Modifying RIDGE Display Map Backgrounds

Ira Graffman OST/SEC

21 December, 2005

This document contains instructions on how to edit the shapefiles used
as map backgrounds for the RIDGE web displays. Should you notice in your
display that cities, roads or rivers need to be added, deleted or the
locations fixed, this document will help you do so. It is a step-by-step
tutorial aimed at novice ArcGIS (ArcMap) 8/9.x users. Experienced users
can choose which section contains information in which there is detail
on unfamiliar procedures. The first two sections describe editing city
point shapefiles. The remaining two sections describe editing roads and
rivers shapefiles, which are both line shapefiles.

Obtaining RIDGE background map data

The first step is to get the background data shapefiles from their
central repository at Southern Region Headquarters. The current RIDGE
data can be found at
<http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ridge/overlays/shapefiles>. Download the data
and unzip it. It is important to know that a shapefile consists of three
files, a .dbf, .shp, and .shx. If you are going to move/copy a shapefile
to another location, all three files must be moved or copied.

You may find that having a background of counties, forecast zones or
other data might be useful in determining what the radar display might
look like and aid you in editing the data. A source of NWS-centric data
is the AWIPS Map Database Catalog (AMDC) located at
<http://www.weather.gov/geodata>. Download the zip file(s) and unzip.
Then add the shapefile to your map as in the instructions to follow.

Editing Cities

**A. Startup**

Start ArcMap via shortcut or start menu.

If you get the "Start Using ArcMap with" window, click OK to start a new
session or double click a saved project (an .mxd file)

If you are given a screen for adding data when opening a new session,
click to the location of the city shapefile and add it using the "Add
Data" dialog.

ArcMap allows the user to add many different "toolbars" to the user
interface. The "Standard" and "Editor" toolbars are required for the
cities editing tasks. If you do not see the Add layer button, use the
View-Toolbars menu and make sure "Standard" is selected. In addition,
if you can't find the Editor Toolbar as pictured below, add the "Editor"
toolbar from the View-Toolbars menu.

![](media/image1.png){width="6.997916666666667in"
height="1.1145833333333333in"}

Figure 1 - Standard Toolbar with Add Layer button

![](media/image2.png){width="7.127777777777778in"
height="1.2805555555555554in"}

Figure 2 - Editor Toolbar

To add a shapefile to the map, click the "Add Layer" button. You will
get a Windows standard file add dialog. Find the cities shapefile and
select it. You may also want to add state/and or county shapefiles as
background maps to assist you.

![](media/image3.png){width="5.041666666666667in" height="3.34375in"}

Figure 3 - Add Data Window

> **B. To Add cities**

1.  Start editing with the EditorStart editing menu item

> Editor menu
>
> ![](media/image4.png){width="5.995138888888889in"
> height="0.9222222222222223in"}
>
> Figure 4 - Sketch Tool

2.  Click the sketch tool. Right click the tool somewhere near where the
    city belongs. Don't try to be exact -- a pop up window appears --
    select "absolute x, y". In the resulting window, put in the exact
    longitude and latitude of the point. Press the "Enter" key to save
    the edit and add the city.

![](media/image5.png){width="6.0in" height="3.2506944444444446in"}

Figure 5 - Screen after city has been added

3.  Edit the city attributes by right clicking on the city layer in the
    Table of contents and choosing "Open Attribute Table".

4.  If your city is not highlighted in the opened table, click the
    "Selected" button to see the city. Click on the empty cell on the
    highlighted row in the "City" column. Add the city name and use the
    "tab" key to move from column to column to add or modify the
    attributes.

> ![](media/image6.png){width="6.749305555555556in"
> height="3.1770833333333335in"}
>
> Figure 6 - ArcMap Attribute Table
>
> 5\. Repeat steps 1-3 until you are finished adding cities. When
> finished editing, use the EditorStop Editing menu item. Make sure you
> save your edits.

**C. TO EDIT CITIES ATTRIBUTES (to make changes to a city name or site
id)**

1.  Open the table as in Step 3 above and start editing.

2.  Find the city to be edited using a method described in Section F.

3.  Make the edits to the record in the table

4.  Stop editing and save.

**D. TO CHANGE A CITY'S LOCATION**

1.  Find the city from the map or via methods in section F. If you use
    the table method to find the city, go back to the map and find the
    city via right click the city layerSelection"Zoom to Selected
    Features"

2.  Start Editing with "EditorStart Editing"

3.  Click the Edit tool. Be sure that the task is set to "Modify
    Feature".

Task set to "Modify Feature"

> ![](media/image7.png){width="5.9944444444444445in"
> height="0.9006944444444445in"}
>
> Figure 7 - Edit Tool

4.  Move the cursor over the city. When it changes shape, right click
    and select "Move to". Enter the latitude and longitude.

