Introduction to ArcGIS

Introduction ProPro
to ArcGIS
By Cesar Yoc Written by Cesar Yoc from the Bronx Institute for Urban Systems

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Table of Contents
1. Gathering and Organizing Data
2. The Project Window
3. Map Projections
4. Queries and Exploring Data
5. Geocoding
6. Join and Relate
7. Geodatabase
8. Editing and Creating Features
9. Geoprocessing Tools
10. Designing a Map (Includes Exercise)

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Lesson I
Gathering and organizing data.
Before you we start creating, organizing, analyzing, and managing we will need to organize our data
in the hard drive that we are using. You are using a flash drive, but the same procedure applies to PC
Computers. There are some differences if you are using a MAC. All the lessons will be in PC.

1. Create training folder (ArcGIS_Training). We are using a flash drive, so there will be some
differences in how images look below. In the new folder create three more folders and name
them Maps, Shapefile, Tables, Training_Geotabase. Example below.

2. Open ArcGIS Pro.

3. Under Location, connect to your Training Geodatabase folder. Name it Lesson1.

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4. The project window is displayed. Double click Databases and you will see that you have a file
geodatabase that was already created.

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5. Right click the Lesson1.gdb, right click the lesson1.gdb file and click new and select Feature
Dataset.

6. After you click Feature Dataset go to left side of the window and you will see a the
Geoprocessing pane, the Output Geodatabase is Lesson1, feature dataset name is Study_Area,
and we will change the coordinate system. In another Lesson we will focus on coordinate
systems and projections.

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 Change the coordinate systems by clicking the globe icon or image to your right .

A coordinate system window pops up.

7. Click the triangle (The triangle is the drop-down menu.) to the right of Project
Coordinate System, go to State Plane and click that triangle, go to NAD83 (US Feet). Go down
the list and look for NAD 1983 StatePlane New York Long Isl FIPS 3104 (US Feet). Press Ok after
you select it.

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8. Click Run Double click the Lesson1.gdb. You will see the Feature Dataset.

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Downloading data for exercises
Now that we have created folders, we need to download some data for our exercises. We are
going to download Lot, parks, streets, and greenway data.

1. Go to google and type NYC Open Data in the Search Bar. Click the NYC Open Data Link.

2. In the Open Data website go to search and type Pluto.

3. In the new webpage, browse down and click Primary Land Use Tax Lot Output (MapPLUTO)

4. The new webpage tells you that the data is in another location. Click Website under Access this
data. (We could have gone directly to the webpage, but we want to get general data from NYC
Open Data). The link directs you to the Department of City Planning DataMaps webpage.

5. In the webpage, browse down and click right click the download arrow to the right of the
MapPLUTO - Manhattan (Shapefile). In the window that opens, click Save Link as.
Save the file in the shapefile folder you created at the beginning.

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6. Stay in this page and browse to top of page and click Single Line Street Base Map Dataset. This
link will take you to the Lion File or Street Data. You don’t see the download link, so you will
need to scroll down the page to click download. Right click the download link and save the file
into the Training_Geodatabase folder.
7. Go back to the NYC Open Data main page and search for Open Space (Parks)

8. Above is the Open Space Layer. To the right of the screen you will see an export icon. Click
it and right click shapefile. Right click shapefile and click Save Link As… and make sure to save it
in the shapefile folder.
9. Download Bike Routes, Borough Boundary, building footprint Shapefiles.
10. Now go to your shapefile folder and uncompressed all the files. Do the same for the
geodatabase files.

click Extract

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Lesson 2
The Project Window
1. Open ArcGIS Pro click Blank

2. Now you will need to create a new project and name it Lesson2 and make sure the
location is the ArcGIS_Training Folder. Note, my location is different because I was using
my personal computer. You will need to go to your drive.

3. Now double click Databases. You will see the Lesson2 geodatabase.

4. We will go over the project windows. This is different then ArcGIS desktop.

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5. The tabs of the top ribbon have tools that you will use most of the time.

6. The project tab is used to save the file, print, open a project, or save project.

7. In the Home tab you can create a new folder, write metadata, and project functions.

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8. In the insert tab you can create a map, import a map, connect to a geodatabase, create
or import a tool, add folder, add data.

9. In the Analysis tab you can use Tools to do simple analysis using either vector or raster
data. You can use model builder and python to do more advance analysis.

10. In the View tab you can change the look of the project window, set rules for people
managing or editing the project.

11. The Imagery tab has tools used for raster analysis.

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12. The Analysis tab has tools and functions to share your project to other GIS users.

