Helps for ArcMap - ArcGIS

How to merge rasters?

1. Use Mosaic (previous creating a Raster file, previous creating a geodatabase to house the Raster)
2. See here.

How to estimate slopes in a map?

1. Have to have the raster layer
2. The raster layer must be in the same units as the base layer, or else specify the relationship with the Z factor in the "slope dialog window"
3. Open the "slope dialog window"
4. Specifiy Input raster, output raster, Output measurement (degree/%), Z (if needed)
5. See here for more details.

How to export a coordinates dataset as Lat Long?

1. It depends on the particular country/place. But say that the original layer is in GCS-WGS-1984
2. Project it onto NAD 1927. (Or maybe NAD 1983?)
3. Use the Project tool 
4. Or just open a new project, set it to NAD 1927 and import the points shapefile. ArcMap will automatically ask which is the target projection, will according propose a conversor, and will convert.

How to import the Symbology from another layer

1. Right-click the layer in the table of contents.
2. In Layer Properties go to import and select the source of symbology
3. Choose the Field in the active layer that will be matched with incoming symbology
1. or... click the open button and select the chosen layer .lyr
4. See here for more details: Link

How to rotate symbols in ArcGIS (point feature symbology) from here

1. Right-click the point layer in the table of contents.
2. Click Properties and click the Symbology tab. 
3. Click the Advanced button.
4. Click Rotation. 
5. From the drop-down list, click the field that contains the rotation angle. 
6. Values should be in degrees and range from 0 to 360. 
7. Click the rotation style. Geographic rotates the assigned symbol from north in a clockwise direction. Arithmetic rotates the assigned symbol from east in a counterclockwise direction.
8. Click OK on all dialog boxes.
9. Start an edit session if you want to change the values in the rotation angle field. You can update the rotation values by interactively rotating individual point symbols with the Rotate tool or by typing new values in the attribute table or the Attributes dialog box.

Add XY coordinate from Excel file
File/Add Data/Add XY Data

How to create new points 

Link here

1. Click the Open button  on the Standard toolbar.
2. Navigate to the Exercise1.mxd map document in the Editing directory where you installed the tutorial data. (C:\ArcGIS\ArcTutor is the default location.) If the Getting Started window opens, choose to browse for an existing map and navigate to Exercise1.mxd.
3. Click the map and click Open.
4. If you are prompted to enable hardware acceleration to improve performance, click Yes.
5. Click the Bookmarks menu and click Visitor center to zoom you to the area around a visitor center ranger station at the south entrance of Zion National Park.
6. Click the Editor Toolbar button  on the Standard toolbar.
7. Click the Editor menu on the Editor toolbar and click Start Editing.
8. Open the Create Features window by clicking Create Features  on the Editor toolbar.
9. In the Create Features window, click the Ranger stations point feature template. This sets up the editing environment so that you will be creating new point features in the Ranger stations layer.
10. Click the Point tool  on the Create Features window.
11. Using the aerial imagery, click the map to place a point directly over the visitor center building in the center of the display. Since you are creating points, clicking the map once adds the feature. If you were drawing lines or polygons, however, you would need to use more than one click so you could create segments in between vertices.

How to delete a record (row) from a table - from ArcGis website

1. Click the Editor menu on the Editor toolbar and click Start Editing.
2. Right-click the table or layer in the table of contents and choose Open Attribute Table.
3. Select the records you want to delete.
4. Press and hold the CTRL key while clicking to select more than one record.

The geographic features associated with the records, if any, are also deleted.

Projection issues

1. The best way to homogeneize layers/shapefiles is: (1) open, (2) export the layer to the current project, (3) making sure that "the data frame" option is checked. That way the layer inherits the features of the current window. Besides, if it's the case that 2 shapefiles aren't overlapping for some wrong reason, by exporting one while zooming to the other, forces the new shapefile to inherit one which is in view.
2. If importing a points shapefile, make sure that, in some geographic coordinate systems, choose NAD 1983. Then ArcGis on the fly converts the new points file to match the existing. It's better then to follow point 1. above to create a new shapefile with the proper coordinate and projections systems.
3. Make sure that the general Layer has the same characteristics as the shapefiles it has.
4. When creating the coordinates, with geometry in a table, you can also choose to use the coordinates system of the data frame, i.e. the one which is currently in the screen.
5. These pages are useful: Page1, and Page2.

