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Mike’s GIS Exercise #3: Cartography (making the map
pretty!) The objective of this introductory GIS exercise is
to show first-time users how to create a map using
cartographic elements such as; scale bar, north arrow, title, and
basemap! Materials -Access to a laptop or computer that
has ArcGIS 10.4 installed -The zipped SF_Maps GIS data folder
(must email Mike to receive data at, WordPress does
not support ArcGIS files:
[email protected]) (At this point you should see
a map of all the neighborhoods within San Francisco. Now that
we have manipulated our data within ArcMap, we can create a
final output map showing off the different neighborhoods. We
will first add a basemap for a little bit of reference to what we
are looking at. Next we will add our scale bar, north arrow,
and title)
Steps 1. Adding the basemap.
1.1 Open ArcMap 10.4 1.2 Navigate to your
SF_Neighborhoods project and open it. 1.3 Click the “Add
Data” tool which is located on the second row of the tool
bar. 1.4 Scroll down to “Add Basemap” and click
it. 1.5 Select the “World Imagery” option and click
apply.
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(Now yours should look like this…)
2. Adding Streets and Golden Gate Park (Inorder to
make out final map look nice and pretty we might want to add a
layer in order to make our map stand out and be exciting for
user and our audience to view.)
2.1 Open the catalog tab on the right-side pane and expand the
“folder connections” tab.
2.2 Click and drag the streets layer into the ArcMap from the
connected SF_Maps folder.
2.3 Right click the sf_streets symbol and set the color as
black and the width as 1.0 and then click apply.
2.4 Click and drag the Golden Gate Park layer into the
ArcMap from the connected SF_Maps folder.
2.5 Re-order the layers in the left side contents tab and
place the park layer above the neighborhoods layer and the
place the streets layer above the park layer.
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(Your ArcMap screen and map should now look like
this…)
2. Setting the Layers Labels
3.1 Right click the sf_ngbhd layer on the left side
pane.
3.2 Click to open the sf_ngbhd properties
window. 3.3 Click the symbology tab within the
properties window 3.4 Expand the categories symbology
layer and choose unique values. 3.5 Click the “Add All
Values” option at the bottom of the window and the click
apply
(This makes each neighborhood within the city to be represented
by its own unique color )
3.6 Open the display tab within the properties
window.
3.7 Change the transparency value from 0% to 40% and then click
apply. (This allows for the imagery beneath the
neighborhoods layer to be visible)
3.8 Open the labels tab within the properties
window.
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3.9 Check the box to enable features within this layer to be
labelled.
3.10 Open the symbol tab and set the label font to 10 and enable
the mask.
3.11 Click ok and apply to finish.
3.12 Open the properties window for Golden Gate
Park.
3.13 Repeat steps 3.8-3.11 to enable the Golden Gate Park
label.
(Your map should now look like the one below.)
Step 4: Cartographic Elements (At the bottom of
the screen click the button that’s labeled layout view, this view
allows for ArcGIS users to see what their final map will look
like. In this view, the user can add a title, scale bar, and
north arrow to you map.)
4.1 Open your SF_Neighborhoods project in layout view and choose
landscape view.
4.2 Click the insert tab on the top of the screen
(The insert tab is where you can find any cartographic
elements that you might want to add to your final
map.)
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4.3 Select add north arrow
4.4 Choose any north arrow that you want.
(Once chosen, your north arrow will be added to your map, here
in layout view your can resize your arrow.)
4.5 Re-open the insert tab and select add scale
bar.
4.6 Choose any scale bar format that you
want. (Once chosen, your scale bar will be added
to your map, here in layout view you can resize
your arrow.)
4.7 Re-open the insert tab and select add
title. (Your title will be added to your map, here you
can edit and resize your title to your liking.)
4.8 Title your map San Francisco Neighborhoods.
4.9 Set the font for the title to 36 and make it
bold.
4.10 Click file, export map to JPEG
(Your final output map of San Francisco should look
like the map on the next page.)
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Congratulations you have finished Mike’s GIS Help
Exercises! YOu now have the ability to download, analyze, and
map GIS data! Hopefully you have learned some important skills
that you will be able to utilize on your next GIS
project.
-Mike Tarantino