THE MODULAR COMPONENTS OF ARCVIEW
ArcView provides
a means of showing maps, images (graphics), charts,
and tables in a single window, and of arranging the components of
a project in different ways (Layouts) ready for printing. Vector images
can be drawn directly into an ArcView 'View', imported from other
GIS vector systems (e.g. Autocad), or imported as raster graphics. X, Y
coordinate point data can also be imported from external databases and
plotted in an ArcView view.
Arcview Spatial
Analyst provides the means to convert vector images to raster images;
create raster buffers, density maps, continuous surfaces, contour, slope
and aspect maps, topological relief maps, and Boolean maps; reclassify
grid data and carry out map algebra, and import raster images.
ArcView Image
Analysis allows the manipulation of image data in the form of aerial
photographs and remote sensed images. It is the package to be used for
georeferencing, rectifying and enhancing images, carrying out digital
orthoimagery, and performing multispectral categorizations and feature
extraction.
ArcView 3D
Analyst allows generation of 3-D contours and line of sight sections,
draping of 2-D images (aerial and satellite photographs) over 3-D surfaces,
and interactive perspective viewing. It also allows modelling in three
dimensions to produce grids, TIN's, and 3-D shape files, and supports DEM's,
DTED's, and NIMA.
Spatial analyst, Image analysis,
and 3-D Analyst contain most of the functions made available by IDRISI.
ArcView Network
Analyst accesses ARC/INFO coverages,
shape files and CAD drawings for topological network analysis, e.g. finding
direct routes, drive-time analysis, etc.
ARCVIEW TERMINOLOGY
Projects
All the components of your ArcView session: views, tables, charts,
layouts, and scripts are conveniently stored in one file called a project.
ArcView's Project window shows you the contents
of your project and makes it easy to manage all your work.
Views
With ArcView you work with geographic data in interactive maps called
views. Each view features a 'Table of Contents'
which lists the Themes (spatial
data sets) in the View. Each view may contain several Themes, and
each theme is composed of drawing objects of the same type (class) - points
or lines or polygons or text. It is not possible to mix different classes
of drawing object in a single Theme.
Tables
Tables contain the attribute values associated with each drawing
object in a Theme, and each Theme has its own Table. Click on a feature
on a view, and the associated record in the table is highlighted.
Select a record in the table and the feature it represents is highlighted
in the view. ArcView's tables also have a full range of features for obtaining
summary statistics, sorting and querying.
Charts
ArcView's charts offer a powerful business graphics and data visualization
capability that is fully integrated into ArcView's geographic environment.
You can simply click on features on a view to add them to the chart. ArcView
lets you work simultaneously with geographic, tabular and chart representations
of your data.
Layouts
ArcView's layouts let you create high quality, full color
maps by first arranging the various graphic elements on-screen the
way you want them. When you print a layout, any changes to
the data are automatically included, so you know everything on your map
will be up-to-date.
Scripts
ArcView scripts are macros written
in Avenue, ArcView's programming language
and development environment. With Avenue you can customize almost every
aspect of ArcView, from adding a new button to run a script you write,
to creating an entire custom application that you can distribute.
A Graphic is an abstract
class representing something you can see in a layout, or in a view
(other than features and images). The various
subclasses encapsulate the knowledge of how to visually represent various
kinds of data. For example, a GraphicShape
knows how to draw a mathematical shape onto a Display. A ViewFrame
knows how to draw the contents of a view into a layout document. GraphicText
draws
text on the display.
