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Arc Catalog
Arc Catalog
ArcCatalog is used to identify, preview, browse and manage (copy, delete, convert format, etc.) spatial data sets, as well
as layout the “schema” (design) for new databases and datasets, and document them with standards-based metadata
(Reading: Getting to Know ArcGIS Desktop, Chapter 3).
1. Launch ArcCatalog
Go to Start/ArcGIS/ArcCatalog to open ArcCatalog (or from ArcMap, click the globe icon in the main toolbar)
There are two main parts to the display:
--the catalog tree on the left
-- the ArcCatalog contents window on the right
2. Refreshing the display
When you make changes (e.g. add a folder) it may not show up.
o Press F5 to ‘refresh’ the windows or use View/Refresh
3. Toolbars
All Toolbars are activated and de-activated from the View/Toolbars Menu
o If a toolbar is missing it may need to be activated
o Alternatively, it may be in a separate outside window which needs to be dragged onto the main window
o Experiment with turning toolbars on and off so you see which is which
o See Avintro.doc for more info on toolbars
Be sure all are turned on before proceeding
4. Connecting to Folders
ArcCat simplifies data access by allowing direct connections to folders containing spatial data.
When you first open ArcCatalog, the Catalog tree contains entries for your computer’s hard disks.
To access data stored on a CD, floppy disk, or another computer on the network, you must add those folder connections to
the Catalog. To add a connection to a folder::
Click the Connect To Folder icon (button #2) on the standard toolbar:---Connect to Folder dialog box opens
Navigate to the folder or disk that you want to add to the Catalog--p:\briggs\g6382\)
o Be sure this folder name appears in the top box in the Connect to Folder dialog
o Click OK.--A new folder connection appears in the Catalog tree.
Click the expansion box (to the left of the folder name with + sign) to display sub-folders
Create a connection to the CD ROM drive, and also to Q: if previously mapped
5. Disconnect Folder
Click the folder that you want to remove from the Catalog.
o E.g. remove any p:\ connections other than p:\briggs\g6382\
Click the Disconnect From Folder button (#3).
The folder connection is removed from the Catalog tree.
6. Create a New Folder (e.g. C:\USR\initials)
Create connection to c:\usr (if not already available)
Navigate to C:\USR in ArcCatalog and single-click to select it
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Place pointer on c:\usr\ and right-click
Point to New and click Folder.
Type a new name for the folder (eg lab1)
Press Enter and you have created a new folder
Use Connecting to Folders (#4) to create a direct connection to your new folder.
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8. Examining Data
There are three main options controlling how you examine individual data files:
--by selecting among the 3 tabs at the top of the ArCat contents window (Content, Preview, Metadata)
--when in Preview Tab, by choosing between geography and table at the bottom of the ArcCat window
--by right-clicking on a data set in the tree and selecting
9. Data Preview: maps
Click on any spatial dataset in the tree (on left) or in the Contents window (on right):
Click on the Preview tab in the ArcCat Contents window on the right
o Preview map is displayed
Use the “Geography Toolbar” to Pan, Zoom, Identify, etc. In version 9.2, you can use the mouse wheel to zoom in
and zoom out.
o Click the globe icon to return to the ‘full extent’ of the map
10. Data Preview: tables
Be sure preview tab is selected
o A map will generally be displayed in the Preview window, but not always
At the bottom of the Preview Window , click down-arrow next to “Geography” and select Table
o The underlying feature attribute table is displayed
o Use the Record control at the bottom to scroll thru the table.
The Options button at the bottom permits you to
o Search via the Find option for specific data
o Export all or selected records in the table to Access, dbf, text, SDE formats
o Add a new field (column) to the table for new data
Open the coverages folder in p:\briggs\g6382\DataSets and explore both the geography and the associated tables
o Note the variables common to coverage (point/arc/polygon) attribute tables as discussed in AGintro.ppt
o Note how the variables are named based on coverage name (you may have to expand column widths)
11. Data Preview: data documentation
o Click the Metadata Tab in ArcCatalog window
o You are provided with documentation about the data
o Some is automatically obtained from the Data Set Properties (see below), e.g. projection info, if known
o Other info. has to be entered manually (see Section # 24 below)
o Go to the shapefiles folder to see example of metadata (except for lakes.shp)
o Use Stylesheet drop down menu to select desired display style e.g FGDC ESRI
(FGDC is the Federal Geographic Data Committee which publishes standards for metadata.)
o Description provides overall metadata
o Spatial provides projection info
o Attributes lists names of variables in attribute tables
Information is accessed via hyperlinks within these sections.
