ArcGIS is commercial GIS software by ESRI Inc, USA. It comprised: 3 products, 3 application modules, ArcGIS Services, Database, extensions and ArcObjects
a) Three products: ArcView, ArcEditor and ArcInfo in the order of increasing functionality Available capabilities within these modules are “tiered” in three levels
- ArcView: viewing, map production, spatial analysis, basic editing:
- ArcEditor: ArcView, plus specialized editing:
- ArcInfo: ArcView & ArcEditor plus special analyses and conversions:
b) It has three applications modules: ArcMAP, ArcCatalog and ArcToolbox
- ArcMap: for data display, map production, spatial analysis, data editing
- ArcCatalog: for data management and preview
- ArcToolbox, for specialized data conversions and analyses, available as a window in both
c) Extensions: for special : Spatial Analyst, 3D Analyst, Geostatistics, Business Analyst, etc.
d) ArcObjects: to build specialized capabilities within ArcMap or ArcCatalog using VB for Applications
e) ArcGIS Services: ArcIMS for internet mapping and ArCSDE for database management
f) Others: ArcScene for 3-D modelling; ArcGlobe for global mapping
ArcMap Interface
ArcMap does Primary display applications and •Perform map-based tasks like: Displaying, – Editing, Querying, Analyzing, Charting and –reporting. ArcMap interface is as seen below
Fig of ArcMAP, ArcCatalog and ArcToolbox
ArcCatalog: is a window into GIS database used for Browse your data, Manage your data and Create and view data documents (metadata)
ArcToolBox: Geographic processing functions like Data management, ,analysis, and conversion. –Tools vary between ArcGIS products
Practical exercises with ArcGIS Desktop
A) Demonstration
- Observe ArcCatalog
- Directory structure and navigation
- Documentation
- Observe ArcMap
- Add data
- Display and query data
- Zoom and pan tools
- Save a map document
- Observe ArcToobox
- toolkits
B) Observe and appreciate Data View and Layout View
C) View layers, data frame and maps