Introduction to ArcGIS Pro I

S4 GIS Institute

Frank Donnelly, Head of GIS & Data Services, Brown University Library
May 17, 2023
https://libguides.brown.edu/gis_data_tutorials/s4arcpro

Introduction
This tutorial introduces the basic functionality of ArcGIS Pro (version 3.1). Before we begin,
please download the tutorial data file gisintro_sampledata.zip from the link at the top of this
page. Save it on your desktop or in the downloads folder for now. After launching ArcGIS Pro you
will need to be connected to the internet so you can log into the software using your ArcGIS Online
credentials, obtained through Brown’s ESRI site license.
This and subsequent tutorials will cover the basics. For additional reference, visit the following
sources:

ArcGIS Pro Getting Started :

https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/get-started/get-started.htm
ArcGIS Pro Quick Start Tutorial :
https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/get-started/pro-quickstart-tutorials.htm

ESRI Academy Course Catalog : https://www.esri.com/training/catalog/search/

Conventions used in this tutorial:

• Summaries of steps appear in bold face.
• Names of windows, tabs, and tools appear in italic face.
• Names of files, layers, and fields appear in typewriter face.

Notes on Sample Data

The sample data for this tutorial includes pre-processed GIS data files for all public libraries in
Rhode Island (from the Institute of Museum and Library Services Public Library Survey), census
tracts in Rhode Island from the US Census Bureau’s Cartographic Boundary Files, and basic
demographic data from the Census Bureau’s 5-year American Community Survey. While public
libraries serve all constituents in their communities, studies show that children and seniors tend
to be particularly frequent library users. Libraries rely on census data for understanding their
constituents and purchasing / providing relevant services and materials. In this tutorial and the ones
that follow, we will use this data to showcase the basic features of ArcGIS Pro.

1
1 The ArcGIS Pro Interface
This section will familiarize you with the ArcGIS Pro interface.

1. Launch the software: Open the Start Menu in Windows, select the ArcGIS folder, and select
ArcGIS Pro to open the software.

2. Log in: On the ArcGIS Pro Start Page, make sure that you are logged into your ArcGIS
Online account; sign in in the upper-right hand corner of the screen.

3. Start page: The Start page lists objects for launching new projects at the top, with a
list of shortcuts to recent projects underneath. Click on the Map icon to start a new,
blank project. Name your project gis_introduction. Save it in the default location
on your machine, or navigate to another location on the network. The default location:
Users\[username]\Documents\ArcGIS\Projects. Note: once created, project files can
*not* be renamed. ArcGIS Pro will launch.

4. Interface: ArcGIS Pro’s interface is divided into three sections: on the left is the Contents
pane, which shows you a list of layers in your project. In the middle is the Map view, which
shows a visual image of your map layers; by default a topographic web map is displayed as a
base map. On the right is the Catalog pane, which you can use for exploring data and other
content stored on your file system. It is possible to add multiple views to Pro, so you will
have tabs of views in the middle of the screen that you will toggle through. As you click
on particular tools and features, the default panes may be temporarily swapped out with a
different pane.

5. Ribbon and tabs: ArcGIS Pro employs a ribbon interface similar to many Microsoft Office
products. Tools are logically grouped together under various tabs, and those tabs provide
buttons and links for accessing different tools and features. Some of the tabs are constant,
while others only appear when a particular layer is selected or a specific view is open. Click
on the various tabs to explore their content. Select the Topographic map in the Contents
pane, and notice that a context-dependent Vector Tile Layer tab appears.

6. Map tab and zoom: Click on the Map tab. The Explore button allows you to pan and zoom
around the Map view with your mouse. Hold the left mouse button down, and drag the cursor
around the map to pan. Use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out (or, use the fixed zoom
buttons that are beside the Explore button). Notice how the resolution and detail of the base
map changes as you zoom.

7. Explore base maps: The base map is a tile layer accessed via the internet. It provides context
for your project’s layers. On the Map tab ribbon you can hit the Basemap button to select
different maps. Experiment with this, and then return to the Topographic map.

Interface Summary
1. Contents pane: lists layers in the project.

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 2. Map view: visual depiction of active layers. Multiple views of different types can be added
to this area and accessed via tabs.

