Viewing your data in ArcView 3.x

ArcView 3.x is a desktop GIS which can be used to view your data. ArcView can read the historic map tiff files downloadable from Digimap.

This document assumes you have already dowloaded the tiff and tfw filesfrom digimap. The steps covered here are intended only to help you load the data into ArcView 3.x.

• Accessing ArcView
• Starting ArcView
• Adding the tiffs
• Making the data visible

Guidance on using ArcView is beyond the scope of this document. There may be resources within your own institution or Department to help you learn ArcView. ArcView includes on-line tutorials and help which can be accessed from the Help menu and a useful, free tutorial called 'Basics of ArcView' is available from the ESRI Virtual Campus

Accessing ArcView 3.x

ArcView 3.x, produced by ESRI, is available to UK academic institutions which are licensed under the CHEST/ESRI Agreement. Further details can be found at EDUSERV CHEST's web pages: http://www.eduserv.org.uk/en/LNS/Agreements/Esri. Not all institutions hold licenses under this agreement, in which case ArcView may not be available.

ArcView can run on a Windows or UNIX platform. This document gives instructions for using ArcView under Windows. Instructions for starting ArcView will vary depending on how it is installed at your institution so you will need to find out how to run it locally. In Windows, a program can usually be run by either double clicking on an icon on the desktop, or by locating the program under the Windows Start menu. (This may be at the following location: Start -> Programs -> Esri -> ArcView GIS Version 3.x -> ArcView GIS Version 3.x)

Starting ArcView 3.x

Start ArcView. The main ArcView window appears on screen. The example here shows what happens when ArcView 3.3 starts.

ArcView 3.x works with Views, where data is held as themes (layers) and displayed as maps. A theme represents a distinct set of geographic features, such as points, lines and the raster images from the Historic Digimap.

With the radio button labelled with a new View selected, click on the OK button. A new window asking 'Would you like to add data to the View now?' appears. Click on the OK button to say yes.

Depending on your version of ArcView and its configuration, you may not get the Welcome to ArcView GIS window. If this is the case, you need to specify that you want to:

• create a new view - Click on the Views icon in the window labelled Untitled (the Project window), and then click on the New button
• add data to the view - Click on the Add Theme button on the main toolbar, or go to View > Add Theme from the ArcView drop-down menu and then follow the steps below.

Adding tiff files

When you have downloaded the data you will find that the tiff image will be accompanied by several other files in a folder. These are:

• A tiff image file for each separate Map Sheet.
• An ESRI tfw world file, which is read by ESRI GIS software to place the tiff map image in the correct geographic location (not available for County Series original map sheets).
• A MapInfo tab world file which is read by MapInfo GIS software to place the tiff map image in the correct geographic location.
• A contents.txt text file which lists what you have downloaded, including a publishing date for each historic map sheet.
• A copyright.txt text file which contains information on the terms and conditions for using the Landmark historic map data and a copyright statement to be used with any materials you produce which include the historic map images, in any form.

These files come together in a compressed or archive folder (one of the three different options selected in the download interface) and so will need to be "unpacked" to a regular folder for use. The tab file for use with MapInfo need not be extracted for use with ArcGIS.

In In the right hand side of the Add Theme window you will see two radio buttons labelled Directories and Libraries. Click on the Directories radio button. In the bottom left corner there is a drop down box labelled Data Source Types, change this to Image Data Source. In the Add Theme window, navigate to the folder where the tiff files are located. Double click on the folder name or alternatively click once on the folder name and press the OK button. Icons will appear in the left hand side of the Add Theme window for any tiff files in this folder. Highlight the ones you want in the map and click on the OK button.

Having added your data, your window labelled View1 will be updated to include the data in its Table of Contents at the left hand side.

Making the data visible

Click on the grey checkbox to the left of the label for you tiff file and the view will update to display the theme selected.

The map controls allow the data to be zoomed and panned

Further guidance on using ArcView 3.x is beyond the scope of this document. There may be resources within your own institution or Department to help you and ArcView 3.x includes on-line tutorials and help which can be accessed from the Help menu. A useful, free tutorial called 'Basics of ArcView' is available from the ESRI Virtual Campus.