Customizing ArcMap

Problem:

There was a concern about Arc Map default interface. It seemed like most of the tools to be used today either buried within context menu or not accessible easily. In order to ease work flow, I had to make some customized toolbars including tools and menus.

The city of Oleander, TX Police district data had been provided through NCSU GIS 520 web course Moodle page.  I need to make a personalized Geodatabase that contains only Police dataset including district boundaries and police districts.

1.I had to make two toolbars named ‘Map Display’ and ‘Mapping Analysis’. In Map Display Toolbar I added 5 tools named ‘New Identify Link tool’, ‘Edge Match tool’, ‘Buffer tool’, ‘Clip tool’, ‘Clip Data frame’ and one menu named ‘Layer menu’ that includes set ‘maximum scale’ and ‘set minimum scale’ and as well as ‘Run Easy calculate 10’tool. In Mapping Analysis toolbar, I added one menus named ‘Schematics menu’ that includes ‘Start editing diagram’, ‘Stop editing diagram’, ‘to all diagrams’, ‘convert diagram to features’. The feature layer Context menu is ‘Open table showing selected features’ which is shown under Open attribute table.

2. Customization using ESRI Add-In script and tool.

‘Easy Calculate Add-In’ had been provided through this Course Moodle page. Then it had been downloaded and installed in the computer.

I needed to create two new fields to hold data values for X center and Y center coordinates for each Police districts polygon of the city of Oleander, TX.

Analysis Procedure:

Arc GIS 10.4 had been used to finish the problem. After adding Police District of Oleander city, TX data (provided by NCSU GIS 520 web course) in ArcMap, anybody need to utilize Customized mode from Customize menu to create a new toolbar by opening toolbar tab-new. It is needed to undock the toolbar and then it can hover anywhere on the Arc Map. After opening command tab, by selecting new tool from any category drag and drop to the new toolbar, the tool name is shown up and by choosing ‘image and text menu’, image and text of the tool has been stacked up to the toolbar. By choosing ‘begin a group menu’, the tools are going to stack downwards like steps.’ New identify link tool’ and ‘edge match tool’ from ‘adjustment ‘category and ‘clip’ and ‘buffer’ tool from ‘analysis’ category has been dragged and dropped to the custom made ‘Map Display’toolbar. Another toolbar named ‘Mapping Analysis had been created in same way as explained before and the ‘Schematics menu’ had been added to it from where Start editing diagram’, ‘Stop editing diagram’, ‘to all diagrams’, ‘convert diagram to features’ had been added as drop-down tools. One feature layer had to chosen from the context menu. After downloaded and installed Easy Calculate Add-In and adding fields in the layer attribute table, from’Add in control’ category ‘Run easy calculate 10’icon had been dragged and dropped on the custom toolbar and performed calculation.

                                    Workflow Diagram

Results:

Application and Reflection:

I came to know that there are so many tools and menus available to facilitate Arc Map users. From now on before starting any project I can customize my tools and menus for easy access and handy, instead of searching tools always by opening search button. It can increase quick productivity and efficiency. ESRI’s new Add-in gives a great efficiency for instant and quick calculation for any field.

Suppose I make a map of soil classification or vegetation for certain area, I need to use clip and buffer tool a lot. In order to get the tool in handy and quick access, I will make a customized toolbar, then I will add these tools in that toolbar.

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