Introduction to ArcGIS Pro

ArcGIS accounts and installing ArcGIS Pro

UCLA students, faculty and staff have access to ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Pro, and some of the other tools produced by ESRI through a campus-wide license. In order to use ArcGIS Online or download and install ArcGIS Pro on your PC, you will need to create an account.

Creating / Logging into an ArcGIS Online Account

1. Visit https://gisucla.maps.arcgis.com and click on the “Sign In” button at the top right of the page.
2. Click on the blue button labeled UCLA SSO / GIS Online at UCLA
3. This will redirect you to the standard Bruin login – sign in with your UCLA credentials

Installing ArcGIS Pro

1. Once logged in to ArcGIS Online in your browser (see instructions above), click on your name in the top right corner of the page then select “My settings”
2. In the left sidebar, click on “Licenses”
3. Scroll down to ArcGIS Pro and click on the Download link to the right
4. Open the .exe file that is downloaded and follow the installation instructions
5. Once the software has installed, you will need to log into ArcGIS using your UCLA account once again to link the desktop application to your ArcGIS account. Open ArcGIS Pro and click on “Your ArcGIS organization’s URL” to expand this section. Type “gisucla” into the box before “.maps.arcgis.com” then sign in with your UCLA credentials.

Overview of the interface

For additional details on the ArcGIS Pro interface, visit the official documentation here.

Types of items that you may work with in ArcGIS Pro

Components of a map

Basemap – global reference maps that can provide basic satellite or topographic imagery on which you can layer your own data. There are twelve basemaps built into ArcGIS Pro, some with and without labels, boundary lines and placenames.

Feature classes – the primary data files that you work with to build maps. Each feature class can only be one type (i.e. point, line, polygon) and has a table of information associated. You can add and edit the fields in this table and use these fields to filter, style, and connect the spatial data to other data.

Feature datasets are collections of related feature classes that enable more complex analyses and processes. Some tools will only work on feature datasets while others won’t but typically you can export or transform between different formats to allow you to use the tool you want.

Tables – tabular (aka spreadsheet) data that may or may not be attached to a feature class.

Raster datasets – images (pixel based) that can be georeferenced to overlay specific locations on the surface of the earth

Setting up a project

Projects are the primary way in which your data, maps, and files are organized in ArcGIS. Creating a project will set up the following:

• a folder with the same name (Recommendation: do not include spaces or special characters)

and within that folder:

• a file geodatabase with the same name
• a toolbox with the same name
• a folder titled ImportLog
• a map titled Map that has not yet been saved

While ArcGIS defaults to saving items such as maps and layouts within this folder, the software does not save copies of your data or files in this location unless you explicitly move or save the files there.

We cannot stress enough how important it is to devise (and follow) a plan for how you will organize your files.

We recommend having a single folder that you use to store all of the files associated with your projects – whether raw data, processed outputs, maps that you’ve created, or anything else you may include in your mapping projects. Additionally, we highly recommend keeping a copy of all original data (i.e. gps points, exports from surveying equipment, scans of images that you plan to georeference, files provided by colleagues, etc) in a single folder with a name that indicates these files should not be edited. If you plan to use one of these files, save a copy into another folder and add that to your map. As you become more familiar with the tools and what actions alter the files, you can skip this step; however, to start this is the safest process.

File naming It can also be helpful to devise a file naming convention for your projects. Things to think about when coming up with your convention:

how to indicate the source
whether you want to include the date
how to indicate edits such as
– processes or analyses that were run to produce this file/layer
– joins or filters that have been applied
whether you will be using statistical software or other applications that may have their own requirements (i.e. no spaces, lowercase, etc)

Coordinate systems, projections and wrapping your head around the surface of the earth

Coordinate systems or coordinate reference systems, and projections can be one of the trickiest aspects to working with maps and ArcGIS Pro. All spatial data is collected using a specific coordinate system – essentially a frame of reference that allows x, y (and z) data to be mapped to a specific spot on the surface of the earth. Which units the data is represented in (i.e. decimal degrees or meters) is related to the type of coordinate system.

A geographic coordinate system is a reference framework that locates points on a spherical globe. Its units are angular, usually degrees.

A projected coordinate system on the other hand is flat. It starts with a Geographic Coordinate System then converts that into a flat surface using a projection algorithm. Its units are linear, most commonly in meters.

You can check what the coordinate system and projection are by double clicking on the layer in the Content pane (or right clicking and selecting properties). Open the Source tab and scroll down to Spatial Reference. When you expand this section you will see what type of coordinate system and which has been assigned to the layer as well as a projection if it exists.

Empty maps (and scenes) take on the coordinate system of the first layer added. Additional layers are automatically displayed using the same coordinate system. If the layer has a different coordinate system, the data will be transformed (aka projected).

