This lesson is designed to show the process of downloading files using Winzip (PC) or StuffIt Expander (Mac). If you don't have WinZip installed in your computer, click Here to download a free version.  If you are using a Mac and need to install StuffIt Expander, click Here to download a free version.

1. To download a lesson, first double click the lesson name;
2. Save the lesson on your computer's hard drive (C or D) and into the subfolders where you will store your project data and lessons. 
3. Once you have saved the file - go to the folder where it was saved.  If the file is zipped it will appear in this folder with a yellow winzip icon and will be identified as a winzip file;
4. To unzip the downloaded file, first double click on the file name (alternatively you may right click the mouse and select Extract to folder)
5. The WinZip screen will appear as shown below:
   
6.   Click I Agree in order to enter Winzip;
   
7. A. If presented with the WinZip extraction wizard you will be prompted to save your file in the folder of your choice.  Once you have identified the folder where the unzipped files should be stored, select next to complete the wizard.  Your unzipped files will appear in the folder you designated.  or...
   B.  If you are not presented with the WinZip extraction wizard, the unzipped files will open automatically to winzip for you to manually extract to the file of your choice.   Click Extract in the toolbar, the Extract Dialog Box will appear;
   
8. You can create a folder automatically by typing the name in  "Extract to Field", or select the appropriate folder from the "Folder/Drive field"; and
9. Click Extract and the file will be unzipped to the folder you selected.

This tutorial provides the steps necessary to create screenshots of any screen event. Step by step instructions are given. You may have to alter these steps slightly for your particular graphics editor.

The Basics

1. Open the window you would like to capture (ArcView document, web page, etc.).
2. To capture the picture:

• a. If you are using Windows:

1). To capture the entire screen: press the Print Screen or Prnt Scrn key on your keyboard. The Print Screen or Prnt Scrn key is found at the upper right of the keyboard. If your monitor resolution is set to 640x480, that is the size of the captured screen.

2). To capture only the active window (such as a dialogue box or an ArcView document window): press Alt + Print Screen. The Print Screen or Prnt Scrn key is found at the upper right of the keyboard.

• b.If you are using a Mac, follow the instructions here. Remember to save your pictures as .gif or .jpg format.

3. If the image is ready to be added to your lesson:

Open your lesson word file and select Edit and then Paste (or simply right click on the screen with your mouse and select Paste). The screen capture will now appear in your word document.

4. If you would like to crop or alter the image in any way you will need to paste the screen capture into a graphics editor program.

• a. First, open up your graphics editor (Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, Corel PhotoPaint, Microsoft's Paint, etc.)

• b. In the graphics editor, select File and then New. Then go to Edit and Paste (or simply right click on the screen with your mouse and select Paste). Your screen capture is now ready to be cropped or scaled.

Troubleshooting Screen Captures

You may run into trouble with your screen captures when you try to scale them for print or use in a web page. Your screen resolution is so small that any resizing usually obliterates the type within the screen capture. To minimize the changes to your screen capture, try these tips:

1. If you scale (resize) the screen capture, make sure that you resize proportionately. Problems occur when you rescale more in one direction than another.

2. If you need to print the screen capture, try changing the dots per inch size rather than resizing the image. For instance, if your screen capture is 640x480 at 72 dpi, (dots per inch) and you need it to fit on a letter sized page, change the dpi to 100 or 150 instead of reducing the pixel size.

3. Resizing a screenshot to display on a web page will reduce the actual pixel size and cause it to get fuzzy. You can minimize this problem by showing only part of a screen.

Some Useful Utilities

The above outlined methods for creating screen captures work well for a smaller number of screen captures. If you need to create a very large number of screen captures you will want to use a screen capture utility. You may already have a screen capture utility available to you:

• Corel Draw includes a utility called "Capture", which captures both still screens and onscreen animation;
• PaintShop Pro also includes the ability to do screen captures.

Additionally, if you plan to take screen captures from within Photoshop, you will need to use a screen capture utility. Below is a list of links to get more information or to download screen capture utilities:

• Powware Print Screen v2.1 for Windows
• SnagIt 32 for Windows - also captures onscreen animation and video
• HyperSnap for Windows 95, 98 and 3.1
• Screencatcher for the Mac

---

(from Charlie Fitzpatrick of ESRI on Nov 12, 2001)

Please note that there are two flavors of ArcVoyager:

• FULL is for people who have ArcView pre-installed.
• SPECIAL is for people who do not have ArcView pre-installed. If you are trying to install ArcVoyager on a computer that does not have a full copy of ArcView, you need to be sure that you install "ArcVoyager Special Edition". It's on the CD in the folder [cd]:\gis\voyager\special. If you have previously installed "Full Edition" ArcVoyager on a computer that did not have full ArcView, uninstall it and then install ArcVoyager Special Edition.

On a Windows98 or Windows2000 machine, the ArcVoyager Special Edition installer should be a straight shot. It will want to install into a folder at the root level of a hard drive, but you can pick the hard drive. Choose to install both the software and the data, which will total 100MB. At the very end of the installation, it may report "Unable to create registry entries." Just click OK and it will say "Installation was successful." Before attempting to engage it, use Windows Explorer to navigate into the WINDOWS\FONTS folder. You should see a set of ESRI fonts. Simply navigating in so that you can see these fonts forces Windows to recognize them, which was what Windows was trying to tell you was wrong with the "Unable to create registry entries." Everything should be in order so just close Windows Explorer.

Look in the START/PROGRAMS area for a program group called "ArcVoyager Special Edition". (If you had previously tried installing ArcVoyager Full Edition, and something didn't go right in the uninstall, you might still have a program group called just "ArcVoyager". Don't be confused ... be sure to look for ArcVoyager Special Edition.) Inside the program group, look for the item that says "ArcVoyager Special Edition." It should be a little boat with multi-colored sails.