Usually, Graphic objects
are elements in a GraphicList associated with
a View or a Layout. The GraphicList manages
the graphic elements and ensures that they
are redrawn when the document invalidates. If the Graphic is not an element
of the view, then you must set the Graphic's
display and explicitly draw the Graphic.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PROJECTS, VIEWS, LAYERS AND DRAWING OBJECTS
A project
is
the file in which the work you do in ArcView is stored. A project typically
contains all the view, tables, charts, layouts and scripts that you use
for a particular ArcView application. A project file doesn't contain the
actual data that you use in ArcView, such as spatial data in the form of
shapefiles and ARC/INFO coverages, or tabular data like dBASE files. Instead,
a project stores references to the location of these
data sources on disk. In this way, the same data can be used in
any number of projects without duplication. When you open a project, all
the components in the project are listed in the Project window. From the
Project window, you can create new project components (Views, Tables, etc),
open or rename existing components, or remove components from your project.
When the Project window is active, menu options and buttons are available
that let you perform additional operations on the project and its components.
An Arcview Project
consists of a toolbar, a project window, in which it is possible to list
the Views, Tables, Charts, Layouts and Scripts attached to the project,
and a View window, in which the graphic components of the drawing can be
created, viewed, edited, and manipulated. The layer
order of themes can be manipulated in a Table
of Contents frame of the View window.
Drawing objects in ArcView are points,
straight lines, polylines, circles, rectangles, polygons, and text.
Polygons are not defined topologically and the common boundaries of polygons
are therefore duplicated. The coordinate properties of the drawing objects
are contained in .shp files whereas attribute data tables are contained
in .dbf files. (In Autocad the database tables can either be included with
the .dwg files, or maintained as a separate external database.) When
you create a new drawing object (feature) in the theme, a corresponding
record is automatically added to the theme’s feature attribute table, but
the ID and other attribute field must be filled manually. However, while
a theme is in edit mode, its table is also in edit mode, and the table
can be edited simply by making the Attribute Table window and the Edit
tool active. TIF image files may also added to the project as a view.
Each project (.apr) may contain several
Views (windows), charts, Tables, Layouts, and scripts. Each View may in
turn contain several themes where each theme represents one kind of information,
e.g. filled state polygons, US roads (polylines), oceans, Canada, Mexico.
Themes can contain only one kind of drawing object, i.e. polygons, lines,
points or text. Tables of attributes can be attached to a theme, and the
same table may attached so that two separate themes may be composed of
the same polygon set with the same attached attribute table, e.g. population
and life expectancy. The tables contain the polygon id and attributes,
shape, area, perimeter, etc.
The data record for each polygon associated
with a theme can be viewed by clicking the relevant polygon, whereas
all the records associated with all the polygons in a theme can be viewed
by selecting Table in the Theme menu. If the polygons have variable values,
ArcView will change the colour of the polygon fill according to the values
entered into the Symbol, Value and Label fields in the Legend Editor of
the Theme menu. It is possible therefore to have two themes with the same
polygons and attribute table, but with a different fill defined in the
Legend editor.
To copy a script from the Help file to
a script file, highlight and copy the script, click the Scripts icon
followed by the Open button in the Project box, and paste the file into
the script box.
THE ARCVIEW TUTORIAL PROJECT FILES
Project (.apr) files for World, US, Canada, Mexico and Europe,
and their respective folders with data files (.shp, .dbf, .sbx, .shx,
.prj, .sbn, .avl) arecontained in J:\ESRI\Esridata.
Document files and AVtutor are in J:\ESRI\Av_gis30\AvDoc
and J:\ESRI\Av_gis30\Avtutor, repectively. Avtutor contains two folders
- Arcview and dbaccess. The Arcview folder has Cad (with .dwg files),
Images ( with an Infrared Image of Austin, Texas), z_m-data (measured
polylines and Z values, see readmem.txt and readmez.txt files in the relevant
folders), and qstart folders.
It also has a qstart.apr file (j:\esri\av_gis30\avtutor\arcview\qstart.apr),
the project configuration file for the Quick Start Tutorial, Chapter
2 of the Using ArcView GIS book. This tutorial includes three views -
1) a map with USA, US roads, Canada, Mexico, and Ocean themes, 2) a
map of Atlanta with census tract, roads, and street themes, and 3) a world
map with oceans, rivers, lakes and country polygon themes and population
and life expectancy legends.