See Section # 24 below for more information on metadata
12. 1 Displaying Data Set Properties
Use ArcCatalog
If you right click on any entry in the Catalog tree, and select Properties, a window with tabs is displayed
The same display can be accessed from the File/Properties pull-down menu, or by double clicking the data set
name in the ArcCatalog Contents window when under the Preview tab
Tab Items depend on the type of entry you click:
Shapefiles: General,XY Coordinate System, Fields, Indexes
Coverage: General, Projection, Tics & Extent, Tolerances
Coverage Feature Class (point, arc, or node): General, Items, Relationships
Geodatabase (e.g. Texas): General, Domains
Feature Data set (e.g.Dallas County): General, XY Coordinate System, Tolerance, Resolution,
Domain,
Feature class ( e.g. dal_hwys_arc): General, XY Coordinate System, Fields, Indexes, Subtypes,
Relationships, Tolerance, Resolution, Domain,
Standalone Feature Class: ( e.g. dal_lakes): General, XY Coordinate System, Fields, Indexes,
Subtypes, Relationships, Tolerance, Resolution, Domain,
Folder or Workspace: standard NT tabs for General, Sharing, Security
Modifications to Coverages, Geodatabases and Shapefiles can be initiated from here as described below
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Coordinate Systems and Projections
12. 2 Modifying Shapefile Properties: Defining shapefile projections
o The most important property of a geographic data set is its coordinate system: its datum and projection
Make it a practice to define (document) the projection for every data set that you have
---- but be careful: get the definition wrong and all results will be screwed up!
o Use Windows Explorer to copy the folder p:\briggs\g6381\avcat to your c:\usr\initials folder
o You may have to use View/Refresh too see this in ArcCatalog, or even close and re-open ArcCatalog
o Right click daycare shapefile in Tree (be sure to use C:\ drive version), and select Properties,
o The Shapefile Properties dialog opens. Select XY Coordinate System tab
XY Coordinate System tab opens so you can define the projection
You must know what the coordinate system is from paper documentation, etc. For this
example:
Click the Select button, and Browse for Coordinate System window opens
Select Projected Coordinate Systems and click Add
Select State Plane and click Add
Select NAD 1983 (Feet) and click Add
Scroll to NAD 1983 StatePlane Texas North Central FIPS 4202 (Feet).prj
Click Add for the final time to return to the XY Coordinate System tab
Click OK to return to Shapefile Properties dialog
(this approach differs from 9.1 and is MUCH easier)
Note: this process does not alter the coordinate (data) values in any way.
It simply adds “digital documentation.” You have “labeled an unlabeled can”. Make sure the label
corresponds to what was in the can! If it’s beans, the label must say beans. If you label it peaches, your
“peach” cobbler will taste VERY funny—i.e. your data will be screwed up!
The process is the same irrespective of whether you define projections for rasters, coverages, etc.. although
the exact steps followed to obtain the XY Coordinate System dialog may differ.
o You can also use ArcToolbox to Define the projections for all types of datasets
o Open ArcToolbox by clicking icon and click expansion boxes to obtain:
Data Management Tools>Projections and Transformations>Define Projection
--identify the data set to be defined on the first line
--click the icon at end of second line to open the Spatial Reference Properties dialog and
identify the projection using either Select (from pre-existing set of datums and projections) or
Import (copy coordinate system information from another data set which is already defined).
There is a Z Coordinate System tab in the Spatial Reference Properties dialog in version 9.2
12. 3 Modifying Coverage Properties: Defining Coverage Projections, and Building Topology
Go to Properties of the coverage as in 12.1
o under the Projection tab, you can Define a projection (but this does not reproject the data)
as with shapefiles, Define simply specifies what the projection is—it does not reproject or
change the projection
You must use ArcToolbox to actually re-project and change a coverage’s projection.
o under the General tab, you can Clean and Build topology
Clean removes dangling nodes (within dangle tolerance) and combines nodes (within fuzzy
tolerance)—set these tolerances under Tolerance tab if defaults are inappropriate
Build or rebuilds topology: be sure to select the desired feature type (poly, arc, point/node)
12. 4 Modifying Geodatabase Properties:
For geodatabase, many properties can be set up and modified here
o For example, to see the projection of a feature data set (e.g Dallas County) open its properties and select
XY Coordinate System tab.
The Edit button only allows you to Define(document) the projection, or change the definition if
it was wrong. It does not re-project the data. BE CAREFUL!!!
It will be “greyed” in the lab for data on the P: drive since you don’t have write access.
