there cost involved etc

Fig 115 Preview window ndash table mode

There are a several standards for metadata Standards provide commonterminology and definitions for the documentation of digital data For geospatial data the two main standards are defined by

the International Organization for Standardizations (ISO) with the document

19115 ldquoGeographic Information ndash Metadatardquothe Federal Geographic Data Committees (FGDC) of the United States

It is very important to study the metadata before you use geospatial data obtained

from somebody else and to accurately describe the metadata for the geospatial data that

you produce

Have a look at the metadata of the Feature Class india_dsExplore metadata

In the Catalog tree select india_ds

In the view area click the Metadata tab to visualize the metadata information window

Scroll through the metadata and study itsrsquo contents

As explained in section 13 metadata consist of properties and documentationProperties are derived from the data itself and documentation is additionaldescriptive information generally supplied by the data creator But anyuser with writing access can change or add content to the metadata

ArcCatalog offers a number of ways to display the metadata using differentlsquoStylesheetsrsquo Stylesheets define the way in which the metadata is displayed By default ArcCatalog displays metadata using the FGDC ESRI stylesheet

Changing stylesheets

Select any of the stylesheets

Notice the changes in the format of the metadata

Editing metadata

You can create the metadata for a new data set or change existing metadata

Fig 116 Metadata windowndash Default Style sheet

Fig 117 Choosing a Metadata Stylesheet

by using ArcCatalogrsquos metadata editor For example change the metadataof the india_ds Feature Class The data set was produced by -and obtained from - IIRS India You will add informationabout the IIRS to give them the credits they deserve and include them as distributor The address details are as follows

Organisation Indian Institute of Remote SensingAddress Kalidas RoadDehradunProvince UtteranchalPostal code India

Edit metadata

Click the button Edit metadata in the Metadata toolbar

A dialog window opens Notice that a number of fields have the word ldquoREQUIREDrdquo(IN RED) and a brief description of the type of information expectedin that field The red font is meant to emphasize that these fields arepart of the minimum information required by the metadata standard For thetime being add some of the required data Follow the numerical sequenceas indicated in Fig 118 and 119

First select Distribution at the top of the dialog window (Fig 118)

Next click on the Distribution tab then click on the Detailshellip

button 3 This will open another dialog window

21

1

2

Select the Organization 4 option and click on the Address 5 tab

Enter name 6 and address of the organization 7 in the appropriate

fields

Click OK and Save

3

4

6

7

5

Fig 118 Example of steps to edit metadata

Fig 119 Editing contactinformation with the Arc-

View the updated information in the metadata window Note that some part of the stylesheet will not include all the metadata To check the updated information select the FGDC stylesheet and click on the Distribution Information link

Manage data sources

In ArcCatalog you can manage your data in a similar way as in Windows ExplorerYou can copy move delete and rename any item that appears in the Catalog tree or in the Contents window As example create a new folder and copy some existing data into it

Create a new folder

In the Catalog tree select your XExercise folder

Right click to open the context menu

Select New and click Folder

Fig 120 Creating a new folder with ArcCatalogArc-Catalog metadata editor

Type a new name for the folder you have just created eg

lsquoMy_folderrsquo

Copy the Personal Geodatabase ldquoLarge_enschedemdbrdquo to the

new folder

Make sure that none of the Feature Classes is active You should seenothing displayed in the Contents the Preview and the Metadata windowsIf any of the Feature Classes is active ArcCatalog locks the PersonalGeodatabase and returns an error when you try to copy itIt is easy to manage files and folders in ArcCatalog You can also create(empty) geo-spatial data sets You will learn this later in the course together with filling these data sets with new data through ArcMap

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

You have now explored some functions of ArcCatalog and seen that its mainpurpose is data browsing and basic data management If you want to editgeo-spatial data analyse it or create maps you need another application of the ArcGIS suite ArcMap Most of the exercises that follow will be about the basics of geoinformation processing with ArcMap

Access ArcMap

From the Standard toolbar select the ArcMap Icon

When ArcMap opens you will be prompted to select one of the followingan empty map a new template or an existing mapYou will do this in the next exercise So can stop here and exit ArcMap

In the ArcMap dialog window ignore the different options and

click OK From the File menu select Exit

Fig 16 Metadata describes the properties and documents thedata

ArcCatalog has a built-in metadata editor The metadata editor can be usedto store additional information or to create new metadata when no metadataexist

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

Once you have examined the data using ArcCatalog you may want to dosome analyses or create a map using ArcMap You can open ArcMap by1048713 double-clicking on an ArcMap document ArcMap documents can berecognized by the following icon and the extension mxd1048713 pressing the ArcMap button on the Standard toolbar

Manage data sources

ArcCatalog contains functionalities to manage and organize your data Management functions include deleting copying or renaming data sets To organize a well-ordered library of spatial data (either on your local hard drive or in the network environment) ArcCatalog includes functions such as creatingnew folders and new geo-databases

14 Basic functions of ArcCatalog

You will now use some basic functions to illustrate some of the functionalities

mentioned in the previous section

Browse for maps and data

To browse data you first have to establish a connection to the locationwhere the data is stored This location can be a local disk (C or D

drive) orsome network drive You were asked to copy the data from Blackboard

toyour personal directory - on x - so you have to establish a connection to your M drive

1048713 In the Standard toolbar (see Fig 12) find the Connect to Folder

button and click on it

1048713 In the Dialog Window navigate to the XExcercize see Fig 17

1048713 Click OK

fig 17 Connect to Folder dialog window

Notice that the E drive is now added in the Catalog tree

1048713 Click on the plus sign next to the icon of the XExercize in the Catalog tree to expand the tree one level and see its contents

1048713 Select the Exercise folder by clicking once on its icon You will see all the files datasets and subfolders stored under the selected folder

Letrsquos have a closer look at the content of the subfolders of the Exercise

Browse for data

1048713 Continue to expand the tree double-click on the icons o f ExercisegtIndia_sd

Notice that the content in the folder India is displayed with a different icon in the Contents tab This is because lsquoIndiamdbrsquo is a Personal Geodatabase

Explore the contents of the Personal Geodatabase

Double click on the icon of the lsquoIndiamdbrsquo Personal Geodatabase

The layers in the Personal Geodatabase are now displayed Layers within aPersonal Geodatabase are called Feature Classes

Explore the buttons from the Standard toolbar Which button allows you tofind out the type of these data

Answer

Notice that if you leave the mouse cursor on a button for a few seconds a tool tip with the name of the button will appear

Encircle the data type of each of the following feature classes

Hint analyse the feature class properties

Buildings Points - Lines ndash Polygons

India_ds Points ndash Lines - Polygons

india_placename Points

india_st Points - Lines ndash Polygons

railways Points - Lines ndash Polygons

india_roads Points - Lines ndash Polygons

waterways Points - Lines ndash Polygons

To learn more about the data types refer to the Help menu lsquoArcGIS DesktopHelprsquo on the Contents tab Data management with ArcCatalog Gettingstarted with ArcCatalog Whatrsquos in the Catalog

In the Standard toolbar one of the view options is Thumbnails A thumbnail is a snapshot of the geography of a file

Change the view to Thumbnails Locate the appropriate button by moving the mouse over each button of the Standard toolbar

Wait for the tool tip that shows

Make sure that you have the Contents tab selected (see Fig 13)

Although the view is set to thumbnails you see that only some featureclasses are displayed as thumbnails while the others are simply displayedas large icons This is because thumbnails are not created automatically but you need to specifically create them

Create Thumbnail

In the Contents tab select a Feature Class without thumbnail Select the Preview tab

ArcCatalog displays a preview of the geography of the selected Feature Class This preview can now be used to create a snapshot (Thumbnail)

From the Geography toolbar select Create Thumbnail and click once

Next return to the Contents tab and notice the icon has changed into a small image of the preview

Convert all remaining icons in the sub-subfolder map elements into Thumbnails

Explore the data

You have learnt to browse data from different sources In the next sectionyou will explore the data by displaying both its geography and its attributes

Exploring Geographic data

Most GIS data sets have a geographic and a tabular component ArcCatalogallows you to preview either of them you can toggle between them using the dropdown list at the bottom of the Preview window

Use the Preview tab

Fig 18 Result of producing the Thumbnails within the Contentstab

Fig 19 Toggle the contents of the Preview window

Select the file India_ boundary Feature Class from the Catalog tree

Select the Preview tab

What you see now in the preview is a vector dataset with the boundaries ofindia_sd of the You can use the Geography toolbar to explore the geographic data (Fig 110)

The Zoom In Out buttons allow you to control the level of detail or the extent of the area that is displayed in the preview window

Select an area of interest

Click the Zoom In button from the Geography toolbar

Click and drag a box over your area of interest then release the mouse The area you have defined will now enlarge to occupy the entire display area of the Preview window

Fig 110 The buttons of the Geographic toolbar

You have now enlarged the central part of the Feature Class the part that falls outside the Preview window it is not displayed To maintain the same scale and see the data beyond the display select the Pan button The Pan button allows you to drag the display in any direction

Fig 111 Defining the geographicarea to enlarge

Fig 112 Preview of the geographyat an enlarged scale

Click and drag a box to define your area of interest

The selected area at an enlarge scale

Click on Zoom

Use Pan button

Select the Pan button from the Geographic Toolbar

Click and hold the mouse button at any point in the display window

Move the mouse and notice that the display will follow the movements of the mouse

Release the mouse and the display will refresh

Practice the Pan button to move around the data maintaining the same visualization scale

When you are finish exploring the data at a selected zoom level the Full Extent button allows you to return to the full extent of the feature class

Use Full extent button

Click the Full Extent button and notice that the whole area is now

displayed

The Identify button allows you to retrieve attribute information of a feature -here the name of a neighborhood - if you point at it with the mouse

Click inside theneighborhoodfor which youwant the to

All the attributesof the selectedneighborhoodare displayed in aseparate

Fig 113 Process to identify theattributes of a feature

Use the Identify button

Click the Identify button

Click inside one of the neighborhoods in the india_sd area

Study the Identify Results window Yoursquoll notice that one of the attributes displayed is the name of the india_sd

You can click inside other neighborhoods to view their attributes

If you are finished viewing the attributes in this way close the

Identify results window (click on the little cross in the top right corner)

Exploring Tabular data

Now look at the attribute table of the india_sd Feature Class

Preview tables

Change the dropdown list in the Preview to Table (Fig 15 19)

There are several options that allow you to personalize the display of the tablein the preview

Change how tables look

If you want to change the appearance of the table (eg to improve the readabilityof the text) you can change the default settings Eg you may highlighta selection in lsquodark greenrsquo in stead of the default lsquopale bluersquo and youmay set the font size to 10pt

Change default settings

Click on the heading of one of the columns Notice that the whole column turns from white to pale blue

From the menu Tools select Options

A tabbed dialog window appears Select the tab Tables

Change the default settings to match the settings indicated above

Examine the visual result in the table

Change the width of a column

Depending on the font size and length of records some of the informationmay be hidden andor not readable To increase readability you may want to change the width of the columns

Change width of a column

Position the mouse over the extreme right edge of the column

heading DST_ID (notice the pointer of the cursor changes to )

Click here to selectthe color you wantto use to highlightselections

Click here to typethe new font size

Fig 114 Dialog window to setArcCatalog options

Double-click with the left mouse button The column width will

now be adjusted to the width of the longest entry in that column

Alternatively click and drag the columnrsquos edge to an acceptable width

Release the mouse

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session the default column width will be restored

Change the position of a column

Sometimes tables contain many columns In order to work efficient you maywant to rearrange the columns and to position the ones you need next to each other

Reposition a column

Click the column heading DST_ID (notice that the whole column

changes to the default color you have just selected)

Click the column again and hold down the mouse button

Drag the column heading to the location between the columns SHAPE and OBJECTID (notice a red line indicates the new location of the column ID_)

Release the mouse button

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session the columns will resume their default positions

Freeze a column

Sometimes you may want to compare the values in one column with the values

in the another columns This can be facilitated by lsquofreezingrsquo them

FreezeUnfreeze Columns

Right-click on the column heading DISTRICT

Click FreezeUnfreeze Column

Scroll horizontally by moving the horizontal slider to the right Notice that the column NAME1_ remains visible

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session all columns will be automatically unfrozen

Sorting columns

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

Sort Records

Right-click the column DISTRICT

In the drop-down list click Sort Ascending

Scroll down the list and notice that the numbers increase

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session records will resume their default order

Calculate statistics

You can display the basic statistics of numeric fields in an attribute table

Calculate statistics

Right-click the heading AREA_

In the drop-down list select the option Statistics

The Statistics dialog box pops up and displays all information about the values in the column AREA_

Adding a column

It is possible to add a column in the attribute table of a geodata layer and todefine its properties Notice however that ArcCatalog will not allow you toenter andor modify the data in the records You will see the editing processlater in exercise 2 when dealing with ArcMap functions

Add a field to a table

Click the button Options at the bottom of the Preview window and click Add Field See Fig 115

In the dialog window of Add Field fill in the name of the new column Leave the rest of the properties as they are (we will treat this later)

Click OK

View and editing metadata

Metadata describes data in a standardized way Metadata are used tosearch for and exchange data Examples of metadata are file name dataformat data quality data accuracy reference system ownership availability creation date update status description of attribute names etc

By looking at the metadata of a data set you should be able to decide if theset can be used for your application Eg do you need to adapt data to integrate it into your application (eg change its projection) can you access the data who to contact to get it are there cost involved etc

Fig 115 Preview window ndash table mode

There are a several standards for metadata Standards provide commonterminology and definitions for the documentation of digital data For geospatial data the two main standards are defined by

the International Organization for Standardizations (ISO) with the document

19115 ldquoGeographic Information ndash Metadatardquothe Federal Geographic Data Committees (FGDC) of the United States

It is very important to study the metadata before you use geospatial data obtained

from somebody else and to accurately describe the metadata for the geospatial data that

you produce

Have a look at the metadata of the Feature Class india_dsExplore metadata

In the Catalog tree select india_ds

In the view area click the Metadata tab to visualize the metadata information window

Scroll through the metadata and study itsrsquo contents

As explained in section 13 metadata consist of properties and documentationProperties are derived from the data itself and documentation is additionaldescriptive information generally supplied by the data creator But anyuser with writing access can change or add content to the metadata

ArcCatalog offers a number of ways to display the metadata using differentlsquoStylesheetsrsquo Stylesheets define the way in which the metadata is displayed By default ArcCatalog displays metadata using the FGDC ESRI stylesheet

Changing stylesheets

Select any of the stylesheets

Notice the changes in the format of the metadata

Editing metadata

You can create the metadata for a new data set or change existing metadata

Fig 116 Metadata windowndash Default Style sheet

Fig 117 Choosing a Metadata Stylesheet

by using ArcCatalogrsquos metadata editor For example change the metadataof the india_ds Feature Class The data set was produced by -and obtained from - IIRS India You will add informationabout the IIRS to give them the credits they deserve and include them as distributor The address details are as follows

Organisation Indian Institute of Remote SensingAddress Kalidas RoadDehradunProvince UtteranchalPostal code India

Edit metadata

Click the button Edit metadata in the Metadata toolbar

A dialog window opens Notice that a number of fields have the word ldquoREQUIREDrdquo(IN RED) and a brief description of the type of information expectedin that field The red font is meant to emphasize that these fields arepart of the minimum information required by the metadata standard For thetime being add some of the required data Follow the numerical sequenceas indicated in Fig 118 and 119

First select Distribution at the top of the dialog window (Fig 118)

Next click on the Distribution tab then click on the Detailshellip

button 3 This will open another dialog window

21

1

2

Select the Organization 4 option and click on the Address 5 tab

Enter name 6 and address of the organization 7 in the appropriate

fields

Click OK and Save

3

4

6

7

5

Fig 118 Example of steps to edit metadata

Fig 119 Editing contactinformation with the Arc-

View the updated information in the metadata window Note that some part of the stylesheet will not include all the metadata To check the updated information select the FGDC stylesheet and click on the Distribution Information link

Manage data sources

In ArcCatalog you can manage your data in a similar way as in Windows ExplorerYou can copy move delete and rename any item that appears in the Catalog tree or in the Contents window As example create a new folder and copy some existing data into it

Create a new folder

In the Catalog tree select your XExercise folder

Right click to open the context menu

Select New and click Folder

Fig 120 Creating a new folder with ArcCatalogArc-Catalog metadata editor

Type a new name for the folder you have just created eg

lsquoMy_folderrsquo

Copy the Personal Geodatabase ldquoLarge_enschedemdbrdquo to the

new folder

Make sure that none of the Feature Classes is active You should seenothing displayed in the Contents the Preview and the Metadata windowsIf any of the Feature Classes is active ArcCatalog locks the PersonalGeodatabase and returns an error when you try to copy itIt is easy to manage files and folders in ArcCatalog You can also create(empty) geo-spatial data sets You will learn this later in the course together with filling these data sets with new data through ArcMap

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

You have now explored some functions of ArcCatalog and seen that its mainpurpose is data browsing and basic data management If you want to editgeo-spatial data analyse it or create maps you need another application of the ArcGIS suite ArcMap Most of the exercises that follow will be about the basics of geoinformation processing with ArcMap

Access ArcMap

From the Standard toolbar select the ArcMap Icon

When ArcMap opens you will be prompted to select one of the followingan empty map a new template or an existing mapYou will do this in the next exercise So can stop here and exit ArcMap

In the ArcMap dialog window ignore the different options and

click OK From the File menu select Exit

ArcCatalog has a built-in metadata editor The metadata editor can be usedto store additional information or to create new metadata when no metadataexist

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

Once you have examined the data using ArcCatalog you may want to dosome analyses or create a map using ArcMap You can open ArcMap by1048713 double-clicking on an ArcMap document ArcMap documents can berecognized by the following icon and the extension mxd1048713 pressing the ArcMap button on the Standard toolbar

Manage data sources

ArcCatalog contains functionalities to manage and organize your data Management functions include deleting copying or renaming data sets To organize a well-ordered library of spatial data (either on your local hard drive or in the network environment) ArcCatalog includes functions such as creatingnew folders and new geo-databases

14 Basic functions of ArcCatalog

You will now use some basic functions to illustrate some of the functionalities

mentioned in the previous section

Browse for maps and data

To browse data you first have to establish a connection to the locationwhere the data is stored This location can be a local disk (C or D

drive) orsome network drive You were asked to copy the data from Blackboard

toyour personal directory - on x - so you have to establish a connection to your M drive