The dbaccess folder contains a set of demographic .shp and
.dbf files for US cities, counties, and states.
PROCEDURES
Load ArcView and accept the offer to create a
new project with a new View ; decline the offer to add data to the view.
Note that when the View window is active, there
are two icon tool bars below the menu tool bar. Placing the cursor on an
icon in the tool bar reveals its function. Both tool bars will change
to a different set of icons when the Project or Attribute Table windows
are active (click on the title bar to make active).
Select New Theme in the View menu, and select
Polygon as the feature type in the New theme dialog box.
Click OK and give a name and path to the directory
in which to store the View .shp file.
The name of the Theme will now appear in the
TOC and the tick box will be outlined by a dash-lined
box indicating that the Theme is in edit mode.
(Check the Theme menu and note that one of the
options is 'Stop Editing'; use this function to terminate editing in this
Theme.)
In the drag-down drawing tool list select the
polygon drawing tool (lower Tool Bar, icon furthest to the right; click
and hold the left mouse button, move the cursor down to the polygon
icon, and then release the button).
Click sequentially to draw the polygon; double
click to terminate drawing. The polygon will be outlined by 8 handles (small
black squares) of the selection box. Click the pointer
icon (black arrow second from the left in the lower toolbar). The
handles can now be used to resize the drawing object, whereas placing the
cursor within the object and click-hold and dragging allows it to be moved.
ADDING
A FIELD TO THE ATTRIBUTE TABLE
Click Table in the Theme menu. The attribute
table of the view will appear; it will automatically be in edit mode.
Click "Add Field" in the Edit menu, give the
name "Rocktype" for the new field, select "string" in the Type selection
list, and click OK.
EDITING
THE ATTRIBUTE TABLE
While the attribute table window is active (selected)
the Theme toolbar (the lower tool bar) is replaced by the Attribute Table
tool bar. Note in particular the three icons in the centre of the lower
tool bar.
Click the Edit button on the tool bar (the middle
icon with a vertical line and a black arrow in the centre of the lower
tool bar), click the relevant field cell in the table and enter 1
for ID and granite for Rocktype. Press ENTER
to finish, then click "Stop Editing" in the Table menu, and answer YES
to Save Edits query.
TO
QUERY THE DRAWING OBJECT
Make the View window active by clicking its Title
bar; note that the View is no longer in Edit mode.
Click the Identify button (circle with the letter
i in it, extreme left of the lower tool bar), and click within the polygon;
the relevant record in the attached attribute table will be brought to
the screen as an "Identify results" box. Double clicking the .shp name
in the box will cause the polygon to flash. Alternatively, if the 'Select
Feature' tool (fourth icon from the left on the lower toolbar) is made
active, clicking on an object in the View window will cause the relevant
record to be highlighted in the Attribute Table.
TO
QUERY RECORDS IN THE ATTRIBUTE TABLE
Click Table in the Theme menu (or the Table list
in the Project window). The attribute Table will become active and the
toolbars will change.
Click the Select arrow
tool (left icon of the three icons at the centre of the lower tool bar.)
Click a record in the table. The related drawing
object will be revealed by taking on a yellow fill.
To deselect an object, that is to remove the
yellow fill, either click the 'Clear Selected Features' icon (last but
one to the right on the upper tool bar) or the 'Clear selected Features'
in the theme menu.
If a new polygon is to be added, return to edit
mode and use the AutoComplete Polygon drawing tool (icon showing two polygons,
one greyed and separated from the other by a line terminated with two vertices)
to draw a polygon with a common boundary with the first polygon that was
drawn. Click the point icon to terminate the drawing event, and edit the
Attribute Table by making it active and clicking the Edit tool. Exit from
Table Edit mode.
