Upon
opening Arc Map, I opted to create a new map.
When this new map was opened I added the data for the USA, which was
cities and states. The USA map was
clogged with all kinds of dots from the cities, so the capital cities were
selected. This was done through a query
builder. From the query builder I
selected capital cities equal to y. Now
only the capital cities were illustrated.
To distinguish the population variation among the capital cities, I went
to the layer properties and selected symbology. I clicked quantities and once again clicked proportional
symbols. In the value box I chose
pop1990. The capital cities are now
proportioned based upon population data from 1990. I played around with the colors of the dots by clicking on the
min value and finally opted for a maroon color.
After the map was created I was able to quantify distance from one city to the next, as well as figure the longitude and latitude of any city. The distance from Augusta, Maine to Olympia, Washington was calculated by clicking on the ruler from the toolbar. Augusta was a little difficult to pinpoint because it was fairly small, so I used the magnifier to help pinpoint my ruler. I moved the magnifier over Augusta, clicked it with the ruler and dragged the ruler to Olympia and double-clicked it. After this I realized that I needed to change my measurement units to miles. I clicked layer properties and under the general tab was able to change the value from decimal degree to miles. I measured the distance again.
To
see how the distance would change in a different projection view, I
double-clicked on the map view and hit properties. I hit the coordinate system tab and in the projected folder, hit
continental, then North America. From
North America I selected the Albers Equal Area projection. Once the projection was changed I
re-measured the distance from Augusta to Olympia and got a slightly different
reading. I changed the units again,
this time to kilometers and re-measured the distance.
In
an attempt to create a shape file of New Mexico, I pushed the select features
tool and hit New Mexico. Once NM was
highlighted, I went to the states layer and right clicked. I went to data and then export data. When the box opened I hit the folder and
changed the title from export_data to NMAlb.shp and hit ok. A box appeared
asking if I wanted to make NMAlb a layer and I said yes.
Now
that I had this shape file I tried to change the projection in Arc Info
Workstation, but was not very successful.
I created a workspace in Arc Info and tried to upload the NMAlb shape
file, but could not access it. Instead
of creating my New Mexico map through Arc Info, I used the NMAlb layer created
in Arc Map. I deselected the cities
layer and states layer and was left with the NMAlb layer. I went to query
builder and selected city name=Santa Fe to show the city on this layer. I went back to the coordinate system and
opened the Albers Equal Area Projection again and manually changed the central
meridian to –106.
I
created a new map in Arc Map and added data from the World. I selected countries, continent and
world. I right clicked on countries to
properties and then to symbology. I
selected categories and added the data for all the countries. I played with the colors until I found a
selection I liked. I changed the
projection view the same way I changed the view for the USA. I played around with different projections
and finally settled with the World Winkel II projection.
I
realized that I explained how to create the maps out of context from the way
they are displayed, so I apologize for that.
Next time I will remember to keep my text in order with my graphics.