Creating a new project (THEME=DATA)

The first thing you need to do is start the program. In the Windows NT Task bar click and select Programs - ESRI - ARCVIEW and then click on the version number which is displayed (generally this will be 3.0a).
The program will open and display a screen like that in Figure i, with a small dialog window over the main Arc View GUI (graphical user interface). We want to begin a new project from the very begginning. Later you will add themes and tables. So for now select the button which will open your new project as a blank project then click OK.

i. Initial startup screen


Note that in some cases your Arc View settings may be different, so that when you start Arc View the program just opens to the main gui window skipping the smaller dialog window. Don''t be to concerned about this as by default the program should open as a blank project. If you have any concerns ask the lab tutor.

The small dialog window will disapear leaving only the large Arc View window. Create the project file by selecting from the menu bar File - Save Project As ... Save the file as ''tutorial.apr'' in your ''GISData'' directory. This file will store everything you create in this tutorial. If for some reason you have to leave the lab, and therefore stop the tutorial, make sure you save the file by either clicking the button or selecting File - Save Project from the menu bar. To restore (open) the project to resume your work, select File - Open Project ... from the menu bar and specify the project file you wish to open, in this case it should be ''tutorial.apr'' from your ''GISData'' directory.
If you have saved the file correctly the small window within the main program window should now have in its title bar, the name you saved the project as (ie. tutorial.apr). This window is called the project window and controls the project areas (views, tables, layouts etc) which you work on in an Arc View session

To create a new view, highlight the Views icon in the projec window if it is not already be highlighted. Click the New button, which lies directly above. A new empty view is created, which by default is named View 1. Notice that the amount of icons and menu items in the main window has greatly increased. These buttons are used to manipulate and analyse the data contained within the view. Since there is no data currently displayed in your view most of these functions are disabled.

This view will eventually hold geographic data relating to the entire world. So we will rename the view to reflect this. Click in the project window to make it the active window (the title bar will turn blue). From the main menu bar select Project - Rename ''View 1''... a new dialog box will open in which you can type in a new name for the view. Rename the view, The World and click the OK button. The new view name is updated in the view window title bar.

Setting the view properties
In order to calculate the correct scale of the geographic features displayed in the view window, it is important to inform Arc View of the geographic coordinates (map units) in which the data files (themes) are stored. It is also useful to specify the distance units for the view. These are units in which Arc View will display measurements (distances and areas) while you work within the view. Since you will be working with data on a global scale it makes sense to use large measurement units such as miles or kilometres rather than small ones like metres and feet.

Make the view window the active window by clicking in it (the title bar will turn blue) then select View - Properties ... from the main menu bar. The view properties dialog window will appear (figure ii.). In this window you can input the desired geographic coordinate information. The data (themes) we will use are stored in decimal degrees, so change the Map Units accordingly. Set the Distance Units to kilometers. In the text box labelled Creator, type in your name.

Using this dialog you can also specify the Projection information. For this tutorial we will just use the Arc View default geographic projection so don''t worry about changing any settings just yet. However, in the future you will no doubt need to set this information so remember that you can do it from the view properties window. You can also type in comments in the large text box at the bottom of the screen to help you remember what a certain view contains. This however, is purely optional.

Once you have input the desired property settings click the OK button. Now move on to the next lesson to add some themes to your view. Make sure and save your project by clicking the button or by selecting File - Save Project from the main menu. It is important that you get used to periodically saving your project. That way if something goes wrong (power failure etc) you won''t loose the changes you made.

Adding Themes (add data button)
It is now time to add some themes to your empty view. To add a theme to a view, first make sure that your view window is active, then click the Add Theme button. The add theme dialog box now appears. Navigate to your ''GISData'' directory and select the ''world'' directory, which you should have downloaded and installed previously. If you haven''t go here to get information on obtaining this directory. In the left display field of the dialog window a list of Arc View shape files, which reside in the ''world'' directory, should now be displayed.

(Download Information
First create a sub-directory in your home directory called "GISData". You will be prompted for the location to save the image file during the download process. Make sure you specify the newly created directory as the destination directory. Go ahead and click the download icon.


The data has been downloaded to you as a Zipped self extracting executable. In order to use this file you must first Unzip it. This is done by opening your Windows file manager (Windows NT Explorer), navigating to your "GISData" directory and double clicking on the filename. You will be asked where you wish to expand (place) the contents of the Zip file. Make sure you specify your "GISData" directory as the destination location. Again, using the Windows NT Explorer, check to see if the files were successfully placed. You should have a new directory which contains all the individual data files)


To select a theme simply highlight it and click the OK button, or just double click it. To select multiple themes, hold down the SHIFT key, highlight the themes you wish and click the OK button. Open the file named ''cntry94.shp'', which is a polygon file containing the countries of the world as they existed in 1994. The shapefile should be added to your view (in the grey contents section of the view), as a theme. To display the theme, click on the check box located next to the theme name (in this case Cntry94.shp). A world map should now be displayed in the view window. Your display should appear like that below

Changing theme settings
So that you dont''t get confused by various windows popping up in response to mouse clicks, select the icon from the menu bar. Rather than leaving the themes name as the shapefiles name, you should change it to something more meaningful, such as "World Countries ''94". To accomplish this, make sure the view window is active then select Theme - Properties... from the main menu bar. In the Theme Name text box type in the new theme name then click the OK button. The theme name in the view window should now change to the new name.