If these concepts are interesting or you are a visual learner, this video goes into more details!

💡TIP: If you are having problems with a tool and aren’t sure why, try checking the projection of the input data/files! Some tools require that the data has a projection.

Adding points to a map

We’ll be covering two methods of getting points into ArcGIS – using the Go To XY tool to add in individual points and importing a spreadsheet with multiple points.

Go To XY tool

In some cases you won’t be collecting data in the field or obtaining lat/lons from GPS units but instead starting with a named location or previously published map (or sketch). In these cases, it may be easier to use the XY tool to add points to the map.Example: Let’s say that we want to create a general site map to show their relative locations. We have the names of the sites and know where they are from our research but don’t have GPS data for the sites. In this case, we can use Google Maps to get the lat/lon for each site and add it to our map!

Steps

1. Open ArcGIS Pro and create a new map/project if needed
2. In the Catalog Pane on the right, expand Folders and the associated project folder. Right click on the gdb and select New > Feature Class
3. Give the Feature Class a name such as Sites and an alias version of that name. Select Point as the Feature Class Type. Most of the other settings can remain the defaults but review in case your requirements are different!
4. Click on Next and then add a new field called “SiteName” – it should default to Text but be sure it is a text field.
5. Click on Next and review all of the default settings until you reach the final page and then click Finish
6. A new layer will be added to the Contents pane on the left side of the screen. Select this by clicking on the layer and then navigate to the Edit tab in the top ribbon. Click Create and then select the Sites layer in the “Create Features” pane that opens on the right side. Your cursor will now change to a point and if you click on the map, you will add a new point to the Sites layer.
7. Switch back to the Map tab in the top ribbon and click on the Go To XY tool to toggle it on. This will make a small toolbar appear at the bottom of the map. You can enter coordinates there and then place markers. But we need the coordinates!
8. Open a browser and navigate to Google Maps
9. Enter the name of a site you want to add and go to the appropriate location. Right click on the map in Google Maps where you want to get a point and click on the numbers at the top of the window that opens. This will automatically copy these numbers (i.e. the coordinates) to your clipboard.
10. Switch back to ArcGIS Pro and paste the coordinates into the Long and Lat fields (you can paste them into a word doc or something else to separate them more easily). A red box will ring the toolbar if the coordinates are not valid (this frequently happens if the Lat and Long are reversed). Once the coordinates are valid, the red ring will disappear and you can click on the Blue pin at the right of the toolbar to place a marker.
11. A new layer will appear in the Contents pane named Graphics Layer – this is where the markers are stored. Right click on the Graphics Layer and select Zoom to Layer to have the map zoom in to this marker.
12. You can now use the Create Features point to add a point to the Sites layer where the marker is (be sure Sites is selected in the Create Features pane on the right side, if that pane disappeared, navigate back to the Edit tab in the top ribbon and click on Create).
13. After you add the point, right click on the Sites layer in the Contents pane and select Open Attribute Table.
14. There should be a new row in the table now that is the point you just added. Double click on the cell in the Site_name column and add the appropriate site name.
15. Continue this process for any other sites you want to add to the map!
16. When you are finished adding sites, open the Edit tab in the top ribbon and click on the Save icon.

Import spreadsheet

In other cases, you may have a spreadsheet of points that you want to add to your map. This process can be used to import data collected from GPS units, transcribed or copied from publications, or accessed through colleagues or data repositories.

Example: Let’s pretend we need a detailed map of the equipment in the Digital Archaeology Lab and have a table of data on it’s availability, demand, and location in the lab.

Steps

1. Add the spreadsheet to a folder within your project with information about its source – in this case we will add the spreadsheet “dal_objects.xlsx” to Workshop/RawData/FieldSeasons/2024
2. Save a CSV copy of the file to a working folder (i.e. Workshop/Working/ObjDistributions/dal_objects.csv) – this will be the file that you edit and use in ArcGIS Pro. If anything goes wrong, you still have your original spreadsheet and can always create a new working CSV file from that.
3. Open ArcGIS Pro and the Project map – be sure to have the Catalog pane open on the right side
4. Navigate to the CSV file you just created, right click on it and select Export/Table To Point Feature Class. This will open a new pane on the right titled Geoprocessing.
5. In the Output Feature Class field rename the file to “dal_objects” and check that it is saving in the gdb
6. Confirm that the appropriate X or Longitude and Y or Latitude fields are selected (similarly for Z if you have elevation data). In this case the fields are “lon” and “lat”
7. Confirm the Coordinate System is correct (i.e. in this case GCS_WGS_1984).
8. Click Run and a new layer should be added to the Contents pane on the left. Right click on it and select Zoom to Layer to confirm that the points were imported correctly.

Styling

Frequently with maps, you will want to adjust the colors, sizes, and other visual aspects of the different layers to convey information. You can also add labels, adjust the transparency and select different symbols. You can manually select the styling that you want for different layers or use data from their attribute tables to set the styles.

