Introduction to

ArcCatalog
1.1 Introduction to ArcCatalog

Topics:

What do we use ArcCatalog for and getting familiar with the

ArcCatalog
interface and with its main functions, like map and (meta)data
browsing and data exploration.

Introduction

In this exercise you will explore ArcCatalog and learn how it is used within
the 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 year’s

Blackboard course Principles of Geographic Information Systems, under
Assignments. Copy the entire folder “Exercise” to your personal directory

1.2 Starting ArcCatalog:

the user interface
Before 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 ArcCatalog’s desktop.

Start ArcCatalog

� Start\Programs\ArcGIS\ArcCatalog (see Fig. 1.1)

Fig. 1.1 Open ArcCatalog from
desktop

� Maximize ArcCatalog to occupy the whole screen, see Fig.1.2

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 visible.
In 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 executed
Combo 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

Menus

Standard Tool bar

Location Tool bar

Status bar
Type of data sets Contents, Preview
Catalog and Metadata tabs
 1.3 Why use ArcCatalog?
ArcCatalog is a software designed for two main purposes:
� It allows you to manage, access, and explore existing geographic data
irrespective of the format in which the data is stored or its location (on a
local disc or on the network). You can best compare this with Windows
Explorer, but specifically tailored to Geo-spatial data.

� You can also change the structure of the data. For instance, you can create
a 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 in
the 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. 1.3).

Fig. 1.3 ‘Snapshot’ Preview of

various types of geographic
data which can be managed
with ArcCatalog
 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.1.4 Detailed Preview of

the geographic data

Alternatively, you can switch the display from Geography to Table and view
the attribute table associated with the geography.
Fig. 1.5 Preview of the
attributes associated with 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 (e.g. shapefile) and
geometry type (e.g. polygon). Documentation is additional information that
helps to understand origin and content: e.g. title, summary description,
ownership ,publication date, language of the dataset; date of metadata
creation. A popular definition of metadata is ‘data about data’.
Fig 1.6 Metadata describes
the properties and documents
the
data
 ArcCatalog has a built-in metadata editor. The metadata editor can be used
to store additional information or to create new metadata when no metadata
exist.

ArcCatalog as a gateway to ArcMap

Once you have examined the data using ArcCatalog, you may want to do
some analyses, or create a map using ArcMap. You can open ArcMap by:
� double-clicking on an ArcMap document. ArcMap documents can be
recognized by the following icon and the extension .mxd.
� 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 creating
new folders and new geo-databases.

1.4 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 location

where the data is stored. This location can be a local disk (C:\ or D:\ drive) or
some network drive. You were asked to copy the data from Blackboard to
your personal directory - on x:\ - so you have to establish a connection to your
M:\ drive:

� In the Standard toolbar (see Fig. 1.2), find the Connect to Folder

button and click on it.

� In the Dialog Window, navigate to the X:\Excercize, see Fig. 1.7

� Click OK

fig. 1.7 Connect to Folder

dialog window

Notice that the E:\ drive is now added in the Catalog tree.

� Click on the plus sign next to the icon of the X:\Exercize in the Catalog
tree to expand the tree one level and see its contents.
� Select the Exercise folder by clicking once on its icon. You will see all the
files, datasets and subfolders stored under the selected folder.

Let’s have a closer look at the content of the subfolders of the Exercise.

Browse for data.

� Continue to expand the tree: double-click on the icons o f

Exercise>India_sd

! Notice that the content in the folder India is displayed with a different icon
in the Contents tab. This is because ‘India.mdb’ is a Personal Geodatabase.

Explore the contents of the Personal Geodatabase

Double click on the icon of the ‘India.mdb’ Personal Geodatabase.

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

Explore the buttons from the Standard toolbar. Which button allows you to
find 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 – Polygons

India_ds: Points – Lines - Polygons

india_placename: Points

india_st: Points - Lines – Polygons

railways: Points - Lines – Polygons

india_roads: Points - Lines – Polygons

waterways: Points - Lines – Polygons

To learn more about the data types, refer to the Help menu ‘ArcGIS Desktop
Help’ on the Contents tab: Data management with ArcCatalog / Getting
started with ArcCatalog / What’s 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. 1.3).

Although the view is set to thumbnails, you see that only some feature
classes are displayed as thumbnails, while the others are simply displayed
as 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.
Fig. 1.8 Result of producing
the Thumbnails within the
Contents
tab.

