TEACHING |
GIS SG course homepage |
CLASS DEMO 1. FILE MANAGEMENT FOR CLASS AND IDRISI ENVIRONMENT
Reconnecting to S:\scratch
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Log on a PC computer in the lab using your user name and password. Remember that you will not be able to write data to your own folder on the server (U: drive) if you are not logged in using your own account. See User accounts in SPARS on how to get your login username and password or ask for Help in the lab. (email at geohelp@geo.hunter.cuny.edu).
Once logged in, start applications by moving the mouse to the bottom right corner to the Start button. Click, then go to Programs and then open and close the following applications:
Working in several applications simultaneously is convenient but consumes RAM and slows down all the applications. Because certain graphic intensive programs, including GIS, use many computer resources, keep only those applications open that you absolutely need.
Open Internet browser (Netscape or Internet Explorer). Go to Start/Programs/...
These applications serve to access information posted on the world wide web (a world network of computers that can exchange information). Hunter Geography Department home page or GIS SG home page are examples of such information stored on our server and accessible from any other Internet connected computer. This information can be in the form of text, graphics, data, etc.
Go to Hunter Geography Home Page http://geo.hunter.cuny.edu/
Find Faculty/Staff in the drop-down box located in the upper part of the Geography home. In this faculty listing find MP, and click.
Or, go to this page directly: type the following page address in the URL window http://www.geo.hunter.cuny.edu/~mpavlov/
Follow the following links on MP's home page: Teaching Fall 2002 => Geog 385.02/GTech 785.02 Special Topics: GIS Applications in Social geography
Or use direct URL address http://www.geo.hunter.cuny.edu/~mpavlov/Courses/GisSG/GisSGHome.html
This home page is your major resource for this class. You are responsible for reading this page and following the instructions that will be posted before each class session.
Windows Explorer serves to display location of files and folders on your drives and manage these files and folders (copy, delete, move files file and folders, create new folders, etc.). You will use it to organize your files and folders for this class.
File locations are displayed in two panels of the Windows Explorer window. The left panel shows the structure of your computer, including local and remote drives, and a list of folders on these drives. The right panel shows the content of a selected (highlighted) folder.
Note that folders with subfolders inside are marked by a plus sign next to a folder's name. Display subfolders by clicking on the plus sign; hide the subfolders by clicking on the minus sign. The folder content is displayed in the right panel. Some folders store program files and others store data files. Never modify or touch program folders - you will corrupt the applications.
You will write the output files to the remote drive U: on the server. Each student in class with a valid log on has space on this server (see below).
The menus help to copy, cut and paste, move, rename and delete files or entire folders (this is similar to how you will edit text in a word processor). You can also perform some of these commands using the mouse. Click (means left button click) lets you select (highlight) files or folders; Click and drag serves to move files or folders; Click on a selected filename alllows you to rename the file; Right click will show properties of the file; and Double click will attempt to open the file with an appropriate application. If you have problems with file management, you need to take an intro to computers class.
In addition to the textbook by Heywood et al., the digital readings for this class include the Idrisi Guide to GIS and Image Processing (Andes Manual.pdf and Idrisi Tutorial (Andes Tutorial.pdf). These pdf files are read by Adobe Acrobat Reader, an application installed on all machines in the labs. The digital readings can be accessed in several ways.
1. From Idrisi menu under Help menu. Open Idrisi and then open either the Manual or Tutorial.
2. From s:\\scratch\GISSG\IdrisiDocs.
3. They are posted on BB
Note, that sometimes you can receive an error while opening these files in the lab. One reason is that Adobe Acrobat Reader wants you to accept the license agreement before opening the file. To do that, just open Adobe Acrobat Reader from Start/Programs and click ok to accept the agreement. After that, you should be able to display the contents of these files.
Keep these files open in Adobe Acrobat Reader window while doing your home work.
Working folders are folders where your input and output files are located. It is very important to set up working folders properly. This will enable you to access your data and save your work so that you can find it. In most GIS, files related to one project are stored in the same folder. In addition, information about these files is remembered by the software and is stored in a “project file.” In ArcGIS, these files have *.mxd extension. In Idrisi, paths and folders are stored in environment file (*.env) and graphic rendition of a map is stored in the map composition file *.map.
Some input data sets, demos, and mastery exercises will be placed on \\scratch\gissg. You will download the datasets from this drive to your U: drive. Sometimes these drives disappear and to make them visible again you need to reconnect by mapping network drive. See SPARS help pages for details.
The general steps in Windows Explorer are as follows:
Now this drive should become visible for you. It will show in the left panel of Windows Explorer after U: drive.
The input data for this class will be located in two places:
1. Idrisi Tutorial data sets are on local C: drive in the following folders:
C:\Idrisi Tutorial\Using Idrisi
C:\Idrisi Tutorial\Introductory GIS
Idrisi will use these input files to create new output files (the original data remains intact) that will be written into the output folders (see below).
2. Class demos, mastery exercises, ArcGIS competency exercises, etc. will all be located on S:\scratch\gissg. These data sets will have to be copied to corresponding output folders of your U: drive that will store both input and output data.
All output folders will be located on your personal drive U:. Using Windows Explorer, create the following folders on your U: drive. Make sure that you type their names EXACTLY as shown below. This is important for a proper placement of datafiles from self-extracting files.
To do that:
NOTE: Data paths for this class will be set differently from what is described in the first tutorial exercise. Follow the instructions below to set these data paths.
C:\Idrisi\tutorial\using Idrisi
(first)
C:\Idrisi\tutorial\introductory GIS (next)
To instruct Idrisi to remember this information, you will have to save these data paths into the project environment file. To do that:
When you start Idrisi again on any computer, make sure that this project environment file is loaded. You can see Project Environment filename path in the top part of the project environment dialog box. This will make sure that you will have correct settings for your output data paths.
If other settings are displayed, then open the project environment file:
These settings should now be displayed in the top part of the dialog box as Project Environment filename.
NOTE THAT YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO ACCESS YOUR FOLDER U:\GISSG\COMPEX IF YOU ARE USING ANOTHER PERSON'S LOGIN NAME.