Tutorials ch. 15, 16, 17
March 3, 2008
Ch. 15 Creating features
Much of the vector spatial data used in a GIS has been digitized from paper maps and aerial or satellite photographs. Digitizing data involves placing a map or photo on a digitizing tablet and tracing features with a puck, which is a device similar to a mouse. In a variation called heads-up-digitizing, features are drawn with a mouse directly on the computer screen by tracing an aerial photo, a scanned map, or other spatial data.
In 15a you draw features using the drawing tool. You must start editing, click on a point and then click on a new point, once the last point needed is reached you double click, and to finish make sure to click stop editing. In 15b you use feature construction tools, once again start editing. Click snapping, check box for parcels layer and close snapping window. Use auto complete polygon, and sketch, when done double click and click stop editing.
Ch. 16 Editing features and attributes
Creating features is one part of maintaining a geodatabase. Another part, equally important, is making changes to existing features. Features can be edited in several ways. They can be deleted, moved, split, merged, resized, reshaped, or buffered. In addition to the tasks on the Editor toolbar, there are commands on the Editor menu for changing features.
In 16a you delete and modify features using the editor toolbar. If you double click on a feature and highlight the boundaries you can delete them. You can also modify the boundaries or stretch them using the editor toolbar. In 16b you split and merge features, once again using the Editor toolbar. You can click on a point in a boundary of an already drawn polygon and make a new boundary to split the polygon into two separate polygons. To merge two polygons you select both and click merge in the Editor Toolbar menu. In 16c you edit features using attribute values by opening the attribute table and add fields to them to edit the appearrance on the map.
Ch. 17 Geocoding addresses
You can create spatial data–specifically point features–from information that describes or names a location. The most common kind of information that does this is an address. The process of creating map features from addresses, place-names, or similar information is called geocoding.
In 17a, I originally had trouble because when I opend ArcCatalog and couldn’t find address locator in the table of contents. I clicked File, new and click address locator to create a new one and placed it in my personal file. To create a new address locator I used the directions in the book. This was the first time I had problems working with the tutorials. In 17b you match the addresses using the address locator you created in part a. In the tools menu, point to geocoding, click address locator manager. Click add, and then double-click Address Locators. Click to add the address locator created in part a. Now use the find feature in the Tools Toolbar and type in an address which will be found and then added to the map. In 17c you rematch the addresses by once again using the address locator created in part a. I also had problems with this. In step 8, when the Interactive Review dialog is open, at the top you should have three addresses, and mine did not, I tried it multiple times, but failed to correct it. I tried to go through the steps the best I could without this data, just to get a feel of how to do it.
