ArcGIS Data Management

esf Laboratory for Applied GIS 2 How to manage YOUR data On esf cluster machines you can only store data –On the desktop (but ArcGIS can’t see it there) –On C:/workspace You can’t save data on the public machines between session because they get wiped clean every day or so. So you really have to work with data in the folder C:/Workspace And so does everyone else! So…

esf Laboratory for Applied GIS 3 So… Keep your data on a memory stick (flash memory) or on your SU gig of storage Put it in a workspace called “yourname”* When you fire up a campus machine –1- erase everything in C:\workspace –2- copy “Yourname” into C:\workspace When you are done copy (drag) the yourname folder back onto your memory stick or your SU storage. If you are a nice person you will delete your “yourname” folder from C:/workspace! * “yourname” is a stand-in for your name. Example: if you are Eustis B Nifkin then you might call your personal workspace EUSTIS

esf Laboratory for Applied GIS 4 Why? There are at least 2 reasons that you should work from C:\workspace –ArcGIS does not like some thumb drives –Thumb drives are slow and you may find that the exercises are painfully slow –I don’t know how fast the SU storage locations are. You may be able to work directly from them. Try it.

esf Laboratory for Applied GIS 5 For Example On one of the ESF computer cluster machines On your flash memory stick COPY or Drag

esf Laboratory for Applied GIS 6 There is more to this… A.mxd file (your map document) does NOT contain ANY data! It stores only paths to the data (Pointers) So, for example, if you were to move the data files to a new location the.mxd would not be able to find the data. This is a booby trap. If this happens you get a red “!” after the data file name. Click on it to browse for the data However, there is a better way...

esf Laboratory for Applied GIS 7 However… You can set up your. mxd so that as long as the data and the.mxd are in the same relative relationship in a data tree then you don’t have to worry about this problem So if you flash data structure is Z:\Eustis\data and on a cluster ‘puter it is C:\Workspace\Eustis\data every thing will work just fine! To set up Relative Paths …

esf Laboratory for Applied GIS 8 So how to you do that? 2 3 1

esf Laboratory for Applied GIS 9

10 Booby Trap 1 WARNING Never, ever create a path to ArcGIS data that has spaces in it. If you do ArcGIS will not find the data!

esf Laboratory for Applied GIS 11 Booby Trap 2 Save the.mxd often! ArcGIS has a habit of crashing at the most critical part of a project! When doing something that you do not want to lose it is a good idea to increment saves. First save as: mystuff1, second save as mystuff2,….mystuffn