Charlie ----- Charlie Fitzpatrick
ESRI Schools & Libraries
1305 Corporate Center Drive, Suite 250 St.
Paul, MN 55121-1204
USA
phone: 651/994-0823 x.8349
fax: 651/454-0705
email: cfitzpatrick@esri.com
http://www.esri.com/k-12 = info on GIS in schools http://www.esri.com/communityatlas = special project http://www.esri.com/arclessons = GIS Lesson repository http://www.gisday.com = GIS Day, Nov.14, 2001

Problem 1:

I am in as administrator with no virus software running. I cannot get it to load onto a Windows 95 at work or my Windows 98 at home. I have tried downloading and installing but I still get the same problem. There is a conflict with Windows and our tech people nor Dell technical have any suggestions.

Hints 1: (written by Charlie Fitzpatrick on Nov 16, 2001)

I now have a vague recollection of one or two machines doing what yours are doing - seeming to skip steps in the installation. If I recall correctly, it was a lab setting, and the lab manager ended up ghosting an image back onto those machines and then everything worked right. It seems it was some inexplicable condition within the operating system that was interfering with life. That won't work here if you're operating from a home machine or a single work computer.

If you're game to try this, I have one more suggestion for you. Exit all programs, engage Windows Explorer, and do a "drag'n'drop" copy of the "ArcVoyagerInstaller" folder (the entire contents), from the "GIS in Schools" CD onto the C drive. When that copy process is completed, navigate into the new installer folder on the C drive and double-click "SETUP.EXE" from there. It may give you different results, or it may be the same. But it seems worth a try. (You can delete the "ArcVoyagerInstaller" folder afterwards, to reclaim the space, whether or not it works.)

Meanwhile, I've put in the mail for you a copy of our "GIS for Schools & Libraries CD version 5.2", which contains the installer that I was referencing in previous notes. It's actually the same installer that you'll find on the "GIS in Schools" CD, but, under the circumstances, it's worth a try.

Charlie ----- Charlie Fitzpatrick
ESRI Schools & Libraries
1305 Corporate Center Drive, Suite 250 St.
Paul, MN 55121-1204
phone: 651/994-0823 x.8349
fax: 651/454-0705
email: cfitzpatrick@esri.com

Problem 2:

I am running Windows ME on a 600mHz computer with 384mb of Ram. I have tried to install the software several times, but always with the same result. The installation process proceeds fine, until the end - then a message appears "unable to create registry entries" at which point I click the OK box and the installation complete message appears. Upon restarting the computer, and starting the software, another message appears: file$AVHOME/codepage/.nls not found. Code page conversion disabled. I click the ok tab, the program loads but with no menu options ... HELP.

Hint 2: (By Charlie Fitzpatrick March 04, 2003)

Your teacher is encountering some unusual things. First, Windows ME, as he may have discovered, is challenging as an OS -- I encounter more complaints under ME than any other, even though fewer people run ME than any other OS. Hopefully these issues will disappear with ME. However, for now, they are real.

The "Cannot create registry entries" happens because the installer was created before WindowsME, and it doesn't know how to write fonts to the ME registry. There is a workaround, though. The user needs to try this process, step by step.

(1) Engage the installer. Be sure to choose "install program and data elements" which total about 100 mb. Install the software into the default location, or some similar "root level" folder that does not have a space in the name.

(2) At the end of the installation, there may be a "Cannot create registry entries" indication. Click "OK" and let the install complete.

(3) Upon completion of the install, do a complete shut down and cold boot.

(4) Upon rebooting, use Windows Explorer to navigate into C:\WINDOWS\FONTS and look at the files that are there. There should be some ESRI fonts that consume more than 0 KB. If (and ONLY if) the fonts are listed but consume only 0 KB, highlight the fonts, delete them, close Windows Explorer, re-open Windows Explorer, and look again back inside C:\WINDOWS\FONTS; the fonts should be there and consume more than 0 KB.

(5) Look in the START/PROGRAMS area for the ArcVoyager program group. If it is present, try engaging the ArcVoyager icon. If nothing happens, check the properties of the icon and see that the properties say something like this: c:\voyager\program\bin32\arcview.exe c:\voyager\data\voyager.apr

Notice that there is one and only one space in the above line, which is after "arcview.exe".

(6) If this still doesn't work, the user should try running ArcVoyager from the CD -- installing as little as possible -- by deleting the C:\VOYAGER folder and reinstalling, this time choosing to install neither program nor data. If this works, the next step would be to try reinstalling again, this time only installing the data, so that the program loads from the CD but accesses data from the hard drive, and thus runs faster. If that works, the user might be emboldened to try one more time of installing everything; if this final installation prevents it from working, the user should repeat the entire step 6 but stop short of a final total program install.

(By Anne Eschtruth on Thu Nov 15, 2001)

Below are some hints that may be helpful to those encountering problems loading or first using ArcVoyager:

Problem 1:

The program will start but only to the help screen, nothing can be opened, even though the open folder button is present.

Hints 1: This is actually how ArcVoyager should be opened. The ArcVoyager projects are designed to be opened from the ArcVoyager Guide (the help system). The only way to start ArcVoyager is with the Start menu, and the only way to open a project in ArcVoyager is through the ArcVoyager Guide (help system). Double-clicking a data file will not open ArcVoyager, regardless of whether it is registered or not.

1) Open ArcVoyager

2) Within the ArcVoyager Guide (This should open automatically with the program – if not you can open the guide by clicking on the eyeglasses icon) select ‘Creating New Worlds: Turn me loose’.

3) Click on the magnifying glass icon at the top of the page. This should take you into a new ArcVoyager project.

Projects such as the World Atlas contain data and are meant to be a starting place. The Turn-Me-Loose Startup project is a place where you can design your own project.

Problem 2:

"Warning: The project Program could not be opened." If you are on Windows95 or WindowsNT and you get this warning message when starting ArcVoyager, read on.