IMPORTING AUTOCAD .DWG DRAWINGS INTO ARCVIEW
Files: map1.dwg; map1.apr
Use the following instructions to import e:\fieldlog\map1\map1.dwg
Before you use Autocad drawings in ArcView you must first load the CAD Reader extension, and create a blank View window.
In Autocad, layers may be thought of as transparent
overlays. You may turn layers ON or OFF to display (or to plot) only desired
portions of the drawing. Although it is not required, CAD users typically
organize different types of information on different layers. For example,
one layer might contain outcrops, another layer might contain boundaries
of a specific geologic unit, a third layer might contain roads, a
fourth layer might contain faults. In contrast ArcView organizes data in
themes. Every theme contains a logical collection of features that belong
to a single feature class - points, lines, polygons, or text. The
drawing objects within a theme may however be divided into groups according
to the value of a given field. For example polygons representing different
rock types may be shown in different colours, if the theme attribute table
contains
a rocktype field containing the name of the rock type.
If the CAD drawing to be imported into ArcView
includes point, line, and polygon layers, only line and polygon objects
will be imported, and the distinction between polygon and polyline is lost.
If objects on an Autocad layer are frozen, or if the layers contain no
data, or if the data represents points or text, the layer will not be imported.
Only layers with drawing objects will therefore be listed in the TOC of
the .dwg view. Point data should be imported directly from the external
database (click here).
You may create two line themes to store streams
and road features - although streams and roads are both linear features,
it makes sense to bring them into two separate themes because the attributes
associated with a stream might include a name, stream class, and the rate
of flow, while attributes for roads might include a name, surface type,
and number of lanes. Because their associated attributes differ significantly,
you should add two line themes and select a subset of layers in each theme
to store their respective features. You may add any
number of themes from a single CAD data source.
To create multiple themes, use
the Copy Themes and Paste options in the Edit menu. To turn layers
in each theme ON and OFF, use Theme Properties.
Procedure
1 Click the Add Theme button .
2 In the Data Source Types box, choose Feature
Data Source.
3 Navigate to the directory that contains Supported
CAD drawings you want to add. Double-click on the directory name to list
the files it contains. If the drawing files are not shown in the dialog,
it's possible you have forgotten to load the CAD Reader extension.
4 Click the name of the drawing file (map1.dwg)
to select the default (line) feature class, or click on the folder to display
a list of available feature classes and choose the one you want to use.
The default feature class is the first one listed. Tip:
to add several CAD drawings to a view at once, hold down SHIFT and click
on them in the list of files.
5 Click OK to add the theme to the view.
6 Click on the check box next to the theme's
name in the view's Table of Contents to make the theme active and to display
the drawing.
ArcView automatically adds a default legend in
the view's Table of Contents. The default legend classifies features so
that the color of every theme feature matches the
color of its corresponding entity in the source file. In the
case of Map1.dwg, a single theme with six line drawing elements will be
shown in the Table of Contents of the view window. Only six colours
are shown in the Theme Legend in the TOC because in the .dwg file only
six colours are used to represent all the layers. Furthermore, only
the drawing objects on the default layers will be shown, where the default
layers are those layers not frozen or hidden in the .dwg drawing.
7 Click 'Properties' in the Theme menu and then
the 'Drawing' icon in the Theme Properties box to display the list of layers
in the theme. Click the All Layers button to display all layers in the
drawing.
8 Double click the theme in the TOC to bring
the Legend Editor to the screen. In the drop-down 'Values Field' selection
list, choose 'Layer', and then click the Apply button. The TOC will now
display the names of all the layers in the theme.
The imported .DWG file remains as
a .DWG file, not a .shp file, and therefore cannot be edited in Arcview.
However, it can be converted to a shape file as a separate theme. In this
case however, all objects will be represented by the same symbol with the
same colour. Consequently, it is necessary to modify the Legend in
the Legend editor, selecting Unique Value
as the Legend type and Layer
as the Values field. The Layer name will then
appear as the Value in the Legend Editor, and as a label in the Legend,
and each layer symbol will have its own colour. The Layer name as seen
in the TOC can also be changed using the Legend editor.