12.5 Changing projections
You can define projections directly in ArcCatalog (i.e. document what the projection of the data is) for all types
of file structures, but you cannot re-project data except for when you import data into a geodatabase (see # 20.1)
o Data, providing its defined, is automatically re-projected, if necessary, when its imported into a
geodatabase feature dataset
o If you want to re-project a coverage or shapefile, you must use ArcToolbox
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After defining the current projection, you can (re)project the data to a different projection using ArcToolbox
o You create a new data file, with different coordinate values.
To illustrate, Click the ArcToolbox icon to open this window, and then click + boxes to display
o Data Management Tools>Projections and Transformations>Feature >Project
(for a vector file)
Double click to open the tools dialog box, and fill in it parameters (info it needs) as follows
Drag daycare.shp file from c:\usr\initials\avcat to the 1st box (Input Dataset or Feature Class)
Click in 2nd box and use -> key to see end of file name—note how you are creating a new file
Click icon at end of 3rd box , click Select button, Projected Coordinate Systems, State Systems
(not State Plane), select NAD 1983 Texas Statewide Mapping System.prj, and click Add
(this is the standard projection for statewide maps in Texas government applications)
You are returned to the Project window—click OK
A processes runs, and a box opens to tell you that it has run successfully (!). Click Close
Note that a new shp file has been created daycare_project.shp
The biggest mistake people make is to use the “Define” process when trying to reproject the data
o They define the data to be what they want it to be. You can only define it to be what it is.
o In essence, they label a can of beans to be peaches. `
Coverages
These are ESRI’s original data set format, introduced with ArcInfo in 1981.
Coverages are stored in Workspaces, which are simply folders containing an Info subfolder which tracks the coverages
present in the workspace.
Warning: coverages do not support blanks in coverage names or blanks in the directory path to the coverage.
Consequently, you will encounter problems processing coverages in My Documents. Create a folder in the root of c:
13.1 Create Workspace in Your folder
o Go to c:\usr\initials (created in Step 6 above)
o Select New/ArcInfo Workspace
o Type in name and press Enter
o New workspace folder is created
o If you check in NT Explorer you will see it contains an info folder
o Note: if you create a new coverage or copy a coverage into an existing folder, an info folder is added and a
workspace is created
13.2 Create a New Coverage
ArcCatalog lets you create new, empty coverages. When assembling data, it’s important to use a master coverage as a
template for all coverages for a project so that they can be overlaid correctly; otherwise, common features in different
coverages, such as a shoreline, may not line up. The template coverage’s tic points, boundary, and coordinate system
information are copied to the new coverage. If you don’t use a template, you must add tics to the new coverage before you
can add features to it. You aren’t required to set the new coverage’s boundary before adding features to it.
In the Catalog tree, right-click on folder to contain the new coverage and select New/Coverage
o The first New Coverage dialog box is displayed
o In the New Coverage Name Box, type a name for the new coverage.
o Check the box to use another coverage as a template
o Click the Browse button, then navigate to the coverage that will be used as a template.
Any coverage in p:\briggs\g6382\DataSets\Coverages is OK
Select the coverage and click Open.
o Click Next.
Coverage Projection info is displayed
o You can define the coordinate system information for the new coverage, if its not specified, by clicking
the Define button
o This simply tells ArCatalog what the projection is. It does not (and cannot) change (reproject) it!
o Click Next.
The last New Coverage dialog box is displayed
o Click the dropdown arrow in the upper left, and select the type of topology desired (e.g. polygon)
This is important otherwise no feature attribute tables are created
o Click Single if you want to create a single-precision coverage.
Double-precision is the default and should generally always be used for accuracy
Click Finish.
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The new coverage appears in the Catalog.
Data can be added by heads-up digitizing and other methods
GeodataBases
14.1 Create a Personal or File-based GeoDatabase (gdb)
A geodatabase is the new format, introduced with ArcInfo 8, for saving spatial data. This is the format we will focus on in
this course. ArcCatalog provides a complete set of tools for designing and then managing all the information stored in the
geodatabase.:
Coverage Geodatabase
Workspace Feature Dataset Contains multiple layers but all must be in the same spatial reference system
Coverage Feature Class One layer in a Table (for gdb, is a single Table of one feature type) e.g counties
Feature type Feature type node or arc or polygon (plus complex feature types in gdb)
Feature Feature One row in the table: specific geographic feature in the real world: a tree or a county
Ideally, before creating a new gdb and/or bringing data into it, you should have a clear “schema” or design in mind,
preferably written!