1048713 In the Standard toolbar (see Fig 12) find the Connect to Folder

button and click on it

1048713 In the Dialog Window navigate to the XExcercize see Fig 17

1048713 Click OK

fig 17 Connect to Folder dialog window

Notice that the E drive is now added in the Catalog tree

1048713 Click on the plus sign next to the icon of the XExercize in the Catalog tree to expand the tree one level and see its contents

1048713 Select the Exercise folder by clicking once on its icon You will see all the files datasets and subfolders stored under the selected folder

Letrsquos have a closer look at the content of the subfolders of the Exercise

Browse for data

1048713 Continue to expand the tree double-click on the icons o f ExercisegtIndia_sd

Notice that the content in the folder India is displayed with a different icon in the Contents tab This is because lsquoIndiamdbrsquo is a Personal Geodatabase

Explore the contents of the Personal Geodatabase

Double click on the icon of the lsquoIndiamdbrsquo Personal Geodatabase

The layers in the Personal Geodatabase are now displayed Layers within aPersonal Geodatabase are called Feature Classes

Explore the buttons from the Standard toolbar Which button allows you tofind out the type of these data

Answer

Notice that if you leave the mouse cursor on a button for a few seconds a tool tip with the name of the button will appear

Encircle the data type of each of the following feature classes

Hint analyse the feature class properties

Buildings Points - Lines ndash Polygons

India_ds Points ndash Lines - Polygons

india_placename Points

india_st Points - Lines ndash Polygons

railways Points - Lines ndash Polygons

india_roads Points - Lines ndash Polygons

waterways Points - Lines ndash Polygons

To learn more about the data types refer to the Help menu lsquoArcGIS DesktopHelprsquo on the Contents tab Data management with ArcCatalog Gettingstarted with ArcCatalog Whatrsquos in the Catalog

In the Standard toolbar one of the view options is Thumbnails A thumbnail is a snapshot of the geography of a file

Change the view to Thumbnails Locate the appropriate button by moving the mouse over each button of the Standard toolbar

Wait for the tool tip that shows

Make sure that you have the Contents tab selected (see Fig 13)

Although the view is set to thumbnails you see that only some featureclasses are displayed as thumbnails while the others are simply displayedas large icons This is because thumbnails are not created automatically but you need to specifically create them

Create Thumbnail

In the Contents tab select a Feature Class without thumbnail Select the Preview tab

ArcCatalog displays a preview of the geography of the selected Feature Class This preview can now be used to create a snapshot (Thumbnail)

From the Geography toolbar select Create Thumbnail and click once

Next return to the Contents tab and notice the icon has changed into a small image of the preview

Convert all remaining icons in the sub-subfolder map elements into Thumbnails

Explore the data

You have learnt to browse data from different sources In the next sectionyou will explore the data by displaying both its geography and its attributes

Exploring Geographic data

Most GIS data sets have a geographic and a tabular component ArcCatalogallows you to preview either of them you can toggle between them using the dropdown list at the bottom of the Preview window

Use the Preview tab

Fig 18 Result of producing the Thumbnails within the Contentstab

Fig 19 Toggle the contents of the Preview window

Select the file India_ boundary Feature Class from the Catalog tree

Select the Preview tab

What you see now in the preview is a vector dataset with the boundaries ofindia_sd of the You can use the Geography toolbar to explore the geographic data (Fig 110)

The Zoom In Out buttons allow you to control the level of detail or the extent of the area that is displayed in the preview window

Select an area of interest

Click the Zoom In button from the Geography toolbar

Click and drag a box over your area of interest then release the mouse The area you have defined will now enlarge to occupy the entire display area of the Preview window

Fig 110 The buttons of the Geographic toolbar

You have now enlarged the central part of the Feature Class the part that falls outside the Preview window it is not displayed To maintain the same scale and see the data beyond the display select the Pan button The Pan button allows you to drag the display in any direction

Fig 111 Defining the geographicarea to enlarge

Fig 112 Preview of the geographyat an enlarged scale

Click and drag a box to define your area of interest

The selected area at an enlarge scale

Click on Zoom

Use Pan button

Select the Pan button from the Geographic Toolbar

Click and hold the mouse button at any point in the display window

Move the mouse and notice that the display will follow the movements of the mouse

Release the mouse and the display will refresh

Practice the Pan button to move around the data maintaining the same visualization scale

When you are finish exploring the data at a selected zoom level the Full Extent button allows you to return to the full extent of the feature class

Use Full extent button

Click the Full Extent button and notice that the whole area is now

displayed

The Identify button allows you to retrieve attribute information of a feature -here the name of a neighborhood - if you point at it with the mouse

Click inside theneighborhoodfor which youwant the to

All the attributesof the selectedneighborhoodare displayed in aseparate

Fig 113 Process to identify theattributes of a feature

Use the Identify button

Click the Identify button

Click inside one of the neighborhoods in the india_sd area

Study the Identify Results window Yoursquoll notice that one of the attributes displayed is the name of the india_sd

You can click inside other neighborhoods to view their attributes

If you are finished viewing the attributes in this way close the

Identify results window (click on the little cross in the top right corner)

Exploring Tabular data

Now look at the attribute table of the india_sd Feature Class

Preview tables

Change the dropdown list in the Preview to Table (Fig 15 19)

There are several options that allow you to personalize the display of the tablein the preview

Change how tables look

If you want to change the appearance of the table (eg to improve the readabilityof the text) you can change the default settings Eg you may highlighta selection in lsquodark greenrsquo in stead of the default lsquopale bluersquo and youmay set the font size to 10pt

Change default settings

Click on the heading of one of the columns Notice that the whole column turns from white to pale blue

From the menu Tools select Options

A tabbed dialog window appears Select the tab Tables

Change the default settings to match the settings indicated above

Examine the visual result in the table

Change the width of a column

Depending on the font size and length of records some of the informationmay be hidden andor not readable To increase readability you may want to change the width of the columns

Change width of a column

Position the mouse over the extreme right edge of the column

heading DST_ID (notice the pointer of the cursor changes to )

Click here to selectthe color you wantto use to highlightselections

Click here to typethe new font size

Fig 114 Dialog window to setArcCatalog options

Double-click with the left mouse button The column width will

now be adjusted to the width of the longest entry in that column

Alternatively click and drag the columnrsquos edge to an acceptable width

Release the mouse

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session the default column width will be restored

Change the position of a column

Sometimes tables contain many columns In order to work efficient you maywant to rearrange the columns and to position the ones you need next to each other

Reposition a column

Click the column heading DST_ID (notice that the whole column

changes to the default color you have just selected)

Click the column again and hold down the mouse button

Drag the column heading to the location between the columns SHAPE and OBJECTID (notice a red line indicates the new location of the column ID_)

Release the mouse button

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session the columns will resume their default positions

Freeze a column

Sometimes you may want to compare the values in one column with the values

in the another columns This can be facilitated by lsquofreezingrsquo them

FreezeUnfreeze Columns

Right-click on the column heading DISTRICT

Click FreezeUnfreeze Column

Scroll horizontally by moving the horizontal slider to the right Notice that the column NAME1_ remains visible

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session all columns will be automatically unfrozen

Sorting columns

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

Sort Records

Right-click the column DISTRICT

In the drop-down list click Sort Ascending

Scroll down the list and notice that the numbers increase

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session records will resume their default order

Calculate statistics

You can display the basic statistics of numeric fields in an attribute table

Calculate statistics

Right-click the heading AREA_

In the drop-down list select the option Statistics

The Statistics dialog box pops up and displays all information about the values in the column AREA_

Adding a column

It is possible to add a column in the attribute table of a geodata layer and todefine its properties Notice however that ArcCatalog will not allow you toenter andor modify the data in the records You will see the editing processlater in exercise 2 when dealing with ArcMap functions

Add a field to a table

Click the button Options at the bottom of the Preview window and click Add Field See Fig 115

In the dialog window of Add Field fill in the name of the new column Leave the rest of the properties as they are (we will treat this later)

Click OK

View and editing metadata

Metadata describes data in a standardized way Metadata are used tosearch for and exchange data Examples of metadata are file name dataformat data quality data accuracy reference system ownership availability creation date update status description of attribute names etc

By looking at the metadata of a data set you should be able to decide if theset can be used for your application Eg do you need to adapt data to integrate it into your application (eg change its projection) can you access the data who to contact to get it are there cost involved etc

Fig 115 Preview window ndash table mode

There are a several standards for metadata Standards provide commonterminology and definitions for the documentation of digital data For geospatial data the two main standards are defined by

the International Organization for Standardizations (ISO) with the document

19115 ldquoGeographic Information ndash Metadatardquothe Federal Geographic Data Committees (FGDC) of the United States

It is very important to study the metadata before you use geospatial data obtained

from somebody else and to accurately describe the metadata for the geospatial data that

you produce

Have a look at the metadata of the Feature Class india_dsExplore metadata

In the Catalog tree select india_ds

In the view area click the Metadata tab to visualize the metadata information window

Scroll through the metadata and study itsrsquo contents

As explained in section 13 metadata consist of properties and documentationProperties are derived from the data itself and documentation is additionaldescriptive information generally supplied by the data creator But anyuser with writing access can change or add content to the metadata

ArcCatalog offers a number of ways to display the metadata using differentlsquoStylesheetsrsquo Stylesheets define the way in which the metadata is displayed By default ArcCatalog displays metadata using the FGDC ESRI stylesheet

Changing stylesheets

Select any of the stylesheets

Notice the changes in the format of the metadata

Editing metadata

You can create the metadata for a new data set or change existing metadata

Fig 116 Metadata windowndash Default Style sheet

Fig 117 Choosing a Metadata Stylesheet

by using ArcCatalogrsquos metadata editor For example change the metadataof the india_ds Feature Class The data set was produced by -and obtained from - IIRS India You will add informationabout the IIRS to give them the credits they deserve and include them as distributor The address details are as follows

Organisation Indian Institute of Remote SensingAddress Kalidas RoadDehradunProvince UtteranchalPostal code India

Edit metadata

Click the button Edit metadata in the Metadata toolbar

A dialog window opens Notice that a number of fields have the word ldquoREQUIREDrdquo(IN RED) and a brief description of the type of information expectedin that field The red font is meant to emphasize that these fields arepart of the minimum information required by the metadata standard For thetime being add some of the required data Follow the numerical sequenceas indicated in Fig 118 and 119

First select Distribution at the top of the dialog window (Fig 118)

Next click on the Distribution tab then click on the Detailshellip

button 3 This will open another dialog window

21

1

2

Select the Organization 4 option and click on the Address 5 tab

Enter name 6 and address of the organization 7 in the appropriate

fields

Click OK and Save

3

4

6

7

5

Fig 118 Example of steps to edit metadata

Fig 119 Editing contactinformation with the Arc-

View the updated information in the metadata window Note that some part of the stylesheet will not include all the metadata To check the updated information select the FGDC stylesheet and click on the Distribution Information link

Manage data sources

In ArcCatalog you can manage your data in a similar way as in Windows ExplorerYou can copy move delete and rename any item that appears in the Catalog tree or in the Contents window As example create a new folder and copy some existing data into it

Create a new folder

In the Catalog tree select your XExercise folder

Right click to open the context menu

Select New and click Folder

Fig 120 Creating a new folder with ArcCatalogArc-Catalog metadata editor

Type a new name for the folder you have just created eg

lsquoMy_folderrsquo

Copy the Personal Geodatabase ldquoLarge_enschedemdbrdquo to the

new folder

Make sure that none of the Feature Classes is active You should seenothing displayed in the Contents the Preview and the Metadata windowsIf any of the Feature Classes is active ArcCatalog locks the PersonalGeodatabase and returns an error when you try to copy itIt is easy to manage files and folders in ArcCatalog You can also create(empty) geo-spatial data sets You will learn this later in the course together with filling these data sets with new data through ArcMap

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

You have now explored some functions of ArcCatalog and seen that its mainpurpose is data browsing and basic data management If you want to editgeo-spatial data analyse it or create maps you need another application of the ArcGIS suite ArcMap Most of the exercises that follow will be about the basics of geoinformation processing with ArcMap

Access ArcMap

From the Standard toolbar select the ArcMap Icon

When ArcMap opens you will be prompted to select one of the followingan empty map a new template or an existing mapYou will do this in the next exercise So can stop here and exit ArcMap

In the ArcMap dialog window ignore the different options and

click OK From the File menu select Exit

14 Basic functions of ArcCatalog

You will now use some basic functions to illustrate some of the functionalities

mentioned in the previous section

Browse for maps and data

To browse data you first have to establish a connection to the locationwhere the data is stored This location can be a local disk (C or D

drive) orsome network drive You were asked to copy the data from Blackboard

toyour personal directory - on x - so you have to establish a connection to your M drive

1048713 In the Standard toolbar (see Fig 12) find the Connect to Folder

button and click on it

1048713 In the Dialog Window navigate to the XExcercize see Fig 17

1048713 Click OK

fig 17 Connect to Folder dialog window

Notice that the E drive is now added in the Catalog tree

1048713 Click on the plus sign next to the icon of the XExercize in the Catalog tree to expand the tree one level and see its contents

1048713 Select the Exercise folder by clicking once on its icon You will see all the files datasets and subfolders stored under the selected folder

Letrsquos have a closer look at the content of the subfolders of the Exercise

Browse for data

1048713 Continue to expand the tree double-click on the icons o f ExercisegtIndia_sd

Notice that the content in the folder India is displayed with a different icon in the Contents tab This is because lsquoIndiamdbrsquo is a Personal Geodatabase

Explore the contents of the Personal Geodatabase

Double click on the icon of the lsquoIndiamdbrsquo Personal Geodatabase

The layers in the Personal Geodatabase are now displayed Layers within aPersonal Geodatabase are called Feature Classes

Explore the buttons from the Standard toolbar Which button allows you tofind out the type of these data

Answer

Notice that if you leave the mouse cursor on a button for a few seconds a tool tip with the name of the button will appear

Encircle the data type of each of the following feature classes

Hint analyse the feature class properties

Buildings Points - Lines ndash Polygons

India_ds Points ndash Lines - Polygons

india_placename Points

india_st Points - Lines ndash Polygons

railways Points - Lines ndash Polygons

india_roads Points - Lines ndash Polygons

waterways Points - Lines ndash Polygons

To learn more about the data types refer to the Help menu lsquoArcGIS DesktopHelprsquo on the Contents tab Data management with ArcCatalog Gettingstarted with ArcCatalog Whatrsquos in the Catalog

In the Standard toolbar one of the view options is Thumbnails A thumbnail is a snapshot of the geography of a file

Change the view to Thumbnails Locate the appropriate button by moving the mouse over each button of the Standard toolbar

Wait for the tool tip that shows

Make sure that you have the Contents tab selected (see Fig 13)

Although the view is set to thumbnails you see that only some featureclasses are displayed as thumbnails while the others are simply displayedas large icons This is because thumbnails are not created automatically but you need to specifically create them

Create Thumbnail

In the Contents tab select a Feature Class without thumbnail Select the Preview tab

ArcCatalog displays a preview of the geography of the selected Feature Class This preview can now be used to create a snapshot (Thumbnail)

From the Geography toolbar select Create Thumbnail and click once

Next return to the Contents tab and notice the icon has changed into a small image of the preview

Convert all remaining icons in the sub-subfolder map elements into Thumbnails

Explore the data

You have learnt to browse data from different sources In the next sectionyou will explore the data by displaying both its geography and its attributes

Exploring Geographic data

Most GIS data sets have a geographic and a tabular component ArcCatalogallows you to preview either of them you can toggle between them using the dropdown list at the bottom of the Preview window

Use the Preview tab

Fig 18 Result of producing the Thumbnails within the Contentstab

Fig 19 Toggle the contents of the Preview window

Select the file India_ boundary Feature Class from the Catalog tree

Select the Preview tab

What you see now in the preview is a vector dataset with the boundaries ofindia_sd of the You can use the Geography toolbar to explore the geographic data (Fig 110)

The Zoom In Out buttons allow you to control the level of detail or the extent of the area that is displayed in the preview window

Select an area of interest

Click the Zoom In button from the Geography toolbar

Click and drag a box over your area of interest then release the mouse The area you have defined will now enlarge to occupy the entire display area of the Preview window

Fig 110 The buttons of the Geographic toolbar

You have now enlarged the central part of the Feature Class the part that falls outside the Preview window it is not displayed To maintain the same scale and see the data beyond the display select the Pan button The Pan button allows you to drag the display in any direction

Fig 111 Defining the geographicarea to enlarge

Fig 112 Preview of the geographyat an enlarged scale

Click and drag a box to define your area of interest

The selected area at an enlarge scale

Click on Zoom

Use Pan button

Select the Pan button from the Geographic Toolbar

Click and hold the mouse button at any point in the display window

Move the mouse and notice that the display will follow the movements of the mouse

Release the mouse and the display will refresh

Practice the Pan button to move around the data maintaining the same visualization scale

When you are finish exploring the data at a selected zoom level the Full Extent button allows you to return to the full extent of the feature class

Use Full extent button

Click the Full Extent button and notice that the whole area is now

displayed

The Identify button allows you to retrieve attribute information of a feature -here the name of a neighborhood - if you point at it with the mouse

Click inside theneighborhoodfor which youwant the to

All the attributesof the selectedneighborhoodare displayed in aseparate

Fig 113 Process to identify theattributes of a feature

Use the Identify button

Click the Identify button

Click inside one of the neighborhoods in the india_sd area

Study the Identify Results window Yoursquoll notice that one of the attributes displayed is the name of the india_sd

You can click inside other neighborhoods to view their attributes

If you are finished viewing the attributes in this way close the

Identify results window (click on the little cross in the top right corner)

Exploring Tabular data

Now look at the attribute table of the india_sd Feature Class

Preview tables

Change the dropdown list in the Preview to Table (Fig 15 19)

There are several options that allow you to personalize the display of the tablein the preview

Change how tables look

If you want to change the appearance of the table (eg to improve the readabilityof the text) you can change the default settings Eg you may highlighta selection in lsquodark greenrsquo in stead of the default lsquopale bluersquo and youmay set the font size to 10pt

Change default settings

Click on the heading of one of the columns Notice that the whole column turns from white to pale blue

From the menu Tools select Options

A tabbed dialog window appears Select the tab Tables

Change the default settings to match the settings indicated above

Examine the visual result in the table

Change the width of a column

Depending on the font size and length of records some of the informationmay be hidden andor not readable To increase readability you may want to change the width of the columns

Change width of a column

Position the mouse over the extreme right edge of the column

heading DST_ID (notice the pointer of the cursor changes to )

