1. The use of trade names is for descriptive purposes only, and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
Do you have a question and you don't see the answer? If so, send your question to cjbecker@usgs.gov. We will try to answer your question, and to add frequently asked questions and answers here.
A: All the map data sets on the Digital Atlas of Oklahoma come on one CD. However, there are two versions of the CD: the ArcView disc and the Transfer formats disc.
A: The Arcview CD has all the map data sets in a PC ARC/INFO1 export file format and has the viewer software ArcView 1. ArcView 1 allows the user to view the map data sets. The Transfer formats CD has the map data sets in public domain formats and in PC ARC/INFO export file format so these data sets may be loaded into the users GIS software. The Transfer formats CD does not include viewer software.
A: Twenty-five data sets; administrative boundaries; 104th U.S. Congressional district boundaries; county boundaries; latitudinal lines; longitudinal lines; geographic names; indexes of U.S. Geological Survey 1:24,000, 1:100,000, and 1:250,000-scale topographic quadrangles; a shaded-relief image; Oklahoma State House of Representatives district boundaries; Oklahoma State Senate district boundaries; locations of U.S. Geological Survey stream gages; streams, rivers, and lakes; watershed boundaries and hydrologic cataloging unit numbers; locations of weather stations; census block group boundaries with selected demographic data; city and major highways text; land-surface elevation contours and elevation points; roads, streets and address ranges; highway text; school district boundaries; and the public land survey system. Most map data sets have attribute information associated with them. For example, the census block group boundaries data set has 30 demographic attributes associated with each block group. These include information about income, education, race, housing, and age of the people living in block groups.
A: Yes and no. The CD contains indexes of U.S. Geological Survey 1:24,000, 1:100,000, and 1:250,000-scale topographic quadrangles. It does not contain the actual digital topographic maps, but it does contain most of the data used to make 1:100,000-scale topographic maps. (Note the USGS 7.5-minute quadrangle maps are 1:24,000 scale, and show more detail than the 1:100,000-scale maps used here.) In GIS a map is a combination of spatial data (lines, points, polygons) and map symbology (line types, symbols, colors, text). The Digital Atlas of Oklahoma contains the roads, streams, contours, public land survey, county boundaries, and geographic names that are on the 1:100,000-scale USGS topographic maps, but the screen display colors and symbols may not look exactly like the paper map.
A: Most data sets were developed from 1:100,000-scale maps, on which 1 inch = 1.6 miles. (The USGS 7.5-minute quadrangle maps are 1:24,000 scale, on which 1 inch = 0.4 miles, and show more detail than the 1:100,000-scale maps.)
A: The ArcView disc works with all versions of ArcView, on any supported operating system. The .AV files, however, work only with ArcView 1. If you have ArcView 2 or 3, you must build your own project view files and queries.
A: You need the the Transfer formats disc. It contains the data sets in ESRI export-file format, that you can import into ARC/INFO and use. Workstation ARC/INFO cannot read the PC ARC/INFO coverages on the ArcView disc directly.
A: Beta testers reported that the software packages that have been able to read the data (not the view files) include: ArcView 2 and 3, Atlas GIS, ArcCAD, ARC/INFO, ESRI Map Objects, GRASS, and Erdas Imagine.
SylvanMaps can read the data if converted to shapefile format, but those are not included on the CD. ArcView 2 or 3 can make shapefiles from the coverages on the ArcView disc.
MapInfo, Intergraph MGE, and Microstation are supposed to be capable of translating the DLG-format files, however none of our beta testers had the separate data translator packages for these products, so this could not be tested.
Most plain CAD packages CANNOT read the data. Please note that while the back of the transfer formats CD mentions DXF format, only the two text layers are stored in that format.
A: CAD and GIS may look similar on the surface, but the underlying data models are quite different. It is difficult to translate GIS data to CAD and vice versa without losing information. The software industry has yet to settle on a common data transfer format. For the moment, DLG format is the most common public-domain GIS format. For some users, this may mean they have to purchase a separate data translator package to read the DLG or ARC/INFO data. CAD users may need to contact their software vendors to determine what solutions are available.
