Seeking ArcGIS Desktop tutorials?

Question

I'm looking for a good way to learn more ArcGIS techniques than I came across in my undergraduate Geography degree to really use the power of the software.

Browsing around and asking questions on this site has helped quite a bit e.g. I did not realised that you could link dataframes together, or even that you could have multiple data frames ([see How to provide automatic overview map in ArcGIS Desktop?).

Similarly, I suspect there are lots of ArcGIS features that could really make my life easier, but that I just don't know about e.g. geodatabases.

What I'm really looking for are tutorial recommendations, in any medium (books, videos, websites, whatever). Obviously free or cheap are better, but I do have a budget for books as part of my PhD. As I probably hinted at above, I'm more interested in general usage of ArcGIS rather than specific tools (like DEM processing or route-finding), and something that is relatively structured would be good, so that I can work through it in a sensible order.

I know this is a bit of a tall order, but any ideas?

Answer 1

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Ensure you have ArcTutor installed (comes with ArcGIS Desktop install)

Start doing the tutorials.

Id also advise paying a trip to the ESRI Virtual Campus. - Plenty of free training on there to get you started.

Go to video.esri.com for inspiration.

Answer 2

Understanding your data (projection, attributes, formats) then you can using ArcGIS in some quite amazing ways..

General Usage : For a good basis of understanding a geodatabase. http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisdesktop/9.3/pdf/Building_Geodatabases_Tutorial.pdf (yes 9.3 but still worth the look - good starting point)

Focus on: Subtypes and Domains (and validation spatial data) Relationships between objects. Topology - very powerful in controlling spatial features and their relationships.

for ArcGIS 10 http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#/An_overview_of_geodatabase_design/003n0000000z000000/

If have access to MS Visio you can see the structure of the Geodatabase http://resources.arcgis.com/content/data-models

For really fancy stuff (making gis data look nice) look into Representations http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#/What_are_representations/008t00000002000000/ which is tied to spatial data (keeping the topological) structure but represent the data in a more human (cartographic) form.

The most advanced and powerful part of ArcGIS is the Geoprocessing tools that can be automated to do serious amounts of analysis. http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#/A_quick_tour_of_advanced_techniques_in_ModelBuilder/002w0000005q000000/

Answer 3

First of all, I would suggests, to start from help of Arcgis. You will find a lot of examples and tutorials.

For videos you can find some in youtube channel of esri and more in other channels:

http://www.youtube.com/esritv

You mension about Geodatabaseis, a good idea to start is the book of ESRI (i know is theoretical but sometimes you need it):

Designing geodatabases: case studies in GIS data modeling

and free from google...:

Designing geodatabases: case studies in GIS data modeling

Very good books with tutorials is:

GIS Tutorial 1: Basic Workbook

GIS Tutorial 2: Spatial Analysis Workbook

GIS Tutorial 3: Advanced Workbook

In some forums you can take some ideas:

http://www.cartotalk.com/

Answer 4

One option would be the ESRI Virtual Campus. There are free training tutorials and many that are pay-as-you-go.

knowgis.com has many free tutorials. They also have an entire training series.

Many colleges including Harvard have GIS tutorials and exercises. Visit : http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/maps/gis/tutorials.cfm

Answer 5

ESRI has a basic GIS course Learning ArcGIS Desktop for ArcGIS 10.

Knowgis.com is really good. I have their two-day professional training series and found it to be useful.