Select the Parks within Forest Acres
TASKS
RESULT
1. Add the county boundary,
municipalities and parks (pts.) layers
to your map
2. Save your map (.mxd) to your
desktop
Your map should look something like this. That’s your only hint for this one ☺
TASK
3. Apply a definition query to limit the
municipalities layer to only display
Forest Acres
DIRECTIONS
a. Open the municipalities layer
properties > definition query tab
b. Open the query wizard
c. Write a definition query to only allow
Forest Acres to be displayed
(i.e. only show me features that have
a city name equal to Forest Acres)
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TASK
4. Select all of the park points that are
within Forest Acres
DIRECTIONS
a. Open the select by location dialog
b. Choose parks as your target layer
c. Choose municipalities as your source
layer
d. Locate the ‘are within the source
layer feature’ option from the spatial
selection method dropdown menu
e. Make sure that the search distance
option is unchecked & click OK
So, what did we do here? We opted to select features from the parks layer (target) that are within (spatial selection method) the municipalities
layer (source). The definition query that you applied has filtered out everything other than Forest Acres, so the municipalities layer on your map
is currently equal to Forest Acres.
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TASK
5. View the selected parks in the
attribute table
DIRECTIONS
a. Open the attribute table
b. Click on the ‘show selected features
button’
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Export the Selected Parks as a Shapefile
TASK
1. Export the selected parks from the
TOC
DIRECTIONS
a. Right click the parks layer from the
TOC & choose data > export data
b. Make sure that the selected features
option is displayed next to Export:
c. Leave the coordinate settings alone
This creates a new layer: the parks within
Forest Acres as of today’s date.
d. Navigate to a folder (or create one
through the new folder option)
This new layer can be added to any of your
maps.
NOTE - If you wanted to save this selection in
a file geodatabase, you would follow these
directions with a few small adjustments:
•
•
navigate to a file geodatabase instead
of a folder
choose feature class as your type
instead of shapefile
e. Name the export
f.
selected type = shapefile
g. Click Save & then OK
h. Choose yes when asked if you want to
add this layer to ArcMap
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Export the Selection as a Table & View the New Table in Excel
TASK
1. Export to .dbf format from the
attribute table
DIRECTIONS
a. Open the Forest Acres Parks layer
attribute table (right-click > open
attribute table)
b. From the attribute table, click the
table options button & choose
‘export’
c. Leave the export option set to all
records
d. Browse to a folder (or create a new
folder through this dialog)
e. Enter a name for the table export
f.
Choose DBASE table as your type
g. Click save
h. Click OK
i.
Click no when prompted to add the
new table to your map
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TASK
2. Open your exported table in Excel
DIRECTIONS
a. Open Excel
b. Choose open & browse to the folder
were your table export was saved
c. Choose dBase Files (*.dbf) from the
dropdown next to file name
3. Modify the table as needed
d. Single click the .dbf file you created in
the last section and then click Open
From here you can modify the table
format, change column heading
names, etc.
You can also opt to save this as an
excel workbook or any of the other
options available through Excel’s Save
As dialog.
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Create a Quarter Mile Buffer Around the Forest Acres Parks
TASK
1. Add the buffer wizard to your tools
toolbar
DIRECTIONS
a. Choose custom mode from the
customize menu
b. Open the commands tab
c. Type ‘buffer’ in the search text area
d. Click on each category listing to view
the buffer related tools available
The buffer wizard command is listed
when the tools category is selected;
you will add this command to your
tools toolbar in ArcMap.
e. Click and drag the buffer wizard icon
from the commands window to a spot
on your tools toolbar
This tool will now be available for use
in ArcMap.
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TASK
2. Create the buffer
DIRECTIONS
a. Open the buffer wizard
b. Direct the buffer wizard to create
buffers around your Forest Acres
Parks layer
If only some of the features in a layer
are selected at the time, you will also
be prompted to choose whether you
want to buffer the entire layer or only
the selected features in this window.
c. Click Next
d. Specify the buffer distance and units
Choose .25 for the distance &
Miles for your distance units
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e. Opt not to dissolve the barriers
between your buffers
f.