A: Install it from the MS-DOS prompt, not from within Windows. Place CD in CD-ROM drive. Make the CD-ROM drive the active drive. Type "INSTALL" and follow the instructions. READ CAREFULLY the information that the install program prints to the screen. To edit the AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files, use a text editor such as DOS EDIT. For example, at the MS-DOS prompt, type:
EDIT AUTOEXEC.BAT or
EDITCONFIG.SYS
Do the following 3 things:
1) In the AUTOEXEC.BAT, set the AVHOME environment variable to the path where ArcView is installed. This means you add a line such as:
SET AVHOME=C:\ARCVIEW1
This line must be added before the PATH statement in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
2) In the AUTOEXEC.BAT, add AVHOME to the SET PATH statement, which probably will be there already. The PATH statement looks something like the following:
SET PATH=C:\WINDOWS;C:\DOS;
After the last item in the path, place a semicolon (if none is there) and add %AVHOME%\BIN to the list. For example, the above statement would now look like:
SET PATH=C:\WINDOWS;C:\DOS;%AVHOME%\BIN;
3) In the CONFIG.SYS file, look for the "FILES=N" line, where N is a number. Add a line if one does not already exist. The number of files must be 64 or greater.
After changing either AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS, the file must be SAVED. Exit the editor. After modifying both files, reboot your PC.
A: The best way to get started is to double-click on the Question Mark icon, Introducing ArcView 1.0, and go to "A Guided tour of ArcView." When you have learned the basics, double-click on the ArcView 1.0 Globe icon, then click on "Open" from the "File" menu in the main ArcView window. Using the file browser that pops up, go to the \VIEWS directory on the CD-ROM and select a view file.
A: Read the "Suggestions for Improving System Performance" section, in the a_readme.1st file on the CD-ROM. Or click here.
A: The view (.AV) files on this CD work only with ArcView 1.0 and are merely EXAMPLES of how you can display selected attributes from the data sets. They contain standardized queries on the data plus preselected symbols and colors. For example, legend buttons are present in the county view files that show "Water Names," "Populated Places," "School Names," all of which are specific queries on the geographic names data set. All but the most experienced ArcView 2 or 3 users should start by using these files. The files are easy to customize and can be saved to hard disk. This way you can build your own view files showing what you want.
A: Yes. If you have ARC/INFO, or some way to make ARC/INFO coverages, you can add any data to the view files. Simply store the data as a PC ARC/INFO coverage. Workstation ARC/INFO users must first export the coverage, then use the IMPORT utility provided with ArcView 1 to make a PC ARC/INFO coverage. The coverage must be in the same projection, horizontal datum, and coordinate system as the Digital Atlas of Oklahoma coverages. Click here for projection information. Georeferenced image data also may be added.
If you do not have a way to make a PC ARC/INFO coverage, you can save your view as a graphics file in a format compatible with your graphics/drawing package. Open the file within your graphics/drawing package and do whatever you want. You will NOT be able to return (by importing or opening) this file to ArcView 1.0.
A: No. You need: Microsoft Windows 3.0 or 3.1; 386 or higher processor, math co-processor is recommended; 4 Megabytes (MB) RAM minimum, 8MB RAM is recommended; 17 MB hard-disk space; and a VGA or SVGA color monitor. The ArcView 1.0 viewer software will not function on Windows 95 or Windows NT. UNIX, Macintosh, and VAX computers must have their own viewing software. The ArcView 1.0 provided on the ArcView disc will not function on those systems.
A: The State GIS Council is working with ESRI to make a Windows 95/NT viewer package available. Click here for more information.
A: No viewing software is provided for these systems. If you have ArcView software for one of these systems, you can use the data directly from the ArcView CD. Also, see the "Can other viewing software be used?" question above.
1. The use of trade names is for descriptive purposes only, and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.