Introduction to ArcGIS Pro

This tutorial will step you through a typical ArcGIS Pro session. You will be introduced to many different tools and processes which may seem overwhelming at first. Many of these tools will be explored in greater depths in subsequent tutorials. The goal of this tutorial is to offer you a glimpse into the world of ArcGIS Pro using the case of the Hudson Valley watershed bioregion. A bioregion is a region whose limits are naturally defined by topographic and biological features (such as mountain ranges and ecosystems) (Merriam-Webster)

Before starting this tutorial, you will need to download and install a dataset following these instructions:

Create a folder called Intro_Pro somewhere under your computer directory (e.g. C:\Users\yourname\Documents\ArcGISProTutorials\ Intro_Pro\). Copy all of the contents of this folder to your external drive at the end of each working session.
Download the data for this exercise then extract the contents of Explore_Pro.zip into your newly created Intro_Pro folder. Extract files using PeaZip or 7Zip on your windows computer. If working in Parallels on your mac computer, simply double-click on the zipped folder to extract.
Note: you will be instructed to add additional data to you ArcGIS Pro project from ArcGIS Online while completing the tutorial.

Part 1

Creating a new ArcGIS Pro session

In the lower left hand corner of your Windows computer, click the Start icon then select ArcGIS >> ArcGIS Pro. If you are presented with a sign-in screen, log in with your ArcGIS credentials.
In the ArcGIS Pro splash screen, select the Map option.

In the New Project window, name the new project Intro_pro and set the location to the ./Intro_pro folder that houses the GIS data you downloaded for this tutorial.
Uncheck the Create a folder for this local project option.
Click OK.

Note that the project name does not necessarily need to be the same as that of the folder, but it can facilitate data management in the long run.

You'll be presented with a new Map view that consists of three windows: a Contents pane to the left, a Map view at the center, and a Catalog pane to the right. The Contents pane has an embedded topographic layer and a world hillshade layer by default. These layers are streamed across the internet, so a network connection is required to see them.

Note that ArcGIS Pro is context sensitive, meaning that the ribbon layout will change depending on the tab being activated. For example, if you switch from the Insert tab (which should be currently selected) to the View tab, you'll be presented with a different ribbon with a different set of tools. So it is important that you note which tab is being referenced in this and subsequent tutorials.

The Catalog Pane

Next, you will add the data you downloaded for this tutorial. Loading and managing GIS data files is usually handled in the Catalog pane (right-hand window pane). If this is the first time you've opened an ArcGIS Pro session on your current computer, the Catalog pane should be the only pane present to the right of the Map view.

NOTE: If the Catalog pane is missing in your current session, you can activate it by clicking the View tab then selecting the Catalog Pane link from the ribbon.

Folder connections

By default, ArcCatalog will not show all the folders/drives on your computer. It will only show folders that are connected. In this working tutorial, a folder connection to Intro_Pro should have already been created (you should see it under the Folders icon.)

Adding data to the Map view via the Catalog Pane

Expand the Intro_Pro folder, then drag-and-drop the Interstate.shp file into the map.

The Interstate.shp file is added to the map and is now visible as a new layer in the Contents pane.

ArcGIS Pro will usually set the extent to that of the first spatial layer added to the map. Also, note that the default color scheme assigned to Interstate.shp may differ from that shown in this tutorial

Drag-and-drop the watershed.shp file into the map. This represents the bioregion of interest for this tutorial.
Drag-and-drop the Bard_College.shp file onto the map. This represents the point location of Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson.
Note: the layers might display in different colors than those in the screenshot.

Adding data to the Map view via Add Data

An alternative way of loading data into the map is by clicking on Add Data under the Map tab.

Select the Map tab, then click on Add Data >> Data.

Navigate to your Intro_Pro folder then add the Places_HV.shp data file.
The U.S. Census Bureau uses the term place for all municipalities (cities, towns, villages).