There are a myriad of ways to style your data and determine the appearance of your points, polygons, and lines. For points, the types we’ve seen most commonly used in cultural heritage maps are:

• Single Symbol – every point will have the same symbol (you can adjust the appearance though)
• Unique Values – the symbol used for a point will be determined by the data (i.e. you can select a field and have the color of the symbol differ based on the values in that field)
• Graduated Colors – similar to unique values but uses graduated colors to visualize a numeric field in the data
• Bivariate Colors – visualizes data from two numeric fields in relation to each other (i.e. low to high on each axis)
• Unclassed Colors – similar to Graduated Colors but following a spectrum instead of specific color gradations
• Heat Map – visualize density of the points

Example

In the following example, we will style the object points we just imported to make a distribution map of Digital Archaeology Lab equipment displaying availability status and demand.

Steps

• Right click on the dal_objects layer in the Contents pane on the left and select Symbology
• A new pane will open on the right with five tabs (icons). The first tab Primary Symbology will be opened first. Select Unique Values and then the “availability” field for Field 1.
• You can pick a color scheme you like or directly edit the symbols in the table below. Click on the symbol on the left side of the table to adjust its style. For this example, we want the “available” objects to use “Circle 1” and have a green color. You can change the color by clicking on the Properties tab. Click on Apply at the bottom to set these changes.
• You can get back to the Primary Symbology pane by clicking on the back arrow at the top left of the pane. Change the “reserved” objects to use the same “Circle 1” symbol and have a red color.
• Now let’s adjust the size of the symbol based on the demand field. Click into the second tab (the icon looks like two green squares) and expand the size section.
• Select the “demand” field and the symbols will automatically be resized based on the numeric value in this field. You can click on the Chi (looks like an X) button to the right of the field to open a window in which you can apply calculations. This can be handy if you want to exaggerate the difference or base the size on an expression using multiple fields. If you check the Show legend box, the size legend will be added to the Contents pane as well.

Labels

In many cases you will want to label the data on your map. This can be done by right clicking on the layer that you are interested in labeling and toggling Label on (it can be difficult to see but when on, the icon to the left of Label will have a blue background). Next, right click again and select Labeling Properties – this will open a pane on the right in which you can choose which field to use for the label (or fields if you want to combine them or calculate values to display). You can change the font, font size and color as well as other formatting option by switching to the Symboltab. Similarly, you can adjust how the label is positioned in relationship to the data on the map within the Position tab.

Joins and Relates

One of the great strengths of getting your data into a GIS or other relational database system is the ability to join different datasets together. With ArcGIS Pro, you can join data either by shared fields or spatial overlap.

Join – fields in one table can be appended to another based on a common value (typically a unique ID assigned to the record)

Relate – a relationship between two tables is created allowing you to access fields from the related table when selecting a record. Relates also use common value such as unique IDs to link the data.

A key difference between joins and relates is that when you join two tables, the fields are appended then, almost like a snapshot in time, and any changes made to the joined table later are not seen in the appended fields. Relates, on the otherhand, do not append the fields so you can edit the data in a related table and it will be updated when you view it through the relationship. Relates also allow you to define different types of relationships such as one-to-one and one-to-many. Read more here.

Spatial join – similar to a regular join, however instead of using common values in a field to join, the data is joined based on geographic location. There are different “criteria” or ways in which this tool can determine whether a spatial join should be created and you can optionally adjust the parameters.

Types of spatial join criteria

Filters

There are two main ways that you can filter your data – display filters and definition queries. Display filters only impact what is shown on the map, while definition queries allow you to create subsets of the data that you can then work with separately.

Add a display filter

• In the Contents pane on the left side, right click on the layer you want to filter and select Symbology
• Click on the fourth icon (looks like a funnel) to open the Display Filters section
• Toggle Enable display filters on and select “Manually” from Set active display filter
• Click on the green + New display filter and then choose the field(s) you would like to filter on in the section that appears below then select the appropriate operator and values
• The map will automatically update to only display the data that matches your filter
  • Note: if you open the attribute table, you will still see all of the records – it is only the map display that has changed

Add a definition query

• In the Contents pane on the left side, right click on the layer you want to query and select Properties
• Open the Definition Query tab along the left side then click on the green + New definition query button
• Choose the field(s) you would like to filter in the section that appears then the appropriate operator and values
• Click Apply and then OK
• The map and attribute table will automatically update to only display the data that matches your query
  • Note: if you remove the query from Properties, the records will be returned. If you want to create a layer with just the filtered values, right click on the layer and navigate to Data >> Export Features

Part 2 of this tutorial series covers working with raster images including georeferencing and tracing as well as common analyses and how to prepare a map for publication. You can find it here!