The colour assigned to the theme by Arc View may not be what you would like. To change the color of a theme, double click on the theme name in the contents of the view window. This will bring up the Legend Editor dialog window. Double click on the colour you wish to change to bring up the Fill Palette dialog window. Click the icon then select a brown color. Once completed close the Color Pallete (press the button) and click the Apply button and then close ( button) the Legend Editor window.

Now we will add another theme to our view. This time add the shapefile ''cities.shp'', which is a point file representing some of the larger cities in the world, and display it. Rename the theme to "World Cities" and change the colour to green. Before closing the Color Pallete dialog click the button to bring up the Marker Palette. Change the size of the symbol to 4 and close the dialog. In the Legend Editor dialog click the Apply button and then close ( button) the dialog.Your view window should now appear very similar to that in figure ii.
ii. View window


ArcView places newly added themes at the top of the themes contents list. This may cause problems in the future as some themes may cover others completely when displayed. The order in that themes are organised can be changed simply by clicking and holding the left mouse button on the theme name, then dragging it to the new position. As an example move the World Countries ''94 theme above the World Cities theme in the contents list. Notice that most of the cities are now obscured. Now move the themes back to their original order so you can again see the cities.

NOTE: In the future when you are using Arc View to complete the lab exercises, it will be important that you remember how to change the theme settings (order, colour, marker type, marker size, symbol etc). So far you haven''t changed many of the available settings however, all can be accessed and altered to some degree by using the dialogs brought up by double clicking the theme name. Later you can experiment to see how changes you make to the settings affect the display, however, for the moment just follow along with the tutorial.

Make sure and save your project by clicking the button or by selecting File - Save Project from the main menu. Move to the next lesson to learn how to manipulate the disp

Examining Attribute Data
The attributes of each theme (if they have any) are stored in tables. To view the attribute data attached to a particular theme first you need to make the theme you are interested in, the active theme. Remember that to do this you should click on the theme name in the views table of contents. When a theme is active, it appears highlighted (raised up) in the table of contents. By making the theme active you are telling arcview you want to work with the features in that theme.

Make the world cities theme active then click the open table button. The resulting table shows all attributes attached to the world cities theme (ie. Name, country, population, capital). Close the table before proceeding.

Once you have viewed a table, it can be accessed by clicking the Tables Icon in the project window. The name of the table will be displayed in the list. Bring up the table by double clicking on its name. If you bring up many tables your list will get quite full so it is important that you know how to remove unneccessary tables from the list. With the tables name highlighted select Project - Delete from the menu bar. A dialog will appear asking if you are sure you want to delete the file, for now select no as we will use this table later.


To view the feature in the theme associated with the row in the attribute table, click on a row in the table and the corresponding feature highlights in yellow in the theme. Scroll down the table until you find the city of Adelaide, then click on its name. Notice that in your view window the cities colour changes from green to yellow to identify its location. If your not sure where Adelaide is located, click the zoom to selected features button . This button zooms to the spatial extent of the currently selected features in the active theme(s). After you have selected particular features in a theme, click this button to zoom in on the area covered by these features. Click the button to zoom to the previous extent you were using (SE-Asia Region) before proceeding.

Conversely you can use the tool to select features within the active theme for which you want information. Click on the tool button then and either click on one feature in the displayed theme (view window) to select it, or click and drag to select a number of features. The features you selected will be highlighted in the attribute table in yellow. Use this tool to select all the cities in Australia at once. Notice that in your table (you will have to scroll through it) the attributes of all the cities selected are highlighted yellow. Close the table (attrbutes of world cities) before proceeding.

A quick way to get attribute information on a particular feature is to use the identity tool. To use this tool make the theme you are interested in active, which in our case is still the world cities theme, and then click the identity button. Now position the cursor over the feature you are interested in and click the left mouse button. A window will open which displays the attribute information of the selected feature. Click on a number of citie locations to find out information about them. When you are finished close the table and proceed.

If you want to identify a feature but you aren''t sure which theme it belongs to, make all the likely themes active before using the identity tool. To make more than one theme active, you hold down the SHIFT key and click on their names one by one in the views table of contents. Make both themes active and then click on a city location. The identify Results window will again open but this time it will contain two records, one for information about the selected city and the other for the country in which the city lies.

Before proceeding zoom out to the views full extent and make sure that you have no open tables. Clear any tables which may be in your project tables list. Make sure and save your project by clicking the button or by selecting File - Save Project from the main menu. Now move on and find out how to make more complex queries

Next step
New project (main text)