The attributes in the attached 'Attributes of
Map1.shp' table are: Shape, Entity, Layer, Elevation, Thickness, and Colour.
The value in the Shape and Entity fields is shown as Polyline, Layer is
the Layer name in Autocad, and Colour is the colour of the lines in Autocad.
The values for Elevation and Thickness are 0.00000. Clicking a record in
the table causes the relevant polyline to be highlighted in the thematic
view. Conversely, clicking with the identify tool on a drawing object in
the view identifies the object in the attribute table. The original Fieldlog
.dbf files such as stati.dbf and struct.dbf can be viewed by adding them
to the Table list in the Project box, but they are not connected to the
drawing objects.
Note: when you create a theme, ArcView
does not immediately draw it on the view. This enables you to first edit
the theme's legend, or change the drawing order if there are several themes.
The drawing file will always show the folder icon in the list of drawings
even when the drawing contains only one feature class. For example, clicking
on the folder icon on a drawing file that has no text entities will still
list an annotation feature class. If you were to add a theme to your map
based on this annotation class, the theme will be empty (contains no features).
PLOTTING POINT DATA AS ORIENTED GEOLOGICAL SYMBOLS
To add an azimuth field for points added
to a View as geological symbols, carry out the following procedure. (see
project c:\aacrse\505\arcview\proj1.apr)
1) Double click the theme in the TOC to
get the Legend Editor, and then double click the symbol icon in the symbol
box to get the Marker Manager dialog box.
2) Click the Palette icon (right-hand side
of the tool bar in Marker Manager) and then the Load button to load the
geology palette j:\esri\av_gis30\arcview\symbols\geology.avp.
3) Click the Make Default button. The ArcView
geology symbols will now be available in the Marker Manager. Select one
of the symbols and perhaps change its size. Click the Apply button. Any
symbols already in the view window will now change to the symbol you have
selected. To add an azimuth field to the attribute table, select Tables
in the Project window, and double click the "Attributes of Theme?.shp"
to get and make active the relevant attribute table window.
4) In the Table menu in the Tool Bar click the
Start editing option, and in the Edit menu click Add Field.
5) In the Field definition box, provide a field
name, indicate its type as number, and click OK. The new field field will
be visible in the Attributes box. Fill in the values for the field,
click Stop Editing in theTable menu, and answer YES to the save Edits query?
6) Return to the Legend Editor, click the Advanced
button, and select Azimuth as the Rotation Field. click OK and then Apply
in the Legend Editor. The symbols in the View window will now be oriented
anticlockwise relative to the East - West direction, and dips will be left
hand (anticlockwise) relative to the azimuth direction.
7) To plot oriented symbols with the correct
orientation in ArcView the azimuth values must be entered as 270 degrees
less the true azimuth values. (NOTE: in geology the right-hand rule
dictates that the dip direction is right-hand (clockwise) from the azimuth
direction.) Consequently, create both an Azimuth and AVazimuth fields,
calculate the AVazimuth values, and use the AVazimuth field to plot the
symbols.
PLOTTING FIELDLOG STRUCTURAL DATA AS AN ARCVIEW VIEW - VIA EXCEL
Files:
exceltst1.apr; excltst1.xls
1) Export the ID, X, Y, azimuth, etc., data from
Fieldlog to a comma delimited txt file.
2) Import the data into an Excel spreadsheet,
and create a Field called avazimuth. Fill
this field with values representing 270 - the azimuth value. This converts
N-S relative azimuth values into Arcview E-W relative values (see ORIENTED
DATA above).
3) Highlight the block of cells that will
represent a single table in ArcView.
From the Insert menu, choose Name and then
Define to display a menu where the name of the block can be specified.