13. Now let us focus on the bottom windows. The first window from left to right is the
Geoprocessing window. You can click the pin tool to move the window. This window has
the most used analysis tools. You will learn more about this in future lessons. You can
use the search bar to search for tools.

14. The second window is the Contents Window. In here you can create geodatabases,
feature datasets, styles, connect to folder, look at the available address locators (You
will use address locators when you are Geocoding tables). Portal is cloud functions.

15. The third window is the ArcCatalog window. You manage data here.

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16. The last window is the Catalog Pane. This focuses only on your current project. It has the
same tools and content as the previous one. It is just organized differently.

17. Click New Map. Top left corner of the Insert Tab.

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18. Now you have a brand-new window with the name Map1. If you look at the top ribbon
you will see a new tab named Map.

19. What new tools do you see in the new ribbon? Go to your shapefile folder and add the

Borough Boundaries. Use Add Data tool .

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20. Once you add the data you will see three more tabs added to the top ribbon.

21. The shapefile now appears in the table of contents to the left of the map window.

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22. Close all the windows, not the project.

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23. Click the analysis tab and click the tools icon. You will see the Geoprocessing tool again.

24. Now click the view tab and click catalog view. You will the catalog.

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25. In the catalog window go to Maps and double click maps. Now Right Click Map and click
Open.

26. Now you will see the map we were working on. Save the Project and Exit the project.
Rule of thumb, make sure to save the project every 20 minutes.

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Lesson 3
Map Projection
Reference Systems, Map Projections, and Datums using ArcMap and ArcCatalog
In this lesson you will learn about Map Projections, Coordinate Systems, and Datums. This
workshop will help you understand why it is important to know these concepts for data
accuracy. (Note, I have skip some steps. The ones that I have skip have been done in prior steps
or the last lesson.)
http://resources.esri.com/help/9.3/arcgisengine/dotnet/89b720a5-7339-44b0-8b58-
0f5bf2843393.htm
http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.1/index.html#//003r0000000q000000

Geographic Coordinate System

Projected Coordinate System

A projected coordinate system is defined on a flat, two-dimensional surface. Unlike a geographic coordinate
system, a projected coordinate system has constant lengths, angles, and areas across the two dimensions. A
projected coordinate system is always based on a geographic coordinate system that is based on
a sphere or spheroid.

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Projection

Datum

Source:
http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.1/index.html#/About_map_projections/003r0000000q000000/

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 Download a world map
1. Go to google and search: world country boundaries shapefile download.
2. Click the World Borders Dataset Link

3. Now go down the page and right click both the TM World Boarders and the SIMPL and
save it into your shapefile folder.

The datasets are available in shapefile format:

• TM_WORLD_BORDERS-0.3.zip (3,380 kB)

• TM_WORLD_BORDERS_SIMPL-0.3.zip (226 kB)

4. Uncompressed the files in the shapefile folder. Go to lesson 1 for instructions on how to
uncompressed file.
5. Open ArcGIS Pro click Blank. The name of the project is Lesson 3 and the location is the
ArcGIS_Training folder. Click Ok. The drive looks different in the image below because I
am using my personal computer, go to where you saved the folder.

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6. Right click folder in the contents windows and click Add Folder Connection. Connect to
your Shapefile folder. Press Ok after you select the Shapefile Folder.

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7. Double click the Shapefile folder. You will see the shapefiles we have collected. The
shapefile is a storage container for vector data. Later, you will learn about raster data
and geodatabases.

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8. Now double click TM_WORLD_BORDERS_SIMPL-0.3 folder. Now right click
TM_WORLD_BORDERS_SIMPL-0.3.shp Add to New and then select Map.

9. You will see a world map.

10. Right click the TM_World shapefile and go to properties and then source. After source
click Spatial Reference to the right of the window.

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11. You see some projection information. Click ok after you are done reading the
information.
12. Now let’s export the shapefile. Right click the TM_World shapefile and go to Data then
Export Feature.

13. To the right of the page you will see that the Geoprocessing window is now visible. Go
to the Output Feature Class and make sure the file is in the Lesson3 geodatabase. Name
the File TM_WorldNew. Press save.

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14. The file has not been exported yet. You will need to go to the bottom of the
Geoprocessing window and click Run.

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15. Now you will see the new file in the table of contents. Both have the same projection.
Now let’s change the projection for TM_WorldNew.