Hints 2: This problem will occur if ArcVoyager is installed into the "Program Files" directory (e.g., C:\Program Files\Voyager\). Unfortunately, this path may come up as the default during the installation (if you download the program from the web, you will not be able to install into the Program Files folder). The space in the long filename "Program Files" causes problems for ArcVoyager, and it interprets "Program" as the name of the project to be opened, which it is not.

To correct the problem, either...

A) Un-install ArcVoyager, using "Unwise.exe" (found in the same directory as ArcVoyager). Re-install ArcVoyager into a directory with NO spaces in the filenames. "C:\Voyager" would be a good choice.

OR

(B) Move the folder "Voyager" to a new location, e.g., C:\Voyager, so that the path no longer contains any long filenames. Update the Autoexec.bat file to reflect the new location (SET AVGHOME=). Update the program shortcuts in the Start menu to reflect the new location.

One of our teachers have problem that the symbols are all messed up, when trying to re-load from palette manager, nothing appears on Palette.

Solution 1: Shut down the computer, and then turn it on (suppose the fonts were temporarily messed-up); if this doesn’t work, try the other solutions.

Solution 2: It might because the esri fonts are not installed in the system font folder. Un-install the software and then re-instrall.

If you are installing on a computer that is set up by a system administrator, you have to log on as an administrator to your computer system when you install the ESRI software. It then places all of the basic fonts/symbols in the correct font folder on your system.

When using ArcVoyager on Apple/Mac computers like the G3/G4 Powerbooks, users will sometimes get a message ‘running out of memory’, even though you turn off all extensions. To avoid such problem, please:

1) Set the color settings to 256 colors. The Powerbook has an issue with its video memory and that’s part of the problem.

2) In your file properties section, give ArcView/ArcVoyager 40 Meg worth of space.
To allocate more memory, you first need to QUIT the application. Click ONCE on the application icon, then choose "Get Info" from the Finder's FILE menu. (Shortcut: COMMAND+I) This will open the application's Information Window. As shown above, you can alter both the Preferred and Minimum Memory Requirements. (We usually make the two numbers identical.)

WARNING: Allocating TOO MUCH RAM to your applications can cause problems. If the RAM allocated to any one application and the system software - together - exceeds the total amount of installed RAM, the application will fail to launch correctly.

3) Quit any other applications you do not need running at the time.

If you encounter network firewall problems, please provide following information to the Network Administrator of your school:

(1) Opening the port for WebCT:

WebCT is currently running on port 8900, which may be blocked by firewalls on some networks. This is the only port needed by WebCT, unless you are using whiteboards or the chat function, in which case ports 4445, 4567, & 4568 are also used.

(2) Try to get rid of the proxy server when they are using WebCT. Proxy servers can make a mess of using an interactive system like WebCT.

You can find a specific message by using the "SEARCH" function (the first left menu under "Compose Discussion Message"), by specifying Criteria (Message no.), Comparison (Equals), and Value (6159 - the message id), then clicking "SEARCH". This message will then show in the discussion forum window.

(Written by Matt Huston on 24 Oct, 2002)

Here's what I've noted so far about making various types of links from messages to elsewhere.

** Caveat with all these links -- since I want to be able to return easily to where I was reading when I clicked on a link (and have others do so too), I'd probably use a TARGET="blank" attribute at the end of all my A HREF tags. (If, starting with the word "TARGET," you think I just wrote Greek, hang on -- examples below.)

** For purposes of this document, "external link" means a link from a WebCT/VISIT message to a URL *not* in the VISIT Collaboratory. For example, the NOAA Web site, any search engine, and a local school district’s Web site – links to these places would be "external." An "internal link," by contrast, means a link from a WebCT/VISIT message to some other place internal to the VISIT Collaboratory – for example, to "GIS Lessons," to another VISIT message, or to a VISIT forum.

1a. How to create an external link

Just type the URL, WebCT makes it live: http://www.google.com

1b. To have the link say something other than http://www.google.com/, give it an A HREF "wrapper"

Just type: <A HREF="http://www.google.com">Google</A>

where "Google" is what you want the link to say. When you type the A HREF link into a WebCT message, Save your message, then go look at it, you should see a working link that looks like this: Google

Notice that by default all URLs, with or without the A HREF "wrapper," are opened in the same window one is reading. That means someone reading a message might click on a link and be gone forever. Not good – I want to override that behavior ("no more leaving on a link").

1c. So, to have the linked page open in a new window

Just type: <A HREF="http://www.google.com" TARGET="blank">Google</A>

When you’ve typed the above in a WebCT message, saved, and returned to the message, click on Google and notice how it opens in a new window. Close the Google window when done, and you return to the original message.

2. How to create an internal link to items in lefthand navbar

** Note, this isn't a great method because it can override WebCT's frame hierarchy, nullifying javascripted links on the page called. Plus, if you can see the link in the left-hand navbar, why spend time handcoding a link instead? But it works okay for items that don't need frames to work, some of which might be pretty handy to have open on a moment's notice: Syllabus, GIS Lessons, Developing GIS, Data Sources Guide, Tech Tips.

Steps to follow:

1. Go to place, e.g., "GIS Lessons," by clicking on its name in left navbar;

2. Right-click on page (Mac: control-click), choose Properties (Mac: Get Info), highlight URL, Edit-Copy.

Alternative to right- or control-click: choose File-Properties (Mac: File-Get Info), highlight URL, Edit-copy.

3. Edit-Paste into message, using A HREF and BLANK="target" if needed

Example: for "GIS Lessons," I clicked on that link in lefthand navbar, then I did right/control-click to find URL, then copied and pasted in

http://webct.emich.edu:8900/SCRIPT/IntroductiontoGIS/scripts/serve_home

as

<A HREF=http://webct.emich.edu:8900/SCRIPT/IntroductiontoGIS/scripts/serve_home TARGET="blank">GIS Lessons</A>

When you type the preceding into a WebCT message, Save the message, then revisit, you should see this: GIS Lessons – a working link to "GIS Lessons" that will open in its own window.