• Explore the data

You have learnt to browse data from different sources. In the next section
you 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. ArcCatalog
allows you to preview either of them; you can toggle between them using the
dropdown list at the bottom of the Preview window:
Fig. 1.9 Toggle the contents
of the Preview window

Use the Preview tab

 • 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 of
india_sd of the. You can use the Geography toolbar to explore the geographic
data (Fig. 1.10).

Fig. 1.10 The buttons of the

Geographic toolbar

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.
 Click on Zoom button

Fig. 1.11 Defining the

geographic
area to enlarge

Click and drag a

box to define your
area of interest

Fig. 1.12 Preview of the

geography
at an enlarged scale The selected area at
an enlarge scale

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.
 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 the

neighborhood
for which you
want the to know
the name

All the attributes

of the selected
neighborhood
are displayed in a
separate windowthe
Fig. 1.13 Process to
identify the
attributes 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. You’ll 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. 1.5; 1.9)

There are several options that allow you to personalize the display of the table
in the preview.

Change how tables look

If you want to change the appearance of the table (e.g. to improve the
readability
of the text) you can change the default settings. E.g.: you may highlight
a selection in ‘dark green’ in stead of the default ‘pale blue’, and you
may 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

 Click here to select
the color you want
to use to highlight
selections.

Click here to type

the new font size.

Fig. 1.14 Dialog window

to set
ArcCatalog options.

• 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 information
may be hidden and/or 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 )

• 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 column’s edge to an acceptable
width
• Release the mouse

! This change is temporary. If you select a different data set or close the
ArcCatalog 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 may
want 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 ‘freezing’ them.

Freeze/Unfreeze Columns

• Right-click on the column heading: DISTRICT

• Click Freeze/Unfreeze 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 the
ArcCatalog 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 to

define its properties. Notice, however, that ArcCatalog will not allow you to
enter and/or modify the data in the records. You will see the editing process
later, 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. 1.15.
Fig. 1.15 Preview window
– table mode.

• 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 to

search for and exchange data. Examples of metadata are: file name, data
format, 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 the
set can be used for your application. E.g.: do you need to adapt data to
integrate it into your application (e.g. change its projection), can you access
the data, who to contact to get it, are there cost involved, etc.

There are a several standards for metadata. Standards provide common

terminology and definitions for the documentation of digital data. For
geospatial data, the two main standards are defined by:

• the International Organization for Standardization's (ISO) with the

document
• 19115 “Geographic Information – Metadata”
the Federal Geographic Data Committee's (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_ds

Explore 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 its’ contents

As explained in section 1.3, metadata consist of properties and documentation.

Properties are derived from the data itself and documentation is additional
descriptive information, generally supplied by the data creator. But any
user with writing access can change or add content to the metadata.

Fig. 1.16 Metadata

window– Default Style
sheet.

ArcCatalog offers a number of ways to display the metadata, using different

‘Stylesheets’. Stylesheets define the way in which the metadata is displayed.
By default, ArcCatalog displays metadata using the FGDC ESRI stylesheet.
Fig. 1.17 Choosing a Changing stylesheets
Metadata Stylesheet

• 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,
by using ArcCatalog’s metadata editor. For example, change the metadata
of the india_ds Feature Class. The data set was produced by -
and obtained from - IIRS, India. You will add information
about 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 Sensing

Address: Kalidas Road,Dehradun
Province: Utteranchal
Postal 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
“REQUIRED”
(IN RED), and a brief description of the type of information expected
in that field. The red font is meant to emphasize that these fields are
part of the minimum information required by the metadata standard. For the
time being, add some of the required data. Follow the numerical sequence
as indicated in Fig. 1.18 and 1.19.

• First select Distribution 1 at the top of the dialog window (Fig.

1.18)

• Next, click on the Distribution tab 2 then click on the Details…

button 3 This will open another dialog window.
 2
1

Fig. 1.18 Example of

steps to edit metadata
3

Fig. 1.19 Editing contact

information with the
Arc- 4
Catalog metadata editor
5

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

• 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

Explorer.
You 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 X:\Exercise folder

• Right click to open the context menu

• Select New and click Folder

Fig. 1.20 Creating a new

folder with
ArcCatalogArc-
Catalog metadata editor
 • Type a new name for the folder you have just created, e.g.
‘My_folder’

• Copy the Personal Geodatabase “Large_enschede.mdb” to the

new folder.

! Make sure that none of the Feature Classes is active. You should see
nothing displayed in the Contents, the Preview and the Metadata windows.
If any of the Feature Classes is active, ArcCatalog locks the Personal
Geodatabase and returns an error when you try to copy it.
It 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 main
purpose 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 following:
an empty map, a new template or an existing map.You 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