How ArcView Projects Work:

The Project File (.apr):

An ArcView project is saved as an ASCII (plain text) file that organizes the geographic data that you bring together in ArcView. The project file also includes information on the display status, screen location, size etc. of the various component windows. ArcView project files have the extension APR attached to the file name. It is important to remember that the geographic data (explained below) are not actually stored in the project "APR" file. Instead, the "APR" file contains pointers to the data files using the DOS path name telling ArcView where the files are located. When you open an existing ArcView project, ArcView gathers all the data pointed to and displays the result on the computer screen.

It is best not to move your geographic data files to different locations (folders or subdirectories) on the hard drive because ArcView will not be able to find them. It is very helpful to come up with an organization of your geographic data into folders (subdirectories) that you are comfortable with and stick with that organization. An organized storage scheme combined with a file naming convention goes a long way towards making your data easily accessible and understandable to you and others who need to access this data.

It was mentioned above that ArcView project files store pointers or links to the data (shapefiles). If the project or the shapefiles are moved, the links will be broken and the ArcView project will not know where the files are located. You must then tell ArcView where each file is and that takes a while for some projects.

Moving your Project to a Different Computer:

When moving between computers you must save the project (APR) file, as well as all data that has been used in the project in order for the project to open in the new location. See "Saving your Work in ArcView" below.

When you open an ArcView Project file that has links to data files that have been moved since it was saved you will have to "tell" ArcView where you have moved every file. ArcView will prompt you with a window asking where the file it can not find is located, it will even tell you the feature type of the file it is looking for, as well as the location where it used to be. (Where is c:\prt462\assign1\data_file.shp (point)?)

 

 

There is another more advanced method to "fix" the "broken data links" in the project file to tell ArcView where all of the files are. See the " Making your ArcView Project Transportable" topic.

Saving your Work in ArcView:

After working for hours on your ArcView projects you will not doubt want to save your work for future sessions. Once a project is saved, you can end ArcView and come back later to work on the same project. As you learned in "How ArcView Projects Work," the project file does not contain the datasets, but rather stores pointers to the datasets.

Saving an ArcView Project (Remember that this only saves the Project file NOT the shapefiles):

Nothing you do in ArcView is saved until you save the project file. The best way to save the project is to go to the "File" menu and select "Save Project As..." so that you can see exactly where the project is being saved. Save your project often. Each time you save it you have the option of saving it as a new version: (e.g. proj1a.apr, proj1b.apr...) While you do not want a ton of project files, if you are about to try something new it might be a good idea to save a backup of your project.

Saving Shapefile Edits:

Changes that you make to shapefiles while you are working in ArcView are permanent. If you want to make drastic changes to shapefiles you should always retain a backup copy of the original shapefiles. There are two easy ways to save shapefiles. One is to make the theme you want to alter active and select "Convert to Shapefile" from the theme menu. As long as you do not have anything selected in the theme, the entire theme will be "copied" into a new shapefile that you can give a new name. Then you can make your changes to the newly created shapefile. Another way is to use the Shapefile Manager to make a copy of the shapefile. See the Managing Shapefiles topic.

In working with shapefiles (a.k.a., themes) and tables (a.k.a., attribute tables), you'll be prompted to save them whenever you leave edit mode; but large portions of your work (i.e., graphics, layouts,...) are only saved when you save the project. So, go to the "File" menu and "Save" regularly throughout your ArcView session.

 

Saving and Moving Shapefiles:

As you learned in Assignment 2, shapefiles have at least 3 associated files and often have more. If you want to move these shapefiles to a different folder, disk, or computer you must be certain to save/move all the files that are associated with a particular shapefile. Alternatively you can use the shapefile manager to copy the shapefile to the new location. The Shapefile Manager will copy all the related files so that you are certain not to lose any. See "Managing Shapefiles" below.

If any of the data you will reference in your project are on networked drives (such as your home account or the GEO directory) be consistent in the drive letters that you assign to them each time you attach them. ArcView will not be able to find the remote data if the drive letters change from one session to the next.

Saving Files Created as you Work:

You just spent 2 hours working on a project and now you can not find some of the shapefiles that you made. Where did the Shapefiles go?

