ArcView ArcView Tutorial 2: Creating Access Maps

 

Adding and Editing Polygon Themes 

You will now add polygon data to the ArcView project, in this case for sections, townships, and ITM quads.

  1. Adding Polygons.  First, add the polygon themes for Secd96, Twpspoly, and Itmquads from gis_data\grids.  You can add multiple themes at one time by opening the folders (clicking on the green boxes) of all the themes you need to add and then holding down the shift key as you click on each polygon.   **DO NOT ACTIVATE THE SECTIONS THEME AT THIS TIME .. IT IS HUGE AND TAKES MINUTES TO DRAW!!!**

  2. Editing the Drawing order of the Itmquads theme.  Select and activate the Itmquads theme. Notice that the theme is displayed as a solid color and you can’t see anything underneath. Click and drag the aksimple theme above the itmquads them and notice that the order in which a theme is on the bar will determine in what order it is displayed (i.e. now the aksimple theme is drawn on top of the itmquads theme and is visible).

  3. Changing the color of a polygon theme. Now you will change the color of the itmquads theme so only the outline will show. When you add a theme to the project it will come up as a default (seemingly random) color. Sometimes you will want to change the color of the theme – an example is that the symbol box is blue. Some themes are also available only as polygons, so that if you don’t want a fill color you need to make it transparent. Whenever you are working on a particular theme, make sure it is selected. If you don’t you will be making changes to the wrong theme. To change color of the Itmquads theme (or make it transparent), 2x the theme, which will open the Legend Editor. 2x the symbol and the Palette manager will open. Click the paintbrush icon. Click on the color you want (or the x’d box for transparent in this case) and click "apply" on the Legend Editor window. The color should have changed to transparent with only the outline showing. You will need to do this for every theme you want to change. 

  4. Labeling the itmquads theme. Some layers and themes have data stored that is reference to the geographic information represented on the map (welcome to GIS). It is possible to label the different quads with their names (i.e. Karluk B5), which is quite helpful. The Label feature is used to accomplish this. First, make sure you are zoomed so that the entire area you are working with is on the view. Use the magnifying glass tool    to draw a box around your area of interest and the hand to move the map if necessary.  Draw a box around Kodiak.  Whenever you are using the label feature it is best to set text size before you begin.  By default, ArcView uses a 14 point font, which is usually too big.  To do this, hit Ctrl-P and click the font palette button and change font size to 7 point, then close window.  To label the Itmquads theme, either use Theme; autolabel or Ctrl-L (make sure the itmquads theme is selected). The Auto-label window will open (left).  In the Label field dialog box, scroll to " quad.name" and click  "Use Theme's Text Label Placement Property" and check "Label only features in View Extent". Click OK. You should see that quad names were added to the quads. If all quads are not labeled you may have to label by hand.  Now you will attach the quad names to the theme by selecting Edit; Select all graphics; then Graphics; Attach Graphics.  Now deactivate the itmquads theme to see if the quad names you added disappear with the theme.  You can also change font size or move labels around the quad. Click the Label icon and then click in the middle of each quad that isn’t already marked.  Click on the label you want with the black pointer . Hit Ctrl-P. This will bring up the Font palette (at right). You can then select 7 or 9 point and you should see the font change. You can then minimize the font palate and move the text wherever you like.  Turn the itmquads theme off.

  5. Zooming to the area of interest.  Karluk river and lake is located within Karluk B1-B2, C1-C2, and Kodiak B6 and C6.  Zoom to those quads with the magnifying glass tool .

  6. Editing the Township Theme.  Before you activate the Twpspoly theme, select it and make it transparent (use the empty box in the fill palette at right).  Since the township theme encompasses the entire state and we need only a small area, we will clip it.  This is done with the select feature tool .  Click the button and draw a box around the entire area you want to clip.  Theme; Convert to shapefile;  and save as township.shp in your project folder.  When it asks if you want to add it to the project as a view, click yes.  Delete the original Twpspoly theme (Select theme; Edit; delete themes) and select, change color to transparent, make border 1, and activate the township theme you just created.

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  7.  Editing Labels in a theme.  Make sure text size is still 7 point.  Use Ctrl-L and autolabel as before. You’ll notice that the labels are in the middle of the quads instead of near the township lines – this will be the same with ranges, so you need to edit the township labels; however, you only need to label the townships down one side and the ranges across the map once.  Click here for an example.     2x each text label (black arrow tool), which will bring up the text properties box.  Edit the 031S to read T31S (T meaning township, use R for Range).  Edit them and move them close to the lines. Now repeat for the ranges – the only difference is that you will use the rotation box after you 2x click on the label and change rotation angle to 270 degrees so it lines up with the range lines.  Look at the examples of completed maps if you have questions.

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  8. Adding the Sections theme.  Now you will add the Sections theme. Add the polygon theme.  Don't activate yet, but make sure it is selected.  This one is really big and takes a long time to load and manipulate. You want to do this right the first time.  Zoom out 2x or so from your area of interest.  Turn it on.  It will take a while to draw.  Now you will select a portion of the theme and clip it to make it more manageable, which is the same process you used for townships.  Select Feature , draw a box, Theme; convert to shapefile and save it as section.shp in the folder you are using for the map. Add it to the current view. Turn the old section theme off and the new one on. Make it transparent.  This one should load much quicker.  Label the sections, using a small font (maybe 4), using the same options as when you labeled the townships.

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