The remaining eight days are devoted to going through the basics of GIS, thematic layer creation, editing, attribute entry, quality assurance, topological overlay and analysis, cartographic design, companion reports, and an introduction to macro programming and automation. Each student receives a training manual and all of the project exercises. Last year, we made some significant changes to the course format, based upon comments from former students. Mastering any new programming language is difficult, especially for those without any previous experience. This fast pace and lack of hands-on experience proved to be understandably frustrating to many of the students.
Afternoons are available for unsupervised practice exercises.
Each student can complete these homework exercises at his or her own pace. We hope that this new approach provides a friendlier and more effective environment in which to learn this complex programming language. This is a 3-day class that addresses the importance of planning ahead by defining objectives, developing a specific graphics plan, and creating graphic standards. The class focus will then move on to specific cartographic issues such as the basic classifications of maps and their applications, the balance between form and function, the effective use of color, typography and symbology and the counterbalance of positive and negative space within the overall page display. The latter day of the class will highlight several basic and advanced commands in ArcPlot that are used to produce effect and interesting cartographic displays, including the basic surface modeling commands of TIN and an overview of the newest cartographic commands.