3. Catalog pane: easy access to content and file system associated with the project. This pane
can be replaced with other panes as needed.

4. Quick tools: shortcuts for saving projects and un-doing and re-doing actions.

5. Permanent tabs: used for accessing a specific ribbon of tools.

6. Ribbon: groups of thematically related tools. Tools are subdivided into groups, and in some
cases additional options are available via dropdowns and call outs.

7. Context dependent tabs: only appear when specific actions are taken, such as activating a
specific layer or accessing a specific view.

To reset panes to their original configuration, click the View tab on the ribbon and select Reset
Panes - Reset Panes for Mapping.

2 Add Data to Your Project

There are several ways that you can add data to a project. It’s important to keep files for a project
together in the same place, and advantageous to keep features in a geodatabase for organization
and efficiency. In this section, we will copy our sample data folder into the project folder, import
shapefiles into our project geodatabase, and add the features from the database to a map.

1. Explore the Catalog pane: In the Catalog pane on the right, hit the down arrow beside
the Databases icon. You will see the gis_introduction.gdb, which is the geodatabase
for this project; it was created automatically when you created the project, and is the default

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 destination for storing files you create. Click the down arrow beside the Folder icon. This
displays all folders on your file system that are part of this project; the default project folder
is shown. If you want to add any other data to your project, you need to move it into this
folder, or connect to another folder by selecting the Folder icon, right clicking, and adding a
new folder.

2. Move tutorial data: To ensure that all the pieces for your project stay together, let’s add data
to our project folder rather than connecting to another folder. Select the gis_introduction
folder, hover your cursor over it, and in the pop-up window, click on the folder path. This
opens the MS Windows file explorer (alternatively, you could select gis_introduction,
right click and choose Show in File Explorer). Take the tutorial data that you downloaded
and move it into this folder. Then select the file, right click, and extract or unzip it.

3. Examine shapefiles: The sample data folder contains a number of subfolders that contain
different types of data. In the MS Windows Explorer, click on the shapefiles subfolder.
Shapefiles are a GIS file format for storing vector data (points, lines, and polygons), and are
a format you will encounter when downloading data from the internet. A shapefile actually
consists of several files, with the same name but different extensions. Our folder contains
two shapefiles, one for census tracts and another for public libraries. It’s important to keep
all the pieces of a shapefile together in the same folder, otherwise it will not function.

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 4. Refresh catalog pane: Whenever you make changes in your filing system, you must refresh
folder views in ArcGIS Pro to detect them. Return to ArcGIS, select the gis_introduction
folder, right click, and hit the Refresh button. You should now see the new gisintro_sampledata
folder, and if you select the down arrows to expand each of its subfolders you will see features
in each.

5. Add shapefiles to geodatabase: While we could add the shapefiles directly to our map,
we will import them to our geodatabase first, for the sake of keeping our project more
organized and efficient. In the Catalog pane on the right, under the Databases, select
gis_introduction, right click, and choose Import - Features Classes. Under Input hit the
folder icon, browse into the gisintro_sampledata - shapefiles folder, hold down the
shift key and select the census tracts and public libraries shapefiles, and hit OK. Back
in the import tool, hit Run. When finished, go the Catalog pane, select gis_introduction,
right click and choose Refresh. Hit the down arrow beside the database, and you will see the
features in the database. Close the Feature Class to Geodatabase window.

6. Add features to map: Add the census tract and public library feature classes in the
database to the map by selecting and dragging them into the map, or select the feature class,
right click, and choose Add to Current Map.

3 Exploring Features
Now that we have converted the shapefiles to features classes in our geodatabase and have added
them to a map, let’s explore some details of the features.

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 1. Explore layers in contents pane: The layers are added to the Contents pane and are drawn
in the Map view, and the view is transformed to take the spatial reference system (SRS) of the
first layer added to the project. In the Content pane you can uncheck and check the boxes to
turn a layer on and off. If you select the bottom layer and drag it over the other, the drawing
order of the layers changes. In this case, the libraries must be on top of the census tracts;
otherwise the tracts will cover them up and they won’t be visible. Drawing Order is the
default display on the Contents pane. Selecting one of the other icons will display alternate
info; for example, the grey Data Source cylinder will indicate where the data is stored.