ArcGIS 9.2 introduced the File based Geodatabase as a replacement for personal gdb. The process of using and creating
personal and file-based geodatabases is essentially the same. However, file-based are preferred because
--faster
--no size limit (2GB max for personal)
--compatible under Unix and MS Windows (personal gdb is MS Windows only)
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o the source data will be automatically re-projected to the projection of the feature dataset providing spatial
reference has been defined for the source data. This is critical. If it is not defined, and the projection is not the
same as that of the feature data set, it will still be imported, but it will be wrong, and you will get no warning (as
you do in ArcMap, which tells you “spatial reference system unknown”.)
o the import tool will import coverages, shapefiles, and feature classes from other gdbs
o For coverages, you choose which feature types you want to import (e.g polys and/or arcs).
Each is brought in as a separate feature class
o If you select the Feature class (single) tool you can control what data is brought in. This is very useful.
As an example: For Input Features, select daycare.shp
For Output Feature Class Name: daycare
click SQL button and build query to bring in only data with zip code =75093
In Field Info box: Change NewFieldName as desired
Change Visible to false on some variables:--these will not be brought in
(strongly advise that you remove unneeded/duplicated variables)
Note that some variable names may change since the import tool automatically changes the original field
(variable) names when they are invalid in the database.
For example, when a field name contains an invalid character such as a hyphen, the hyphen is replaced by
an underscore in the corrected field name
You can also Import data into the Geodatabase (rather than into a feature dataset)
Right click on the Geodatabase and select Import
o Note that there are more choices than when you imported into a feature data set
Feature datasets can only contain vector layers whereas the geodatabase itself can also hold
tablular (non-spatial data) and raster data
o If you import a vector layer it is called a standalone feature class
15. Exporting data (file conversion)
o You only import into a geodatabase, however you can export from any file format to any other file format e.g
geodatabase feature class to coverage, coverage to shapefile, etc
o Export is, in essence, the process for converting between file formats
o Exporting to a geodatabase (e.g. from a shapefile) is identical to importing into a geodatabase
For example: To Convert from Coverage to Shapefile
o Right click on the coverage in the Catalog tree and select Export> to Shapefile e.g use tracts coverage
o Note that for both shapefile and geodatabase the only options are “multiple
o Note that four files are listed as import: click to expand name: they are arc, label, polygon, tic
--we will select all four, although in most circumstances you remove all except “polygon”
o Specify location of Output Folder (note this needs to be an existing folder—use avcat)
o Click OK and you find that four shapefiles are added, for arc, label, polygon, tic
Use Preview to see the difference between them.
MetaData
16. 1 The Metadata System
o Go to a data layer (e.g. p:\briggs\g6382\DataSets\shapefiles\cities) and click Metadata tab
o Be sure Metadata toobar is open (it begins with the word Stylesheet). Open via View/Toolbars if necessary.
o The Stylesheet allows you to display metadada in several different styles
FGDC ESRI (default)
FGD Classic (Fedral Geograhic Data Committee’s standard for metadata)
FGDC Geography Network (an ESRI web based date locating system)
Xml (eXtensible Markup Language—“fancy” HTML)
The FGDC FAQ selection gives more info about FGDC metadata rules
Select each and see the differences
o The five Metadata buttons allow you to:
Edit metadata using an FGDC compliant template
Click the 1st button to view this template
View metadata properties
This allows you to attach other files, which is handy if you have extensive extra info or
info which does not conform to an appropriate format for import
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Create/update metadata
Updates metadata to reflect any changes made to dataset properties (e.g projections)
Always click this button before reading metadata, especially if you projecting data
Note: title of icon is confusing. You use the Edit icon to write (“create”) metadata
Import metadata from another file
Must be in an appropriate format (which isn’t always easy to get!)
Export metadata to a file
Several formats available including standard html and FGDC CSDGM (Content
Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata)
ArcCatalogs Metadata system is quite powerful. Although there appear to be multiple different components, in fact
it is a single integrated system
--all information is stored in a single .xml file (eXtensible Markup Language—“fancy” HTML)
--file is consistent with FGDC metadata standard
--where available, data is automatically compiled from dataset Properties
e.g projection info and item (variable) names
--additional detail is entered manually using the edit icon
16.2 Create FGDC-compliant metadata
ArcCatalog comes with an FGDC metadata editor, which lets you create FGDC-compliant documentation.
For some elements, choose the appropriate value from the available dropdown list. For others, where text is required, a brief
description of the expected information is provided in each box which you replace with your metadata info. If you complete
all the sections with red text you have met FGDC minimum requirements for metadata. There is extensive information
under Help.
In the Catalog tree, click the item whose metadata you want to edit.
o In this case choose a dataset in c:\...avcat (e.g. daycare)
Click the Metadata tab in the ArcCatalog window.