16. Go to the Analysis Tab in the top ribbon and click the Tools icon.

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17. Now you have the Geoprocessing window open. Go to find tools and type Projection.
You will see tools that have that and similar words. We want to use the Project tool.
Click Project.

18. The window changes and now you select the file to project. Drag TM_WorldNew from
the table of contents to Input Dataset or Feature Class in the white space. ArcGIS pro
automatically renames the file. Now we need to enter the Output Coordinate System
and the new Coordinate System in Geographic Transformation.

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19. Go to Output Coordinate System and click the drop-down arrow. Select TM_WorldNew.
Now it says GCS_WGS_1984. We don’t want that output. Click the Globe icon to the
right.

20. You will see a new window that ask you if you want to select the list of Geographic
Coordinate Systems or the Projected Coordinate Systems Available.

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21. We want to play with the Projected Coordinate System. Click the arrow to the right of
Projected Coordinate System. Scroll down until you see World. Click the arrow to the
right of the word World and select Aitoff World. Press Ok. Press run at the bottom of
the Geoprocessing window.

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22. Now you will the new map in the Table of Contents. I have zoomed in using the Zoom in

icon in the Map tab. You won’t see any difference between the maps, but
don’t get fooled because they are different projections. ArcGIS Pro does on the fly
projection, meaning it tries to align all the files regardless of projection. Save the Project
and exit the project. We are assigning a Projection to the map. You can play around with
the Geographic Coordinate System options to see what happens with the map.

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Lesson 4
Selection, Queries, and Exporting Data
In this lesson you will learn how to select information, do queries, and export the data. (Note,
this lesson skips some steps. Those steps were done in lesson 1 and 2).
1. Open ArcGIS Pro. Name the Project Lesson4 and make sure is save in the
ArcGIS_Training folder.
2. Right Folders in the Contents window and click Add Folder Connection. Connect to your
Shapefile Folder and press Ok.

3. In the Catalog window double click the Shapefile folder. Now you will see all the
shapefiles that you have downloaded.

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4. Double click the mn_mappluto folder (you may have a different version). Right click
MNMapPLUTO.shp, go to Add New and select Map.

5. You will see two files in the Table of Contents, the file you chose and a topographic
background map. You can keep the topographic layer or delete it. In this case we want
to keep the topographic layer. Play around with the cursor to the right of the map. This
zooms the map in and out.

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6. We will work with the attributes table MnMapPluto layer.

7. Make sure MnMapPluto is selected. Click Map tab and click Attributes.
The Attributes table window opens.
8. Right click MnMapPluto and click Attribute Table. You will see the table at the bottom of
the map.

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9. To enlarge the table move the mouse pointer to the word MMapPluto (top of the table),
hold the right mouse key and move the table. When you drag the mouse to the bottom
right corner of the page, it allows you to Expand the table.

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10. Now you send see the data better. Click the square to right of FID 0. This highlights the
record.

Look at the Attributes window. Here is the information added to the record FID 0.

11. Now hold the shift key and click FID 4. Five records are highlighted. Move the table
where you can see the map better.

12. Click Zoom to. You will see the highlighted records on the map.

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13. Now you will see the selected records.

14. Click Clear. This deselects the records. Now no records are highlighted. You can also
select records using the Ctrl key. This highlights individual records.

15. Now let us use a query to select records. Click Select by Attributes. Click the Map tab
and click Select by Attributes.

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 The Geoprocessing windows opens. You will have to change
the parameters. We are looking for UnitsTotal >500. Click Add Clause.

Make sure the window looks like the one above. Click Run at the bottom of the
window.

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16. Look at the Map and see the highlighted polygons.

17. Go to the View tab and click Catalog Pane. Drag the Borough Boundary shapefile to
center of the map.

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18. Click the Map tab (look at previous lessons to find the Map tab.) and click Clear and the
click Select by Location.

Change the parameters. Input Feature Layer = MnMapPluto, Relationship = Intersect,

Selecting Features = geo_export_097d4183-fb06-4f55-9ccc-16e03681cd5d. Click Run.

19. All the MNMapPLUTO records are selected. Now Save the project and exit.

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Lesson 5
Geocoding
Scenario: We are asked to get the locations of all the bike shops in Manhattan and was told to
google the locations. We are also told to select units residential above 87 units half a mile away
from bike shops.
1. We are going to do a google search and search for Bicycle Stores in Manhattan. Open
google and do a Bicycle Stores in Manhattan search.