3. How to create an internal link to another message

** Same as for "How to create an internal link to items in lefthand navbar" -- just make sure that the URL you end up with looks something like:

http://webct.emich.edu:8900/SCRIPT/VISITWorkshopsandForums/scripts/student/serve_bulletin?ARTICLE+1011532372+2712

where the last 4 digits = the message number. As usual, add A HREF, a shorter "name" for the link, and TARGET if needed. Your result could be something like the following:

Message 2712, Mods' Forum, in a new window--close to return here

4. How to create an internal link to a forum

** Note, this one opens just the forum, no lefthand navbar, so it looks odd. This method is probably only for the navigationally confident .

Method is same as for "How to create an internal link to items in lefthand navbar " -- just make sure that the URL you end up with looks something like

http://webct.emich.edu:8900/SCRIPT/VISITWorkshopsandForums/scripts/student/serve_bulletin?ACTION=LIST&ARG1=1011532372&PAGE=0

where the stuff after the "serve_bulletin?" is ACTION=LIST&ARG1= and then some string of numbers / letters.

5. URLs for linking to a few WebCT/VISIT forums

Here are the URLs for some VISIT forums, which I obtained by using the method above (go visit the forum, right-click on the main page, click Properties, copy URL) ... and remember, if you use these URLs, the forums will appear without the lefthand navbar, which makes them look strange. Don’t use these URLs / this method if you need to see the lefhand navbar all the time!

ALL =

http://webct.emich.edu:8900/SCRIPT/VISITWorkshopsandForums/scripts/student/serve_bulletin?ACTION=LIST&ARG1=All&PAGE=0

Tech HELP =

http://webct.emich.edu:8900/SCRIPT/VISITWorkshopsandForums/scripts/student/serve_bulletin?ACTION=LIST&ARG1=975359115&PAGE=0

ABLE =

http://webct.emich.edu:8900/SCRIPT/VISITWorkshopsandForums/scripts/student/serve_bulletin?ACTION=LIST&ARG1=1033321690&PAGE=0

Happy linking!

Geographic data from a variety of sources can be used in ArcView.

1. Vector format:

ArcView shape files (ESRI):

The shapefile format defines the geometry and attributes of geographically-referenced features in as many as five files with specific file extensions that should be stored in the same project workspace.

• .shp - the file that stores the feature geometry (shape and location information).
• .shx - the file that stores the index of the feature geometry (spatial data index).
• .dbf - the dBASE file that stores the attribute information of features. When a shapefile is added as a theme to a view, this file is displayed as a feature table.

• .sbn and .sbx - the files that store the spatial index of the features. These two files may not exist until you perform theme on theme selection, spatial join, or create an index on a theme's Shape field. If you have write access to the source data directory, the index files will be persistent and remain after your ArcView session is complete. If you do not have write access to the source data directory, they will be removed when you close the project or exit ArcView.
• .ain and .aih - the files that store the attribute index of the active fields in a table or a theme's attribute table. These two files may not exist until you perform Link on the tables. If you have write access to the source data directory, the index files will be persistent and remain after your ArcView session is complete. If you do not have write access to the source data directory, they will be removed when you close the project or exit ArcView.

ArcView project file (ESRI):

• .apr: A ArcView project file which stores file locations, display instructions, and layout formats.

ArcInfo Coverage(ESRI):

A coverage is a generic GIS term which is used loosely to refer to data set in ESRI's ARC/INFO, PC ARC/INFO, or ArcCAD software. In ArcView/ArcVoyager, this "looks" like any Theme that you add to your View. The difference is in the File Formats.

• .adf files: ARC/INFO coverage data set. Listed below are the file names that you will find in a coverage directory. Pat.adf will either be point or polygon, and Aat.adf will be arc. You will not find all these files all the time. aat, arc, arx, bnd, cnt, cnx, dblbnd, dbltic, pal, par, pat, pax, prj, tic.
• Info folder: A directory that provides "linkage" information to the data set subdirectory in order to display the features (arcs, lines, polygons) and provide you with the attribute data. A coverage directory without the corresponding info directory is loss.

ARC/INFO interchange file:

• .e00 file: Data in .E00 is an ARC/INFO interchange file format. This is a simple ASCII file that can be opened and viewed using any common text editor (wordpad, notepad, textpad).

The .e00 file must be converted to SHP before use by ESRI software. ArcView provides Import/Import 71 Utility for such conversion.

TIGER data:

TIGER is an acronym for Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing system. It is the geographic line work created by the US Census Bureau. The line work describes roads, rivers, streams, railroads, power lines, and non-visible political boundaries such as city and county limits or school districts.

ARC/INFO provides conversion utilities which convert data from TIGER format to a coverage.

AutoCAD drawing:

You can use Computer Aided Design (CAD) drawing files to create themes in ArcView. The CAD drawing themes behave just like any other type of feature theme in ArcView. You may use all theme manipulation functions including thematic mapping and spatial queries on CAD drawing themes. You cannot, however, edit or modify a CAD drawing theme's features or its associated attribute table. In order to edit, you must first convert the drawing theme to a shapefile.

ArcView supports two kinds of AutoCAD drawing files, .dwg files (Windows only) and .dxf files (Drawing Interchange files).

• .dwg: Autocad drawing file.
• .dxf: Drawing Interchange files. Autocad export file type

You must load the CAD Reader Extension before you can add CAD drawings to your view.

MapInfo data:

MapInfo^® Native Table consists of files with following suffixes:

• .TAB: table structure in ASCII format (required)
• .DAT: table date storage in binary format (required)
• .MAP: storage of map objects in binary format (optional)
• .ID: links to the .map file (optional, but required if .map file exists)
• .IND: data of indexed fields in binary format (optional)

MapInfo Interchange Format: MapInfo Interchange Format (MIF) is an ASCII file format that can fully describe a MapInfo database. Both graphic and tabular data are exported into MIF files.