Click here to selectthe color you wantto use to highlightselections

Click here to typethe new font size

Fig 114 Dialog window to setArcCatalog options

Double-click with the left mouse button The column width will

now be adjusted to the width of the longest entry in that column

Alternatively click and drag the columnrsquos edge to an acceptable width

Release the mouse

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session the default column width will be restored

Change the position of a column

Sometimes tables contain many columns In order to work efficient you maywant to rearrange the columns and to position the ones you need next to each other

Reposition a column

Click the column heading DST_ID (notice that the whole column

changes to the default color you have just selected)

Click the column again and hold down the mouse button

Drag the column heading to the location between the columns SHAPE and OBJECTID (notice a red line indicates the new location of the column ID_)

Release the mouse button

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session the columns will resume their default positions

Freeze a column

Sometimes you may want to compare the values in one column with the values

in the another columns This can be facilitated by lsquofreezingrsquo them

FreezeUnfreeze Columns

Right-click on the column heading DISTRICT

Click FreezeUnfreeze Column

Scroll horizontally by moving the horizontal slider to the right Notice that the column NAME1_ remains visible

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session all columns will be automatically unfrozen

Sorting columns

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

Sort Records

Right-click the column DISTRICT

In the drop-down list click Sort Ascending

Scroll down the list and notice that the numbers increase

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session records will resume their default order

Calculate statistics

You can display the basic statistics of numeric fields in an attribute table

Calculate statistics

Right-click the heading AREA_

In the drop-down list select the option Statistics

The Statistics dialog box pops up and displays all information about the values in the column AREA_

Adding a column

It is possible to add a column in the attribute table of a geodata layer and todefine its properties Notice however that ArcCatalog will not allow you toenter andor modify the data in the records You will see the editing processlater in exercise 2 when dealing with ArcMap functions

Add a field to a table

Click the button Options at the bottom of the Preview window and click Add Field See Fig 115

In the dialog window of Add Field fill in the name of the new column Leave the rest of the properties as they are (we will treat this later)

Click OK

View and editing metadata

Metadata describes data in a standardized way Metadata are used tosearch for and exchange data Examples of metadata are file name dataformat data quality data accuracy reference system ownership availability creation date update status description of attribute names etc

By looking at the metadata of a data set you should be able to decide if theset can be used for your application Eg do you need to adapt data to integrate it into your application (eg change its projection) can you access the data who to contact to get it are there cost involved etc

Fig 115 Preview window ndash table mode

There are a several standards for metadata Standards provide commonterminology and definitions for the documentation of digital data For geospatial data the two main standards are defined by

the International Organization for Standardizations (ISO) with the document

19115 ldquoGeographic Information ndash Metadatardquothe Federal Geographic Data Committees (FGDC) of the United States

It is very important to study the metadata before you use geospatial data obtained

from somebody else and to accurately describe the metadata for the geospatial data that

you produce

Have a look at the metadata of the Feature Class india_dsExplore metadata

In the Catalog tree select india_ds

In the view area click the Metadata tab to visualize the metadata information window

Scroll through the metadata and study itsrsquo contents

As explained in section 13 metadata consist of properties and documentationProperties are derived from the data itself and documentation is additionaldescriptive information generally supplied by the data creator But anyuser with writing access can change or add content to the metadata

ArcCatalog offers a number of ways to display the metadata using differentlsquoStylesheetsrsquo Stylesheets define the way in which the metadata is displayed By default ArcCatalog displays metadata using the FGDC ESRI stylesheet

Changing stylesheets

Select any of the stylesheets

Notice the changes in the format of the metadata

Editing metadata

You can create the metadata for a new data set or change existing metadata

Fig 116 Metadata windowndash Default Style sheet

Fig 117 Choosing a Metadata Stylesheet

by using ArcCatalogrsquos metadata editor For example change the metadataof the india_ds Feature Class The data set was produced by -and obtained from - IIRS India You will add informationabout the IIRS to give them the credits they deserve and include them as distributor The address details are as follows

Organisation Indian Institute of Remote SensingAddress Kalidas RoadDehradunProvince UtteranchalPostal code India

Edit metadata

Click the button Edit metadata in the Metadata toolbar

A dialog window opens Notice that a number of fields have the word ldquoREQUIREDrdquo(IN RED) and a brief description of the type of information expectedin that field The red font is meant to emphasize that these fields arepart of the minimum information required by the metadata standard For thetime being add some of the required data Follow the numerical sequenceas indicated in Fig 118 and 119

First select Distribution at the top of the dialog window (Fig 118)

Next click on the Distribution tab then click on the Detailshellip

button 3 This will open another dialog window

21

1

2

Select the Organization 4 option and click on the Address 5 tab

Enter name 6 and address of the organization 7 in the appropriate

fields

Click OK and Save

3

4

6

7

5

Fig 118 Example of steps to edit metadata

Fig 119 Editing contactinformation with the Arc-

View the updated information in the metadata window Note that some part of the stylesheet will not include all the metadata To check the updated information select the FGDC stylesheet and click on the Distribution Information link

Manage data sources

In ArcCatalog you can manage your data in a similar way as in Windows ExplorerYou can copy move delete and rename any item that appears in the Catalog tree or in the Contents window As example create a new folder and copy some existing data into it

Create a new folder

In the Catalog tree select your XExercise folder

Right click to open the context menu

Select New and click Folder

Fig 120 Creating a new folder with ArcCatalogArc-Catalog metadata editor

Type a new name for the folder you have just created eg

lsquoMy_folderrsquo

Copy the Personal Geodatabase ldquoLarge_enschedemdbrdquo to the

new folder

Make sure that none of the Feature Classes is active You should seenothing displayed in the Contents the Preview and the Metadata windowsIf any of the Feature Classes is active ArcCatalog locks the PersonalGeodatabase and returns an error when you try to copy itIt is easy to manage files and folders in ArcCatalog You can also create(empty) geo-spatial data sets You will learn this later in the course together with filling these data sets with new data through ArcMap

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

You have now explored some functions of ArcCatalog and seen that its mainpurpose is data browsing and basic data management If you want to editgeo-spatial data analyse it or create maps you need another application of the ArcGIS suite ArcMap Most of the exercises that follow will be about the basics of geoinformation processing with ArcMap

Access ArcMap

From the Standard toolbar select the ArcMap Icon

When ArcMap opens you will be prompted to select one of the followingan empty map a new template or an existing mapYou will do this in the next exercise So can stop here and exit ArcMap

In the ArcMap dialog window ignore the different options and

click OK From the File menu select Exit

Notice that the E drive is now added in the Catalog tree

1048713 Click on the plus sign next to the icon of the XExercize in the Catalog tree to expand the tree one level and see its contents

1048713 Select the Exercise folder by clicking once on its icon You will see all the files datasets and subfolders stored under the selected folder

Letrsquos have a closer look at the content of the subfolders of the Exercise

Browse for data

1048713 Continue to expand the tree double-click on the icons o f ExercisegtIndia_sd

Notice that the content in the folder India is displayed with a different icon in the Contents tab This is because lsquoIndiamdbrsquo is a Personal Geodatabase

Explore the contents of the Personal Geodatabase

Double click on the icon of the lsquoIndiamdbrsquo Personal Geodatabase

The layers in the Personal Geodatabase are now displayed Layers within aPersonal Geodatabase are called Feature Classes

Explore the buttons from the Standard toolbar Which button allows you tofind out the type of these data

Answer

Notice that if you leave the mouse cursor on a button for a few seconds a tool tip with the name of the button will appear

Encircle the data type of each of the following feature classes

Hint analyse the feature class properties

Buildings Points - Lines ndash Polygons

India_ds Points ndash Lines - Polygons

india_placename Points

india_st Points - Lines ndash Polygons

railways Points - Lines ndash Polygons

india_roads Points - Lines ndash Polygons

waterways Points - Lines ndash Polygons

To learn more about the data types refer to the Help menu lsquoArcGIS DesktopHelprsquo on the Contents tab Data management with ArcCatalog Gettingstarted with ArcCatalog Whatrsquos in the Catalog

In the Standard toolbar one of the view options is Thumbnails A thumbnail is a snapshot of the geography of a file

Change the view to Thumbnails Locate the appropriate button by moving the mouse over each button of the Standard toolbar

Wait for the tool tip that shows

Make sure that you have the Contents tab selected (see Fig 13)

Although the view is set to thumbnails you see that only some featureclasses are displayed as thumbnails while the others are simply displayedas large icons This is because thumbnails are not created automatically but you need to specifically create them

Create Thumbnail

In the Contents tab select a Feature Class without thumbnail Select the Preview tab

ArcCatalog displays a preview of the geography of the selected Feature Class This preview can now be used to create a snapshot (Thumbnail)

From the Geography toolbar select Create Thumbnail and click once

Next return to the Contents tab and notice the icon has changed into a small image of the preview

Convert all remaining icons in the sub-subfolder map elements into Thumbnails

Explore the data

You have learnt to browse data from different sources In the next sectionyou will explore the data by displaying both its geography and its attributes

Exploring Geographic data

Most GIS data sets have a geographic and a tabular component ArcCatalogallows you to preview either of them you can toggle between them using the dropdown list at the bottom of the Preview window

Use the Preview tab

Fig 18 Result of producing the Thumbnails within the Contentstab

Fig 19 Toggle the contents of the Preview window

Select the file India_ boundary Feature Class from the Catalog tree

Select the Preview tab

What you see now in the preview is a vector dataset with the boundaries ofindia_sd of the You can use the Geography toolbar to explore the geographic data (Fig 110)

The Zoom In Out buttons allow you to control the level of detail or the extent of the area that is displayed in the preview window

Select an area of interest

Click the Zoom In button from the Geography toolbar

Click and drag a box over your area of interest then release the mouse The area you have defined will now enlarge to occupy the entire display area of the Preview window

Fig 110 The buttons of the Geographic toolbar

You have now enlarged the central part of the Feature Class the part that falls outside the Preview window it is not displayed To maintain the same scale and see the data beyond the display select the Pan button The Pan button allows you to drag the display in any direction

Fig 111 Defining the geographicarea to enlarge

Fig 112 Preview of the geographyat an enlarged scale

Click and drag a box to define your area of interest

The selected area at an enlarge scale

Click on Zoom

Use Pan button

Select the Pan button from the Geographic Toolbar

Click and hold the mouse button at any point in the display window

Move the mouse and notice that the display will follow the movements of the mouse

Release the mouse and the display will refresh

Practice the Pan button to move around the data maintaining the same visualization scale

When you are finish exploring the data at a selected zoom level the Full Extent button allows you to return to the full extent of the feature class

Use Full extent button

Click the Full Extent button and notice that the whole area is now

displayed

The Identify button allows you to retrieve attribute information of a feature -here the name of a neighborhood - if you point at it with the mouse

Click inside theneighborhoodfor which youwant the to

All the attributesof the selectedneighborhoodare displayed in aseparate

Fig 113 Process to identify theattributes of a feature

Use the Identify button

Click the Identify button

Click inside one of the neighborhoods in the india_sd area

Study the Identify Results window Yoursquoll notice that one of the attributes displayed is the name of the india_sd

You can click inside other neighborhoods to view their attributes

If you are finished viewing the attributes in this way close the

Identify results window (click on the little cross in the top right corner)

Exploring Tabular data

Now look at the attribute table of the india_sd Feature Class

Preview tables

Change the dropdown list in the Preview to Table (Fig 15 19)

There are several options that allow you to personalize the display of the tablein the preview

Change how tables look

If you want to change the appearance of the table (eg to improve the readabilityof the text) you can change the default settings Eg you may highlighta selection in lsquodark greenrsquo in stead of the default lsquopale bluersquo and youmay set the font size to 10pt

Change default settings

Click on the heading of one of the columns Notice that the whole column turns from white to pale blue

From the menu Tools select Options

A tabbed dialog window appears Select the tab Tables

Change the default settings to match the settings indicated above

Examine the visual result in the table

Change the width of a column

Depending on the font size and length of records some of the informationmay be hidden andor not readable To increase readability you may want to change the width of the columns

Change width of a column

Position the mouse over the extreme right edge of the column

heading DST_ID (notice the pointer of the cursor changes to )

Click here to selectthe color you wantto use to highlightselections

Click here to typethe new font size

Fig 114 Dialog window to setArcCatalog options

Double-click with the left mouse button The column width will

now be adjusted to the width of the longest entry in that column

Alternatively click and drag the columnrsquos edge to an acceptable width

Release the mouse

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session the default column width will be restored

Change the position of a column

Sometimes tables contain many columns In order to work efficient you maywant to rearrange the columns and to position the ones you need next to each other

Reposition a column

Click the column heading DST_ID (notice that the whole column

changes to the default color you have just selected)

Click the column again and hold down the mouse button

Drag the column heading to the location between the columns SHAPE and OBJECTID (notice a red line indicates the new location of the column ID_)

Release the mouse button

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session the columns will resume their default positions

Freeze a column

Sometimes you may want to compare the values in one column with the values

in the another columns This can be facilitated by lsquofreezingrsquo them

FreezeUnfreeze Columns

Right-click on the column heading DISTRICT

Click FreezeUnfreeze Column

Scroll horizontally by moving the horizontal slider to the right Notice that the column NAME1_ remains visible

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session all columns will be automatically unfrozen

Sorting columns

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

Sort Records

Right-click the column DISTRICT

In the drop-down list click Sort Ascending

Scroll down the list and notice that the numbers increase

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session records will resume their default order

Calculate statistics

You can display the basic statistics of numeric fields in an attribute table

Calculate statistics

Right-click the heading AREA_

In the drop-down list select the option Statistics

The Statistics dialog box pops up and displays all information about the values in the column AREA_

Adding a column

It is possible to add a column in the attribute table of a geodata layer and todefine its properties Notice however that ArcCatalog will not allow you toenter andor modify the data in the records You will see the editing processlater in exercise 2 when dealing with ArcMap functions

Add a field to a table

Click the button Options at the bottom of the Preview window and click Add Field See Fig 115

In the dialog window of Add Field fill in the name of the new column Leave the rest of the properties as they are (we will treat this later)

Click OK

View and editing metadata

Metadata describes data in a standardized way Metadata are used tosearch for and exchange data Examples of metadata are file name dataformat data quality data accuracy reference system ownership availability creation date update status description of attribute names etc

By looking at the metadata of a data set you should be able to decide if theset can be used for your application Eg do you need to adapt data to integrate it into your application (eg change its projection) can you access the data who to contact to get it are there cost involved etc

Fig 115 Preview window ndash table mode

There are a several standards for metadata Standards provide commonterminology and definitions for the documentation of digital data For geospatial data the two main standards are defined by

the International Organization for Standardizations (ISO) with the document

19115 ldquoGeographic Information ndash Metadatardquothe Federal Geographic Data Committees (FGDC) of the United States

It is very important to study the metadata before you use geospatial data obtained

from somebody else and to accurately describe the metadata for the geospatial data that

you produce

Have a look at the metadata of the Feature Class india_dsExplore metadata

In the Catalog tree select india_ds

In the view area click the Metadata tab to visualize the metadata information window

Scroll through the metadata and study itsrsquo contents

As explained in section 13 metadata consist of properties and documentationProperties are derived from the data itself and documentation is additionaldescriptive information generally supplied by the data creator But anyuser with writing access can change or add content to the metadata

ArcCatalog offers a number of ways to display the metadata using differentlsquoStylesheetsrsquo Stylesheets define the way in which the metadata is displayed By default ArcCatalog displays metadata using the FGDC ESRI stylesheet

Changing stylesheets

Select any of the stylesheets

Notice the changes in the format of the metadata

Editing metadata

You can create the metadata for a new data set or change existing metadata

Fig 116 Metadata windowndash Default Style sheet

Fig 117 Choosing a Metadata Stylesheet

by using ArcCatalogrsquos metadata editor For example change the metadataof the india_ds Feature Class The data set was produced by -and obtained from - IIRS India You will add informationabout the IIRS to give them the credits they deserve and include them as distributor The address details are as follows

Organisation Indian Institute of Remote SensingAddress Kalidas RoadDehradunProvince UtteranchalPostal code India

Edit metadata

Click the button Edit metadata in the Metadata toolbar

A dialog window opens Notice that a number of fields have the word ldquoREQUIREDrdquo(IN RED) and a brief description of the type of information expectedin that field The red font is meant to emphasize that these fields arepart of the minimum information required by the metadata standard For thetime being add some of the required data Follow the numerical sequenceas indicated in Fig 118 and 119

First select Distribution at the top of the dialog window (Fig 118)

Next click on the Distribution tab then click on the Detailshellip

button 3 This will open another dialog window

21

1

2

Select the Organization 4 option and click on the Address 5 tab

Enter name 6 and address of the organization 7 in the appropriate

fields

Click OK and Save

3

4

6

7

5

Fig 118 Example of steps to edit metadata

Fig 119 Editing contactinformation with the Arc-

View the updated information in the metadata window Note that some part of the stylesheet will not include all the metadata To check the updated information select the FGDC stylesheet and click on the Distribution Information link

Manage data sources

In ArcCatalog you can manage your data in a similar way as in Windows ExplorerYou can copy move delete and rename any item that appears in the Catalog tree or in the Contents window As example create a new folder and copy some existing data into it

Create a new folder

In the Catalog tree select your XExercise folder

Right click to open the context menu

Select New and click Folder

Fig 120 Creating a new folder with ArcCatalogArc-Catalog metadata editor

Type a new name for the folder you have just created eg

lsquoMy_folderrsquo

Copy the Personal Geodatabase ldquoLarge_enschedemdbrdquo to the

new folder

Make sure that none of the Feature Classes is active You should seenothing displayed in the Contents the Preview and the Metadata windowsIf any of the Feature Classes is active ArcCatalog locks the PersonalGeodatabase and returns an error when you try to copy itIt is easy to manage files and folders in ArcCatalog You can also create(empty) geo-spatial data sets You will learn this later in the course together with filling these data sets with new data through ArcMap

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

You have now explored some functions of ArcCatalog and seen that its mainpurpose is data browsing and basic data management If you want to editgeo-spatial data analyse it or create maps you need another application of the ArcGIS suite ArcMap Most of the exercises that follow will be about the basics of geoinformation processing with ArcMap

Access ArcMap

From the Standard toolbar select the ArcMap Icon

When ArcMap opens you will be prompted to select one of the followingan empty map a new template or an existing mapYou will do this in the next exercise So can stop here and exit ArcMap

