Geography 280b lab

Today’s agenda:

TA info

Introduction to GIS lab facilities

Introduction to Macintosh

Overview of MFworks raster GIS software

Beginning Assignment 1: Learning about MFworks

Who I am

Neil Ripley

2nd year M.Sci. Student in Geography

Completed my undergrad degree here in geography at UWO

I will be teaching the labs for this course

Office: SSC 2410-A (aka The Spark Lab)

Office hours: Tuesdays 1-3 pm

Email: Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.

My policy

Lab Assignments are due at the beginning of the lab session on the date specified

Late labs are docked marks at 10% per day

Approach me well before the deadline if you need an extension - extensions will only be considered for medical (doctor’s note) or compassionate reasons (death in family etc)

Assistance is available during my office hours or by making an appointment with me (via email or in person)

The other TA…

Gabor Zsigovics

Will be marking your labs for this course

Office: SSC 2310

Office hours: TBA

Email: gzsigovi@uwo.ca

The GIS lab equipment

Macintosh network consisting of a mix of imac, G3, and G4 computers

Scanner stations for scanning maps and airphotos etc.

Instructor station with projector

Server computer (where the applications are stored)

Printers (that we can’t use!)

Sound system (for passing the time while working on assignments)

GIS lab policy

Food and drink are not permitted in the lab

Please do not abuse the equipment - no matter how frustrated you get

Drop in usage outside of scheduled lab/lecture sessions is permitted provided there is a lab supervisor present

The lab equipment is available for other course work or for personal use (ex. Internet).

GIS Lab Supervisors

Student volunteers who are responsible for supervising the lab during the week

Duties:

Supervise the lab during one assigned time slot per week

Secure the lab at the end of their shift

Enforce lab policy

Benefits:

Freedom to open the lab when they wish - (i.e. to work on assignments in the middle of the night)

Experience in supervising a computer lab

Lab Supervisors (continued)

Watch for posters announcing the call for lab supervisors

Or approach Dr. Pazner at the next lecture

Or email the coordinator: Daniel Fox at Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. if you are interested

You will need to attend an orientation session

Introducing Macintosh

A desktop environment quite similar to Windows on PCs

The menu bar at the top of the screen functions in much the same way as the task bar in Windows

The desktop includes some familiar icons such as the Trashcan

and some not so familiar icons (ex. Harddrive and networked Harddrive icons)

Logging into the machines

Turn the machine on

After a minute or so it will ask you to log in

Read the label on the front of your machine

The user name is GISCIxx

The password is GISCIxx

"Apple" menu

Roughly equivalent to the "Start" button in Windows

Provides access to recent applications

and the "Chooser" (more on this in future)

File, Edit, View, and Help menus

Fairly self explanatory

Special menu

Used to shut down or reboot the system

Also for emptying the trash can

The Finder

Located in the top right part of the screen

A list of the applications running on the system

Go here to switch applications and check which applications are running

Functions like the taskbar in windows

Useful applications

Sherlock - for finding lost files, folders, or applications

Start it from the "Apple" menu or hold down the ð key and press F (for Find)

Other useful applications

SimpleText - a very simple text editor for looking at the output from GIS work or for taking notes

Microsoft Word and Excel for writing up your assignment answers or doing spreadsheet work

Internet Explorer and Netscape - research or just plan surfing

Photoshop for scanning and image processing

and Corel Draw for layout and graphic design work

Zip disks

At least one Mac formatted Zip disk is required for this course

Strongly recommended that you have 2 disks though - one to act as a safe backup
Zip disks have been known to die in this lab!

Temporary Hard Drive space

There is a folder on each machine for temporary storage of your files

I recommend using the hard drive during your work sessions and then saving your work at the end of each session to your zip

Working on Assignments

Every assignment will consist of a number of elements:

Map files

Script files

A Project file

Written answers

For the sake of organization, make a new folder for each assignment and store these elements in this folder.

Do this now…

Double-click your computer’s hard drive icon

Double-click the temporary user files folder

Choose the File menu and select New Folder

Name the new folder "Assignment#1-yourname"

You should make a new folder at the beginning of each new assignment - and store all the files for that assignment in that folder

MFworks Raster GIS Program

A GIS software package developed here at UWO by Dr. Pazner and two of his colleagues

This program is a "user" friendly introduction to GIS and its concepts

Start MFworks

On the desktop, double-click on the network hard drive icon (labeled OSX1B)

Find and double-click the Applications folder

Double-click the MFworks folder

Double-click the MFworks 2.6.3 icon

MFworks environment

MFworks starts up looking like this

Notice the Untitled Project window

This window is used to keep track of related maps

Assignment #1:
Learning about MFworks

A simple assignment to (re)familiarize you with MFworks

Will help acquaint you with the basic concepts and features of the program

Let’s get going

Select File menu New… to create a new map layer

The "New Map…" dialog box opens up

Enter 16 rows and 11 columns

Press OK button

Your screen should look something like this

The Map Window

The map window

The map is a graphical representation of spatial information

Tools for drawing and examining the map are available in this window

The legend window

The "code" for deciphering the map

Save the Map

Click on the map window

Select File menu

Choose Save

Save the map as ApparentTempF-input in the Assignment#1 folder you created earlier

Working on the map

Make sure the map window is selected

Turn on the Ruler and Tracker

Select Map menu

Choose Show Ruler

Re-select Map menu

Choose Show Tracker

Increase the Zoom level by clicking the zoom-in button until you are at 1:16

Use the pencil tool to enter the values from the table in the assignment

Select the pencil tool

Enter a value from the table in this box at the bottom left corner of the map

Draw a mark on the map in the appropriate location

Use the magnifying glass to verify your entries

Save your work often!

Next step

Convert the map to a gray scale sequence

Click on the Legend window

Select all the entries in the legend

Now select Legend menu and choose Color Sequence

Preparing to output the results

Choose Windows menu

Select Layout

Prepare a nice layout of your work

text labels

A title

Legend

Be sure to save you map as you work

Script files

A script is a ‘recipe’ of operations

You will be required to produce scripts files for your assignments

Making a Script file

Choose Windows menu

Select New Script…

Write up your script

Be sure to save your Script in the Assignment#1 folder

Essential Elements of Scripts

Clean formatting to make it easy to read

Comments to make it easy to understand

That’s about it

Work on assignment #1

Assignment#1 is due in two weeks

Next week we will discuss how to submit it.