Note that the Add Data option requires that the project folder be connected. However, since the folder connection was already created in the Catalog window, this step was not needed here.

You will soon learn in this course that GIS files come in different data types and file formats. So far you've loaded vector data model files.

Adding files from the ArcGIS Online Portal

In the Catalog pane, select Portal on the top menu within the Catalog pane. From here you can access data stored in ArcGIS Online. You'll see options for:

Files stored in your private library
The organization (Bard College)
ArcGIS Online: all files stored publicaly on ArcGIS Online (from any organization)
ArcGIS Living Atlas (official, curated data repository for ESRI ArcGIS Online)

We will use the Portal to add a hillshade layer from ArcGIS Online. This is a raster data model file that shows the topography of a given area. The topography of a particular area is its physical shape, including its hills, valleys, and rivers, etc.

Select Portal in the Catalog pane
Select the cloud icon for searching ArcGIS Online
Search for "nys hillshade"
Select NYS_Statewide_Hillshade and drag-and-drop the file onto your map.

Use the checkmark next to each layer in the Contents pane to turn off all layers except the newly added hillshade and you map should like something like this:

For now, turn off (unselect) the hillshade layer.
Select the other layers to display them on the map once again.

Adding additional data files to the map

The project folder houses different data types and file formats. In the following set of instructions, you will learn how to create a point layer from a data table with latitude and longitude fields. You will also learn how to load GIS files stored in a geodatabase.

Adding an XY data table

You will display active toxic release inventory sites registered in 2023. These are site sources of toxic chemical waste management and pollution into the water, air, and/or land.

You will add the text file, tab separated found in in the file folder you downloaded for this tutorial: TRI.txt

First, you will load a data table (a simple comma separated data file, in this example) into the Map view by instructing ArcGIS to generate points from the latitude and longitude fields.

Select the Map tab, then click on XY Table To Point under the Layer group. This step will open a Geoprocessing pane to the right of the Map

A geoprocess is a tool that takes input from the user (usually as a data file such as a data table in this example) and generates a new output. Here, it will generate a new GIS file from a non GIS data file.

For the Input Table field, use the Browse button to navigate to the Intro_Pro folder and select the TRI.txt data file.
Click OK.

In this final step, you will select the data columns that store the coordinate value pairs. ArcGIS should recognize the latitude and longitude column names and automatically populate the Y and X fields. If not, select those fields from the pull down menus.
Leave the Z Field blank (the file does not contain elevation data).
Rename Output Feature Class to TRI_points
Click Run to execute this geoprocessing tool.

When complete, you should see a green check mark in the geoprocess pane and the new Cities_points should be automatically added to the Table of Contents (TOC).

You can close the geoprocess window pane to minimize desktop clutter by clicking on the close icon in the geoprocessing window's upper right-hand corner (the X symbol).

At this point, you should see the TRI_points layer added to the Contents pane.

Adding geodatabase files

You will continue adding GIS files into the map. This time, you will load geodatabase files (this is yet another GIS file format). In this next step you are free to drag and drop from the Data Catalog option or you can load the data via the Add Data option.

Via either the Catalog pane or the Add Data button, expand the Data.gdb folder as well as its Boundaries folder (technically referred to as a feature dataset) and add Counties, Parks and Hydrology to you Map.

Select all layers that you have added to the map.

Your Map should look something like this. Note that your default color schemes may differ from those shown in this tutorial, and the order in which the layers appear in the table of contents Drawing Order (TOC) may differ depending on the order in which they were added to your map.

Managing layers in the Contents pane

ArcGIS Pro draws each layer in the order listed in the Contents pane. The bottom layer (the Topographic layer) is drawn first, then the second layer from the bottom of the Contents pane (Hillshade.tif) is drawn, then the next layer above that is drawn, etc… with the top-most layer being drawn last (Cities_points).

You can rearrange the order in which the layers are stacked in the Map view by rearranging their order in the Contents pane.