2. View properties of layers: Select the public_libraries feature in the Contents pane on
the left, right click, and choose Properties. Under the Source tab expand the sections for Data
Source and Spatial Reference. The former will give you details about the features and where
they are stored, and the latter provides information about the spatial reference system (SRS)
of the features. Layers with the same SRS can be overlaid in a map and used in the same
analysis; if the layers have different systems you will run into trouble. Explore the properties
of the census tracts as well.

3. Identify specific features: On the Map tab hit the blue Explore button. Zoom into the map
a little and click on a library. This will open a window that displays info about the library
stored in the layer. Click on a census tract, and you will see info about the tract.

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 4. View an attribute table: To see where this data is coming from, select the public_libraries
layer in the Contents pane, right click, and select Attribute Table in the menu. The table
will open below the map, but you can pull out the window to undock and expand it to see it
better. Scroll over and explore the table. If you select a column and right click, a number of
options appear. For example, click on the city field. You can sort the cities alphabetically,
or run some statistics to count records by city (if you do the latter, a new pane will appear in
our project, and a new chart object appears in our layer list; when you are finished you can
remove them both). When you are finished, close the table.

5. Select some features: On the Map tab, hit the Select button. Click on a census tract in the
Map view to select one. Then, while holding down the shift key, select a couple of additional
tracts. Then, select census_tracts in the Contents pane, right click, and open the Attribute
Table. Scroll through the table, and you will see the tracts you selected highlighted in blue.
You can select features in the map and highlight them in the table. You can also do the
opposite; select a row in the table, and the feature will be highlighted on the map. When
finished, close the table, and in the Selection portion of the ribbon, hit the small Clear button.

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4 Symbolize Layers
All layers that you add are symbolized as single symbols. You can modify how these symbols
are displayed, and can map data in the attribute table as categorized or graduated symbols (for
qualitative and quantitative data respectively).

1. Symbolize public libraries: Select the public_libraries layer in the Contents pane to
activate it. Right click on the layer and hit the yellow Symbology button. This opens the
Symbology pane. Click on the circular library symbol to format it. On this next pane, you
can choose from a number of different symbols under the Gallery option. Instead, click on
the Properties option to format the basic properties of the existing symbol. Try changing the
color of the fill, make the outline of the circle a little thinner, and make the circle size a little
larger. Hit the Apply button, then close the window.

2. Symbolize census tracts: Open the Symbology pane for the census_tracts. Change the
dropdown option from Single Symbol to Graduated Colors. In the Field dropdown, change
the option from ALAND which is mapping the tracts by size of land area to under18pct, which
is the percentage of the population under 18 years old. Hit the Color Scheme dropdown to
choose a different scheme (choose an option that goes from light to dark using a single shade
of colors; oranges, greens, blues, etc). Under the More dropdown, select Format All Symbols,
change the outline width to make it a little thinner, and hit Apply. Hit the back arrow button
to return to the main symbology screen. Note some of the other options that you can modify
here. When finished, close the Symbology pane and examine your map.

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 3. Save your project: Hit the quick save button (disk with folder) in the upper left hand corner
of the screen.

5 Project Files
By default, all ArcGIS Pro projects in MS Windows are stored under the user’s Documents folder,
in a subfolder called ArcGIS that has subfolders named for each project. The actual project file has
the extension .aprx. This file contains links to all databases and files in the project, and stores the
map extent, symbolization, layer order, views, pane configuration, all map layouts. The project file
does *not* contain your data or databases, it simply contains links to them. For this reason, you
cannot share the project file alone with someone else; the connections to the data sources will be
lost and nothing will be displayed. To share projects, you must share the *entire project folder*.
For this reason, it’s good to be organized and to save all your data and outputs in the project folder,
to ensure that you can transfer it. For more information about project files and management, visit:

https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/help/projects/what-is-a-project.htm

Project files are specific to ArcGIS Pro and cannot be opened in other software packages. Most
data sources (shapefiles, geopackages, rasters) are cross-platform and can be used in any software.
ArcGIS geodatabases (which look like folders in your MS Windows file system) can be used with
other software packages, but there can be issues with backward compatibility as the format changes
over time. You can always export feature classes out of a database as shapefiles or tables in the
Catalog pane, if you wish to use them in other GIS packages.