On the metadata toolbar, select FGDC under Stylesheet on the
Click the Edit Metadata icon (first icon) on the Metadata toolbar.
o Note the 7 main section titles across the top (Identification, Data Quality, Data Organization, etc.)
o Click the appropriate section Title for the elements you want to edit. (e.g. Identification)
Click the tab containing the elements you want to edit.
o There are multiple tabs for each section!
Replace the information text in the boxes with your metadata info
o Or, click the dropdown arrow for the appropriate element and select a value in the list.
Click OK.
16.3. Creating Thumbnails
Thumbnails are visual summaries of a spatial data file which are very useful when browsing contents of folders (see #7
above) and viewing metadata. They are saved as part of the metadata in the .xml file. Thumbnails are not part of the
FGDC standard. To create thumbnails:
In the Catalog tree, click the layer for which you want to create a thumbnail.
Click the Preview tab and then go to geography view by clicking the dropdown arrow below the window.
If desired zoom in to a representative section of the data (or use the full extent, it doesn’t matter)
Click the Create thumbnail icon (on end of Geography toolbar—yellow down arrow with 4 small rectangles)
Repeat this process for every data set for which you want a thumbnail—usually all within the folder or geodatabase.
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Layer files are more logically created from ArcMap after the display style has been set up but can be created in ArcCatalog.
Look in the Mexico subfolder in Layers folder under DataSets to see an example of layer files all related to one
data file (states)—view thumbnails to see the differences between each. Compare their properties.
To create a layer:
Right-click the data source from which you want to create a layer. (e.g. daycare.shp) and select Create Layer.
Navigate to the folder in which you want to save the layer.
Type a name for the layer file.
Click Save
Use Properties to define the characteristics for the layer
o Look under source tab to see
18. Creating Group Layers
You can group multiple data source together in a group layer to manage them as one entry. For example, you may want
to group all of a map’s transportation features such as roads, highways, railways, and ferries. You can change which data
sets belong to the group from the group layer’s Properties dialog box. A group layer can combine data from several data
sources that store data in different formats; for example, you can combine TIN, coverage, and shapefile data, as well as
feature layers, in the same group layer.
In the Contents window (the window on the right)select the data sources you want to assemble into a group layer
by clicking them while holding down the Shift or Ctrl key: e.g. go to P:\briggs\g6382\DataSets\shapefiles and
select drainage, lakes, rivers
Right-click the selected data sources and select Create Layers.
In the Save Layer as box, navigate to the folder where you want to save the group layer.
o Type a name for the group layer file.
Click Save.
o The new group layer appears in the folder’s contents.
Right click on the group layer name and select Properties to manage the layer
o You can also add/remove layers by using the Group tab under Properties
Some useful characteristics of Group Layers:
o When you bring a group layer into ArcMap, all of the layers will be brought in.
o Under ArcCatalog, when you preview, all layers in the group will be shown,, which is the only way of
overlaying multiple layers in ArcCatalog
o A Group Layer can also contain source files; it does not have to contain layer files
o
o You can set various display properties fro the Group Layer (such as transparency) which will be applied
to all layes in the gropu and override properties et for an individual layer
o Group layers are VERY handy for organizing your layers in the ArcMAP Table of Contents; in essence,
you can create folders to organize your layers
o Group layers can be nested; that is, group layers can be within group layers.
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23. Add File Types to be Displayed
When you first open the Catalog, many files that you would see in a folder in Windows Explorer aren’t visible. Only spatial
data types are displayed in ArcCat by default. However, other files may contain information that you need when working
with geographic data. To see these files, you must add their types to the Catalog’s filtered file list. A file’s type is its
extension. For example, to see ArcView 3 project files in the Catalog, you would add “apr” to the file types list.( The file
types list isn’t case sensitive, so the types “apr” and “APR” will locate the same files.) Some of the file types you want to
use may already be registered with the operating system, for example, Microsoft Word documents. When you double-click
a registered file type, the operating system knows which application to use to open the file.
Click the Tools menu, and click Options.
Select the File Types tab, then click New Type button
Click Import File Type From Registry.
o List of registered file types appears (this may not work in the Lab)
o Click type you wish to display e.g .doc or .jpg (they are listed alphabetically by extension)
o Click OK
Alternatively, in the File Type window
o Type extension (.eg. apr) in the File extension box
o Any description in the Descrition type box
o Click change icon and select an icon
In File type box, click OK
Desired file type should now show in the box under File Types tab in Options window
o Select file name so that it is highlighted and click APPLY button
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