Move the Counties layer above the Interstate layer and move the Hydrology layer above the Parks layer if their stacking order is switched

Remember, you can also turn layers on and off by unchecking their boxes.

Turn off the World Topographic Map layer and the World Hillshade layer by unchecking their boxes.

Saving the map document

It's good practice to save an ArcGIS Pro project on a regular basis. This way, if the software or computer crashes, you can retrieve the most recently saved version of the project.

In the upper left-hand corner of the map document, click on the Save icon.

When we created the new ArcGIS Pro project, the software created a file called Intro_pro.aprx (the file name adopted the project name we assigned to this project).

You will probably not see the .aprx file listed in the Catalog pane since it is a not a data layer that can be added to the Map view. You may need to use Windows file management folder to see the .aprx file. Navigate to the folder containing your data for this tutorial to locat the .aprx file.

In creating the new project, ArcGIS also added additional folder and files to the project folder. These can be ignored for the purpose of this exercise.

This completes Part 1 of the tutorial. Next, we will symbolize the layers to make a map that clearly displays layers of interest.

Part 2

Changing a layer's symbology

Each layer can be customized to look a specific way in your Map by changing its symbology. The symbology options available to us will differ based on the GIS data layer type.

Changing the Counties' symbology

The Counties layer is masking out many underlying layers. Since we are only interested in the boundary locations, we will set the polygon fill color to transparent and the outline color to white.

In the Contents pane, select the Counties layer. In doing so, you will see three tabs related to polygon layer manipulation appear in the ribbon. These are: Feature Layer (used to manipulate feature symbology); Labeling (used to manipulate labels); Data (used to manipulate attribute tables and perform joins).

Click on the Feature Layer tab. This will bring up a new ribbon. This ribbon hosts most of the tools needed to change a layer's symbology.

Click on the Symbology icon in the Appearance ribbon. This should bring up a Symbology pane to the right of your Map view window.

In the Symbology pane, make sure that Single Symbol is selected in the Primary symbology field. Under that field, you should see a colored Symbol icon. Click on that icon to open its properties.

In the Format Polygon Symbol >> Gallery pane, select the second option, Black Outline (2pts). ArcGIS offers scores of predefined polygon symbols. Some may be exactly what you want, others may need some tweaking. Next, we will tweak the symbol by changing its outline color to white.

Once you've selected the Black Outline symbol, click the Properties option in the Format Polygon Symbol pane.

In the Properties window, change the outline color to white. Note that this menu also allows you to change the fill color (which is now set to transparent) as well as the polygon's outline thickness.

When done, click on the Apply button near the bottom of the Format Polygon Symbol pane to see the changes in the Map view.

At this point, do not close the Symbology pane yet. You will use this pane to symbolize other layers in the map

Symbolize the Watershed layer

Follow the steps above to symbolize the Watershed feature, but select black 2pt instead of white. Be sure to remove the fill color.

Changing the Parks' symbology

Next, select the Parks layer in the Contents pane. Its current symbol should now appear in the Symbology pane.
Change its fill color to green (a Leaf Green, for example) and its outline color to No Color following instructions given for symbolizing the Counties layer. There is no need to modify the outline width since its thickness will be irrelevant given a transparent outline color
Click Apply to force the symbology change.

In the next step, we'll modify the opaqueness of the Parks symbol so as not to completely mask out the underlying hillshade features. We'll set the Park's transparency to 50% in the following step.

While making sure that the Parks layer is still selected, navigate to the Feature Layer tab and set the layer's transparency to 50% via the slider or by typing the transparency value in the box.

On your own, change the Hydrology layer's symbology to a Soladite Blue fill color and a no color outline. Don't forget to click Apply to see the changes reflected in the Map.

Next, select the Interstate layer in the Contents window, then click on the line symbol in the Symbology pane.

Click on the Gallery option

Scroll down (about a third of the way down the Gallery pane window) and select 2.0 Point for line type, then switch to the Properties menu and set its color to Fire Red.
Click Apply.

