| 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: nripley@uwo.ca | ||
| 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 djfox@uwo.ca 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”" |
| “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 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..." |
| 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. | |