• .mif: The graphic data ;
• .mid: tabular data

You can use the MIFSHAPE data conversion utility to convert mif files into shapefiles. (A conversion utility to convert shapefiles to mif files can be found at ESRI's web site at http://www.esri.com/arcscripts.) MapInfo also provides Universal Translator which support conversion between MapInfo^® Native Table, MapInfo Interchange Format and .shp or .e00 format.

2. Raster format:

ArcView supports the following image formats as themes:

• .bmp
• .gis: created by ERDAS,
• .img: created by ERDAS, need to load ArcView’s IMAGINE image extension.

• .jpg: need to load ArcView’s JPEG image extension .

• .sid: MrSID is a multiresolution wavelet-based image format that allows for high compression ratio and fast access of large amounts of data at any scale. To use MrSID images with ArcView you must first load the MrSID Image Support extension. Created by LizardTech.

• .tif/ .tff / .tiff: Tag Image File Format (TIFF). Former version of TIFF file can be added directly into both ArcView and ArcVoyager as a image theme. TIFF 6.0 is not supported by core ArcView. TIFF 6.0 is supported by the TIFF 6.0 Image Support extension. When this extension is loaded it will override core ArcView's TIFF support. To use TIFF 6.0 images with ArcView you must first load the TIFF 6.0 Image Support extension.

• GRID module: A Grid is an object that stores spatial data in a raster data format in which space is partitioned into square cells, and each cell stores a numeric data value.

Grids use .adf files and can be added to views as grid themes using Spatial Analyst extension or in an ARC/INFO module. You can classify the grid cells in various ways and choose different colors for each class. Alternatively, if you don't use the Spatial Analyst extension, you can add a grid to a view as a single band image. (ArcView does not require grids to use a specific file extension as it does for other image files.)

• TIN module (Triangulated irregular network): A TIN is built from a series of irregularly spaced points with values that describe the surface at that point (e.g., an elevation). From these points, a network of linked triangles is constructed. Adjacent triangles, sharing two nodes and an edge, connect to form the surface. A height can be calculated for any point on the surface by interpolating a value from the nodes of nearby triangles. Additionally, each triangle face has a specific slope and aspect. You can display any one of these surface characteristics—slope, aspect, and elevation—or the internal structure of the TIN.

Using 3D Analyst Extension TIN data source can be added to the active view as a TIN theme with a default legend.

 

• USGS DEM: the USGS DEM data files are digital representations of cartographic information in a raster form. DEMs consist of a sampled array of elevations for a number of ground positions at regularly spaced intervals. USGS DEM can be imported directly into ArcView using either the Spatial Analyst or 3D Analyst extensions.

Suppose you have an .apr file in the following directory:
c:\AVprojects\myprojects
And that the data for the project is scattered among several different directories. Create a new data folder under the directory, then move all of your datasets into the subdirectory. In this case, move all of the data files into:
c:\AVprojects\myprojects\data.
Now the .apr file is in a directory that contains the directories to the data files.

Open the project in ArcView, it cannot find the data in the original location, so the project repair process triggers. File Dialog browser windows will appear when opening the project. The title window will say "Where is...", followed by the last portion of the data source path. You can redirect ArcView to point to the new data location. Once this process has finished, save the project, the new paths will be remembered for the next time the project is opened. For small project, it's OK to compress the .apr file as well as the associated data folder into zip file so that it may be easily distrubuted.

If you have larger project files for wide distribution, the project repair process can become cumbersome. It may often be beneficial to save relative path name in the project file. Here are the procedure:

Open your .apr in a text editor such as Notepad or Wordpad. Do a search for the string "path." In our example the path to each data file is in "c:/AVprojects/myprojects/data."
For example, you will have an entry like this:
(FN. 13
Path: "c:/AVprojects/myprojects/data/country94.shp"
)
For each path to a dataset, remove the drive letter and the directory path (including the slashes) up to and including the directory that contains the .apr file. All that should be left, in quotes, is the directory structure BETWEEN the .apr file and the data file, along with the data filename itself. The example above would now look like this:
(FN. 13
Path: "data/country94.shp"
)
Notice that there is no slash in front of the first directory name. These paths are no longer absolute; they are now only relative to the location of the .apr itself. This is referred to as relative pathing. Make sure that you have done this for each data file referenced in the project.

Test the project by opening it in ArcView. The project should open properly without asking for project repair. If it does ask for project repair, do not fix it in ArcView, go back to the text editor. Saving it in ArcView will put the absolute pathnames back in and you'll have to use the text editor to take them out again.

Once you've removed the pathnames in a text editor, and the project has opened properly in ArcView, you are ready to put the project and all of the data into the zip file. Remember, when you open the project up in ArcView to test the results of your text-editing, do not save the project in ArcView or the absolute pathnames will be written back into the .apr file. It might be worth opening the project in the text editor to make sure that the absolute paths haven't been written back in by an accidental ArcView save.

(written by Yichun Xie Jan 07, 2003 )

Subsetting a contour layer involves the following steps:

1) Create a new theme (map layer) of the desirable area for your study. Under the View menu, choose New Theme, then choose Polygon, then choose the polygon-drawing tool to draw, and save the polygon into a new theme.

2) When the project window is active, choose Extensions from the File menu, and then check Geoprocessing.

3) Launch the "Geoprocessing Wizard" from View menu, then check "Clip one theme based on another" and follow the instructions to clip out the section of contour map you want.

(By Yichun Xie on Jan 08, 2003)

Yesterday, I was attempting to use the "Geoprocessing" extension to clip the desired area. I tested this extension on ArcView 3.3, but this extension is not working properly on my computer.

Therefore, I advise you to use the "XTools" extension instead of the "Geoprocessing" extension, which I tested and it worked. I have attached XTools extension here for you to use. Therefore, please follow the new revised instruction.

1) Create a new theme (map layer) of the desirable area for your study. Under the View menu, choose New Theme, then choose Polygon, then choose the polygon drawing tool to draw, and save the polygon into the new theme.