2. You have more than 12 stores. We are just going to focus on the first five on the list.
Open Microsoft Excel and save the Document as BicycleStore in the Tables folder. In the
excel sheet create an Address, Borough, State, Zip Code, and Store name columns. This
will be used to enter the information about the Bicycle Stores. Populate the data of the
first five stores into the excel sheet.

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3. Save as Bikeshops using csv as the file type. This will save it as a comma delimited file.
Press save, close the document, and exit excel.

4. Open ArcGIS Pro name the project Lesson4 and make sure it is save in the
ArcGIS_Training folder.
5. Click New Map.

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6. Now you will need some shapefile data. Use the Catalog Pane to drag the MapPluto
data. You will need add the folder. Right click folder and add folder connection.

7. The instructions are in the previous exercise.

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8. Drag the MnMapPluto shapefile to the center of the map.

9. Now you will need to add the Bikeshops csv table. Go to the Map tab and click Add Data.
Go to your tables folder and select Bikeshops.csv. Click ok.

10. Right click the Bikeshops.csv table. Then click Geocode Table. To the right you will see a
window with instructions on how to Geocode the table.

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11. Go to the Geoprocessing window and type Geocode in the search bar. Click Geocode
Addresses.

12. Look at the images below and make sure yours look the same. You need to link the
address or Place to Address, City to Borough, State to State, and Zip to Zip Code. Use the
default Output Feature Class and nation is the United States. Click Run.

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13. The geocoded layer is now in the table of contents. On my window I have the table open
at the bottom. Open the table. Instructions are on previous exercises.

14. To select all the residential units above 87 units you will need to do a select by Attribute
Query. We did this in previous lesson. Look at the image below to do the query. Click
Run. All the records above 87 units is highlighted.

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15. To select all the records that fall within half a mile from the bike shops you will need to
use select by location. Click Select by location.

Use the image below to select the records. Make sure you are selecting records from
the records already selected in the MNMapPluto shapefile. Click run. The highlighted
records are all the records that are above 87 residential units and within half a mile from
a bike shop.

16. Save the project and exit it.

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Lesson 6
Join and Relate
Mapping Census Data using ArcGIS ArcGIS Pro
In this lesson you will learn how to gather data from American Factfinder and how to map this
data using ArcGIS software. You will also learn how to find Census shapefiles from TIGER/Line
shapefiles from the Census Bureau.

Gathering Census Data

1. Google American Factfinder

2. Click the American Factfinder Link

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 3. You have four options to gather data.
a. Community Facts
b. Guided Search
c. Advanced Search
d. Download Center
4. We will use the guided search option to download a census table.

Guided Search

5. Select “I am looking for information about housing”. Then Click Next.

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6. Go to Financial Characteristics and Select Gross Rent from the drop down menu then click Next.

7. Now you are in the Geographies Page.

8. Under geography type select Census Tract, under State select New York, under County select
New York, select all Census tracts within New York County, finally at the bottom click the box
Add to your selections. Then click next.

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9. Click next, bottom right (next to your selections)

10. Select Median Gross Rent by Bedroom

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11. You will see a table like the one below. You cannot use this table. You will have to change it, so it
can be used for GIS purposes. We must click Modify Table and transpose the data. The Census
tracts must be in a column or vertical not horizontal.

12. Click the Modify Table Action

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13. Under Table Tools Menu click Transpose.

14. After the table is transpose, click Download from the actions toolbar. Click download. Select
“Use the data” and make sure the bottom selections are checked.

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15. In the downloads folder you will see the compress folder. It starts with ACS_. The data will
download in the download folders, so make sure to put the table in the Table folder. Extract the
zip file.

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16. Open the ACS_16_5YR_B25031_with_ann document and check the table and it should look like
the table below.

17. We will have to delete the first row, so we only have one field name. Right click on row 1 and
click delete. The 1st row has GEO.id in the first cell.
18. Go to Save As and save the file as census.csv. Make sure this is save in the table folder.

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 19. After saving you can close the excel file.

Getting Census Tract Shapefile from TIGER/Line website

1. Use chrome and do a google search for tiger line shapefiles and click the first link.

2. Scroll down the page and click the 2015 tab.

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3. Click Download tab under 2015 and select the “Web Interface” link

4. Select year 2015, select layer type =Census Tract

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5. Select New York as the state. Click Download

6. Go to the downloads folder and look for your file.

7. Click Extract at the top of the window and click extract all
8. Open ArcGIS pro name it Lesson6 and save it in the ArcGIS_Training Folder
9. Add the census table and the census tract shapefile, tl_2015_36_tract.shp. Look at previous
exercises for instructions on how to do this.

