IPM CRSP UGANDA

GIS WORKSHOP
USING ARCVIEW

Larry Grossman

Department of Geography - Virginia Tech

Held at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda
February 19 - 21, 2002

VIRGINIA TECH
MAKERERE UNIVERSITY
NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH ORGANIZATION

NOTE: The materials on these pages--in printed and digital form and on the World Wide Web--are to be used only in association with the Virginia Tech IPM CRSP. Reproduction or use of these pages, in part or in full, for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited. Those wishing to reproduce or use these pages for non-profit, educational purposes should contact the author at LGROSSMN@VT.EDU for permission.

Acknowledgments: The digital data in these GIS lessons are supplied by the Institute for Environment and Natural Resources, Makerere University, Uganda; the National Environmental Management Agency (NEMA), Kampala, Uganda; the National Biomass Project, Department of Forestry, Kampala, Uganda; the World Resources Institute (African Data Sampler), New York; the Blackland Research and Extension Center and the Department of Rangeland Ecology & Management, Texas A & M University (Almanac Characterization Tool); and the United Nations.

Step 2: Starting a New Project and Saving Projects

Starting a New Project

We have opened a new project to create and store maps and data about Uganda. In the Project Window on the left (labeled "Untitled"), first be sure that the icon Views is highlighted.

Original ArcView window

and then click on the New button just above the icon. This produces an empty window for View1.

We want to add information to this blank view. The information that we will add is called a Theme.

From Step 1 we know that a "Theme" is the term used for a map layer in ArcView containing both spatial and attribute data (the latter are in database tables, which you do not see at first). A Theme is a file containing graphic information required to draw a set of geographic features together with information about those features. As we add themes, they will be listed on the left side of the View window in the Table of Contents along with their legends that will represent them on the map.

We now want to add a few themes to our blank "View1." To do so, go to the buttons at the top of the screen and click on the ADD THEME button, which is highlighted in the picture below by a black square,

which brings up the Add Theme dialog box.

Note that the contents of your dialog box here (and elsewhere in the tutorial) may appear slightly different from that here.

Double-click on the C:\ root directory on the right of the dialog box to bring up the list of directories.

Navigate to the directory "ipm-crsp."

Double-click on the directory "ipm-crsp." Notice that a list of files appears on the left.

The list of files on the left are the themes that can be loaded into View 1. Scroll down on the left to find the theme file "uganda_district.shp." Click on the file so that it is highlighted.

Press the OK button on the right.

(Note: themes created in ArcView are based on shapefiles, which have an .shp extension.)

Notice that the theme "uganda_district.shp" now appears in the Table of Contents on the left of the View.

But nothing appears on the right. To display the map of a theme, you need to click on the small box to the left of a theme name so that a check mark appears in the box. The map of the theme--districts in Uganda--will now appear in our view.

We want to add several more themes. Click on the ADD THEME button again to bring up the Add Theme dialog box. You can add more than one theme at a time from the list on the left of the Add Theme dialog box by first single-clicking on the first theme you want, then hold down the SHIFT key, and then click on the other themes you want. When all the themes that you want to add are highlighted, click on the OK button to add them all to the View at the same time.

Go ahead and add the following themes:

uganda_water.shp

uganda_rivers.shp

lews_livestock.shp

iganga_topog.shp

iganga_subdist.shp

iganga-urban_50000

iganga-roads_50000

Your View1 should now look like this:

The colors on your computer that are used to illustrate the various themes in the Table of Contents, however, may vary from those here because ArcView randomly chooses the colors that it uses to display themes in a View.

Now that we have a map in our View, let us take a look at the top of the screen.

Note the menu and sets of buttons at the top of the ArcView window. We will be using many of these throughout this tutorial.

The status bar at the bottom left of the ArcView window describes what each button does.

Demonstrate for yourself the purpose of the status bar by moving your cursor over each of the buttons below the menu. You should see a short description of the effect of using each one in the status bar at the bottom. You can also see a shorter description in the yellow box below your cursor as you pause at each button.

Saving Projects

We can save our work in ArcView in what are called "projects," which save all views, Table of Contents, tables, and layouts with which you are working.

To save our work now, go to the menu at the top of the screen and click on File and select Save Project from the drop-down menu.

This will bring up the Save Project As window.

Note that on the left of the window is the File name: "proj1.apr." (You can give your file any name, but it must have an .apr extension.) All projects saved in ArcView have the extension ".apr" On the right of the window you can select the directory in which you want to place your project. Navigate to the directory "ipm-crsp," where we want to store our project file.

Click on the OK button.

We are now ready to exit ArcView. Click on File in the menu at the top of the screen and select Exit from the drop-down list.

Now the ArcView program will close.

Start ArcView again. Select in the Welcome to ArcView GIS dialog box the choice "Open an existing project."

We select this choice because we have already created and saved a project file.

Click on the OK button.

This will bring up the Open Project dialog box.

On the right side of the dialog box, navigate to the directory in which your project is located. Double-click on the directory name "ipm-crsp". A list of projects stored in this directory will appear on the left side of the dialog box.

Double-click on the project file name on the left--"proj1.apr."

Your View with its Table of Contents, as saved before, should reappear.

When you want to save your work again, click on File in the menu at the top of the screen and select Save Project.

(NOTE: You should save your work often!)

This time we do not get the "Save Project As" window because the project file already has a name.

We now want to change the name of our project.

First you have to be in the Project Window, which you can shift to by selecting Window from the menu at the top of the screen and selecting proj1.apr (our current project name) from the drop-down list.

You will now be in the Project Window.

While in the Project Window, select File from the menu at the top of the screen and Save Project As from the drop-down list.

Enter our new project name--"Uganda.apr"--in the Save Project As dialog box, as I have done here:

Click on the OK button.

Your Project Window will now have the new project name ("Uganda.apr") in its heading bar.

Setting the Work Directory

You will likely be using and saving many related files in your project. ArcView, by default, places saved files in a "Temp" directory. It is more useful to save all your files to a named directory, such as "ipm-crsp."

You can set a Work Directory in which you can save all your files. Go back to the Project Window and select from the menu at the top Project and then Properties from the drop-down list.