2) Download XTools extension file, unzip or extract it you will get xtools.avx file, lace this file under the folder \esri\av_gis30\arcview\ext32

Open ArcView software. When the project window is active, you choose Extensions from the File menu, and then check XTools. You will see a setup window and just click "close".

3) Launch "Xtools" from the top menu bar, choose "Clip with Polygon(s)" and then follow the instruction to pick the data layer you want to clip and the clip theme.

(Written by Ling Zhang and commented by Yichun Xie, IGRE-EMU, January 15, 2003)

If you want to link a few photos or text descriptions with a map layer, you can try the Hotlink feature of ArcVoyager. The following is an illustration of how you setup a hotlink in ArcVoyager linking images to several cities on the data layer, cities.shp.

1. If cities.shp theme is already in the view window, make sure it is active (raised gray box under the name). From the Edit menu, click Delete Themes. We’ll reload this theme after editing its attribute table.

2. Then we need to edit the attribute table of the shape file; the attribute table of cities.shp is cities.dbf, which is located at the same folder as cities.shp. Since we can’t save changes in ArcVoyager, we have to use Microsoft Excel to do the editing instead.

3. Launch Microsoft Excel, under the File menu, click Open. In the Open dialog window, change the Files of type to either "All files" or "dBase files" first, then navigates to where the attribute table (cities.dbf) is located.

4. Click OK and open the cities.dbf (see below). The first row "NAME" is the field name for the table.

5. What we should do next is to add new field(s) for the hotlink, which defines the file path of the images (or text files) to be linked. In this example we’ll add the IMAGES field for links with some photos, and DESCRIPTION field for text file description.

6. We need to type in the path name of the file location for the photos or text files. First you need to check the hard drive where ArcVoyager is installed, i.e., if your ArcVoyager is installed on the C: drive, there should be a data folder under C:\Voyager. Make sure all your hotlink materials, both the image and text files should be placed under C:\Voyager\data. In this case we’ll create two subfolders: images and Desp to put all photos/image files and the description text files, respectively.

When typing the path name, remember to enter only the relative path under C:\Voyager\data. For example, the full path for one of the image file Detroit.bmp is: C:\Voyager\data\images\Detroit.bmp, the required relative path should be: images\Detroit.bmp. The revised attribute table should look like the following:

6. Now we should save the edits. Select all the cells with the title row and all contents (as shown below) and click the copy button. Then create a new Excel workbook by clicking the New button and paste the copied content to the new file. Close the revised cities.dbf file, you don’t need to save it since we’ll overwrite that file with the new one. Save the new file as the DBF 3 (dBASE III) format, type the same file name as the attribute table cities.dbf at the same location. Excel will pop up some message like "Do you want to replace the existing file", click OK or Yes for all these messages.

(*Direct Save as DBF format won’t work here. It might because there is a predefined range in the original attribute table file, and newly added fields can’t be converted when Save as DBF format directly.)

7. Exit Excel after all this is finished.

8. Now go back to the ArcVoyager View window. Reload the cities.shp theme and make sure it is active (raised gray box under the name) and visible (drawn) —check the gray box next to the name, if it isn’t checked already. Then click on Properties under the Theme menu. Scroll down on the left side until you see the hotlink icon . Click on it.

9. For links to those photos, choose the following field options, as seen below:

Field: images

Predefined action: Link to Image File

Click OK.

10. In the View, choose the hotlink button . Now, click on one of the three cities we made links to and the images should appear. To link the text description, just change the field options to:

Field: Desc

Predefined action: Link to txt File

and follow the other steps.

Good luck!!

(By Yichun Xie on Jan 16, 2003)

I am attaching another tool for hotlink, called, PowerLink.

The author of Powerlink, Mark Miller, claims it is the ultimate hotlink tool. Hotlink to any type of computer file, web address, image (including JPG), sound or help file--you name it! Improved, high quality image viewer with pan, zoom. Unique data entry link speeds attribute update. And much more. Hotlink to any type of file. PowerLink opens the file in its native application. So you can hotlink to Microsoft Office documents, Adobe Acrobat files-anything! You can even link to Windows Help files, sound files or an Internet URL address.

Improved image viewer. Images are the most common type of file for hotlinking. PowerLink lets you hotlink to any ArcView supported image file, including JPEGs, displays them quickly in high resolution, and provides tools for panning and zooming. Link to many files at once. Click a single feature and hotlink to several files at once, like a spreadsheet, text file and image file. Store hotlinks in a single field or several different fields of your theme's attribute-whatever is most convenient. Hotlink to data entry form. Updating theme attribute data has never been easier. Simply click on the feature and type in the attribute. Or, pick from a list of unique field values-you won't even use your keyboard!

Relative path names. Forget typing in cumbersome directory paths for every hotlink file. Just enter the file name as the hotlink. PowerLink lets you setup system search paths to find your files.

Hotlink multiple themes. You can specify whether to link to just the active theme(s), or to any themes in your view having an established hotlink-especially useful for novice users or kiosks.

Selective hotlinking. Temporarily disable hotlinking for a field. Useful when you have many hotlinks but want to focus on a single type.

Link to attribute. A message box displaying a theme attribute value provides an alternate method of displaying data from the standard Identify tool. Useful for kiosk applications. Customizable. PowerLink lets you modify its interface and can be password-protected so you can use it to build custom applications. Write your own hotlink actions using PowerLink's enhancements.

To read more about PowerLink and view examples of the program and use, visit the PowerLink page at www.benchmarkgis.com

This utility comes complete with an installation program and is fully documented using Windows Help. You may use the program for free for 15 days; there is a nominal charge for the fully-enabled program.

(written by Yichun Xie Jan 18, 2003 )

Images are stored as raster data, where each cell in the image has a row and column number. Shapefiles and ARC/INFO coverages are stored in real-world coordinates. In order to display images with coverages or shapefiles, it is necessary to establish an image-to-world transformation that converts the image coordinates (rows and columns) to real-world coordinates.