In the ArcMap dialog window ignore the different options and

click OK From the File menu select Exit

india_placename Points

india_st Points - Lines ndash Polygons

railways Points - Lines ndash Polygons

india_roads Points - Lines ndash Polygons

waterways Points - Lines ndash Polygons

To learn more about the data types refer to the Help menu lsquoArcGIS DesktopHelprsquo on the Contents tab Data management with ArcCatalog Gettingstarted with ArcCatalog Whatrsquos in the Catalog

In the Standard toolbar one of the view options is Thumbnails A thumbnail is a snapshot of the geography of a file

Change the view to Thumbnails Locate the appropriate button by moving the mouse over each button of the Standard toolbar

Wait for the tool tip that shows

Make sure that you have the Contents tab selected (see Fig 13)

Although the view is set to thumbnails you see that only some featureclasses are displayed as thumbnails while the others are simply displayedas large icons This is because thumbnails are not created automatically but you need to specifically create them

Create Thumbnail

In the Contents tab select a Feature Class without thumbnail Select the Preview tab

ArcCatalog displays a preview of the geography of the selected Feature Class This preview can now be used to create a snapshot (Thumbnail)

From the Geography toolbar select Create Thumbnail and click once

Next return to the Contents tab and notice the icon has changed into a small image of the preview

Convert all remaining icons in the sub-subfolder map elements into Thumbnails

Explore the data

You have learnt to browse data from different sources In the next sectionyou will explore the data by displaying both its geography and its attributes

Exploring Geographic data

Most GIS data sets have a geographic and a tabular component ArcCatalogallows you to preview either of them you can toggle between them using the dropdown list at the bottom of the Preview window

Use the Preview tab

Fig 18 Result of producing the Thumbnails within the Contentstab

Fig 19 Toggle the contents of the Preview window

Select the file India_ boundary Feature Class from the Catalog tree

Select the Preview tab

What you see now in the preview is a vector dataset with the boundaries ofindia_sd of the You can use the Geography toolbar to explore the geographic data (Fig 110)

The Zoom In Out buttons allow you to control the level of detail or the extent of the area that is displayed in the preview window

Select an area of interest

Click the Zoom In button from the Geography toolbar

Click and drag a box over your area of interest then release the mouse The area you have defined will now enlarge to occupy the entire display area of the Preview window

Fig 110 The buttons of the Geographic toolbar

You have now enlarged the central part of the Feature Class the part that falls outside the Preview window it is not displayed To maintain the same scale and see the data beyond the display select the Pan button The Pan button allows you to drag the display in any direction

Fig 111 Defining the geographicarea to enlarge

Fig 112 Preview of the geographyat an enlarged scale

Click and drag a box to define your area of interest

The selected area at an enlarge scale

Click on Zoom

Use Pan button

Select the Pan button from the Geographic Toolbar

Click and hold the mouse button at any point in the display window

Move the mouse and notice that the display will follow the movements of the mouse

Release the mouse and the display will refresh

Practice the Pan button to move around the data maintaining the same visualization scale

When you are finish exploring the data at a selected zoom level the Full Extent button allows you to return to the full extent of the feature class

Use Full extent button

Click the Full Extent button and notice that the whole area is now

displayed

The Identify button allows you to retrieve attribute information of a feature -here the name of a neighborhood - if you point at it with the mouse

Click inside theneighborhoodfor which youwant the to

All the attributesof the selectedneighborhoodare displayed in aseparate

Fig 113 Process to identify theattributes of a feature

Use the Identify button

Click the Identify button

Click inside one of the neighborhoods in the india_sd area

Study the Identify Results window Yoursquoll notice that one of the attributes displayed is the name of the india_sd

You can click inside other neighborhoods to view their attributes

If you are finished viewing the attributes in this way close the

Identify results window (click on the little cross in the top right corner)

Exploring Tabular data

Now look at the attribute table of the india_sd Feature Class

Preview tables

Change the dropdown list in the Preview to Table (Fig 15 19)

There are several options that allow you to personalize the display of the tablein the preview

Change how tables look

If you want to change the appearance of the table (eg to improve the readabilityof the text) you can change the default settings Eg you may highlighta selection in lsquodark greenrsquo in stead of the default lsquopale bluersquo and youmay set the font size to 10pt

Change default settings

Click on the heading of one of the columns Notice that the whole column turns from white to pale blue

From the menu Tools select Options

A tabbed dialog window appears Select the tab Tables

Change the default settings to match the settings indicated above

Examine the visual result in the table

Change the width of a column

Depending on the font size and length of records some of the informationmay be hidden andor not readable To increase readability you may want to change the width of the columns

Change width of a column

Position the mouse over the extreme right edge of the column

heading DST_ID (notice the pointer of the cursor changes to )

Click here to selectthe color you wantto use to highlightselections

Click here to typethe new font size

Fig 114 Dialog window to setArcCatalog options

Double-click with the left mouse button The column width will

now be adjusted to the width of the longest entry in that column

Alternatively click and drag the columnrsquos edge to an acceptable width

Release the mouse

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session the default column width will be restored

Change the position of a column

Sometimes tables contain many columns In order to work efficient you maywant to rearrange the columns and to position the ones you need next to each other

Reposition a column

Click the column heading DST_ID (notice that the whole column

changes to the default color you have just selected)

Click the column again and hold down the mouse button

Drag the column heading to the location between the columns SHAPE and OBJECTID (notice a red line indicates the new location of the column ID_)

Release the mouse button

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session the columns will resume their default positions

Freeze a column

Sometimes you may want to compare the values in one column with the values

in the another columns This can be facilitated by lsquofreezingrsquo them

FreezeUnfreeze Columns

Right-click on the column heading DISTRICT

Click FreezeUnfreeze Column

Scroll horizontally by moving the horizontal slider to the right Notice that the column NAME1_ remains visible

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session all columns will be automatically unfrozen

Sorting columns

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

Sort Records

Right-click the column DISTRICT

In the drop-down list click Sort Ascending

Scroll down the list and notice that the numbers increase

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session records will resume their default order

Calculate statistics

You can display the basic statistics of numeric fields in an attribute table

Calculate statistics

Right-click the heading AREA_

In the drop-down list select the option Statistics

The Statistics dialog box pops up and displays all information about the values in the column AREA_

Adding a column

It is possible to add a column in the attribute table of a geodata layer and todefine its properties Notice however that ArcCatalog will not allow you toenter andor modify the data in the records You will see the editing processlater in exercise 2 when dealing with ArcMap functions

Add a field to a table

Click the button Options at the bottom of the Preview window and click Add Field See Fig 115

In the dialog window of Add Field fill in the name of the new column Leave the rest of the properties as they are (we will treat this later)

Click OK

View and editing metadata

Metadata describes data in a standardized way Metadata are used tosearch for and exchange data Examples of metadata are file name dataformat data quality data accuracy reference system ownership availability creation date update status description of attribute names etc

By looking at the metadata of a data set you should be able to decide if theset can be used for your application Eg do you need to adapt data to integrate it into your application (eg change its projection) can you access the data who to contact to get it are there cost involved etc

Fig 115 Preview window ndash table mode

There are a several standards for metadata Standards provide commonterminology and definitions for the documentation of digital data For geospatial data the two main standards are defined by

the International Organization for Standardizations (ISO) with the document

19115 ldquoGeographic Information ndash Metadatardquothe Federal Geographic Data Committees (FGDC) of the United States

It is very important to study the metadata before you use geospatial data obtained

from somebody else and to accurately describe the metadata for the geospatial data that

you produce

Have a look at the metadata of the Feature Class india_dsExplore metadata

In the Catalog tree select india_ds

In the view area click the Metadata tab to visualize the metadata information window

Scroll through the metadata and study itsrsquo contents

As explained in section 13 metadata consist of properties and documentationProperties are derived from the data itself and documentation is additionaldescriptive information generally supplied by the data creator But anyuser with writing access can change or add content to the metadata

ArcCatalog offers a number of ways to display the metadata using differentlsquoStylesheetsrsquo Stylesheets define the way in which the metadata is displayed By default ArcCatalog displays metadata using the FGDC ESRI stylesheet

Changing stylesheets

Select any of the stylesheets

Notice the changes in the format of the metadata

Editing metadata

You can create the metadata for a new data set or change existing metadata

Fig 116 Metadata windowndash Default Style sheet

Fig 117 Choosing a Metadata Stylesheet

by using ArcCatalogrsquos metadata editor For example change the metadataof the india_ds Feature Class The data set was produced by -and obtained from - IIRS India You will add informationabout the IIRS to give them the credits they deserve and include them as distributor The address details are as follows

Organisation Indian Institute of Remote SensingAddress Kalidas RoadDehradunProvince UtteranchalPostal code India

Edit metadata

Click the button Edit metadata in the Metadata toolbar

A dialog window opens Notice that a number of fields have the word ldquoREQUIREDrdquo(IN RED) and a brief description of the type of information expectedin that field The red font is meant to emphasize that these fields arepart of the minimum information required by the metadata standard For thetime being add some of the required data Follow the numerical sequenceas indicated in Fig 118 and 119

First select Distribution at the top of the dialog window (Fig 118)

Next click on the Distribution tab then click on the Detailshellip

button 3 This will open another dialog window

21

1

2

Select the Organization 4 option and click on the Address 5 tab

Enter name 6 and address of the organization 7 in the appropriate

fields

Click OK and Save

3

4

6

7

5

Fig 118 Example of steps to edit metadata

Fig 119 Editing contactinformation with the Arc-

View the updated information in the metadata window Note that some part of the stylesheet will not include all the metadata To check the updated information select the FGDC stylesheet and click on the Distribution Information link

Manage data sources

In ArcCatalog you can manage your data in a similar way as in Windows ExplorerYou can copy move delete and rename any item that appears in the Catalog tree or in the Contents window As example create a new folder and copy some existing data into it

Create a new folder

In the Catalog tree select your XExercise folder

Right click to open the context menu

Select New and click Folder

Fig 120 Creating a new folder with ArcCatalogArc-Catalog metadata editor

Type a new name for the folder you have just created eg

lsquoMy_folderrsquo

Copy the Personal Geodatabase ldquoLarge_enschedemdbrdquo to the

new folder

Make sure that none of the Feature Classes is active You should seenothing displayed in the Contents the Preview and the Metadata windowsIf any of the Feature Classes is active ArcCatalog locks the PersonalGeodatabase and returns an error when you try to copy itIt is easy to manage files and folders in ArcCatalog You can also create(empty) geo-spatial data sets You will learn this later in the course together with filling these data sets with new data through ArcMap

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

You have now explored some functions of ArcCatalog and seen that its mainpurpose is data browsing and basic data management If you want to editgeo-spatial data analyse it or create maps you need another application of the ArcGIS suite ArcMap Most of the exercises that follow will be about the basics of geoinformation processing with ArcMap

Access ArcMap

From the Standard toolbar select the ArcMap Icon

When ArcMap opens you will be prompted to select one of the followingan empty map a new template or an existing mapYou will do this in the next exercise So can stop here and exit ArcMap

In the ArcMap dialog window ignore the different options and

click OK From the File menu select Exit

Explore the data

You have learnt to browse data from different sources In the next sectionyou will explore the data by displaying both its geography and its attributes

Exploring Geographic data

Most GIS data sets have a geographic and a tabular component ArcCatalogallows you to preview either of them you can toggle between them using the dropdown list at the bottom of the Preview window

Use the Preview tab

Fig 18 Result of producing the Thumbnails within the Contentstab

Fig 19 Toggle the contents of the Preview window

Select the file India_ boundary Feature Class from the Catalog tree

Select the Preview tab

What you see now in the preview is a vector dataset with the boundaries ofindia_sd of the You can use the Geography toolbar to explore the geographic data (Fig 110)

The Zoom In Out buttons allow you to control the level of detail or the extent of the area that is displayed in the preview window

Select an area of interest

Click the Zoom In button from the Geography toolbar

Click and drag a box over your area of interest then release the mouse The area you have defined will now enlarge to occupy the entire display area of the Preview window

Fig 110 The buttons of the Geographic toolbar

You have now enlarged the central part of the Feature Class the part that falls outside the Preview window it is not displayed To maintain the same scale and see the data beyond the display select the Pan button The Pan button allows you to drag the display in any direction

Fig 111 Defining the geographicarea to enlarge

Fig 112 Preview of the geographyat an enlarged scale

Click and drag a box to define your area of interest

The selected area at an enlarge scale

Click on Zoom

Use Pan button

Select the Pan button from the Geographic Toolbar

Click and hold the mouse button at any point in the display window

Move the mouse and notice that the display will follow the movements of the mouse

Release the mouse and the display will refresh

Practice the Pan button to move around the data maintaining the same visualization scale

When you are finish exploring the data at a selected zoom level the Full Extent button allows you to return to the full extent of the feature class

Use Full extent button

Click the Full Extent button and notice that the whole area is now

displayed

The Identify button allows you to retrieve attribute information of a feature -here the name of a neighborhood - if you point at it with the mouse

Click inside theneighborhoodfor which youwant the to

All the attributesof the selectedneighborhoodare displayed in aseparate

Fig 113 Process to identify theattributes of a feature

Use the Identify button

Click the Identify button

Click inside one of the neighborhoods in the india_sd area

Study the Identify Results window Yoursquoll notice that one of the attributes displayed is the name of the india_sd

You can click inside other neighborhoods to view their attributes

If you are finished viewing the attributes in this way close the

Identify results window (click on the little cross in the top right corner)

Exploring Tabular data

Now look at the attribute table of the india_sd Feature Class

Preview tables

Change the dropdown list in the Preview to Table (Fig 15 19)

There are several options that allow you to personalize the display of the tablein the preview

Change how tables look

If you want to change the appearance of the table (eg to improve the readabilityof the text) you can change the default settings Eg you may highlighta selection in lsquodark greenrsquo in stead of the default lsquopale bluersquo and youmay set the font size to 10pt

Change default settings

Click on the heading of one of the columns Notice that the whole column turns from white to pale blue

From the menu Tools select Options

A tabbed dialog window appears Select the tab Tables

Change the default settings to match the settings indicated above

Examine the visual result in the table

Change the width of a column

Depending on the font size and length of records some of the informationmay be hidden andor not readable To increase readability you may want to change the width of the columns

Change width of a column

Position the mouse over the extreme right edge of the column

heading DST_ID (notice the pointer of the cursor changes to )

Click here to selectthe color you wantto use to highlightselections

Click here to typethe new font size

Fig 114 Dialog window to setArcCatalog options

Double-click with the left mouse button The column width will

now be adjusted to the width of the longest entry in that column

Alternatively click and drag the columnrsquos edge to an acceptable width

Release the mouse

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session the default column width will be restored

Change the position of a column

Sometimes tables contain many columns In order to work efficient you maywant to rearrange the columns and to position the ones you need next to each other

Reposition a column

Click the column heading DST_ID (notice that the whole column

changes to the default color you have just selected)

Click the column again and hold down the mouse button

Drag the column heading to the location between the columns SHAPE and OBJECTID (notice a red line indicates the new location of the column ID_)

Release the mouse button

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session the columns will resume their default positions

Freeze a column

Sometimes you may want to compare the values in one column with the values

in the another columns This can be facilitated by lsquofreezingrsquo them

FreezeUnfreeze Columns

Right-click on the column heading DISTRICT

Click FreezeUnfreeze Column

Scroll horizontally by moving the horizontal slider to the right Notice that the column NAME1_ remains visible

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session all columns will be automatically unfrozen

Sorting columns

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

Sort Records

Right-click the column DISTRICT

In the drop-down list click Sort Ascending

Scroll down the list and notice that the numbers increase

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session records will resume their default order

Calculate statistics

You can display the basic statistics of numeric fields in an attribute table

Calculate statistics

Right-click the heading AREA_

In the drop-down list select the option Statistics

The Statistics dialog box pops up and displays all information about the values in the column AREA_

Adding a column

It is possible to add a column in the attribute table of a geodata layer and todefine its properties Notice however that ArcCatalog will not allow you toenter andor modify the data in the records You will see the editing processlater in exercise 2 when dealing with ArcMap functions

Add a field to a table

Click the button Options at the bottom of the Preview window and click Add Field See Fig 115

In the dialog window of Add Field fill in the name of the new column Leave the rest of the properties as they are (we will treat this later)

Click OK

View and editing metadata

Metadata describes data in a standardized way Metadata are used tosearch for and exchange data Examples of metadata are file name dataformat data quality data accuracy reference system ownership availability creation date update status description of attribute names etc

By looking at the metadata of a data set you should be able to decide if theset can be used for your application Eg do you need to adapt data to integrate it into your application (eg change its projection) can you access the data who to contact to get it are there cost involved etc

Fig 115 Preview window ndash table mode

There are a several standards for metadata Standards provide commonterminology and definitions for the documentation of digital data For geospatial data the two main standards are defined by

the International Organization for Standardizations (ISO) with the document

19115 ldquoGeographic Information ndash Metadatardquothe Federal Geographic Data Committees (FGDC) of the United States

It is very important to study the metadata before you use geospatial data obtained

from somebody else and to accurately describe the metadata for the geospatial data that

you produce

Have a look at the metadata of the Feature Class india_dsExplore metadata

In the Catalog tree select india_ds

In the view area click the Metadata tab to visualize the metadata information window

Scroll through the metadata and study itsrsquo contents

As explained in section 13 metadata consist of properties and documentationProperties are derived from the data itself and documentation is additionaldescriptive information generally supplied by the data creator But anyuser with writing access can change or add content to the metadata

ArcCatalog offers a number of ways to display the metadata using differentlsquoStylesheetsrsquo Stylesheets define the way in which the metadata is displayed By default ArcCatalog displays metadata using the FGDC ESRI stylesheet

Changing stylesheets

Select any of the stylesheets

Notice the changes in the format of the metadata

Editing metadata

You can create the metadata for a new data set or change existing metadata

Fig 116 Metadata windowndash Default Style sheet

Fig 117 Choosing a Metadata Stylesheet

by using ArcCatalogrsquos metadata editor For example change the metadataof the india_ds Feature Class The data set was produced by -and obtained from - IIRS India You will add informationabout the IIRS to give them the credits they deserve and include them as distributor The address details are as follows

Organisation Indian Institute of Remote SensingAddress Kalidas RoadDehradunProvince UtteranchalPostal code India

Edit metadata

Click the button Edit metadata in the Metadata toolbar

A dialog window opens Notice that a number of fields have the word ldquoREQUIREDrdquo(IN RED) and a brief description of the type of information expectedin that field The red font is meant to emphasize that these fields arepart of the minimum information required by the metadata standard For thetime being add some of the required data Follow the numerical sequenceas indicated in Fig 118 and 119