5.  Open the table and manually edit the latitude and longitude.

6.  Stop editing and save edits when finished.

**E. TO DELETE CITIES**

1.  Start editing.

2.  Find the city using a method described in Section F.

3.  Get back to the map. layerSelection"Zoom to Selected Features

4.  Hit the delete key

5.  Make sure you stop editing and save

**F. FINDING CITIES** In order to edit or delete a city, it must be
found in the shapefile. You can just find it on the screen or in a
table, or you can search for it using the Query Tool. In order to make
the selection process easier, make the city layer the selectable layer.
In ArcMap 8.x and 9.0 use the menu Selection"Set Selectable Layers" and
choose the cities layer. In ArcMap 9.1, right click the cities
layer"Selections"Make this the Only Selectable Layer". You can access
the Query tool via the Selection"Select by Attributes" menu or choose
"Select by Attributes" by clicking the "Options" button while the
attribute table is open.

To find a city by name, double click \[city\] in the left window. Click
"Get Unique Values" and unique city names will appear in the right
Unique Values window.

Now click the equals sign (=) and scroll and double click the city name
or type it in (use single quotes if you type it in). Click Apply to
select your city.

![](media/image8.png){width="3.9375in" height="5.1875in"}

Figure 8 - Select by Attributes Window

**G. Visualization Aide**

**In order to assist you in editing cities, it** is possible to
configure the ArcGIS screen to be of the approximate size as the radar
image. Click in the "Scale" window on the Standard toolbar and enter the
string "1:3,352,925" followed by the Enter key. You will probably want
to have an additional background map to assist you.

![](media/image4.png){width="5.995138888888889in"
height="0.9222222222222223in"}

Figure 9 - Scale Window

Editing roads or rivers shapefiles

A. Adding Roads or Rivers

When you need to add roads or rivers, probably the easiest way to do
this is to take the feature to be added from an existing data set
(*primary data source)* and put them into the proper shapefile. Two good
potential data sources are given below. Another option is to manually
draw the new feature.

*Data sources* -- one source of data is the US National Atlas at
<http://www.nationalatlas.gov/>. Click the "Mapping professionals" link
and then the "Raw data" link. Roads will be under "Transportation" and
Rivers under "Water".

Another potential source is DOC Census TIGER data available at
<http://arcdata.esri.com/data/tiger2000/tiger_download.cfm>. Click on
the state for which you want data. You can select a county then the
roads and/or rivers OR you can select roads or rivers and the counties
you want. Roads are under "Line Features -- Roads" and rivers under
"Line Features -- Hydrography".

Once the data source is found and the data layer is added to ArcMap you
can search for the feature(s) that you want via the Query Builder, the
table or via the map on the view. Regardless, be sure that the target is
set to the layer you want to edit after doing the start edit command.

There are two ways to accomplish the task of getting the feature(s) you
want into the shapefile.

![](media/image9.png){width="5.991666666666666in"
height="0.9083333333333333in"}

Figure 10 - Target window

*Option 1*: From a primary data source

1.  Find/Select the feature in the primary data source shapefile in the
    same manner as finding cities.

2.  Start editing the RIDGE shapefile (Editor"Start Editing").

3.  Use Edit "Copy"

4.  Use Edit"Paste"

5.  The new feature should now be in the RIDGE shapefile, complete with
    attributes.

6.  Repeat until finished

7.  Use Editor"Stop Editing" and save.

*Option 2*: Add features by hand.

1.  Start editing the RIDGE shapefile (Editor"Start Editing").

2.  Make sure the task is set to "Create New Feature"

Sketch Task

Tool Window

![](media/image4.png){width="5.995138888888889in"
height="0.9222222222222223in"}

Figure 11 - Task and Sketch Tool

3.  Use the Sketch tool to draw the feature -- a series of left clicks
    until the drawing is done, then a double click to end the drawing or
    right click"Finish Sketch".

4.  Right click the layer in the table of contents and "Open Attribute
    Table"

5.  If you do not see the highlighted record, click "Selected"

6.  Edit the attributes

7.  Stop editing (Editor"Stop Editing") and save.

**B. TO EDIT ROAD OR RIVERS ATTRIBUTES**

This task is accomplished exactly the same way as for cities data --
Find the feature to be edited and edit the table.

**C. TO EDIT A ROADS OR RIVERS LOCATION OR SHAPE**

1.  Start editing the shapefile

2.  Use the edit tool (see figure 7).

3.  To move the feature, single click on it, then put the cursor on the
    feature and "drag" it to where you want it.

4.  To reshape the feature, double click the feature with the edit tool.
    The vertices of the feature will show up as small squares. Click on
    the vertex to move and drag it to the new location.

5.  If you do not see the detail in the small squares, it may be
    necessary to zoom in further. Use the Zoom tool by pressing and
    holding the mouse button on a location nearby and dragging the
    square to enclose the area to be zoomed to.

> ![](media/image4.png){width="5.995138888888889in"
> height="0.9222222222222223in"}

Figure 12 -- Zoom Tool