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10. Right click the census tract, go to Joins and Relates and click Add Joins.

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11. The join window opens to the right of the map.

12. Input Join Field = Geoid, Join Table = census.csv, and output Join Field = id2. Click run. Open the
Attribute table and use the scroll bar at the bottom to check if the tables were joined. You will
notice that all the values are NULL. That means that the tables didn’t join.

13. To check the fields, highlight the census tract in the table of contents. Go to the Data tab and
click Fields.

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14. This opens the field properties. The field name GEOID has a Data Type =Text.

15. Now open the fields table for the census table. You will have noticed that field name id2 has
Data Type= Double. The data types are not the same for the join fields. The joining fields have to
be exactly the same.

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16. We will make these changes to both tables. However, before we don anything, we will need to
export the csv table to a geodatabase. Right click the census.csv table, go to Data and click
Export Table.

17. Change the location of the output file so the table is stored in the Lesson6 geodatabase. The
Output Table is named census_copyRows, you will change this by clicking the folder to right.

18. On the next window, go to the Lesson6 geodatabase, double click the geodatabase, and name
the file censusnew. Press save and click run. You have a table in the table of contents with that
title after you hit run. We will add a field in the censusnew table.

19. Go to the Data tab and click Fields. Now you have a table that shows the fields of the
censusnewtable.

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20. Go to the bottom of the table and click “Click here to add a new field”. The Fieldname = Join2
and the data type = Double. You will have to scroll to your right to see the Data Type Column. At
the top of the Ribbon, click the Data Tab click Save. This saves your field.

21. Highlight the tl_2015_36_tract layer by clicking the layer. Go to the top ribbon and click Data
then click fields. You will need to create a new field with the Name Join2 and the Data Type =
Double.

22. We will need to populate the ID information to each of the created columns. Right click the
census tract layer and click attribute table. Go to the Join2 field, you may have to scroll to the
left to find the field. and right click the field and click Calculate field.

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23. In the parameters you will have to scroll down and look for Join2=. You will need to double click
GEOID in the fields section. It is highlighted in the image below. You will have noticed that the
field Join2 = !GEOID! Click Run after this is done.

The census table has now changed, and you have the GEOID data in the Join2 field. We will
follow the same steps for the censusnew table, except we are not double-clicking GEOID. We
are double clicking Id2. Click run after you are done.

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24. Now you can join the tables. Redo steps 10-12. Instead of using Geoid and Id2 for the join fields
you will need to use the newly created Join2 fields on both tables. When you open the census
tract attribute table you will notice that it joined the tables.

25. You can follow the same steps to do a relate. The only difference is that you won’t see that it
was joined. You will only see the connections when you click a polygon.
26. Save the project and exit the project.

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Lesson 7
Geodatabase
In this lesson you will learn more about geodatabases. We will import and export from a
geodatabase and include queries.
1. Open ArcGIS Pro name the file Lesson7 and save it in the ArcGIS_Training folder.

2. In the catalog window double click Databases. Now you can see the Lesson7.gdb. Before
we proceed we need to know about coverages, shapefiles, and geodatabases. All three
are ways to stored GIS information. Coverages was one of the original files to stored GIS
information. After ArcGIS was introduced most people used shapefiles. These files
contain geometry and records. The latest storage file is the geodatabase.

3. In a geodatabase you can store layers, tables, feature classes, and create a feature
dataset. In a feature dataset you can select the Projection and coordinate system. All
the files that are created or imported will have the same projection that you selected.
This help with projection, because it would automatically project the data for you.

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4. We will start preparing data for the next few lessons. First, we will create a geodatabase
and name it Study_Area. Using the Catalog pane, right click Databases and Click New File
Geodatabase.

5. In the window that pops up, name the file Study_Area. Click save. The file will be saved
in the lesson7 folder.

6. Now that you have created the Study_Area.gdb let us import some data. We will get this
data from the Shapefile folder. So, we will need to connect to that folder. Under Folders,
right click Folders and click Add Folder Connection.

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7. You will have to look for the Shapefile folder and select it. I am using my computer, so
the folder is stored in a different location. When you select it, click ok. In the Catalog
Pane you will see the Shapefile folder.

8. Now let us import some data to the Study_Area geodatabase. Right click the Study_Area
geodatabase, go to Import and click Feature Class(es). This imports multiple file. We will
start with some small files. If you have large files it may take a long time to import
depending on how fast your computer is.