First select Distribution at the top of the dialog window (Fig 118)

Next click on the Distribution tab then click on the Detailshellip

button 3 This will open another dialog window

21

1

2

Select the Organization 4 option and click on the Address 5 tab

Enter name 6 and address of the organization 7 in the appropriate

fields

Click OK and Save

3

4

6

7

5

Fig 118 Example of steps to edit metadata

Fig 119 Editing contactinformation with the Arc-

View the updated information in the metadata window Note that some part of the stylesheet will not include all the metadata To check the updated information select the FGDC stylesheet and click on the Distribution Information link

Manage data sources

In ArcCatalog you can manage your data in a similar way as in Windows ExplorerYou can copy move delete and rename any item that appears in the Catalog tree or in the Contents window As example create a new folder and copy some existing data into it

Create a new folder

In the Catalog tree select your XExercise folder

Right click to open the context menu

Select New and click Folder

Fig 120 Creating a new folder with ArcCatalogArc-Catalog metadata editor

Type a new name for the folder you have just created eg

lsquoMy_folderrsquo

Copy the Personal Geodatabase ldquoLarge_enschedemdbrdquo to the

new folder

Make sure that none of the Feature Classes is active You should seenothing displayed in the Contents the Preview and the Metadata windowsIf any of the Feature Classes is active ArcCatalog locks the PersonalGeodatabase and returns an error when you try to copy itIt is easy to manage files and folders in ArcCatalog You can also create(empty) geo-spatial data sets You will learn this later in the course together with filling these data sets with new data through ArcMap

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

You have now explored some functions of ArcCatalog and seen that its mainpurpose is data browsing and basic data management If you want to editgeo-spatial data analyse it or create maps you need another application of the ArcGIS suite ArcMap Most of the exercises that follow will be about the basics of geoinformation processing with ArcMap

Access ArcMap

From the Standard toolbar select the ArcMap Icon

When ArcMap opens you will be prompted to select one of the followingan empty map a new template or an existing mapYou will do this in the next exercise So can stop here and exit ArcMap

In the ArcMap dialog window ignore the different options and

click OK From the File menu select Exit

Select the file India_ boundary Feature Class from the Catalog tree

Select the Preview tab

What you see now in the preview is a vector dataset with the boundaries ofindia_sd of the You can use the Geography toolbar to explore the geographic data (Fig 110)

The Zoom In Out buttons allow you to control the level of detail or the extent of the area that is displayed in the preview window

Select an area of interest

Click the Zoom In button from the Geography toolbar

Click and drag a box over your area of interest then release the mouse The area you have defined will now enlarge to occupy the entire display area of the Preview window

Fig 110 The buttons of the Geographic toolbar

You have now enlarged the central part of the Feature Class the part that falls outside the Preview window it is not displayed To maintain the same scale and see the data beyond the display select the Pan button The Pan button allows you to drag the display in any direction

Fig 111 Defining the geographicarea to enlarge

Fig 112 Preview of the geographyat an enlarged scale

Click and drag a box to define your area of interest

The selected area at an enlarge scale

Click on Zoom

Use Pan button

Select the Pan button from the Geographic Toolbar

Click and hold the mouse button at any point in the display window

Move the mouse and notice that the display will follow the movements of the mouse

Release the mouse and the display will refresh

Practice the Pan button to move around the data maintaining the same visualization scale

When you are finish exploring the data at a selected zoom level the Full Extent button allows you to return to the full extent of the feature class

Use Full extent button

Click the Full Extent button and notice that the whole area is now

displayed

The Identify button allows you to retrieve attribute information of a feature -here the name of a neighborhood - if you point at it with the mouse

Click inside theneighborhoodfor which youwant the to

All the attributesof the selectedneighborhoodare displayed in aseparate

Fig 113 Process to identify theattributes of a feature

Use the Identify button

Click the Identify button

Click inside one of the neighborhoods in the india_sd area

Study the Identify Results window Yoursquoll notice that one of the attributes displayed is the name of the india_sd

You can click inside other neighborhoods to view their attributes

If you are finished viewing the attributes in this way close the

Identify results window (click on the little cross in the top right corner)

Exploring Tabular data

Now look at the attribute table of the india_sd Feature Class

Preview tables

Change the dropdown list in the Preview to Table (Fig 15 19)

There are several options that allow you to personalize the display of the tablein the preview

Change how tables look

If you want to change the appearance of the table (eg to improve the readabilityof the text) you can change the default settings Eg you may highlighta selection in lsquodark greenrsquo in stead of the default lsquopale bluersquo and youmay set the font size to 10pt

Change default settings

Click on the heading of one of the columns Notice that the whole column turns from white to pale blue

From the menu Tools select Options

A tabbed dialog window appears Select the tab Tables

Change the default settings to match the settings indicated above

Examine the visual result in the table

Change the width of a column

Depending on the font size and length of records some of the informationmay be hidden andor not readable To increase readability you may want to change the width of the columns

Change width of a column

Position the mouse over the extreme right edge of the column

heading DST_ID (notice the pointer of the cursor changes to )

Click here to selectthe color you wantto use to highlightselections

Click here to typethe new font size

Fig 114 Dialog window to setArcCatalog options

Double-click with the left mouse button The column width will

now be adjusted to the width of the longest entry in that column

Alternatively click and drag the columnrsquos edge to an acceptable width

Release the mouse

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session the default column width will be restored

Change the position of a column

Sometimes tables contain many columns In order to work efficient you maywant to rearrange the columns and to position the ones you need next to each other

Reposition a column

Click the column heading DST_ID (notice that the whole column

changes to the default color you have just selected)

Click the column again and hold down the mouse button

Drag the column heading to the location between the columns SHAPE and OBJECTID (notice a red line indicates the new location of the column ID_)

Release the mouse button

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session the columns will resume their default positions

Freeze a column

Sometimes you may want to compare the values in one column with the values

in the another columns This can be facilitated by lsquofreezingrsquo them

FreezeUnfreeze Columns

Right-click on the column heading DISTRICT

Click FreezeUnfreeze Column

Scroll horizontally by moving the horizontal slider to the right Notice that the column NAME1_ remains visible

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session all columns will be automatically unfrozen

Sorting columns

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

Sort Records

Right-click the column DISTRICT

In the drop-down list click Sort Ascending

Scroll down the list and notice that the numbers increase

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session records will resume their default order

Calculate statistics

You can display the basic statistics of numeric fields in an attribute table

Calculate statistics

Right-click the heading AREA_

In the drop-down list select the option Statistics

The Statistics dialog box pops up and displays all information about the values in the column AREA_

Adding a column

It is possible to add a column in the attribute table of a geodata layer and todefine its properties Notice however that ArcCatalog will not allow you toenter andor modify the data in the records You will see the editing processlater in exercise 2 when dealing with ArcMap functions

Add a field to a table

Click the button Options at the bottom of the Preview window and click Add Field See Fig 115

In the dialog window of Add Field fill in the name of the new column Leave the rest of the properties as they are (we will treat this later)

Click OK

View and editing metadata

Metadata describes data in a standardized way Metadata are used tosearch for and exchange data Examples of metadata are file name dataformat data quality data accuracy reference system ownership availability creation date update status description of attribute names etc

By looking at the metadata of a data set you should be able to decide if theset can be used for your application Eg do you need to adapt data to integrate it into your application (eg change its projection) can you access the data who to contact to get it are there cost involved etc

Fig 115 Preview window ndash table mode

There are a several standards for metadata Standards provide commonterminology and definitions for the documentation of digital data For geospatial data the two main standards are defined by

the International Organization for Standardizations (ISO) with the document

19115 ldquoGeographic Information ndash Metadatardquothe Federal Geographic Data Committees (FGDC) of the United States

It is very important to study the metadata before you use geospatial data obtained

from somebody else and to accurately describe the metadata for the geospatial data that

you produce

Have a look at the metadata of the Feature Class india_dsExplore metadata

In the Catalog tree select india_ds

In the view area click the Metadata tab to visualize the metadata information window

Scroll through the metadata and study itsrsquo contents

As explained in section 13 metadata consist of properties and documentationProperties are derived from the data itself and documentation is additionaldescriptive information generally supplied by the data creator But anyuser with writing access can change or add content to the metadata

ArcCatalog offers a number of ways to display the metadata using differentlsquoStylesheetsrsquo Stylesheets define the way in which the metadata is displayed By default ArcCatalog displays metadata using the FGDC ESRI stylesheet

Changing stylesheets

Select any of the stylesheets

Notice the changes in the format of the metadata

Editing metadata

You can create the metadata for a new data set or change existing metadata

Fig 116 Metadata windowndash Default Style sheet

Fig 117 Choosing a Metadata Stylesheet

by using ArcCatalogrsquos metadata editor For example change the metadataof the india_ds Feature Class The data set was produced by -and obtained from - IIRS India You will add informationabout the IIRS to give them the credits they deserve and include them as distributor The address details are as follows

Organisation Indian Institute of Remote SensingAddress Kalidas RoadDehradunProvince UtteranchalPostal code India

Edit metadata

Click the button Edit metadata in the Metadata toolbar

A dialog window opens Notice that a number of fields have the word ldquoREQUIREDrdquo(IN RED) and a brief description of the type of information expectedin that field The red font is meant to emphasize that these fields arepart of the minimum information required by the metadata standard For thetime being add some of the required data Follow the numerical sequenceas indicated in Fig 118 and 119

First select Distribution at the top of the dialog window (Fig 118)

Next click on the Distribution tab then click on the Detailshellip

button 3 This will open another dialog window

21

1

2

Select the Organization 4 option and click on the Address 5 tab

Enter name 6 and address of the organization 7 in the appropriate

fields

Click OK and Save

3

4

6

7

5

Fig 118 Example of steps to edit metadata

Fig 119 Editing contactinformation with the Arc-

View the updated information in the metadata window Note that some part of the stylesheet will not include all the metadata To check the updated information select the FGDC stylesheet and click on the Distribution Information link

Manage data sources

In ArcCatalog you can manage your data in a similar way as in Windows ExplorerYou can copy move delete and rename any item that appears in the Catalog tree or in the Contents window As example create a new folder and copy some existing data into it

Create a new folder

In the Catalog tree select your XExercise folder

Right click to open the context menu

Select New and click Folder

Fig 120 Creating a new folder with ArcCatalogArc-Catalog metadata editor

Type a new name for the folder you have just created eg

lsquoMy_folderrsquo

Copy the Personal Geodatabase ldquoLarge_enschedemdbrdquo to the

new folder

Make sure that none of the Feature Classes is active You should seenothing displayed in the Contents the Preview and the Metadata windowsIf any of the Feature Classes is active ArcCatalog locks the PersonalGeodatabase and returns an error when you try to copy itIt is easy to manage files and folders in ArcCatalog You can also create(empty) geo-spatial data sets You will learn this later in the course together with filling these data sets with new data through ArcMap

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

You have now explored some functions of ArcCatalog and seen that its mainpurpose is data browsing and basic data management If you want to editgeo-spatial data analyse it or create maps you need another application of the ArcGIS suite ArcMap Most of the exercises that follow will be about the basics of geoinformation processing with ArcMap

Access ArcMap

From the Standard toolbar select the ArcMap Icon

When ArcMap opens you will be prompted to select one of the followingan empty map a new template or an existing mapYou will do this in the next exercise So can stop here and exit ArcMap

In the ArcMap dialog window ignore the different options and

click OK From the File menu select Exit

You have now enlarged the central part of the Feature Class the part that falls outside the Preview window it is not displayed To maintain the same scale and see the data beyond the display select the Pan button The Pan button allows you to drag the display in any direction

Fig 111 Defining the geographicarea to enlarge

Fig 112 Preview of the geographyat an enlarged scale

Click and drag a box to define your area of interest

The selected area at an enlarge scale

Click on Zoom

Use Pan button

Select the Pan button from the Geographic Toolbar

Click and hold the mouse button at any point in the display window

Move the mouse and notice that the display will follow the movements of the mouse

Release the mouse and the display will refresh

Practice the Pan button to move around the data maintaining the same visualization scale

When you are finish exploring the data at a selected zoom level the Full Extent button allows you to return to the full extent of the feature class

Use Full extent button

Click the Full Extent button and notice that the whole area is now

displayed

The Identify button allows you to retrieve attribute information of a feature -here the name of a neighborhood - if you point at it with the mouse

Click inside theneighborhoodfor which youwant the to

All the attributesof the selectedneighborhoodare displayed in aseparate

Fig 113 Process to identify theattributes of a feature

Use the Identify button

Click the Identify button

Click inside one of the neighborhoods in the india_sd area

Study the Identify Results window Yoursquoll notice that one of the attributes displayed is the name of the india_sd

You can click inside other neighborhoods to view their attributes

If you are finished viewing the attributes in this way close the

Identify results window (click on the little cross in the top right corner)

Exploring Tabular data

Now look at the attribute table of the india_sd Feature Class

Preview tables

Change the dropdown list in the Preview to Table (Fig 15 19)

There are several options that allow you to personalize the display of the tablein the preview

Change how tables look

If you want to change the appearance of the table (eg to improve the readabilityof the text) you can change the default settings Eg you may highlighta selection in lsquodark greenrsquo in stead of the default lsquopale bluersquo and youmay set the font size to 10pt

Change default settings

Click on the heading of one of the columns Notice that the whole column turns from white to pale blue

From the menu Tools select Options

A tabbed dialog window appears Select the tab Tables

Change the default settings to match the settings indicated above

Examine the visual result in the table

Change the width of a column

Depending on the font size and length of records some of the informationmay be hidden andor not readable To increase readability you may want to change the width of the columns

Change width of a column

Position the mouse over the extreme right edge of the column

heading DST_ID (notice the pointer of the cursor changes to )

Click here to selectthe color you wantto use to highlightselections

Click here to typethe new font size

Fig 114 Dialog window to setArcCatalog options

Double-click with the left mouse button The column width will

now be adjusted to the width of the longest entry in that column

Alternatively click and drag the columnrsquos edge to an acceptable width

Release the mouse

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session the default column width will be restored

Change the position of a column

Sometimes tables contain many columns In order to work efficient you maywant to rearrange the columns and to position the ones you need next to each other

Reposition a column

Click the column heading DST_ID (notice that the whole column

changes to the default color you have just selected)

Click the column again and hold down the mouse button

Drag the column heading to the location between the columns SHAPE and OBJECTID (notice a red line indicates the new location of the column ID_)

Release the mouse button

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session the columns will resume their default positions

Freeze a column

Sometimes you may want to compare the values in one column with the values

in the another columns This can be facilitated by lsquofreezingrsquo them

FreezeUnfreeze Columns

Right-click on the column heading DISTRICT

Click FreezeUnfreeze Column

Scroll horizontally by moving the horizontal slider to the right Notice that the column NAME1_ remains visible

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session all columns will be automatically unfrozen

Sorting columns

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

Sort Records

Right-click the column DISTRICT

In the drop-down list click Sort Ascending

Scroll down the list and notice that the numbers increase

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session records will resume their default order

Calculate statistics

You can display the basic statistics of numeric fields in an attribute table

Calculate statistics

Right-click the heading AREA_

In the drop-down list select the option Statistics

The Statistics dialog box pops up and displays all information about the values in the column AREA_

Adding a column

It is possible to add a column in the attribute table of a geodata layer and todefine its properties Notice however that ArcCatalog will not allow you toenter andor modify the data in the records You will see the editing processlater in exercise 2 when dealing with ArcMap functions

Add a field to a table

Click the button Options at the bottom of the Preview window and click Add Field See Fig 115

In the dialog window of Add Field fill in the name of the new column Leave the rest of the properties as they are (we will treat this later)

Click OK

View and editing metadata

Metadata describes data in a standardized way Metadata are used tosearch for and exchange data Examples of metadata are file name dataformat data quality data accuracy reference system ownership availability creation date update status description of attribute names etc

By looking at the metadata of a data set you should be able to decide if theset can be used for your application Eg do you need to adapt data to integrate it into your application (eg change its projection) can you access the data who to contact to get it are there cost involved etc

Fig 115 Preview window ndash table mode

There are a several standards for metadata Standards provide commonterminology and definitions for the documentation of digital data For geospatial data the two main standards are defined by

the International Organization for Standardizations (ISO) with the document

19115 ldquoGeographic Information ndash Metadatardquothe Federal Geographic Data Committees (FGDC) of the United States

It is very important to study the metadata before you use geospatial data obtained

from somebody else and to accurately describe the metadata for the geospatial data that

you produce

Have a look at the metadata of the Feature Class india_dsExplore metadata

In the Catalog tree select india_ds

In the view area click the Metadata tab to visualize the metadata information window

Scroll through the metadata and study itsrsquo contents

As explained in section 13 metadata consist of properties and documentationProperties are derived from the data itself and documentation is additionaldescriptive information generally supplied by the data creator But anyuser with writing access can change or add content to the metadata

ArcCatalog offers a number of ways to display the metadata using differentlsquoStylesheetsrsquo Stylesheets define the way in which the metadata is displayed By default ArcCatalog displays metadata using the FGDC ESRI stylesheet

Changing stylesheets

Select any of the stylesheets

Notice the changes in the format of the metadata

Editing metadata

You can create the metadata for a new data set or change existing metadata

Fig 116 Metadata windowndash Default Style sheet

Fig 117 Choosing a Metadata Stylesheet

by using ArcCatalogrsquos metadata editor For example change the metadataof the india_ds Feature Class The data set was produced by -and obtained from - IIRS India You will add informationabout the IIRS to give them the credits they deserve and include them as distributor The address details are as follows

Organisation Indian Institute of Remote SensingAddress Kalidas RoadDehradunProvince UtteranchalPostal code India

Edit metadata

Click the button Edit metadata in the Metadata toolbar

A dialog window opens Notice that a number of fields have the word ldquoREQUIREDrdquo(IN RED) and a brief description of the type of information expectedin that field The red font is meant to emphasize that these fields arepart of the minimum information required by the metadata standard For thetime being add some of the required data Follow the numerical sequenceas indicated in Fig 118 and 119

First select Distribution at the top of the dialog window (Fig 118)

Next click on the Distribution tab then click on the Detailshellip

button 3 This will open another dialog window

21

1

2

Select the Organization 4 option and click on the Address 5 tab

Enter name 6 and address of the organization 7 in the appropriate

fields

Click OK and Save

3

4

6

7

5

Fig 118 Example of steps to edit metadata

Fig 119 Editing contactinformation with the Arc-

View the updated information in the metadata window Note that some part of the stylesheet will not include all the metadata To check the updated information select the FGDC stylesheet and click on the Distribution Information link