When creating new shapefiles, like buffers, or exporting jpeg images, ArcView prompts you for the location to save the file on your computer. Usually ArcView defaults to the temporary (temp) directory and then you have to navigate to the folder where you have been saving your data. Nine times out of ten you remember to change the saving location, but every once in a while you forget and then you can't find your file. To avoid losing files and to make it easier to save your work, you should learn to set directories.

There are two terms that ArcView uses when looking at the file system to write files and to look for files. These are the Current Directory and the Working Directory. The Current Directory is the directory where ArcView will look for files when you initiate an option that requires a filename from the user. Initially, this value is set to the value that exists in the Icon that is used to start ArcView (either from the START menu or the Windows Desktop). Usually this is set to the location where the ArcView programs are located (\esri\av_gis30\arcview\bin32). The project's Working Directory is the directory where ArcView writes underlying utility and temporary files. For example, when you index a coverage, if you do not have write access to the location of the data source, ArcView writes the index files to your working directory. Similarly, when you do editing or analysis tasks, ArcView writes intermediate data sets generated by those operations to your working directory.

Setting the Current Directory:

 

This may not be appropriate to set on most school computers. If you want to learn more about how to do this please visit Oh Where, Oh Where has my Data File Gone? at http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/mis/gis/tools/arcview/tipsheets/Tip6.html

Setting the Working Directory:

 

If you do not specify a working directory when you begin your ArcView session, ArcView will save your work in the default directory. You can specify a working directory in ArcView by:

1. From the File menu select Set Working Directory
2. Then type in the path to where you want the files saved. (For example C:\prt462\assign1)

Never use a removable disk as your working drive. Removable disks like Zips or floppies are good to keep as backups, but they fail a lot! For more help with setting working directories visit: http://www.esricanada.com/k-12/downloads/docs/set_work_dir.pdf or http://www.science.smith.edu/departments/sal/documents/SetWorkingDir.pdf.

Managing Shapefiles

You should tidy-up your projects regularly, and at the same time, use The Shapefile Manager to actually remove obsolete datasets from your working directory while the notion that they are obsolete is fresh in your mind. A large source of problems with managing work in ArcView stems from having garbage mixed in with valuable stuff and becoming confused about which is which.

Coming soon............ in the mean time try http://www.esricanada.com/k-12/faq/pc/que_ans_1.html

Using Extensions

ArcView extensions are add-on programs that provide specialized GIS functionality. They increase the power of ArcView in solving real world problems.

To turn on extensions:

1. Switch to the project window (the one labeled "Untitled").

1. From the File menu, select Extensions. Result: The Extensions dialog box appears.
   1. Check the box next to any extensions you want to use in your project.
   2. Click OK
2. Note that when you turn on extensions, the ArcView Project will save those settings, so if you are no longer using an extension you should turn it off and save your project before you quit ArcView. Extensions are loaded every time you open the project, so the more extensions the longer it takes the project to open.

Note: The file format *.avx is associated with extensions while *.ave is associated with scripts. Most User Extensions (those created by users and not ESRI) usually consist only of an *.avx file. These user extensions are relatively easy to download and install as described in the pdf below. If you are making a project transportable extensions that only required a *.avx file to install can be placed on the same disk (media) as the project. The ArcView project must be "told" to use the .avx file from the disk before the project is made transportable. This will ensure that the project opens correctly for the person trying to access the transportable project. If you are using a complicated extension (i.e. one that requires an installation of some sort) that is more than just adding the *.avx to the ext32 directory you may not be able to tmake the extension transportable. You may try to make it transportable but you may run into difficulties and it is not recommended unless you feel very comfortable with ArcView and computers.

Read this pdf file to learn more about using extensions.

Making ArcView Projects Transportable

It was mentioned in the topic "How ArcView Projects Work" that ArcView project files store links to the data and shapefiles. If the project or other files are moved, the links will be broken and ArcView will not know where the files are located.

There is another more advanced method to "fix" the "broken data links" in the project file to tell it where all of the files are. See the " Making your ArcView Project Transportable" topic.

 

Making your ArcView Project Transportable- The Relative Paths Method

 

Coming soon............ in the mean time try http://www.esricanada.com/k-12/faq/pc/que_ans_14.html

Created by Allyson Jason ©April 17, 2002