ArcGIS  Tags: arcgis gis maps mapping data  

Create a folder to save your files! When downloading files, unzipping files, and temporarily saving your ArcGIS projects on the computers in the Library, please create a place to store your material:

1. You can create a folder named with your NetID or last name in the "Patron Data" folder of the "E:" (Data) folder on the hard drive. This "Patron Data" folder has a shortcut on the desktop.  This is only available in the Data Services/GIS computer cluster (Perkins floor 1), not in the other labs. You can later take your data with you by (a) saving it to a USB drive; (b) burning it to a CD; or (c) sending it to a remote computer using FTP (Start ... Programs ... F-Secure SSH Client ... F-Secure SSH File Trnasfer).
2. You can create a folder on the desktop of the computer, but this and its contents will be gone once you log out. You can later take your data with you by (a) saving it to a USB drive, or (b) burning it to a CD.
3. You can connect to your ACPUB user space by double-clicking the desktop icon "AFS Drive Map."  (If this causes problems, reset the utility by clicking the "AFS disconnect" icon first.)  This creates several virtual drives:  your ACPUB root drive is P: and the AFSDocs folder within it is H:  The AFSDocs folder also appears as a shortcut on the desktop.
4. You can plug in a USB (i.e., "flash" or "memory stick") drive to the computer, which usually appears as the F: drive, and just use that to start with.

Since ArcGIS keeps track of where each file is, it's not advisable to move files around once you start working on a project. It can be tedious to tell the program where they've been moved. It helps to go to File ... Document Properties ... Data Source Options ...  and click "Store relative path names to data sources" (for instance, if your flash drive is mapped to a different letter on another computer).