Manage data sources

In ArcCatalog you can manage your data in a similar way as in Windows ExplorerYou can copy move delete and rename any item that appears in the Catalog tree or in the Contents window As example create a new folder and copy some existing data into it

Create a new folder

In the Catalog tree select your XExercise folder

Right click to open the context menu

Select New and click Folder

Fig 120 Creating a new folder with ArcCatalogArc-Catalog metadata editor

Type a new name for the folder you have just created eg

lsquoMy_folderrsquo

Copy the Personal Geodatabase ldquoLarge_enschedemdbrdquo to the

new folder

Make sure that none of the Feature Classes is active You should seenothing displayed in the Contents the Preview and the Metadata windowsIf any of the Feature Classes is active ArcCatalog locks the PersonalGeodatabase and returns an error when you try to copy itIt is easy to manage files and folders in ArcCatalog You can also create(empty) geo-spatial data sets You will learn this later in the course together with filling these data sets with new data through ArcMap

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

You have now explored some functions of ArcCatalog and seen that its mainpurpose is data browsing and basic data management If you want to editgeo-spatial data analyse it or create maps you need another application of the ArcGIS suite ArcMap Most of the exercises that follow will be about the basics of geoinformation processing with ArcMap

Access ArcMap

From the Standard toolbar select the ArcMap Icon

When ArcMap opens you will be prompted to select one of the followingan empty map a new template or an existing mapYou will do this in the next exercise So can stop here and exit ArcMap

In the ArcMap dialog window ignore the different options and

click OK From the File menu select Exit

Use Pan button

Select the Pan button from the Geographic Toolbar

Click and hold the mouse button at any point in the display window

Move the mouse and notice that the display will follow the movements of the mouse

Release the mouse and the display will refresh

Practice the Pan button to move around the data maintaining the same visualization scale

When you are finish exploring the data at a selected zoom level the Full Extent button allows you to return to the full extent of the feature class

Use Full extent button

Click the Full Extent button and notice that the whole area is now

displayed

The Identify button allows you to retrieve attribute information of a feature -here the name of a neighborhood - if you point at it with the mouse

Click inside theneighborhoodfor which youwant the to

All the attributesof the selectedneighborhoodare displayed in aseparate

Fig 113 Process to identify theattributes of a feature

Use the Identify button

Click the Identify button

Click inside one of the neighborhoods in the india_sd area

Study the Identify Results window Yoursquoll notice that one of the attributes displayed is the name of the india_sd

You can click inside other neighborhoods to view their attributes

If you are finished viewing the attributes in this way close the

Identify results window (click on the little cross in the top right corner)

Exploring Tabular data

Now look at the attribute table of the india_sd Feature Class

Preview tables

Change the dropdown list in the Preview to Table (Fig 15 19)

There are several options that allow you to personalize the display of the tablein the preview

Change how tables look

If you want to change the appearance of the table (eg to improve the readabilityof the text) you can change the default settings Eg you may highlighta selection in lsquodark greenrsquo in stead of the default lsquopale bluersquo and youmay set the font size to 10pt

Change default settings

Click on the heading of one of the columns Notice that the whole column turns from white to pale blue

From the menu Tools select Options

A tabbed dialog window appears Select the tab Tables

Change the default settings to match the settings indicated above

Examine the visual result in the table

Change the width of a column

Depending on the font size and length of records some of the informationmay be hidden andor not readable To increase readability you may want to change the width of the columns

Change width of a column

Position the mouse over the extreme right edge of the column

heading DST_ID (notice the pointer of the cursor changes to )

Click here to selectthe color you wantto use to highlightselections

Click here to typethe new font size

Fig 114 Dialog window to setArcCatalog options

Double-click with the left mouse button The column width will

now be adjusted to the width of the longest entry in that column

Alternatively click and drag the columnrsquos edge to an acceptable width

Release the mouse

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session the default column width will be restored

Change the position of a column

Sometimes tables contain many columns In order to work efficient you maywant to rearrange the columns and to position the ones you need next to each other

Reposition a column

Click the column heading DST_ID (notice that the whole column

changes to the default color you have just selected)

Click the column again and hold down the mouse button

Drag the column heading to the location between the columns SHAPE and OBJECTID (notice a red line indicates the new location of the column ID_)

Release the mouse button

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session the columns will resume their default positions

Freeze a column

Sometimes you may want to compare the values in one column with the values

in the another columns This can be facilitated by lsquofreezingrsquo them

FreezeUnfreeze Columns

Right-click on the column heading DISTRICT

Click FreezeUnfreeze Column

Scroll horizontally by moving the horizontal slider to the right Notice that the column NAME1_ remains visible

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session all columns will be automatically unfrozen

Sorting columns

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

Sort Records

Right-click the column DISTRICT

In the drop-down list click Sort Ascending

Scroll down the list and notice that the numbers increase

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session records will resume their default order

Calculate statistics

You can display the basic statistics of numeric fields in an attribute table

Calculate statistics

Right-click the heading AREA_

In the drop-down list select the option Statistics

The Statistics dialog box pops up and displays all information about the values in the column AREA_

Adding a column

It is possible to add a column in the attribute table of a geodata layer and todefine its properties Notice however that ArcCatalog will not allow you toenter andor modify the data in the records You will see the editing processlater in exercise 2 when dealing with ArcMap functions

Add a field to a table

Click the button Options at the bottom of the Preview window and click Add Field See Fig 115

In the dialog window of Add Field fill in the name of the new column Leave the rest of the properties as they are (we will treat this later)

Click OK

View and editing metadata

Metadata describes data in a standardized way Metadata are used tosearch for and exchange data Examples of metadata are file name dataformat data quality data accuracy reference system ownership availability creation date update status description of attribute names etc

By looking at the metadata of a data set you should be able to decide if theset can be used for your application Eg do you need to adapt data to integrate it into your application (eg change its projection) can you access the data who to contact to get it are there cost involved etc

Fig 115 Preview window ndash table mode

There are a several standards for metadata Standards provide commonterminology and definitions for the documentation of digital data For geospatial data the two main standards are defined by

the International Organization for Standardizations (ISO) with the document

19115 ldquoGeographic Information ndash Metadatardquothe Federal Geographic Data Committees (FGDC) of the United States

It is very important to study the metadata before you use geospatial data obtained

from somebody else and to accurately describe the metadata for the geospatial data that

you produce

Have a look at the metadata of the Feature Class india_dsExplore metadata

In the Catalog tree select india_ds

In the view area click the Metadata tab to visualize the metadata information window

Scroll through the metadata and study itsrsquo contents

As explained in section 13 metadata consist of properties and documentationProperties are derived from the data itself and documentation is additionaldescriptive information generally supplied by the data creator But anyuser with writing access can change or add content to the metadata

ArcCatalog offers a number of ways to display the metadata using differentlsquoStylesheetsrsquo Stylesheets define the way in which the metadata is displayed By default ArcCatalog displays metadata using the FGDC ESRI stylesheet

Changing stylesheets

Select any of the stylesheets

Notice the changes in the format of the metadata

Editing metadata

You can create the metadata for a new data set or change existing metadata

Fig 116 Metadata windowndash Default Style sheet

Fig 117 Choosing a Metadata Stylesheet

by using ArcCatalogrsquos metadata editor For example change the metadataof the india_ds Feature Class The data set was produced by -and obtained from - IIRS India You will add informationabout the IIRS to give them the credits they deserve and include them as distributor The address details are as follows

Organisation Indian Institute of Remote SensingAddress Kalidas RoadDehradunProvince UtteranchalPostal code India

Edit metadata

Click the button Edit metadata in the Metadata toolbar

A dialog window opens Notice that a number of fields have the word ldquoREQUIREDrdquo(IN RED) and a brief description of the type of information expectedin that field The red font is meant to emphasize that these fields arepart of the minimum information required by the metadata standard For thetime being add some of the required data Follow the numerical sequenceas indicated in Fig 118 and 119

First select Distribution at the top of the dialog window (Fig 118)

Next click on the Distribution tab then click on the Detailshellip

button 3 This will open another dialog window

21

1

2

Select the Organization 4 option and click on the Address 5 tab

Enter name 6 and address of the organization 7 in the appropriate

fields

Click OK and Save

3

4

6

7

5

Fig 118 Example of steps to edit metadata

Fig 119 Editing contactinformation with the Arc-

View the updated information in the metadata window Note that some part of the stylesheet will not include all the metadata To check the updated information select the FGDC stylesheet and click on the Distribution Information link

Manage data sources

In ArcCatalog you can manage your data in a similar way as in Windows ExplorerYou can copy move delete and rename any item that appears in the Catalog tree or in the Contents window As example create a new folder and copy some existing data into it

Create a new folder

In the Catalog tree select your XExercise folder

Right click to open the context menu

Select New and click Folder

Fig 120 Creating a new folder with ArcCatalogArc-Catalog metadata editor

Type a new name for the folder you have just created eg

lsquoMy_folderrsquo

Copy the Personal Geodatabase ldquoLarge_enschedemdbrdquo to the

new folder

Make sure that none of the Feature Classes is active You should seenothing displayed in the Contents the Preview and the Metadata windowsIf any of the Feature Classes is active ArcCatalog locks the PersonalGeodatabase and returns an error when you try to copy itIt is easy to manage files and folders in ArcCatalog You can also create(empty) geo-spatial data sets You will learn this later in the course together with filling these data sets with new data through ArcMap

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

You have now explored some functions of ArcCatalog and seen that its mainpurpose is data browsing and basic data management If you want to editgeo-spatial data analyse it or create maps you need another application of the ArcGIS suite ArcMap Most of the exercises that follow will be about the basics of geoinformation processing with ArcMap

Access ArcMap

From the Standard toolbar select the ArcMap Icon

When ArcMap opens you will be prompted to select one of the followingan empty map a new template or an existing mapYou will do this in the next exercise So can stop here and exit ArcMap

In the ArcMap dialog window ignore the different options and

click OK From the File menu select Exit

Use the Identify button

Click the Identify button

Click inside one of the neighborhoods in the india_sd area

Study the Identify Results window Yoursquoll notice that one of the attributes displayed is the name of the india_sd

You can click inside other neighborhoods to view their attributes

If you are finished viewing the attributes in this way close the

Identify results window (click on the little cross in the top right corner)

Exploring Tabular data

Now look at the attribute table of the india_sd Feature Class

Preview tables

Change the dropdown list in the Preview to Table (Fig 15 19)

There are several options that allow you to personalize the display of the tablein the preview

Change how tables look

If you want to change the appearance of the table (eg to improve the readabilityof the text) you can change the default settings Eg you may highlighta selection in lsquodark greenrsquo in stead of the default lsquopale bluersquo and youmay set the font size to 10pt

Change default settings

Click on the heading of one of the columns Notice that the whole column turns from white to pale blue

From the menu Tools select Options

A tabbed dialog window appears Select the tab Tables

Change the default settings to match the settings indicated above

Examine the visual result in the table

Change the width of a column

Depending on the font size and length of records some of the informationmay be hidden andor not readable To increase readability you may want to change the width of the columns

Change width of a column

Position the mouse over the extreme right edge of the column

heading DST_ID (notice the pointer of the cursor changes to )

Click here to selectthe color you wantto use to highlightselections

Click here to typethe new font size

Fig 114 Dialog window to setArcCatalog options

Double-click with the left mouse button The column width will

now be adjusted to the width of the longest entry in that column

Alternatively click and drag the columnrsquos edge to an acceptable width

Release the mouse

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session the default column width will be restored

Change the position of a column

Sometimes tables contain many columns In order to work efficient you maywant to rearrange the columns and to position the ones you need next to each other

Reposition a column

Click the column heading DST_ID (notice that the whole column

changes to the default color you have just selected)

Click the column again and hold down the mouse button

Drag the column heading to the location between the columns SHAPE and OBJECTID (notice a red line indicates the new location of the column ID_)

Release the mouse button

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session the columns will resume their default positions

Freeze a column

Sometimes you may want to compare the values in one column with the values

in the another columns This can be facilitated by lsquofreezingrsquo them

FreezeUnfreeze Columns

Right-click on the column heading DISTRICT

Click FreezeUnfreeze Column

Scroll horizontally by moving the horizontal slider to the right Notice that the column NAME1_ remains visible

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session all columns will be automatically unfrozen

Sorting columns

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

Sort Records

Right-click the column DISTRICT

In the drop-down list click Sort Ascending

Scroll down the list and notice that the numbers increase

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session records will resume their default order

Calculate statistics

You can display the basic statistics of numeric fields in an attribute table

Calculate statistics

Right-click the heading AREA_

In the drop-down list select the option Statistics

The Statistics dialog box pops up and displays all information about the values in the column AREA_

Adding a column

It is possible to add a column in the attribute table of a geodata layer and todefine its properties Notice however that ArcCatalog will not allow you toenter andor modify the data in the records You will see the editing processlater in exercise 2 when dealing with ArcMap functions

Add a field to a table

Click the button Options at the bottom of the Preview window and click Add Field See Fig 115

In the dialog window of Add Field fill in the name of the new column Leave the rest of the properties as they are (we will treat this later)

Click OK

View and editing metadata

Metadata describes data in a standardized way Metadata are used tosearch for and exchange data Examples of metadata are file name dataformat data quality data accuracy reference system ownership availability creation date update status description of attribute names etc

By looking at the metadata of a data set you should be able to decide if theset can be used for your application Eg do you need to adapt data to integrate it into your application (eg change its projection) can you access the data who to contact to get it are there cost involved etc

Fig 115 Preview window ndash table mode

There are a several standards for metadata Standards provide commonterminology and definitions for the documentation of digital data For geospatial data the two main standards are defined by

the International Organization for Standardizations (ISO) with the document

19115 ldquoGeographic Information ndash Metadatardquothe Federal Geographic Data Committees (FGDC) of the United States

It is very important to study the metadata before you use geospatial data obtained

from somebody else and to accurately describe the metadata for the geospatial data that

you produce

Have a look at the metadata of the Feature Class india_dsExplore metadata

In the Catalog tree select india_ds

In the view area click the Metadata tab to visualize the metadata information window

Scroll through the metadata and study itsrsquo contents

As explained in section 13 metadata consist of properties and documentationProperties are derived from the data itself and documentation is additionaldescriptive information generally supplied by the data creator But anyuser with writing access can change or add content to the metadata

ArcCatalog offers a number of ways to display the metadata using differentlsquoStylesheetsrsquo Stylesheets define the way in which the metadata is displayed By default ArcCatalog displays metadata using the FGDC ESRI stylesheet

Changing stylesheets

Select any of the stylesheets

Notice the changes in the format of the metadata

Editing metadata

You can create the metadata for a new data set or change existing metadata

Fig 116 Metadata windowndash Default Style sheet

Fig 117 Choosing a Metadata Stylesheet

by using ArcCatalogrsquos metadata editor For example change the metadataof the india_ds Feature Class The data set was produced by -and obtained from - IIRS India You will add informationabout the IIRS to give them the credits they deserve and include them as distributor The address details are as follows

Organisation Indian Institute of Remote SensingAddress Kalidas RoadDehradunProvince UtteranchalPostal code India

Edit metadata

Click the button Edit metadata in the Metadata toolbar

A dialog window opens Notice that a number of fields have the word ldquoREQUIREDrdquo(IN RED) and a brief description of the type of information expectedin that field The red font is meant to emphasize that these fields arepart of the minimum information required by the metadata standard For thetime being add some of the required data Follow the numerical sequenceas indicated in Fig 118 and 119

First select Distribution at the top of the dialog window (Fig 118)

Next click on the Distribution tab then click on the Detailshellip

button 3 This will open another dialog window

21

1

2

Select the Organization 4 option and click on the Address 5 tab

Enter name 6 and address of the organization 7 in the appropriate

fields

Click OK and Save

3

4

6

7

5

Fig 118 Example of steps to edit metadata

Fig 119 Editing contactinformation with the Arc-

View the updated information in the metadata window Note that some part of the stylesheet will not include all the metadata To check the updated information select the FGDC stylesheet and click on the Distribution Information link

Manage data sources

In ArcCatalog you can manage your data in a similar way as in Windows ExplorerYou can copy move delete and rename any item that appears in the Catalog tree or in the Contents window As example create a new folder and copy some existing data into it

Create a new folder

In the Catalog tree select your XExercise folder

Right click to open the context menu

Select New and click Folder

Fig 120 Creating a new folder with ArcCatalogArc-Catalog metadata editor

Type a new name for the folder you have just created eg

lsquoMy_folderrsquo

Copy the Personal Geodatabase ldquoLarge_enschedemdbrdquo to the

new folder

Make sure that none of the Feature Classes is active You should seenothing displayed in the Contents the Preview and the Metadata windowsIf any of the Feature Classes is active ArcCatalog locks the PersonalGeodatabase and returns an error when you try to copy itIt is easy to manage files and folders in ArcCatalog You can also create(empty) geo-spatial data sets You will learn this later in the course together with filling these data sets with new data through ArcMap

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

You have now explored some functions of ArcCatalog and seen that its mainpurpose is data browsing and basic data management If you want to editgeo-spatial data analyse it or create maps you need another application of the ArcGIS suite ArcMap Most of the exercises that follow will be about the basics of geoinformation processing with ArcMap

Access ArcMap

From the Standard toolbar select the ArcMap Icon

When ArcMap opens you will be prompted to select one of the followingan empty map a new template or an existing mapYou will do this in the next exercise So can stop here and exit ArcMap

In the ArcMap dialog window ignore the different options and

click OK From the File menu select Exit

Change the default settings to match the settings indicated above

Examine the visual result in the table

Change the width of a column

Depending on the font size and length of records some of the informationmay be hidden andor not readable To increase readability you may want to change the width of the columns

Change width of a column

Position the mouse over the extreme right edge of the column

heading DST_ID (notice the pointer of the cursor changes to )

Click here to selectthe color you wantto use to highlightselections

Click here to typethe new font size

Fig 114 Dialog window to setArcCatalog options

Double-click with the left mouse button The column width will

now be adjusted to the width of the longest entry in that column

Alternatively click and drag the columnrsquos edge to an acceptable width

Release the mouse

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session the default column width will be restored

Change the position of a column

Sometimes tables contain many columns In order to work efficient you maywant to rearrange the columns and to position the ones you need next to each other

Reposition a column

Click the column heading DST_ID (notice that the whole column

changes to the default color you have just selected)

