Exam One 2011

Format

Exam will be one-on-one "oral" exam in the form of a "lab practical": each student will select a fifteen minute time slot; exam in professor's office at the computer; from a list of skills several to be chosen at random; student performs tasks; instructor evaluates.

Skills

1. Starting software
   1. ArcMap & open an existing map
   2. AcrCatalog
2. Interface
   1. Be able to identify menu bar, toolbar, table of contents, map display; distinguish floating from docked
   2. Basic map manipulation
   3. Reorder layers
3. 1. Zoom in/out; zoom to layer; show full extent; show previous extent
   2. Pan
   3. Hover with select cursor to see map tips
   4. Use info tool to pull up object info
4. Attribute table
   1. Explain
   2. Open
   3. Change size of window, column width, move columns, sort based on column, identify number of records
   4. Select record(s) in table and show how selected object(s) appear(s) on map
5. Layer
   1. Make layers in/visible
   2. Explain "visible scale range"
   3. Label features, change field used to label, change appearance of labels
   4. Layer Properties
   5. Tabs: General, Source, Symbology, Labels
6. Distinguish dataview and layout view
7. ArcCatalog
8. Demonstrate operation of catalog tree
9. Connect to a new folder
10. Switch between geography and table in the preview tab

Explain

+ Solution

Explain the items in the shaded rectangle.

+ Solution

World is a geodatabase. It contains four feature classes: a point class called cities, and three polygon classes: countries, disapp_area, and world30.
Below this we have two paired layers and shape files. The layers contain information on symbology/display while the shape files contain the actual geographic objects (here, lines)

Explain the differences between the two screenshots below.

+ Solution

On the left we have clicked on the layer named "flight_path" while on the right we have the shape file of the same name. The layer references a shape file and specifies how it is to be displayed (symbolized). Here it is "as a thick red line"; the default display for a line feature is a thin blue line.

Exam Scenarios

Start ArcMap and open blank map
Use the ArcCatalog button to in ArcMap to connect to the GIS shared data folder (if necessary — otherwise just navigate to it in the ArcCatalog window)
Drag the layers Alameda_blockgroup2000_some_data, bayarea_majorwater, and streams to your table of contents.
Correct the order of the layers as needed.
Zoom in so the extent covers San Francisco and the East Bay like this:

Change the name of the layer Alameda_blockgroup2000_some_data to Bay Area Block Groups Census 2000
Open its attribute table.
How many records (objects) are in this shape file?
About how many fields of data are there? (answer question using layer properties)
The first ten fields are identifiers of various kinds. Then rest — whose names begin with Pn — refer to tables in the 2000 census "STF3" data file. STF stands for "summary tape file" and the P means these are data about people (as opposed to about households).

P6. RACE [8] - Universe: Total population[[footnote]]See U.S. Census Bureau (census.gov) for details[//footnote]]
Data Set: Census 2000 Summary File 3 (SF 3) - Sample Data

White alone	P_6WhiteO
Black or African American alone	P_6BlackO
American Indian and Alaska Native alone	P6AIANO
Asian alone	P_6asianO
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone	P_6NHPIO
Some other race alone	P_6otherO
Two or more races	P_6TwoPlus

Note that the field headings are one step short of idea — there ought to be a little more consistency in the nomenclature, use of upper case, etc.

Go in to layer properties > fields and give these fields aliases which fully spell out their census names. For example, for the field P_6WhiteO set the alias to P6 White Only.

Make a dot-density map that includes all the P6 fields. What do you notice about the data? Adjust the extent so we are looking at the parts of the map that have data.

Have this map display without boundary marks around the block groups and with the background being a tan or flesh color.

Go to ArcCatalog and look in the BasicOaklandGIS.gdb for a freeway layer. Add it to the map and change its appearance so that it appears as a thick green line.

Add labels to the freeway layer. Make them larger than the default.

Create a new dataframe. Put the layer oak_1940_tracts_w_data_region from the historical census data in it.

Arrange these two on a layout so they will print looking like this

Add data from chapter four folder: from the World geodatabase add countries, cities, flightpath, and graticule.
Reorder the layers so we can see them all.
Make the ocean light blue, the land tan with cocoa brown border. Make the cities circles size 12 colored "heliotrope."
Switch to layout view and make the orientation portrait.