9. To the right of the window you will click Folders. This will show you all the folders use in
this project. You will have to double click the Shapefile folder to import that data inside.

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10. Double click the Shapefile folder and double click the mn_mappluto_17v1_1 folder. You
will now see the mn_mappluto_17v1_1 shapefile. You will select MNMapPLUTO
shapefile. You will see the MNMapPluto.shp file in the Geoprocessing window. There is
a blank bar at the bottom, you will use this to select another file. Click the folder icon to
right of the blank bar.

11. You will need to double click the Open Spaces shapefile and select the file inside that
folder and click Ok. Import Borough Boundaries, Bike Routes, building footprints, and
the 2015 census tracts. Press run after you are done. It may take a couple of minutes
depending on your computer.

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12. Double click the Study_Area geodatabase to look at the imported files.

13. Press the back arrow to go back to the Study_Area geodatabase.

14. Right click the Study_Area geodatabase, go to New and click Feature Dataset.

You notice that the projection is WGS 1984 and you will need to name Feature Dataset.
Name the dataset Central_Park and change the Coordinate System to
PROJCS['NAD_1983_StatePlane_New_York_Long_Island_FIPS_3104_Feet'. Click run
when you are done.

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15. You will now see the created Feature Dataset in the Study_Area geodatabase.

16. We will create a point file and polygon file to use in the next lesson. Right click the
Central_Park Feature Dataset, go to new and click Feature Class.

17. Name the file New_CentralPark, Alias = Central Park, the Feature Class Type = Polygon.
Click Finish.

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18. Follow the steps above to create a point file. Name it Shops, Alias = Coffee shops, and
Type of feature = point. Click Finish to create the file. Save the project. Double click the
Central_Park Feature Dataset. You will see the newly created files.

19. Save the project and exit it.

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Lesson 8
Editing and creating features
In this lesson you will learn how to edit and create features. The data you will create will be
used in the Designing a Map lesson.
20. Open ArcGIS Pro name the file Lesson8 and save the folder in the ArcGIS_Training
folder.

21. Right click Databases and click Add Database. Go to your Lesson 7 folder and click
Study_Area.gdb and press Ok.

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22. Double click Databases. You will see the Study_Area.gdb file.

23. Click New Map in the top ribbon.

24. Go to the Catalog pane on the right and click the Study_Area.gdb drop down arrow. You
will see Central_Park feature dataset and other files. Drag the Central_Park Feature
Dataset to the center of the map. Do the same for the MapPluto file. The map has
changed because of the projection.

25. Right Click the MapPluto file and click Zoom to Feature.

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26. You will need to change the polygon fill and boundary to see the file underneath. In the
table of contents, the order determines what layers are seen on the map. In here the
Coffee Shops layer is the top. You don’t see anything because no data has been created
for this file. You only see the MapPluto layer. You will learn more about layer ordering
when you design maps.
27. Click the polygon under the MapPluto layer. Make sure to zoom in to the center of
Central Park.

28. In the new window to your right select the Black Outline polygon. Make sure Explore is
selected in the Map Tab.

29. We will draw some polygons inside central park and edit them. We will also include
some Coffee Shops locations.

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30. Select the Coffee shops layer in the Table of Contents. Go to the Edit Tab. To create a
polygon click Create.

31. Click the point icon. Click in multiple spots on the map.

32. The points may not be visible. You will need to change the color of the point. When you
are done with entering points press the enter key on the keyboard.

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33. Press the Save icon in the Edit tab. This saves the points you have created.

34. Now we will need to draw a polygon around the Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis Reserv’s.

35. Select Central Park in the Table of Contents. Go to the Edit tab and click Create. In the
Create Features menu click Central Park. You will see a list of options on how to draw a
polygon.

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36. Click the first icon, a window will pop up saying that it is a polygon. Move the cursor
where the reserve is located and draw the area of the reserve. Double click after your
drawn drawing the polygon.

37. Go to the Edit Tab and click Modify. You will see a menu on ways to modify the polygon.
Click move and move the polygon around. When you are done moving it around, make
sure the polygon is moved back to where it was originally located. We will need this
polygon for our next Lesson. Press save after you are done.

38. Save the Project and exit it. We are going to use the created data to learn about some
tools used in GIS.

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Lesson 9
Geoprocessing Tools
In this lesson you will learn how to use some of the basic GIS tools used in ArcGIS Pro. (Note:
We are skipping some steps. We have done some of those steps in previous lessons. However, I
will be showing this on the board.)
1. Open ArcGIS Pro and name the project Lesson 9. Save the project in the ArcGIS_Training
folder.