Click the column again and hold down the mouse button

Drag the column heading to the location between the columns SHAPE and OBJECTID (notice a red line indicates the new location of the column ID_)

Release the mouse button

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session the columns will resume their default positions

Freeze a column

Sometimes you may want to compare the values in one column with the values

in the another columns This can be facilitated by lsquofreezingrsquo them

FreezeUnfreeze Columns

Right-click on the column heading DISTRICT

Click FreezeUnfreeze Column

Scroll horizontally by moving the horizontal slider to the right Notice that the column NAME1_ remains visible

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session all columns will be automatically unfrozen

Sorting columns

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

Sort Records

Right-click the column DISTRICT

In the drop-down list click Sort Ascending

Scroll down the list and notice that the numbers increase

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session records will resume their default order

Calculate statistics

You can display the basic statistics of numeric fields in an attribute table

Calculate statistics

Right-click the heading AREA_

In the drop-down list select the option Statistics

The Statistics dialog box pops up and displays all information about the values in the column AREA_

Adding a column

It is possible to add a column in the attribute table of a geodata layer and todefine its properties Notice however that ArcCatalog will not allow you toenter andor modify the data in the records You will see the editing processlater in exercise 2 when dealing with ArcMap functions

Add a field to a table

Click the button Options at the bottom of the Preview window and click Add Field See Fig 115

In the dialog window of Add Field fill in the name of the new column Leave the rest of the properties as they are (we will treat this later)

Click OK

View and editing metadata

Metadata describes data in a standardized way Metadata are used tosearch for and exchange data Examples of metadata are file name dataformat data quality data accuracy reference system ownership availability creation date update status description of attribute names etc

By looking at the metadata of a data set you should be able to decide if theset can be used for your application Eg do you need to adapt data to integrate it into your application (eg change its projection) can you access the data who to contact to get it are there cost involved etc

Fig 115 Preview window ndash table mode

There are a several standards for metadata Standards provide commonterminology and definitions for the documentation of digital data For geospatial data the two main standards are defined by

the International Organization for Standardizations (ISO) with the document

19115 ldquoGeographic Information ndash Metadatardquothe Federal Geographic Data Committees (FGDC) of the United States

It is very important to study the metadata before you use geospatial data obtained

from somebody else and to accurately describe the metadata for the geospatial data that

you produce

Have a look at the metadata of the Feature Class india_dsExplore metadata

In the Catalog tree select india_ds

In the view area click the Metadata tab to visualize the metadata information window

Scroll through the metadata and study itsrsquo contents

As explained in section 13 metadata consist of properties and documentationProperties are derived from the data itself and documentation is additionaldescriptive information generally supplied by the data creator But anyuser with writing access can change or add content to the metadata

ArcCatalog offers a number of ways to display the metadata using differentlsquoStylesheetsrsquo Stylesheets define the way in which the metadata is displayed By default ArcCatalog displays metadata using the FGDC ESRI stylesheet

Changing stylesheets

Select any of the stylesheets

Notice the changes in the format of the metadata

Editing metadata

You can create the metadata for a new data set or change existing metadata

Fig 116 Metadata windowndash Default Style sheet

Fig 117 Choosing a Metadata Stylesheet

by using ArcCatalogrsquos metadata editor For example change the metadataof the india_ds Feature Class The data set was produced by -and obtained from - IIRS India You will add informationabout the IIRS to give them the credits they deserve and include them as distributor The address details are as follows

Organisation Indian Institute of Remote SensingAddress Kalidas RoadDehradunProvince UtteranchalPostal code India

Edit metadata

Click the button Edit metadata in the Metadata toolbar

A dialog window opens Notice that a number of fields have the word ldquoREQUIREDrdquo(IN RED) and a brief description of the type of information expectedin that field The red font is meant to emphasize that these fields arepart of the minimum information required by the metadata standard For thetime being add some of the required data Follow the numerical sequenceas indicated in Fig 118 and 119

First select Distribution at the top of the dialog window (Fig 118)

Next click on the Distribution tab then click on the Detailshellip

button 3 This will open another dialog window

21

1

2

Select the Organization 4 option and click on the Address 5 tab

Enter name 6 and address of the organization 7 in the appropriate

fields

Click OK and Save

3

4

6

7

5

Fig 118 Example of steps to edit metadata

Fig 119 Editing contactinformation with the Arc-

View the updated information in the metadata window Note that some part of the stylesheet will not include all the metadata To check the updated information select the FGDC stylesheet and click on the Distribution Information link

Manage data sources

In ArcCatalog you can manage your data in a similar way as in Windows ExplorerYou can copy move delete and rename any item that appears in the Catalog tree or in the Contents window As example create a new folder and copy some existing data into it

Create a new folder

In the Catalog tree select your XExercise folder

Right click to open the context menu

Select New and click Folder

Fig 120 Creating a new folder with ArcCatalogArc-Catalog metadata editor

Type a new name for the folder you have just created eg

lsquoMy_folderrsquo

Copy the Personal Geodatabase ldquoLarge_enschedemdbrdquo to the

new folder

Make sure that none of the Feature Classes is active You should seenothing displayed in the Contents the Preview and the Metadata windowsIf any of the Feature Classes is active ArcCatalog locks the PersonalGeodatabase and returns an error when you try to copy itIt is easy to manage files and folders in ArcCatalog You can also create(empty) geo-spatial data sets You will learn this later in the course together with filling these data sets with new data through ArcMap

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

You have now explored some functions of ArcCatalog and seen that its mainpurpose is data browsing and basic data management If you want to editgeo-spatial data analyse it or create maps you need another application of the ArcGIS suite ArcMap Most of the exercises that follow will be about the basics of geoinformation processing with ArcMap

Access ArcMap

From the Standard toolbar select the ArcMap Icon

When ArcMap opens you will be prompted to select one of the followingan empty map a new template or an existing mapYou will do this in the next exercise So can stop here and exit ArcMap

In the ArcMap dialog window ignore the different options and

click OK From the File menu select Exit

Double-click with the left mouse button The column width will

now be adjusted to the width of the longest entry in that column

Alternatively click and drag the columnrsquos edge to an acceptable width

Release the mouse

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session the default column width will be restored

Change the position of a column

Sometimes tables contain many columns In order to work efficient you maywant to rearrange the columns and to position the ones you need next to each other

Reposition a column

Click the column heading DST_ID (notice that the whole column

changes to the default color you have just selected)

Click the column again and hold down the mouse button

Drag the column heading to the location between the columns SHAPE and OBJECTID (notice a red line indicates the new location of the column ID_)

Release the mouse button

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session the columns will resume their default positions

Freeze a column

Sometimes you may want to compare the values in one column with the values

in the another columns This can be facilitated by lsquofreezingrsquo them

FreezeUnfreeze Columns

Right-click on the column heading DISTRICT

Click FreezeUnfreeze Column

Scroll horizontally by moving the horizontal slider to the right Notice that the column NAME1_ remains visible

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session all columns will be automatically unfrozen

Sorting columns

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

Sort Records

Right-click the column DISTRICT

In the drop-down list click Sort Ascending

Scroll down the list and notice that the numbers increase

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session records will resume their default order

Calculate statistics

You can display the basic statistics of numeric fields in an attribute table

Calculate statistics

Right-click the heading AREA_

In the drop-down list select the option Statistics

The Statistics dialog box pops up and displays all information about the values in the column AREA_

Adding a column

It is possible to add a column in the attribute table of a geodata layer and todefine its properties Notice however that ArcCatalog will not allow you toenter andor modify the data in the records You will see the editing processlater in exercise 2 when dealing with ArcMap functions

Add a field to a table

Click the button Options at the bottom of the Preview window and click Add Field See Fig 115

In the dialog window of Add Field fill in the name of the new column Leave the rest of the properties as they are (we will treat this later)

Click OK

View and editing metadata

Metadata describes data in a standardized way Metadata are used tosearch for and exchange data Examples of metadata are file name dataformat data quality data accuracy reference system ownership availability creation date update status description of attribute names etc

By looking at the metadata of a data set you should be able to decide if theset can be used for your application Eg do you need to adapt data to integrate it into your application (eg change its projection) can you access the data who to contact to get it are there cost involved etc

Fig 115 Preview window ndash table mode

There are a several standards for metadata Standards provide commonterminology and definitions for the documentation of digital data For geospatial data the two main standards are defined by

the International Organization for Standardizations (ISO) with the document

19115 ldquoGeographic Information ndash Metadatardquothe Federal Geographic Data Committees (FGDC) of the United States

It is very important to study the metadata before you use geospatial data obtained

from somebody else and to accurately describe the metadata for the geospatial data that

you produce

Have a look at the metadata of the Feature Class india_dsExplore metadata

In the Catalog tree select india_ds

In the view area click the Metadata tab to visualize the metadata information window

Scroll through the metadata and study itsrsquo contents

As explained in section 13 metadata consist of properties and documentationProperties are derived from the data itself and documentation is additionaldescriptive information generally supplied by the data creator But anyuser with writing access can change or add content to the metadata

ArcCatalog offers a number of ways to display the metadata using differentlsquoStylesheetsrsquo Stylesheets define the way in which the metadata is displayed By default ArcCatalog displays metadata using the FGDC ESRI stylesheet

Changing stylesheets

Select any of the stylesheets

Notice the changes in the format of the metadata

Editing metadata

You can create the metadata for a new data set or change existing metadata

Fig 116 Metadata windowndash Default Style sheet

Fig 117 Choosing a Metadata Stylesheet

by using ArcCatalogrsquos metadata editor For example change the metadataof the india_ds Feature Class The data set was produced by -and obtained from - IIRS India You will add informationabout the IIRS to give them the credits they deserve and include them as distributor The address details are as follows

Organisation Indian Institute of Remote SensingAddress Kalidas RoadDehradunProvince UtteranchalPostal code India

Edit metadata

Click the button Edit metadata in the Metadata toolbar

A dialog window opens Notice that a number of fields have the word ldquoREQUIREDrdquo(IN RED) and a brief description of the type of information expectedin that field The red font is meant to emphasize that these fields arepart of the minimum information required by the metadata standard For thetime being add some of the required data Follow the numerical sequenceas indicated in Fig 118 and 119

First select Distribution at the top of the dialog window (Fig 118)

Next click on the Distribution tab then click on the Detailshellip

button 3 This will open another dialog window

21

1

2

Select the Organization 4 option and click on the Address 5 tab

Enter name 6 and address of the organization 7 in the appropriate

fields

Click OK and Save

3

4

6

7

5

Fig 118 Example of steps to edit metadata

Fig 119 Editing contactinformation with the Arc-

View the updated information in the metadata window Note that some part of the stylesheet will not include all the metadata To check the updated information select the FGDC stylesheet and click on the Distribution Information link

Manage data sources

In ArcCatalog you can manage your data in a similar way as in Windows ExplorerYou can copy move delete and rename any item that appears in the Catalog tree or in the Contents window As example create a new folder and copy some existing data into it

Create a new folder

In the Catalog tree select your XExercise folder

Right click to open the context menu

Select New and click Folder

Fig 120 Creating a new folder with ArcCatalogArc-Catalog metadata editor

Type a new name for the folder you have just created eg

lsquoMy_folderrsquo

Copy the Personal Geodatabase ldquoLarge_enschedemdbrdquo to the

new folder

Make sure that none of the Feature Classes is active You should seenothing displayed in the Contents the Preview and the Metadata windowsIf any of the Feature Classes is active ArcCatalog locks the PersonalGeodatabase and returns an error when you try to copy itIt is easy to manage files and folders in ArcCatalog You can also create(empty) geo-spatial data sets You will learn this later in the course together with filling these data sets with new data through ArcMap

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

You have now explored some functions of ArcCatalog and seen that its mainpurpose is data browsing and basic data management If you want to editgeo-spatial data analyse it or create maps you need another application of the ArcGIS suite ArcMap Most of the exercises that follow will be about the basics of geoinformation processing with ArcMap

Access ArcMap

From the Standard toolbar select the ArcMap Icon

When ArcMap opens you will be prompted to select one of the followingan empty map a new template or an existing mapYou will do this in the next exercise So can stop here and exit ArcMap

In the ArcMap dialog window ignore the different options and

click OK From the File menu select Exit

Scroll horizontally by moving the horizontal slider to the right Notice that the column NAME1_ remains visible

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close theArcCatalog session all columns will be automatically unfrozen

Sorting columns

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

If you need to rearrange the records in a column in alphabetical or numerical order proceed as follows

Sort Records

Right-click the column DISTRICT

In the drop-down list click Sort Ascending

Scroll down the list and notice that the numbers increase

This change is temporary If you select a different data set or close the

ArcCatalog session records will resume their default order

Calculate statistics

You can display the basic statistics of numeric fields in an attribute table

Calculate statistics

Right-click the heading AREA_

In the drop-down list select the option Statistics

The Statistics dialog box pops up and displays all information about the values in the column AREA_

Adding a column

It is possible to add a column in the attribute table of a geodata layer and todefine its properties Notice however that ArcCatalog will not allow you toenter andor modify the data in the records You will see the editing processlater in exercise 2 when dealing with ArcMap functions

Add a field to a table

Click the button Options at the bottom of the Preview window and click Add Field See Fig 115

In the dialog window of Add Field fill in the name of the new column Leave the rest of the properties as they are (we will treat this later)

Click OK

View and editing metadata

Metadata describes data in a standardized way Metadata are used tosearch for and exchange data Examples of metadata are file name dataformat data quality data accuracy reference system ownership availability creation date update status description of attribute names etc

By looking at the metadata of a data set you should be able to decide if theset can be used for your application Eg do you need to adapt data to integrate it into your application (eg change its projection) can you access the data who to contact to get it are there cost involved etc

Fig 115 Preview window ndash table mode

There are a several standards for metadata Standards provide commonterminology and definitions for the documentation of digital data For geospatial data the two main standards are defined by

the International Organization for Standardizations (ISO) with the document

19115 ldquoGeographic Information ndash Metadatardquothe Federal Geographic Data Committees (FGDC) of the United States

It is very important to study the metadata before you use geospatial data obtained

from somebody else and to accurately describe the metadata for the geospatial data that

you produce

Have a look at the metadata of the Feature Class india_dsExplore metadata

In the Catalog tree select india_ds

In the view area click the Metadata tab to visualize the metadata information window

Scroll through the metadata and study itsrsquo contents

As explained in section 13 metadata consist of properties and documentationProperties are derived from the data itself and documentation is additionaldescriptive information generally supplied by the data creator But anyuser with writing access can change or add content to the metadata

ArcCatalog offers a number of ways to display the metadata using differentlsquoStylesheetsrsquo Stylesheets define the way in which the metadata is displayed By default ArcCatalog displays metadata using the FGDC ESRI stylesheet

Changing stylesheets

Select any of the stylesheets

Notice the changes in the format of the metadata

Editing metadata

You can create the metadata for a new data set or change existing metadata

Fig 116 Metadata windowndash Default Style sheet

Fig 117 Choosing a Metadata Stylesheet

by using ArcCatalogrsquos metadata editor For example change the metadataof the india_ds Feature Class The data set was produced by -and obtained from - IIRS India You will add informationabout the IIRS to give them the credits they deserve and include them as distributor The address details are as follows

Organisation Indian Institute of Remote SensingAddress Kalidas RoadDehradunProvince UtteranchalPostal code India

Edit metadata

Click the button Edit metadata in the Metadata toolbar

A dialog window opens Notice that a number of fields have the word ldquoREQUIREDrdquo(IN RED) and a brief description of the type of information expectedin that field The red font is meant to emphasize that these fields arepart of the minimum information required by the metadata standard For thetime being add some of the required data Follow the numerical sequenceas indicated in Fig 118 and 119

First select Distribution at the top of the dialog window (Fig 118)

Next click on the Distribution tab then click on the Detailshellip

button 3 This will open another dialog window

21

1

2

Select the Organization 4 option and click on the Address 5 tab

Enter name 6 and address of the organization 7 in the appropriate

fields

Click OK and Save

3

4

6

7

5

Fig 118 Example of steps to edit metadata

Fig 119 Editing contactinformation with the Arc-

View the updated information in the metadata window Note that some part of the stylesheet will not include all the metadata To check the updated information select the FGDC stylesheet and click on the Distribution Information link

Manage data sources

In ArcCatalog you can manage your data in a similar way as in Windows ExplorerYou can copy move delete and rename any item that appears in the Catalog tree or in the Contents window As example create a new folder and copy some existing data into it

Create a new folder

In the Catalog tree select your XExercise folder

Right click to open the context menu

Select New and click Folder

Fig 120 Creating a new folder with ArcCatalogArc-Catalog metadata editor

Type a new name for the folder you have just created eg

lsquoMy_folderrsquo

Copy the Personal Geodatabase ldquoLarge_enschedemdbrdquo to the

new folder

Make sure that none of the Feature Classes is active You should seenothing displayed in the Contents the Preview and the Metadata windowsIf any of the Feature Classes is active ArcCatalog locks the PersonalGeodatabase and returns an error when you try to copy itIt is easy to manage files and folders in ArcCatalog You can also create(empty) geo-spatial data sets You will learn this later in the course together with filling these data sets with new data through ArcMap

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

You have now explored some functions of ArcCatalog and seen that its mainpurpose is data browsing and basic data management If you want to editgeo-spatial data analyse it or create maps you need another application of the ArcGIS suite ArcMap Most of the exercises that follow will be about the basics of geoinformation processing with ArcMap

Access ArcMap

From the Standard toolbar select the ArcMap Icon

When ArcMap opens you will be prompted to select one of the followingan empty map a new template or an existing mapYou will do this in the next exercise So can stop here and exit ArcMap

In the ArcMap dialog window ignore the different options and

click OK From the File menu select Exit

Click the button Options at the bottom of the Preview window and click Add Field See Fig 115

In the dialog window of Add Field fill in the name of the new column Leave the rest of the properties as they are (we will treat this later)

Click OK

View and editing metadata

Metadata describes data in a standardized way Metadata are used tosearch for and exchange data Examples of metadata are file name dataformat data quality data accuracy reference system ownership availability creation date update status description of attribute names etc

By looking at the metadata of a data set you should be able to decide if theset can be used for your application Eg do you need to adapt data to integrate it into your application (eg change its projection) can you access the data who to contact to get it are there cost involved etc

Fig 115 Preview window ndash table mode

There are a several standards for metadata Standards provide commonterminology and definitions for the documentation of digital data For geospatial data the two main standards are defined by

the International Organization for Standardizations (ISO) with the document

19115 ldquoGeographic Information ndash Metadatardquothe Federal Geographic Data Committees (FGDC) of the United States