At this point, your map layers should look something like the map subset shown in the adjoining figure.

Next, you will change the Places_HV layer by making the point symbols proportional to the population size. But first, you will explore the attributes table associated with the Places_HV layer.

The Attribute Table

Most vector layers have an attribute table. You can think of an attribute table as a spreadsheet that stores information for each element in a layer. For example, the Places_HV layer has an Attributes table that stores the city names for each point as well as their population count. The following steps will show you how to access the attribute table.

In the Contents pane, select Places_HV.
Select the Data tab to bring up its ribbon.

Click on the Attribute Table icon in the Data ribbon. This will add the layer's attribute table to your ArcGIS Pro desktop.

Alternatively, you can right-click the points layer in the Contents pane and select Attribute Table from the drop-down list.

At this point, you may find that your ArcGIS desktop environment is a bit cluttered with a Content, Map, Symbology and Table pane open. This may seem overwhelming at first. If so, you might want to close the Symbology pane for now (we can always reopen it later). In doing so, you will also want to close the underlying Catalog pane and the Geoprocessing pane if present. If, however, you are comfortable with having so many panes open in your session then feel free to leave these panes in place.

Modifying Point Symbols

The Places_HV attributes table stores the city name, its latitude and longitude and its population count. It also stores addition fields related to its spatial features, and the margin of error (moe) for the population count estimate.

Next, we will use the population field to define the size of the point features such that the point symbol size will be proportional to the population size.

Close the Places_HV attribute table (this to reduce desktop clutter).
Select the Places_HV layer in the Contents pane.
Activate the Feature Layer tab and click on Symbology from the ribbon. This will display the Symbology pane if it's not already active.
From the Primary symbology pull-down option select Proportional Symbols.

Select population from the Field pull-down menu. If not already automatically selected.
Change the Maximum size to 40.

Next, we'll change the point symbol's color.

Click on the point symbol next to Template. This should bring up the Symbology pane you've been exposed to earlier in this tutorial.
Set the point color symbol to Electron Gold (it's an orange hue in the color palette).
Click Apply to force the change.
In the Feature Layer ribbon, change the point symbology's transparency to 40%.

Your point symbols should look something like what is shown in the adjoining figure.

You'll note that the size of the these point circles remain constant regardless of the zoom level. So if you zoom out, the point symbols will cover a larger percentage of the map but their size will remain the same relative to the page layout.

Finish symbolizing the remaining layers

Symbolize Bard_College as a black point, size 10 pt
Symbolize the TRI feature class layer to be red and size 3 pt

Exploring the map

You may have already figured out how to navigate around the Map view with your mouse. To have greater control over the Map's interaction, click on the Map tab in the menu bar.

In Explore mode, your mouse works as both a panning/zooming tool as well as an inquiry tool.

To pan around the map, press and hold the middle mouse button.
To zoom in and out, roll the middle mouse button forward and backward.

You can also probe your layers for attribute information. For example, click inside one of the park features on the map Doing so will bring up the attribute information for all layers present at that location. However, you'll note that the information being pulled up is that for the Counties layer and not for the Parks layer. This is because the Explore tool will default to the top most layer in the Contents stack.

To have the Explore tool list all visible layers present at the location clicked, expand the Explore tool and select Visible Layers.

Now click once again on a park polygon. You should now see the three visible layers having a feature at the location clicked. These should include Counties, Parks and Hillshade.tif.

You can expand anyone of the layer in the Pop-up window.

Saving the map document

In the upper left-hand corner of the map document, click on the Save icon.

Submit on Brightspace

A screenshot of your map including the table of contents (TOC) and all layers selected

Turn on the basemap layers World Topographic Map and World Hillshade, and turn off your hillshade layer. Then

A screenshot of your map with TRI unselected
A screenshot of your map with Places_HV unselected
In a few sentences, describe any patterns that stand out to you when exploring your map.

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