2. Right click Databases and click Add Database. Go to your Lesson7 folder and select
Study_Area.gdb

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3. Press ok. Now you have the data you need to complete the lesson.

4. We will use the Catalog Pane to the right of the second window above to drag data to a
new map.
5. Go to the Insert tab and click New Map. Go to the catalog pane to your right and click
the drop-down arrow of the Study_Area.gdb. You will see the files stored inside the
geodatabase. The Central_Park feature class has a drop drop-down arrow. Click it and
you will see the files we have created in the last lesson.

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6. Click the Central_Park Feature Dataset and drag it to the center of the map. In the Table
of Contents, you will see all the files stored in the feature dataset. You will have to drag
each file at a time when the files are outside of the Feature Dataset, but inside the
geodatabase. Drag the rest of the files to the center of the map. The files have long
names and you don’t know what they are. We will change their names once we know
what they are.

7. In the Table of Contents uncheck all the files. You will have an empty screen. The white
box to the left of the Coffee shops layer, check and unchecks the layer. When I write
check, it means that the layer is displayed in the map.

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8. Check the first layer on your screen. Mine is Coffee shops.

9. Check the next file underneath the Coffee shops layer. This layer is a street layer. We
will write down the name of the layer to change the name in the geodatabase. We can
temporarily change the name in the Table of Contents. Double click geo_export… (the
second layer that has a check sign) and name it Streets.

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10. Check the MnMapPluto Layer (the map has included the Pluto data). Double click the
MnMapPluto layer and rename it MN Pluto.
11. Check the layer underneath the MN Pluto layer. You will have noticed that you cannot
see the layer, that is because the MN Pluto layer is covering it.

12. Select the geo_export… layer underneath the MN Pluto and move it to the top of the
MN Pluto Layer. Hold the left click button on your mouse and move the layer. This layer
is the Parks layer. Double click the geo_export… word and rename it Parks.

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13. Follow the same instructions for the other geo_export… layers underneath the MN
Pluto layer. You may have to uncheck the MN Pluto layer to see the other layers. In my
table of contents, the next layer Underneath the MN Pluto layer is the Census Tract
layer. It was renamed Census Tract. It was left uncheck because the layer is not needed
in this lesson.
14. The next geo_export layer is the Building Footprints layer. We will need to put this layer
on top of the MN Pluto layer. You will see the Building Footprint layer. This is the
boundaries of each building.
15. I have put the Central Park layer underneath the Coffee shops layer. Think of pizza, you
see the toppings first, then the cheese, and you can see the bread underneath it. This
ordering of layers is required when you are designing a map. In the next lesson you will
learn to change the colors of the points, lines, and polygons.

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16. We will now use a couple of Geoprocessing tools to see what they do. The tools are
found in the analysis Tab. When you click the Analysis Tab, the Geoprocessing window
list some of the tools shown in the ribbon. You can also search a tool that you want.

17. The client has asked us to create a buffer of .5 miles around the Coffee Shops. So, we

will click the Buffer tool .

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18. In the Geoprocessing window. You will need to change the parameters. The Input
Features is the Coffee Shops. Make sure to type .5 and the unit to be Miles. You can
store this data in the Lesson9 geodatabase.

19. Click run after you are done inputting the parameters. The Buffer layer is now stored in
the Lesson9 geodatabase. Go to the ArcCatalog pane and drag the layer to the center of
the map.

You see a bunch of circles in the map.

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20. Click the Map tab and click Bookmarks and then Click New Bookmark… Name the
Bookmark Study Area. Press Ok. If you want to go back to the current extent you will go
to Bookmarks in the Map tab and click Study Area.

21. Select Buffer and Right Click the layer and click Zoom to Layer.

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22. Now you will see all the buffers or circles.

23. We will use the Clip tool to only show the Pluto Lots that are inside the circle. This
shows the Pluto lots that are within .5 miles of Coffee Shops.

24. Click the Analysis Tab and Click Clip.

25. We are using the Buffeer layer to clip the MN Pluto Layer. The input feature is the Pluto
file and clip feature file are the buffer layer (Buffeer here, there was a typo), make sure
the clipped feature class is stored in the Lesson9 geodatabase. Click Run.

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26. In the Table of Contents, uncheck the MN Pluto Layer. You will only see the Lots that fall
within .5 miles of the Coffee Shops.