It is very important to study the metadata before you use geospatial data obtained

from somebody else and to accurately describe the metadata for the geospatial data that

you produce

Have a look at the metadata of the Feature Class india_dsExplore metadata

In the Catalog tree select india_ds

In the view area click the Metadata tab to visualize the metadata information window

Scroll through the metadata and study itsrsquo contents

As explained in section 13 metadata consist of properties and documentationProperties are derived from the data itself and documentation is additionaldescriptive information generally supplied by the data creator But anyuser with writing access can change or add content to the metadata

ArcCatalog offers a number of ways to display the metadata using differentlsquoStylesheetsrsquo Stylesheets define the way in which the metadata is displayed By default ArcCatalog displays metadata using the FGDC ESRI stylesheet

Changing stylesheets

Select any of the stylesheets

Notice the changes in the format of the metadata

Editing metadata

You can create the metadata for a new data set or change existing metadata

Fig 116 Metadata windowndash Default Style sheet

Fig 117 Choosing a Metadata Stylesheet

by using ArcCatalogrsquos metadata editor For example change the metadataof the india_ds Feature Class The data set was produced by -and obtained from - IIRS India You will add informationabout the IIRS to give them the credits they deserve and include them as distributor The address details are as follows

Organisation Indian Institute of Remote SensingAddress Kalidas RoadDehradunProvince UtteranchalPostal code India

Edit metadata

Click the button Edit metadata in the Metadata toolbar

A dialog window opens Notice that a number of fields have the word ldquoREQUIREDrdquo(IN RED) and a brief description of the type of information expectedin that field The red font is meant to emphasize that these fields arepart of the minimum information required by the metadata standard For thetime being add some of the required data Follow the numerical sequenceas indicated in Fig 118 and 119

First select Distribution at the top of the dialog window (Fig 118)

Next click on the Distribution tab then click on the Detailshellip

button 3 This will open another dialog window

21

1

2

Select the Organization 4 option and click on the Address 5 tab

Enter name 6 and address of the organization 7 in the appropriate

fields

Click OK and Save

3

4

6

7

5

Fig 118 Example of steps to edit metadata

Fig 119 Editing contactinformation with the Arc-

View the updated information in the metadata window Note that some part of the stylesheet will not include all the metadata To check the updated information select the FGDC stylesheet and click on the Distribution Information link

Manage data sources

In ArcCatalog you can manage your data in a similar way as in Windows ExplorerYou can copy move delete and rename any item that appears in the Catalog tree or in the Contents window As example create a new folder and copy some existing data into it

Create a new folder

In the Catalog tree select your XExercise folder

Right click to open the context menu

Select New and click Folder

Fig 120 Creating a new folder with ArcCatalogArc-Catalog metadata editor

Type a new name for the folder you have just created eg

lsquoMy_folderrsquo

Copy the Personal Geodatabase ldquoLarge_enschedemdbrdquo to the

new folder

Make sure that none of the Feature Classes is active You should seenothing displayed in the Contents the Preview and the Metadata windowsIf any of the Feature Classes is active ArcCatalog locks the PersonalGeodatabase and returns an error when you try to copy itIt is easy to manage files and folders in ArcCatalog You can also create(empty) geo-spatial data sets You will learn this later in the course together with filling these data sets with new data through ArcMap

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

You have now explored some functions of ArcCatalog and seen that its mainpurpose is data browsing and basic data management If you want to editgeo-spatial data analyse it or create maps you need another application of the ArcGIS suite ArcMap Most of the exercises that follow will be about the basics of geoinformation processing with ArcMap

Access ArcMap

From the Standard toolbar select the ArcMap Icon

When ArcMap opens you will be prompted to select one of the followingan empty map a new template or an existing mapYou will do this in the next exercise So can stop here and exit ArcMap

In the ArcMap dialog window ignore the different options and

click OK From the File menu select Exit

There are a several standards for metadata Standards provide commonterminology and definitions for the documentation of digital data For geospatial data the two main standards are defined by

the International Organization for Standardizations (ISO) with the document

19115 ldquoGeographic Information ndash Metadatardquothe Federal Geographic Data Committees (FGDC) of the United States

It is very important to study the metadata before you use geospatial data obtained

from somebody else and to accurately describe the metadata for the geospatial data that

you produce

Have a look at the metadata of the Feature Class india_dsExplore metadata

In the Catalog tree select india_ds

In the view area click the Metadata tab to visualize the metadata information window

Scroll through the metadata and study itsrsquo contents

As explained in section 13 metadata consist of properties and documentationProperties are derived from the data itself and documentation is additionaldescriptive information generally supplied by the data creator But anyuser with writing access can change or add content to the metadata

ArcCatalog offers a number of ways to display the metadata using differentlsquoStylesheetsrsquo Stylesheets define the way in which the metadata is displayed By default ArcCatalog displays metadata using the FGDC ESRI stylesheet

Changing stylesheets

Select any of the stylesheets

Notice the changes in the format of the metadata

Editing metadata

You can create the metadata for a new data set or change existing metadata

Fig 116 Metadata windowndash Default Style sheet

Fig 117 Choosing a Metadata Stylesheet

by using ArcCatalogrsquos metadata editor For example change the metadataof the india_ds Feature Class The data set was produced by -and obtained from - IIRS India You will add informationabout the IIRS to give them the credits they deserve and include them as distributor The address details are as follows

Organisation Indian Institute of Remote SensingAddress Kalidas RoadDehradunProvince UtteranchalPostal code India

Edit metadata

Click the button Edit metadata in the Metadata toolbar

A dialog window opens Notice that a number of fields have the word ldquoREQUIREDrdquo(IN RED) and a brief description of the type of information expectedin that field The red font is meant to emphasize that these fields arepart of the minimum information required by the metadata standard For thetime being add some of the required data Follow the numerical sequenceas indicated in Fig 118 and 119

First select Distribution at the top of the dialog window (Fig 118)

Next click on the Distribution tab then click on the Detailshellip

button 3 This will open another dialog window

21

1

2

Select the Organization 4 option and click on the Address 5 tab

Enter name 6 and address of the organization 7 in the appropriate

fields

Click OK and Save

3

4

6

7

5

Fig 118 Example of steps to edit metadata

Fig 119 Editing contactinformation with the Arc-

View the updated information in the metadata window Note that some part of the stylesheet will not include all the metadata To check the updated information select the FGDC stylesheet and click on the Distribution Information link

Manage data sources

In ArcCatalog you can manage your data in a similar way as in Windows ExplorerYou can copy move delete and rename any item that appears in the Catalog tree or in the Contents window As example create a new folder and copy some existing data into it

Create a new folder

In the Catalog tree select your XExercise folder

Right click to open the context menu

Select New and click Folder

Fig 120 Creating a new folder with ArcCatalogArc-Catalog metadata editor

Type a new name for the folder you have just created eg

lsquoMy_folderrsquo

Copy the Personal Geodatabase ldquoLarge_enschedemdbrdquo to the

new folder

Make sure that none of the Feature Classes is active You should seenothing displayed in the Contents the Preview and the Metadata windowsIf any of the Feature Classes is active ArcCatalog locks the PersonalGeodatabase and returns an error when you try to copy itIt is easy to manage files and folders in ArcCatalog You can also create(empty) geo-spatial data sets You will learn this later in the course together with filling these data sets with new data through ArcMap

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

You have now explored some functions of ArcCatalog and seen that its mainpurpose is data browsing and basic data management If you want to editgeo-spatial data analyse it or create maps you need another application of the ArcGIS suite ArcMap Most of the exercises that follow will be about the basics of geoinformation processing with ArcMap

Access ArcMap

From the Standard toolbar select the ArcMap Icon

When ArcMap opens you will be prompted to select one of the followingan empty map a new template or an existing mapYou will do this in the next exercise So can stop here and exit ArcMap

In the ArcMap dialog window ignore the different options and

click OK From the File menu select Exit

ArcCatalog offers a number of ways to display the metadata using differentlsquoStylesheetsrsquo Stylesheets define the way in which the metadata is displayed By default ArcCatalog displays metadata using the FGDC ESRI stylesheet

Changing stylesheets

Select any of the stylesheets

Notice the changes in the format of the metadata

Editing metadata

You can create the metadata for a new data set or change existing metadata

Fig 116 Metadata windowndash Default Style sheet

Fig 117 Choosing a Metadata Stylesheet

by using ArcCatalogrsquos metadata editor For example change the metadataof the india_ds Feature Class The data set was produced by -and obtained from - IIRS India You will add informationabout the IIRS to give them the credits they deserve and include them as distributor The address details are as follows

Organisation Indian Institute of Remote SensingAddress Kalidas RoadDehradunProvince UtteranchalPostal code India

Edit metadata

Click the button Edit metadata in the Metadata toolbar

A dialog window opens Notice that a number of fields have the word ldquoREQUIREDrdquo(IN RED) and a brief description of the type of information expectedin that field The red font is meant to emphasize that these fields arepart of the minimum information required by the metadata standard For thetime being add some of the required data Follow the numerical sequenceas indicated in Fig 118 and 119

First select Distribution at the top of the dialog window (Fig 118)

Next click on the Distribution tab then click on the Detailshellip

button 3 This will open another dialog window

21

1

2

Select the Organization 4 option and click on the Address 5 tab

Enter name 6 and address of the organization 7 in the appropriate

fields

Click OK and Save

3

4

6

7

5

Fig 118 Example of steps to edit metadata

Fig 119 Editing contactinformation with the Arc-

View the updated information in the metadata window Note that some part of the stylesheet will not include all the metadata To check the updated information select the FGDC stylesheet and click on the Distribution Information link

Manage data sources

In ArcCatalog you can manage your data in a similar way as in Windows ExplorerYou can copy move delete and rename any item that appears in the Catalog tree or in the Contents window As example create a new folder and copy some existing data into it

Create a new folder

In the Catalog tree select your XExercise folder

Right click to open the context menu

Select New and click Folder

Fig 120 Creating a new folder with ArcCatalogArc-Catalog metadata editor

Type a new name for the folder you have just created eg

lsquoMy_folderrsquo

Copy the Personal Geodatabase ldquoLarge_enschedemdbrdquo to the

new folder

Make sure that none of the Feature Classes is active You should seenothing displayed in the Contents the Preview and the Metadata windowsIf any of the Feature Classes is active ArcCatalog locks the PersonalGeodatabase and returns an error when you try to copy itIt is easy to manage files and folders in ArcCatalog You can also create(empty) geo-spatial data sets You will learn this later in the course together with filling these data sets with new data through ArcMap

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

You have now explored some functions of ArcCatalog and seen that its mainpurpose is data browsing and basic data management If you want to editgeo-spatial data analyse it or create maps you need another application of the ArcGIS suite ArcMap Most of the exercises that follow will be about the basics of geoinformation processing with ArcMap

Access ArcMap

From the Standard toolbar select the ArcMap Icon

When ArcMap opens you will be prompted to select one of the followingan empty map a new template or an existing mapYou will do this in the next exercise So can stop here and exit ArcMap

In the ArcMap dialog window ignore the different options and

click OK From the File menu select Exit

by using ArcCatalogrsquos metadata editor For example change the metadataof the india_ds Feature Class The data set was produced by -and obtained from - IIRS India You will add informationabout the IIRS to give them the credits they deserve and include them as distributor The address details are as follows

Organisation Indian Institute of Remote SensingAddress Kalidas RoadDehradunProvince UtteranchalPostal code India

Edit metadata

Click the button Edit metadata in the Metadata toolbar

A dialog window opens Notice that a number of fields have the word ldquoREQUIREDrdquo(IN RED) and a brief description of the type of information expectedin that field The red font is meant to emphasize that these fields arepart of the minimum information required by the metadata standard For thetime being add some of the required data Follow the numerical sequenceas indicated in Fig 118 and 119

First select Distribution at the top of the dialog window (Fig 118)

Next click on the Distribution tab then click on the Detailshellip

button 3 This will open another dialog window

21

1

2

Select the Organization 4 option and click on the Address 5 tab

Enter name 6 and address of the organization 7 in the appropriate

fields

Click OK and Save

3

4

6

7

5

Fig 118 Example of steps to edit metadata

Fig 119 Editing contactinformation with the Arc-

View the updated information in the metadata window Note that some part of the stylesheet will not include all the metadata To check the updated information select the FGDC stylesheet and click on the Distribution Information link

Manage data sources

In ArcCatalog you can manage your data in a similar way as in Windows ExplorerYou can copy move delete and rename any item that appears in the Catalog tree or in the Contents window As example create a new folder and copy some existing data into it

Create a new folder

In the Catalog tree select your XExercise folder

Right click to open the context menu

Select New and click Folder

Fig 120 Creating a new folder with ArcCatalogArc-Catalog metadata editor

Type a new name for the folder you have just created eg

lsquoMy_folderrsquo

Copy the Personal Geodatabase ldquoLarge_enschedemdbrdquo to the

new folder

Make sure that none of the Feature Classes is active You should seenothing displayed in the Contents the Preview and the Metadata windowsIf any of the Feature Classes is active ArcCatalog locks the PersonalGeodatabase and returns an error when you try to copy itIt is easy to manage files and folders in ArcCatalog You can also create(empty) geo-spatial data sets You will learn this later in the course together with filling these data sets with new data through ArcMap

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

You have now explored some functions of ArcCatalog and seen that its mainpurpose is data browsing and basic data management If you want to editgeo-spatial data analyse it or create maps you need another application of the ArcGIS suite ArcMap Most of the exercises that follow will be about the basics of geoinformation processing with ArcMap

Access ArcMap

From the Standard toolbar select the ArcMap Icon

When ArcMap opens you will be prompted to select one of the followingan empty map a new template or an existing mapYou will do this in the next exercise So can stop here and exit ArcMap

In the ArcMap dialog window ignore the different options and

click OK From the File menu select Exit

Select the Organization 4 option and click on the Address 5 tab

Enter name 6 and address of the organization 7 in the appropriate

fields

Click OK and Save

3

4

6

7

5

Fig 118 Example of steps to edit metadata

Fig 119 Editing contactinformation with the Arc-

View the updated information in the metadata window Note that some part of the stylesheet will not include all the metadata To check the updated information select the FGDC stylesheet and click on the Distribution Information link

Manage data sources

In ArcCatalog you can manage your data in a similar way as in Windows ExplorerYou can copy move delete and rename any item that appears in the Catalog tree or in the Contents window As example create a new folder and copy some existing data into it

Create a new folder

In the Catalog tree select your XExercise folder

Right click to open the context menu

Select New and click Folder

Fig 120 Creating a new folder with ArcCatalogArc-Catalog metadata editor

Type a new name for the folder you have just created eg

lsquoMy_folderrsquo

Copy the Personal Geodatabase ldquoLarge_enschedemdbrdquo to the

new folder

Make sure that none of the Feature Classes is active You should seenothing displayed in the Contents the Preview and the Metadata windowsIf any of the Feature Classes is active ArcCatalog locks the PersonalGeodatabase and returns an error when you try to copy itIt is easy to manage files and folders in ArcCatalog You can also create(empty) geo-spatial data sets You will learn this later in the course together with filling these data sets with new data through ArcMap

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

You have now explored some functions of ArcCatalog and seen that its mainpurpose is data browsing and basic data management If you want to editgeo-spatial data analyse it or create maps you need another application of the ArcGIS suite ArcMap Most of the exercises that follow will be about the basics of geoinformation processing with ArcMap

Access ArcMap

From the Standard toolbar select the ArcMap Icon

When ArcMap opens you will be prompted to select one of the followingan empty map a new template or an existing mapYou will do this in the next exercise So can stop here and exit ArcMap

In the ArcMap dialog window ignore the different options and

click OK From the File menu select Exit

View the updated information in the metadata window Note that some part of the stylesheet will not include all the metadata To check the updated information select the FGDC stylesheet and click on the Distribution Information link

Manage data sources

In ArcCatalog you can manage your data in a similar way as in Windows ExplorerYou can copy move delete and rename any item that appears in the Catalog tree or in the Contents window As example create a new folder and copy some existing data into it

Create a new folder

In the Catalog tree select your XExercise folder

Right click to open the context menu

Select New and click Folder

Fig 120 Creating a new folder with ArcCatalogArc-Catalog metadata editor

Type a new name for the folder you have just created eg

lsquoMy_folderrsquo

Copy the Personal Geodatabase ldquoLarge_enschedemdbrdquo to the

new folder

Make sure that none of the Feature Classes is active You should seenothing displayed in the Contents the Preview and the Metadata windowsIf any of the Feature Classes is active ArcCatalog locks the PersonalGeodatabase and returns an error when you try to copy itIt is easy to manage files and folders in ArcCatalog You can also create(empty) geo-spatial data sets You will learn this later in the course together with filling these data sets with new data through ArcMap

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

You have now explored some functions of ArcCatalog and seen that its mainpurpose is data browsing and basic data management If you want to editgeo-spatial data analyse it or create maps you need another application of the ArcGIS suite ArcMap Most of the exercises that follow will be about the basics of geoinformation processing with ArcMap

Access ArcMap

From the Standard toolbar select the ArcMap Icon

When ArcMap opens you will be prompted to select one of the followingan empty map a new template or an existing mapYou will do this in the next exercise So can stop here and exit ArcMap

In the ArcMap dialog window ignore the different options and

click OK From the File menu select Exit

Type a new name for the folder you have just created eg

lsquoMy_folderrsquo

Copy the Personal Geodatabase ldquoLarge_enschedemdbrdquo to the

new folder

Make sure that none of the Feature Classes is active You should seenothing displayed in the Contents the Preview and the Metadata windowsIf any of the Feature Classes is active ArcCatalog locks the PersonalGeodatabase and returns an error when you try to copy itIt is easy to manage files and folders in ArcCatalog You can also create(empty) geo-spatial data sets You will learn this later in the course together with filling these data sets with new data through ArcMap

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

You have now explored some functions of ArcCatalog and seen that its mainpurpose is data browsing and basic data management If you want to editgeo-spatial data analyse it or create maps you need another application of the ArcGIS suite ArcMap Most of the exercises that follow will be about the basics of geoinformation processing with ArcMap

Access ArcMap

From the Standard toolbar select the ArcMap Icon

When ArcMap opens you will be prompted to select one of the followingan empty map a new template or an existing mapYou will do this in the next exercise So can stop here and exit ArcMap

In the ArcMap dialog window ignore the different options and

click OK From the File menu select Exit