If none of the above works, 

1. it probably indicates that the project has a different coordonate/projection system as the one desired by us. 
1. Therefore, create a blank project
2. Set the coordinate and projection system desired.
3. Import the sapefile that we want to convert
4. Export Data as "the data frame" as 1) above, and allow creating the layer in the same project
5. This should work

Change Projection (e.g. Lambert to Orthographic)

1) Open ArcCatalog
2) Right click on shapefile to be updated
3) In window 'Shapefile Properties' click Modify
4) 'Projected Coordinate System Properties' pops up
5) Go to 'Projection' and in the dropdown menu: select e.g. 'Ortographic'
6) OK

Find centroid of polyline

1) Select Feature to Point
2) Select layer of the polyline (no need to add a new field in the database)
3) Create the new layer of the coordinates
4) There's the option of forcing the coordinate to lay along the polyline (check inside) in which case the coordinate might be outside, or not (uncheked).

Find nearest neighbor and distance

1) Search Near
2) Select both point layers

Trim a shapefile with a polygon

1) Search Clip
2) Select the Shapefile to be trimmed
3) Select the polygon trimmer
4) Label the output file
5) OK

Tessellation

1) Search Proximity and
2) Choose Thiessen Polygons.

Draw Symbology by Category (instead of numerical)

1) Right-click the layer you want to draw showing unique values in the table of contents and click Properties.
2) Click the Symbology tab and click Categories.
3) ArcMap automatically selects the Unique values option.
4) Click the Value Field drop-down arrow and click the field that contains the values you want to map.
5) Click the Color Scheme drop-down arrow and click a color scheme.
6) Click Add All Values.

Draw TIN by face elevation
1) In the table of contents, right-click the TIN.
2) Click the Symbology tab.
3) Uncheck any face that's checked.
4) Click Add.
5) Click Face elevation with graduated color ramp.
6) Click Add.
7) Click Dismiss.
8) Click the Color Ramp dropdown arrow and click a color ramp.
9) Click OK.

Contours from TIN
1) Surface Contour

Multipatch to TIN
1) Feature Vertices to Points: create a shapefile
2) Create TIN from: select the shapefile and select the relevant options

Base height options
1) only TIN and raster

Edit the Legend

1) Right click on the legend
2) Convert to Graphics
3) Ungroup
4) Change as needed
5) Right click again and 'group'

Set Transparent Color in Layers
1) Right click anywhere > Toolbars > Effect
2) Choose the layer to be transparent
3) Adjust Transparency

Define Projection or Coordinate System:

1) Open ArcToolbox

2) Data Management Tools > Projections and Transformations > Define Projection (Or just type Define Projection in "Search")

3) Input Dataset or Feature Class: Choose the layer without any projection so far

4) Coordinate System: Click on the icon and Select a predefined coordinate system that matches that of the project (i.e. NADCON = US-not Hawaii/Alaska, PR_VI=Puerto Rico/Virgin I.)

Change Projection or Coordinate System:

1) Open ArcToolbox>Management Tools > Projections and Transformations > Feature > Project
2) Input Dataset or Feature Class: load file/layer
3) Input Coordinate System (optional): Here browse NAD27, it's important
4) Output Dataset or Feature Class: set the output shapefile name and location.
5) Output Coordinate System: Here's the e.g. NAD_1983_StatePlane_Massachusetts_Mainland_FIPS_2001 (feet or meters)
6) Geographic Transformation (optional): Choose one that makes NAD 1927 to NAD 1983...

*) Note: SLOSH .shp's come originally in NAD 27 hand must be converted to the desired projection.

Create an array of points:

1) Type Fishnet in the Search dialog box

2) Set the boundaries where the points will be located

3) Easy to follow dialog menu...
4) for more info look here

Divide a shapefile into the XY coordinate of the vertices:

1) Type "Feature Vertices to Points" in the Search tool.

2) Select the file to be assigned with the coordinates
3) Type "Add XY Coordinates" in  the Search tool.
4) Select the same file
5) If you want to see the newly added coordinates, right click on the filename and "Open Attribute Table"
6) Export from there as .txt.... if desired.

Join a table to a shapefile

1) Make sure that both, the .shp and the .xls have a field with coinciding values which will be used to link both
2) Make sure that the table has header in each column, and that no header name starts with numbers or forbidden characters
3) Right click on the shape file/Joins and Relates/Joins
    1. Choose the field in this layer that the join will be based on (dropdown menu)
    2. Choose the table to join to this layer, or load from disk (Browse icon)
    3. Choose the field in the table to base the join on-to coincide with 1.- (dropdown menu)
4) Press Validate Join button to make sure everything is OK
5) If so, press OK
6) If you want to plot the new field, right click on the shapefile/Properties/Symbology/e.g Graduated colors/Value (choose the new field from the table)
7) Done