27. Drag the Central Park layer to the top of the MN Pluto layer. Now you can see the
polygon we have created.

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28. We want to know what Coffee Shop is the closest to the Reserve (the polygon we have

created). We will use the near tool. Click the near tool
29. Put the information that you see in the image below. When you are done, click Run.

30. To see the results, you will need to open the Attribute Table. Open the Attribute Table.

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31. Save the file. We are going to use this project to do the next lesson, Designing a Map.
32. Go to Project and Click Save As. Go to your ArcGIS_Training folder and create a new
folder and name it Lesson10.

33. Double Click the newly created folder. Name the project Design Map. Press Save.

34. Stay in this Project and read Lesson 10.

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Lesson 10
Designing a Map
In this lesson you learn how to change the colors of the lines, polygons, and points. You will
label a points and order layers. You will also insert a legend, scale bar, and title.

35. You are now in the Design Map project.

36. We were asked to create a map of the results of our analysis. Close the Central Park
table to see the whole extent of the map.
37. Click the Insert Tab and Click New Layout.

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38. We will choose a landscape 8.5’ by 11’. Click it. Now you have a blank document.

39. We will add elements to the Blank document.

40. Click Map Frame in the Insert Tab

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41. We will draw a square box inside the document. You only see a dot after you draw the
frame. Zoom in by right clicking the MNPluto_Clip layer and clicking Zoom to Layer.
42. Go to the Insert Tab and Click North Arrow. You will have to enlarge the north arrow by
using the square boxes around it. If you don’t like this North Arrow you can delete it by
right clicking the North Arrow and Clicking Delete.

43. If you want to use another north arrow, go to the Insert Tab and use the drop-down
arrow to the right of the North Arrow tool. This gives you more options. You can click
anyone you want.

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44. After you are done selecting your north arrow and finding the location in the frame or
changing the size, click the Scale Bar icon in the Insert Tab. This inserts a scale bar. Use
the default scale bar.

45. Go back to the Insert Tab and click Legend.

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46. The legend is not automatically visible. Draw a box at the center of the map.

47. Insert Text so we can type a title of the map.

48. You will need to use the mouse to select the text and type Lots that are .5 Miles away
from Coffee Shops in Central Park. Click outside of the layout. Click the text. You will see
boxes around the text. The boxes at the corner increases or decreases the text size. Play
around with them to see what they do.

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49. After you are done with scaling the text we are going to move the legend where it is
most visible. In the Layout Tab you have tools to zoom in, zoom out, or go to full extent
of the document.

50. You can add guides to the right of the ruler to align the elements of the map.

51. We will need to change the names of some of the layers. In the Contents window click
the drop-down arrow of the Map Frame.

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52. The layers are visible. The Pluto layer is now renamed City Lots. The Buffer layer (Buffeer
in this case) is renamed Half a mile from Coffee Shop. Everything else stays the same.
53. We will need to do some reordering of the layers in the legend. The Streets layers needs
to go underneath the Coffee Shops points.
54. Click the legend. Go to the legends window and click Show Properties. The Table of
Contents Changes. Now you can move the Streets underneath the Coffee Shops. The
changes will show up in the legend.

55. Move the scroll bar in the Table of Contents to see the Map Frame. We don’t need the
.5 mile from coffee shop layer. So, uncheck it.
56. Now we would need to change the color of the Central Park Polygon. In the Table of
Contents, click the polygon underneath the word Central Park. A gallery is displayed
with some color options. Select the Green Polygon.

57. Go to Project and Click Save. Remember to do this often.

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58. Right click the Streets layer and click Label.

59. This labels the Streets.

60. Let us make some changes to the labels. Click the Labeling Tab and change the font size
to 6.

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61. Insert the table that shows the near distance information. Select the Central Park Layer.
Go to the Insert Tab and click Table Frame.

62. Draw a box in the map frame. In the Table of Contents click the drop arrow of the Table
Frame. Select the Near_FID, Near_Dist, and Near_Angle fields. Move the Table Box
around so you can see the information.

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63. We are done with making a map. Click the Share Tab.

64. We will use the Layout Export tool to create a pdf file. Click the Layout Export tool. The
new window gives you the option to name the file and change the resolution of the pdf
file. A good resolution is above 200. Change the resolution of 200 and name the file
Final Design. Save it in the ArcGIS_Training folder. Here I have it changed in a map
folder. Click Export.

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 65. Go to the folder where you saved the file and open it.

66. Save the project and then click exit.

Exercise

The Parks Department asked you to determine the best location for a restaurant. The restaurant must
be near a waterbody and close to the road. What data do you need? How would you map this?

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