Browse to the location where you will
save the buffer layer that you are
creating. In this case, save the buffer
layer in the same folder as your Forest
Acres Parks layer.
g. Click finish
Name your buffer layer something intuitive so
that it will be easy to identify at a later date
The .25 mile buffers around your Forest Acres Park features will be drawn on your map
and added to your TOC. This is a separate map layer that functions like any other. You
can view its attribute table, open and adjust layer properties, etc.
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Add TMS Numbers and Owner Info. from the Parcels Layer to the Forest Acres Parks
TASK
1. Use a spatial join to join the parcels
and Forest Acres Park layers
DIRECTIONS
a. Open Arc Toolbox
One way to do this is to choose Arc
Toolbox from the Geoprocessing
menu.
b. Choose Spatial Join from the Analysis
Tools > Overlay section
c. Target layer = your Forest Acres Parks
layer
d. Join features = parcels CAMA
Navigate to SDE to select this layer
e. Output Feature Class = folder where
your FA parks layer is saved
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f.
Remove fields that you don’t need
from the output by highlighting
unwanted field names and clicking on
the X
Keep all of the Forest Acres Parks
fields, but remove everything from
parcels CAMA except the following:
TMS
Owner Name
Owner Address
Owner Address2
Owner City
Owner State
Owner Zip
g. Leave the other settings at their
defaults
h. Click OK
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Create a Layer of Addresses within .25 miles of Forest Acres Parks
TASK
1. Use the clip tool to create a layer of
address points within the Forest
Acres Parks buffer layer that you
created
DIRECTIONS
a. Select the clip tool from the
geoprocessing menu
b. Set your clip tool parameters:
Input Features = address points
(navigate to your SDE connection)
Clip Features = FA Parks buffer layer
Output feature class = same folder
you have used for previous steps
c. Click OK
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Create & Populate a field in the Clipped Address Points Layer that Specifies whether or not the
Address Resides within Forest Acres
TASK
1. Add a new field to the clipped
address pts. layer
DIRECTIONS
a. Open the FA Park Addresses clip layer
attribute table
(right-click > open attribute table)
b. (optional) open the layer properties
and turn off all of the fields except for
FULLADDRESS, CITY, STATE and ZIP
This is a decent habit to get into, as it
makes viewing relevant layer
attributes much easier. Be careful
when using geoprocessing tools (clip,
etc.) though; generally only visible
fields will be included in the outputs
that are generated by these tools.
c. In the attribute table, select ‘add
field’ from the table options menu
d. Name the field FA_Status
e. Type = text
f.
Length = 20
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TASK
2. Select the address points from this
layer that are within Forest Acres
DIRECTIONS
a. Choose select by location from the
selection menu
b. Set the selection parameters:
Target Layer = clipped address pt.
layer
Source Layer = Municipalities
(renamed to Forest Acres in this
screen capture)
Spatial selection method = (target
features) are within the source
layer feature
c. Click OK and take a look at the
selection on the map
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TASK
3. Populate the selected address pt.
features with ‘Inside’
DIRECTIONS
a. In the attribute table, right click on
the column heading FA_Status
b. Choose ‘field calculator’ from the
menu that appears
The field calculator window will open.
This is an incredibly powerful tool that
allows you to populate the selected
field in a few ways. The most basic is
to manually enter information.
c. Type “Inside” in the text area beneath
FA_Status =
Because this is a text field, the word
Inside needs to be surrounded in
double quotes.
If this was a numeric field, you would
just enter a number without quotes.
RESULT: The selected address pts. from this layer now display an FA_Status value of Inside.
When none of the features are selected, the field calculator will populate every row in the
layer’s attribute table.
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TASK
4. Switch the selection and populate the
new selection with ‘outside’
DIRECTIONS
a. Use the switch selection button in the
attribute table to switch your
selection
You now have features that reside
outside the Forest Acres boundary
selected.
b. Open the field calculator window for
the FA_Status column
c. Populate this field with the word
Outside
Remember your double quotes!
d. Clear your selection
RESULT: your address points within .25 miles of a Forest Acres Park layer is now capable of
being classified as inside/outside Forest Acres municipal bounds.
You can use this calculated field to symbolize the layer, as a component in further analysis, etc.
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