ARC/INFO Notes / Help

Converting shapefiles to ARCINFO coverages

ARC: SHAPEARC  

Projection conversion syntax 

ARC: PROJECT   {projectionFile}
ARC: Output
ARC: Projection lambert
ARC: Units meters
ARC: Parameters
ARC: 1st parallel: 45
ARC: 2nd parallel: 77
ARC: central meridian: 95
ARC: origin of latitude: 0
ARC: easting: 0
ARC: northing: 0
ARC: end
 
Adding x, y values in a point table

ARC: ADDXY 

Build vs. Clean
Build will simply rehash your data (ID points, arcs, etc.) Clean will edit pseudonodes, dangles, etc. 
Good idea to build Make sure that coverage is built before clipping.

Enabling display
ARC: display 9999

Editing a coverage
ARC: EDITCOVERAGE 
ARC: DRAWENVIRONMENT 
ARC: DRAW

Use select to pick out features, check usage, or to list attributes, LIST To show backdrop

ARC: BC 
ARC: BE 
ARC: DRAW Setdrawsymbol (fixes cursor); showlineset (fixes palette) 


ARCEDIT: EF REGION.SUBCLASS
ARCEDIT: SEL ALL (all features)
ARCEDIT: PUT 
BUILD (to assign topology)

OR:

ARC: ROUTEARC     1 1 

This assigns a new field (NO DATA YET)

ARCEDIT: EDITF 
ARCEDIT: SEL ALL
ARCEDIT: CALC  = 
ARC: LINEGRID  

In Grid: overlay grids with merge function

GRID: OUTGRID = merge()

Querying a set


Produces an outfile of all unique occurrences of the user-defined field, plus number of each 
occurrence.

Arc: FREQUENCY 
Arc: LIST outfile.dat

Selecting a Set by expression


Logical operators similar to SQL (AND, OR, NOT, etc.).  CAUTION: set is selected until 
cleared.

Arcedit: ec 
Arcedit: ef 
Arcedit: sel  = ''

Set is then selected for further manipulation

This can be used in putting new features to a separate coverage, or deleting them entirely.  

When editing a polygon coverage for grid outputting, use the createlabels command to ensure 
proper representation:

Arc: createlabels 
Arcedit: ec 
Arcedit: ef labels
Arcedit: sel all
Arcedit: CALC  = 

This gives a value to all polygons, allowing conversion via POLYGRID, then GRIDIMAGE, 
etc.

Generating a UTM grid coverage of Canada

- used to create a synthetic grid of all 16 UTM zones

Arc: GENERATE 
Arc: fishnet: 
origin - 144, 0
y - 144, 90
Cell - 6, 90
R, C - 1, 16
quit
Arc: build  line

Coverage is now a 16 box grid, precisely simulating all UTM zones in Canada

Now, use ArcEdit to split up each zone into a poly coverage.

ArcEdit: ef arc
ArcEdit: sel many (arcs of UTM zone)
ArcEdit: put zone_n
ArcEdit: q
Arc: build zone_n poly

Then, project coverage to your choice of LCC, UTM, geographic, etc.  Remember to build 
after all project functions.  You may delete the previous instance of the poly cover (without 
defined projection) if you are satisfied with your output.

These UTM zone poly coverages can then be used as clip coverages when clipping coverages 
to parse out areas by UTM zone.