Make point layer adopt the features of a polygon layer

1) Right click on the Points layer/Joint and Relates/Join
2) (Drop down menu) Select "Join data from another layer based in spatial location"
    1. Select the target Polygon Layer
    2. Choose either "it falls inside" or "is closest to it". I chose "it falls inside" or my problem
    3. The result will be saved in: .... chose location
3) Next ArcMap will spend some time (depending on the size of the points file) Mine was 300,000+ points so it spent like 10+ minutes joining
4) It will create a new layer in the Table of Contents, NOT inside the Point layer...
5) Done.
6) More info here1, and here2

Make point layer adopt the features of a raster layer

1) Type Search "Extract Values to Points (Spatial Analyst) OR "Raster to Point" (here)
2) Just follow the instructions

Export fields from a layer to a database, or text file

1) Right click on the layer that has the information to be exported.
2) "Open Attribute Table"
3) Select the columns to export (I couldn't export just the selected columns... it exported it all)
4) Go to Table Options icon,
5) Click the Browse icon and Select the desired file extension.

Select entities under a layer / polygon

1) Go to Select / Select by Location.
2) In the dialog box

1. Select features from
2. Target Layer: parcelx (The layer from which you want to select)
3. Source Layer: VC (the layer that represents the boundaries on which to select)
4. In Spatial Selection Method: "Target Layers are completely within source layer"
5. Apply / OK

3) The right click on the target layer / Selection / Create Layer from Selected Features

Copy elements from an attribute table

1) Select all the table or the elements of interest.
2) In the squares to the left of the table, right click and Copy

Find centroid coordinates of polygons (From ESRI)

1. In the map document, open the attribute table for the polygon feature class.
2. In the attribute table, navigate to Options > Add Field and add two new Double fields. Name one 'Latitude' and the other 'Longitude'.
3. Right-click the Longitude field and select Calculate Geometry.
4. In the Calculate Geometry dialog box, select 'X Coordinate of Centroid' from the Property drop-down menu. Click OK.
5. Right-click the Latitude field and select Calculate Geometry.
6. In the Calculate Geometry dialog box, select 'Y Coordinate of Centroid' from the Property drop-down menu. Click OK.
7. Export to a table. 
1. A. In the attribute table, select Options > Export. 
2. B. Specify a name and location for the new table.
8. Make an XY Event layer. 
1. A. Navigate to ArcToolbox > Data Management Tools > Layers and Table Views > Make XY Event Layer tool. 
2. B. Add the new table (from step 7) as the XY Table. 
3. C. For the X Field, select the Longitude field. 
4. D. For the Y Field, select the Latitude field. 
5. E. Name the new event layer. 
6. F. Select the spatial reference or coordinate system. 
7. G. Click OK.
9. (Optional) 
10. Export the Event Layer to a shapefile by right-clicking on the layer and navigating to Data > Export Data.
11. For info on the projection issues, see "Projection issues" in this page.

Add new Point Layer and/or New Point (from here)

1. Open ArcCatalog
2. Highlight the folder that will contain your new shapefile.
3. Right-click on the folder and select New > Shapefile.
4. The Create New Shapefile dialog box opens.
1. Name the shapefile and select the feature type (Point, Poly, or Polygon) from the drop-down menu.
2. b. Set the Spatial Reference (Projection/Datum) by clicking the Edit button. This opens the Spatial Reference Properties dialog box. Below are two methods to set the spatial reference.
5. Choose Select > Projected Coordinate Systems > UTM folder > NAD1927 > NAD 1927 UTM Zone 11N.prj > click the Add button > click OK in the Spatial Reference Properties dialog box > click OK in the Create New Shapefile dialog box.
6. OR Choose Import > navigate to your folder that contains data with the coordinate system already defined (preferably the DEM) > click on the dataset > click the Add button > click OK in the Spatial Reference Properties dialog box > click OK in the Create New Shapefile dialog box.

ADDING THE NEW SHAPEFILE TO THE ARCMAP PROJECT

1. Open your ArcMap project.
2. Add the new (empty) shapefile to your project by:
1. File > Add Data OR
1. Click-on the Add Data icon on the Standard Toolbar in ArcMap. OR
1. Drag the file from Catalog to the Table of Contents of your ArcMap project

Save and Share a complete project (.mxd) including all linked layers and files

File/Map Package

And follow instructions. There might be some errors that need to be resolved before sharing. See here for better info.

Dashed line not showing in Layout View (when Exporting as PDF)

• Right-click the layer that has the line with problems
• Line Properties, select Cartographic Line Symbol instead of Simple Fill Symbol ...
• prepare the line as shown below in the template tab..
• See here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq7NsOVMZSE

Clip/Trim Raster with Polygon (Create Polygon Layer)

https://www.lib.uoguelph.ca/sites/default/files/creating_new_layers_ten_one.pdf