6 Download and Add Data

In this section, you’ll download data from the internet and add it to a new map. The census tract
and public libraries datasets we’ve worked with were preprocessed: specific to Rhode Island,
in a relevant local coordinate system, and containing useful attribute data. In practice, you will

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need to do this processing first, and won’t want to mix up these preliminary layers with your final
ones. The US Census Bureau’s Cartographic Boundary File repository is typical for what you’ll
encounter when downloading vector (point - line - polygon) files.

1. US Census Bureau boundaries: The Census Bureau’s Cartographic Boundary Files are
generalized, formatted versions of their base layers where line work has been simplified
and large bodies of coastal water have been removed. Go to https://www.census.gov/
geographies/mapping-files/time-series/geo/cartographic-boundary.html.

2. Examine page contents: Click on the link at the top to see the 2021 files (if you don’t see
this option, you’re on the wrong page). The files are arranged alphabetically; there are files
for the nation, and in some cases subsets for individual states. Some files come in different
scales; the smaller the number, the more detailed or less generalized the line work is.

3. Download county file: Scroll down to the files for Counties, and click on the 1:500,000
(national) shapefile to download it. When given options for vector data, always avoid Google
KML files in favor of other formats.

4. Move file to project folder: Use the MS Windows Explorer to move the zip file
cb_2021_us_county_500k.zip into your project folder where our sample data is stored:
...\Documents\ArcGIS\Projects\gis_introduction\gisintro_sampledata\shapefiles.
Unzip the file, and you will see the shapefile’s individual components.

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 5. Add a new map to project: Return to your project in ArcGIS Pro. On the Insert tab on the
ribbon click the New Map button. This adds a second map to our view. In the Contents pane,
single click on Map 1 and rename it USA.

6. Add shapefile directly to project: On the Map tab on the ribbon, click the large yellow
Add Data button. Browse to the project folder (top of tree on left, under Folders -
gis_introduction - gisintro_sampledata - shapefiles, select
cb_2021_us_county_500k and hit OK. (Alternative - use the Catalog pane, refresh the
folder to see the recently added file, and add it).

7. View properties of shapefile: Select the counties feature in the Contents pane, right click,
and choose Properties. Under the Source tab expand the sections for Data Source and Spatial
Reference. You’ll see that the counties are in the basic NAD 83 SRS; all files from the Census
Bureau come in this system. Take some time and explore the features and attributes of this
layer.

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 8. Save your project: Hit the quick save button (disk and folder) in the upper left hand corner
of the screen.

Since the counties layer is national in scope and is in a different SRS from our other layers,
we added it to a new map and didn’t move it into our project geodatabase. In the next tutorial, we’ll
extract just the counties for Rhode Island, and will transform its projection to match the local state
plane system of our other layers.

7 Experiment on Your Own

The next lessons in the seminar will delve into spatial reference systems and cartography, and then
queries and analysis. Now that we have covered the basics, here are some things to try on your own:

1. Explore the different tabs and panes in the interface.

2. Try the different feature selection methods.

3. Experiment with different single symbols for mapping the public libraries.

4. Try mapping the public libraries as categorical variables. c_out_ty is the library outlet type
(CE = Central Library, BR = Branch Library) while fscskey identifies libraries that are part
of the same system.

5. Try mapping the public libraries as graduated circles, based on square footage or the number
of hours the library is open per week (these variables are in the attribute table).

6. Experiment with mapping the population that is over 64 by census_tract.

7. Try downloading some data on your own from the websites below, and adding them to
separate maps or projects (do *not* add additional layers to our existing map views).

GIS Data Sources

We will cover GIS data sources in more detail in our final tutorial. Some sample GIS data
repositories are listed below. For a larger list, visit:
https://libguides.brown.edu/gis/data.
Cartographic Boundary Files : Generalized boundaries from the US Census Bureau:
https://www.census.gov/geographies/mapping-files/time-series/geo/cartographic-boundary.
html

TIGER / Line Shapefiles : The original, un-generalized census database contains admin and sta-
tistical areas, also bodies of water and roads:
https://www.census.gov/geographies/mapping-files/time-series/geo/tiger-line-file.html

Natural Earth : Generalized boundary files for the world with countries, cities, and water bodies:
https://www.naturalearthdata.com/

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