The transformation data is stored in a separate ASCII file. This file is generally referred to as the world file, since it contains the real-world transformation information used by the image. World files can be created with any editor.

It’s easy to identify the world file which should accompany an image file: world files use the same name as the image, with a "w" appended in the files extension. An example: A tiff image named ‘Canada.tif’ will have an accompanying world file named ‘Canada.tfw’.

For a computer system that must adhere to the 8.3 naming convention, the first and third characters of the image file’s suffix and a final "w" are used for the world file suffix. Therefore, if mytown.tif was in 8.3 format, the world file would be mytown.tfw. If mytown.jpg was in 8.3 format, the world file would be mytown.jgw.

Please read the exercise, "Line Up Images with Maps" in the "Introduction to GIS" on WebCT, to see how to create a world file.

To bring image into ArcVoyager, the images should be in TIFF format, if they're not, convert them to TIFF via PaintShopPro 7 or other image program. The reason for TIFF because ArcVoyager does not have extensions for reading other formats.

The images also need to have a registration, or "header" file , associated with them so that ArcVoyager will know how to register them against other data. The steps for creating a header file (called the world file) is explained in the Basic skill lesson 4---"Lining Up Images with Maps", in the Intro-to-GIS course.

II. Understanding a World File: A world file for an image is just a text file consisting of six lines. Here is a simple example:
0.0107
0.0
0.0
-0.0087
-97.26
49.43
Each line in a world file has a special purpose. The lines are not interchangeable, and must always be presented in this order, so writing a correct world file requires understanding the purpose and the data.
LINE1 = how much of a map unit (in this case, degrees) is represented by moving one pixel eastward from any spot (positive number);
LINE2 = how much the image should be skewed from the sides (negative number, but usually zero);
LINE3 = how much the image should be skewed from top and bottom (positive number, but usually zero);
LINE4 = how much of a map unit (in this case, degrees) is represented by moving one pixel southward from any spot (negative number);
LINE5 = X coordinate (in this case, decimal degrees longitude) of the top left (northwest) corner of the image (decimal degrees means negative number for 0-180 west, positive number for 0-180 east);
LINE6 = Y coordinate (in this case, decimal degrees latitude) of the top left (northwest) corner of the image (decimal degrees means negative number for 0-90 south, positive number for 0-90 north)
In the example above, the image is not compressed in any direction (Lines 2 and 3), uses the coordinates of 49.43 degrees north and 97.26 degrees west at the northwest corner (Lines 6 and 5), and knows how many degrees are represented by moving any number of pixels in any direction (Lines 1 and 4).

III. Creating a World File: Creating a world file is very simple. Create a practice file for the “monimag3.tif” image accompanying this document. (It is a picture of Monroe Harbor, produced by USACE – Detroit District.) Use a text editor such as Notepad (Windows) or SimpleText (Macintosh) to create the 6- line file shown above. Save the file as “monimag3.tfw”. (If you use a regular word processor, be sure to save the file as ASCII text.) Place “monimag3.tif” and “monimag3.tfw” in the same directory in your computer. Engage ArcView, add a “monarc3” theme (one section of the Monroe Harbor) to provide some background, then add the image file “monimag3.tif”. The image should display in its proper geographic position, regardless of the scale of display. When you are finished viewing, delete the image file, but leave ArcView running with the monarc3 theme visible.

IV. Producing the Numbers for a World File: It was easy to create this file because all you had to do was type the information provided in Part II above. What happens when the data aren't provided for you? It is a pretty easy process to rough out the data. It just involves a little bit of guesswork and some trial and error refinement here and there.

1. Engage a graphics program and open the image “monimag3.tif”. Look at the information about the image to see the size of the file. It should be 1963 pixels tall and 2339 pixels wide.
2. Look at the image in your graphics program and compare it with the harbor theme as they appear in the ArcView display. Figure out what would be the latitude (or Y) and longitude (or X) coordinates for the top left and bottom right corners of the image, using decimal equivalents for easy fractions (1/3 = .33 and so on) if they latitude and longitude.
3. Fill in the following “worksheet,” substituting known numbers LINE1 = (X of bottom right corner minus X of top left corner) divided by (image width in pixels) LINE2 = assume 0 LINE3 = assume 0 LINE4 = (Y of bottom right corner minus Y of top left corner) divided by (image height in pixels) LINE5 = top left X LINE6 = top left Y. Thus, LINE1 = (13400308 – 13396429.9)/2339 = 3878/2339 = 1.6584; LINE2 = 0; LINE3 = 0; LINE4 = (145712.3 – 148807.9)/1963 = -3095.6/1963 = -1.5770; LINE5 = -13396429.9; LINE6 = 148807.9.
4. You can see that these numbers may differ from what you wrote for Part III. Images may be offset from the vector data, depending on the accuracy of the image, the vector data used, and the coordinates you decided on. You can create an approximately correct world file through this method, but you may have to refine this file once you see how the image lines up with other known data sets. Each time you change and re-save the world file in your text editor, you must then delete and re-add the image in ArcView to test it. ArcView remembers the registration information for an image when it is first brought into a view, so changes to the world file will not re-position the image until the image is added again.
5. When refining the world file, first ensure the accuracy of Lines 5 and 6. Once this “starting point” is properly set, you can then tweak Lines 1 and 4 to stretch or shrink the image. Add a little bit at a time to the numbers in Lines 1 and 4 to expand an image; subtract from the numbers in Lines 1 and 4 to shrink an image.
6. Doing this procedure with a “projected image” involves basically the same process, except that the top left coordinates will be in numbers of meters away from a projection reference. Here is an example of a world file for an image in Albers projection
   4100.0
   2.51179777165858
   -0.08833980138674
   -4050.0
   -2360630.88315064972267
   3182746.43488585297018.

(By Yichun Xie on Apr 07, 2002)

If you hope to create data file in Excel and bring to ArcVoyager/ArcView later, you may have to consider how to keep the format of the data.