Type the name excltst1 to be assigned to the
highlighted cells. This is the name that will appear in the tables list
on the SQL Connect dialog in ArcView. Several tables can be defined in
this way on the same worksheet. A drop-down list of these tables is provided
above the upper left corner of the spread sheet area. Save the spreadsheet
as excltst1.xls.
4) using the ODBC Administrator in the
control panel, configure the Excel ODBC driver to access the Excel workbook
file by selecting ODBC_EXCEL as the user data source; click the 'Configure'
button, and then the 'Select Workbook' button, and define the path
and name of the ..\excltst1.xls spreadsheet.
5) Start ArcView and from the Project menu,
choose SQL Connect. Pick the Excel ODBC connection listed in the connections
drop-down list (towards the bottom) and click 'Connect'. The tables defined
in the Excel workbook file will be listed in the Tables and Columns boxes.
Double click the columns you wish to appear in the ArcView table, or click
'select all', they will appear in the SQL 'Select' box. Click the 'From'
box and double click the file name excltst1 in the 'tables' box. It will
appear in the 'From' box, and the 'Query' button will become available.
Click the 'Query' button. An Arcview table will appear.
6) Plot the data as a set of points in
the view window by clicking 'Add Event theme' in the View menu. Select
the fields in the relevant table to define the X and Y coordinate values.
7) Use the Legend Editor (see ORIENTED
DATA above; double click the view in the TOC frame, etc.) to change the
point symbols to the desired structural symbol (bedding, foliation, etc);
click the 'advanced' button and select the avazimuth field as the 'Field
to rotate'. Click the 'Apply' button. The structural symbols should now
plot in the correct orientation.
PLOTTING ROCK TYPE DATA DIRECTLY FROM A FIELDLOG DBF DATABASE
Files: stati.dbf, lith.dbf, aaimptst2.apr
NOTE 1) when drawing
objects in an Arcview Theme, an attribute table is automatically created
with two fields only, a Type field and an ID field.
NOTE 2) make sure the
ODBC driver is loaded. (Go to START -> CONTROL PANEL -> ODBC and check
that dBase files are listed as user data sources.
1) start ArcView with a new but empty
view. Save the project as aaiptst2 in ..\arcview2.
2) Make the Project window active, click
tables and add stati.dbf and litho.dbf
from \Fieldlog\aaimptst.
3) Join the
two tables:
Open the source table litho.dbf
that you wish to join to the destination table stati.dbf.
If the source table is not in your project, add it to your project first.
Click on the name of the field in the source
table that will be used as the common field for the link.
Open the destination table to which you
wish to link the source table.
Click on the name of the field in the destination
table that will be used as the common field for the link. This field does
not need to have the same name as the one you choose in the source table,
but it must contain the same data so that the link can be established.
Choose Join from the Table menu. The fields
in the litho.dbf will now be appended to the
fields in stati.dbf .
4) Plot the points
according
to the XY coordinates in the stati.dbf, using
Add Event theme in the View menu.
5) Get the Legend Editor, select Unique
Value as the Legend Type and Rocktype as the Values field, and click the
Apply button. The points plotted in the View will now be coloured according
to rock type.
6) Create a new theme
by selecting New Theme in the View menu and make the New theme feature
type polygon. save the New Theme in ....\arcview2.
7) Modify the new
theme's Attribute Table by clicking Table in the Theme menu.
A window "Attributes of Theme??" will be appear with a Shape and ID field.
Click Add Field in the Edit menu and Name the new field Rocktype and indicate
the type to be "string".
8) Make the View active, select the
polygon draw tool, and draw the granite body.
9) Edit the record for the granite
object clicking the Table window to make it active; click the Edit tool
in the Tool bar and enter the string "granite" in the rocktype field, and
an ID number in the ID field..
10) get the Legend Editor, select the Legend
type as Unique Value, and the Values Field as "rocktype". Click the Apply
button.
11) complete the map by adding polygons
with the AutoComplete Polygon Tool or the "Draw a line to append a new
polygon adjacent to other polygons" tool