Step-by-Step ArcView Instructions

Creating Basemaps

Follow these instructions for creating school-yard ground cover maps.

Table of Contents
Starting the Basemap Theme
Set the Scale
Attribute Table Protocol
Drawing Your Polygons
Tips for Drawing Base Maps
Stop Editing
Change Each Cover Type to a Different Color
Making Corrections
 

Starting the Basemap Theme

1. Open ArcView. Click "new" and start a new view

2. Open madison.tif (the orthophoto). Remember to first change to "image data source" file.

3. From View on the menu bar, choose Properties...

4. Set the Scale

Select feet for the Map Units and meters for the Distance Units.

**We should all use meters for measurements. If you take real world measurements in feet, please convert them to meters so we all have comparable data.**

5. Zoom in to your school, so that the entire grounds fill the view.

6. From View on the menu bar, choose New Theme...

7. Select Polygon as the feature type.

8. Save your theme in the ArcViewData folder.

a. For Macs, go to the hard drive.

b. For PC's, go to the c drive (or d drive at Edgewood).

9. Save the theme using the name of your school, e.g. shorewood.shp or springharbor.shp

10. You should now see your new theme in the legend bar. There should be a dashed line around the small box indicating that you may begin to edit, or change, this theme.

**Remember, filenames may only contain letters or numbers. Do not use spaces.**
Back to the Contents

Create the Table Related to your Map

EXACT PROTOCOL REQUIRED!
To create a table in ArcView you must tell the computer the names of each column heading (or "field") and what type of information you will collect in each column (numbers, words, true/false questions). Details for creating a table are provided in the procedure "Plotting Points from Ground Measurements."

1. Open the theme table using the Open Theme Table button.

2. Create a table with the following characteristics. Choose Add Field from the Edit Menu to add each of the fields listed below:

Ta da! You should now have a lovely new table ready to enter data!

Drawing Your Polygons
Please note: we're going to be drawing lots of polygons. If you want or need to take a break, select Stop Editing from the Theme menu. To start again, select Start Editing from the Theme menu. The theme you want to edit must be the only active theme (looks like it's in a raised box).

1. Zoom in so your building fills the view, so you can see the most detail but still see all of the building.

2. Hold down the Drawing & Editing tools button and choose the polygon tool (it's right below the Circle tool).

3. Trace the outside border of the building and double-click when done. (Pretend you're stapling down a string with your mouse).

If there are any mistakes, use the Vertex tool to correct them. There are good instructions on using this tool on page 5-16 of the Introduction to ArcView GIS text.

4. Look in the status bar for a display of the area of your polygon. Write this number down.

If it's not in the status bar, select the Vertex tool and point at the polygon you just drew.

After drawing each polygon, you want to enter the information about the data associated with it into the data table:

Using the Edit tool, enter the following data:

PolyID
Number your first polygon:
if you're at Cherokee, enter 101
at Lincoln, enter 201
at Shorewood, enter 301
at Spring Harbor, enter 401
at Hamilton, enter 501
at Jefferson, enter 601
at O'Keefe, enter 701

(the next polygon you draw will be number 102, then 103 and so on...)

Area
Enter the area in square meters.
Do not use commas.

Cover
Choose the appropriate description and type the italicized word exactly as written below (caps and spelling):

Building - if the area represents a building
Concrete - all other impermeable surfaces
Lawn - mown permeable surfaces (lawns, playgrounds)
Other Permeable - other areas, such as gardens, prairies or woods

Name
Describe the area: e.g. sidewalk, parking lot, playground, prairie
Exact wording is not important in this field.

Permeable
Enter True if the area is permeable (Lawn/Other Permeable).
Enter False if it is not (Building/Concrete).
Only the complete word True or False will work.

Return to the View Window
Click on the Pointer tool to turn off the vertices on your polygon if they're highlighted (hollow boxes on corners of polygon)

Read through the tips below and then continue to draw more polygons for the other features in your schoolyard using the above protocol.

Tips for Drawing Base Maps

1. Draw your school first, then work your way out to the street or property boundary. If you draw a polygon in the center, and then one way out at the edge, you'll find you'll have trouble drawing a polygon in between.

2. Add a polygon's data immediately after drawing the polygon so you know which polygon is which.

Each polygon should have a unique PolyID. For example, the first thing you draw (the school) should be _01, the second thing should be _02, third _03 and so on. Later on, we can use these numbers to identify particular pieces of land instantly, instead of having to say "That little triangle piece of lawn, you know, by the back door."

Cherokee: 101-199; Lincoln: 201-299; Shorewood: 301-399; Spring Harbor: 401-499; etc.

3. Use the Append Polygon tool to draw polygons that touch (share a border with) previously drawn polygons. The Append Polygon tool is the last one under the Drawing & Editing tools. Using this tool makes sure that polygons next to each other actually share boundaries. If you use the regular Polygon tool, gaps and overlaps might form between the two polygons, and that's a bad thing.

4. To draw using the Append Polygon tool:

Click the mouse (start the 'string') within the adjacent polygon that already exists.

To end the polygon, double click within the existing polygon.

In other words, start and stop your drawing inside the already-existing polygon; ArcView will then draw the outer boundaries of the polygon and make a common boundary between the old and the new polygons.

5. Use the Polygon tool to draw polygons that aren't touching other polygons, or if other polygons haven't been drawn yet.

6. You'll notice that most sidewalks are really one monstrous piece of continuous concrete. You can draw each sidewalk as a separate piece, or go for the challenge of making them one big polygon. It's up to you! This is also true of your playground/lawn. If there is a large area of land that is mostly playground, but some lawn (that isn't played on), you can separate the polygons even though there really isn't any physical thing separating the two areas.

Stop Editing
Now you should have a beautiful base map of all the different ground covers on your school's property.

Select Stop Editing from Theme on the menu bar. Click Yes to save.

Finishing Touches
Change Each Cover Type to a Different Color

Double click on your new theme's legend.
From Legend Type: select Unique Value
From Values Field: select Cover
Choose a color scheme, or double-click on each value's Symbol to change its color.
Click Apply and close the Legend Editor.

Experiment by choosing other fields for the Values Field in the Legend Editor. Which fields (attributes) are the most meaningful for a map like this?

Making Corrections
1. Open the theme's table
2. From Table in the menu bar, choose Start Editing
3. Make your changes (using the Edit tool)
4. Choose Stop Editing from the Table menu and click Yes to save.

Directions for working with Dane County Data
Contact Jim Lorman to obtain Dane County datasets.

Basics
How do I create a map of Madison?

Joining Database Files
I would like to create maps according to age, population, and race in Dane County.

Adding Reference Points
How do I add my own points to a map?

Plotting Points from Ground Measurements

Entering Features onto a map

Make a personalized map of Madison!

What is a GIS?
Basic Mapping Concepts
Examples of Maps
Where do I find maps?
Step-by-Step Arc View Instructions
For More Information: Online GIS & Mapping Resource List