ArcView Documents Francisco Olivera, Ph.D., P.E. Department of Civil Engineering Texas A&M University.

ArcView Documents

Francisco Olivera, Ph.D., P.E.Department of Civil Engineering

Texas A&M University

ArcView Documents

ArcView documents are the primary objects of ArcView.

Each type of ArcView document stores a specific type of information.

Each type of ArcView document provides a different means of interacting with the data.

The ArcView documents are:ViewsTablesChartsLayoutsScript editors

Views are the ArcView document where the geographic

information of the digital spatial datasets is displayed.

View Document

Display

Theme legend

Table of contents

Visibility

Theme name

View name

Active theme

View Properties

Name: the user can write the name of the View.

Map units: must be set the same as the units of the datasets.

Distance units: the user can choose the units in which distances will be displayed.

Background color: the user can choose the background color of the View.

View Display

Changing the display:Zoom to full extentZoom to active Theme(s)Zoom to selectedZoom in (button)Zoom out (button)Zoom to previous extentZoom in (tool)Zoom out (tool)Pan

Display scale

Cursor coordinates

Adding a Theme

A Theme is a digital spatial dataset that has been

added to a View and that has specific properties.

Theme Properties

Definition window stores the data source, and a condition to select the features to be considered in the Theme.Text labels window stores the table field and position of the feature labels.Display window sets the maximum and minimum display scale at which the theme would be displayed.

Theme Display

The Legend Editor is used to set the

legend of a theme.

In the Legend Editor the user can define:

Legend type

Value field

Display (i.e, color, size, thickness, etc.)

Table Document

Tables are arrays of data organized in rows (i.e., records) and columns (i.e., fields).

Tables can be:stand-alone arrays of data with no geographic information included.components of digital-spatial-datasets in which each record includes a feature shape.

Feature shape

Table name Attribute name

Tables which are components of a digital-spatial-dataset have the attribute “Shape” and are called “Attributes of <theme name>”

Table Properties

Visible allows the user to

hide/unhide table fields.

Alias allows the user to display

a field with a user name.

Visible and Alias do not modify

the table’s original data, but do

affect how a table is exported.

Table Display

Table records can be sorted in ascending or descending

order based on a selected field.

Chart Document

Charts are plots of table attribute values

dynamically linked to Views and Tables.

Chart name

One point per table record

Chart Properties

In the Chart Properties

window the user selects the

Table and the fields of the

Table to be plotted.

Chart Display

Charts can be displayed in six different formats:

Area, Bar, Column, Line, Pie and X-Y.

Layout Document

Layouts are used to communicate GIS information to non-GIS users.

Layout name

Legend frame

Table

View

North arrow

Text

View frame

Legend

frame

Scale bar

North arrow

Chart frame

Table frame

Picture

frame

Layout Display

A Layout can have Live links to the Views, Tables

and Charts displayed in it.

Live links update the Layout automatically

whenever the Views, Tables or Charts are

modified.

Live links should be disabled when the current

display of the View, Table or Chart is satisfactory.

Script Editor DocumentScript editors are text editors for writing scripts in the ArcView programming language Avenue.

Avenue scripts allow the user add further capabilities to ArcView that are not available in the original GUI.

Script name

Avenue code

Script Editor GUI

Scripts can be:

Compiled and run

Debugged

Loaded from the system

or from a text file, or

written to a text file.

ArcView GUI

Default pull-down menus, buttons, tools and

extensions constitute the standard ArcView GUI.

The ArcView GUI can be customized, which means

that the user can develop his/her own scripts, define

pull-down menus, buttons or tools to launch them,

and consolidate them in extensions.

ArcView GUI

Pull-down menus are controls that launch scripts that perform system functions (i.e., File/Save), or spatial analysis (i.e., Zoom to themes).

Buttons are controls that launch scripts that perform system functions (i.e., File/Save), or spatial analysis (i.e., Zoom to full extent). Most buttons are shortcuts for pull-down menus.

Tools are controls that launch scripts that perform spatial analysis based on additional on-screen input (i.e., Zoom in).

Extensions are systems of scripts and corresponding controls, consolidated in a single entity, that can be added-in to ArcView.

ArcView Project

ArcView Project files are text files with extension apr that can be opened with ArcView, and that store all information of the ArcView documents.

ArcView Project files store how the data is displayed in an ArcView document and in which specific ArcView document.

ArcView Project files contain pointers to the digital spatial data, table data and extensions used in the project, but do not contain the data or extensions themselves. However, unless a script is part of an extension, it will be stored in the ArcView Project file.

ArcView Project files cannot be open in other computer unless they are “repathed” and the data are transferred with them.

ArcView Project