Solution 1: A working around method is that you save the Excel file as a Comma Delimited (CSV) text file. Before you save, you may want to select the column of the data and then do "Format -> Cells -> Number -> Number", specifying right decimal places.

After you save the Excel file as the Comma Delimited (CSV) text file, the new file extension is .CSV. You need to change the file extension .CSV back to .TXT. Otherwise ArcView does not recognize. At this time, you open ArcView, and add "Table". Instead of the dbase file, you load the comma delimited file by choose the file type, "delimited text file".

Solution 2: You can save your Excel table as .dbf file (dBase IV, dBase III, and dBase II are all OK). But remember to change the cell format before saving. Here are the steps:

1. Select those columns you want to keep decimal values (see, the lat and long).
2. Right click your mouse and choose "Format cells", a pop up window will appear; You can also select from the Menubar Format to do this.
3. In the Number tab, change the Category from "general"(the default format) to "Number", also change the value in "Decimal places" to match with your data, then click OK.
4. Clear selection, now you can save as a .dbf file and keep the lat and long as original. It doesn't matter which version of dBase you use, usu. we choose the latest one, the dBase IV.

Now you can add the table to ArcView/ArcVoyager.

The suggestion here is PC based. You may have to make adequate adjustment for Mac.

(By Yichun Xie on Apr 14, 2002)

You can download, ArcVoyager for Macintosh Import Utility from the Webpage http://www.esri.com/company/free.html

ArcVoyager for Macintosh Import Utility – Converts ArcInfo interchange '.e00' files into ArcInfo coverages, which then can be used in ArcVoyager Special Edition for Macintosh.

You can also download here.

(written by Ling on Mar 19, 2002)

The following steps will illustrate how to use the "IMPORT" utility on the Apple/Macintosh version of ArcView. There's only an "IMPORT" utility (not Import 71) for Macintosh versions of ArcView 3.x. It still works, although a little differently than the instructions for a PC.

1. Unzip the Vgpoly[1].e00.gz using "Stuffit Expander", you will get a file named Vgpoly[1].e00.gz.1 or something like this.

2. Don't try to open this file since it's not an ArcView supported format.

3. Open your ArcView program, then find the import file in the same folder with Arcview and open it. A pop up window named "Import Log" will appear.

4. Make sure the "Import Log" is the current active window, then select the Import utility in the File menu.

5. In the following pop up window, locate the file you unzipped, click Open. Before saving the file, keep in mind to change the target file name "vgpoly[1]" into less than eight-character name. Since the Import utility is a DOS shell this is the safest way is to stay within the DOS naming conventions.

6. A new folder with all converted files will be created. You will see "done" in the Import Log if everything works properly.

Now you can add the converted .shp file in the view of ArcView.

(By Joseph Kerski on Oct 15, 2002)

There are many types of imagery available nowadays and many ways to use them in the curriculum--satellite images, aerial photos, scanned topo maps.

I have written procedures on rockyweb.cr.usgs.gov/public/outreach/terraserver.html describing how to download USGS topo maps and aerial photos from this site to a GIS. It is fine to just view the images on the site, too, say, for an area near your school or to examine land use and landforms across the country.

You can also download the document here.

Joseph Kerski - Geographer - USGS - jjkerski@usgs.gov

"FIPS" is an acronym of "Federal Information Processing Standards", they are numeric codes assigned by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Typically, FIPS codes deal with US states and counties. US states are identified by a 2-digit number, while US counties are identified by a 3-digit number. For example, a FIPS code of 06071, represents California -06 and San Bernardino County -071.

You can also view the following pages for related information.
FIPS home page: http://www.itl.nist.gov/fipspubs/
US State and County FIPS Code Listings: http://www.epa.gov/enviro/html/codes/state.html

The pan arrow (the button with the hand in the toolbar) can just move the map to the north, south, east and west. To rotate the viewer's perspective, you should go View menu, choose properties, then click on the button Projection,the Projection properties dialog box will appear. Select Custom and now you can change the value of Central Meridian and Reference Latitude, the map will "rotate" accordingly.

Using the "Script" you can change the precision of coordinates (the lat/long read out ) from two places past the decimal to however many you want. Below are the steps:

1. Open ArcView;
2. Open a New Script Window (find project window, click on scripts icon, and press the New button);
3. Copy and paste the following code into the script window. The number (6 in this example) can be changed to however many digits you would like the precision to read out as:
v = av.getactivedoc v.setcoordinateprecision(6);
4. Click the compile button (the one that looks like a check mark);
5. Put your View window and Script windowside by side so you can see them both at the same time;
6. Click on your View;
7. Click DIRECTLY back onto theScript window;
8. Press the run button (the one that isright next to the check mark that looks like a jogger)
9. Go back to your View--move your cursor around andyou should see that your precision has changed.

Shape files that are in different projection can't be shown in the same view. The solution for this problem is to reproject the shape file to your desired projection so that it can be overlayed on your own data. To do this you need the an extension----the ArcView Projection Utility. Here are the steps:

1. Load the shape file and initialize the Projection Utility.

a. Select Extensions from the File menu.
b. Check Projection Utility Wizard and click OK.
c. Create a new view and add the shapefile to be reprojected.
d. Select ArcView Projection Utility from the File menu.

2. Locate the shape file and define the input projection parameters if needed.

a. In the 'Step 1' dialog box, Browse to find the shapefile you want to reporject.
b. If the Coordinate System field shows 'Unknown,' you need to define the input projection parameters. That is, you should tell the system what is the current projection of the fild you want to reprojet.
c. If the content of that field is other than 'Unknown,'you can skip the input projection parameters definition.
d. Click Next on the 'Step 1' dialog box. The 'Step 2' dialog box will appear.

3. Define the output projection parameters. Change the shapefile to same projection with your own data.

4. Click Next on the 'Step 4' dialog box. Specify name and location of new shape file.

5. Click Next to Review Summary and click Finish. Now this file can overlay on your own data files.