Creating
Maps with ArcGIS
First Map in ArcMap illustrating the
boundaries of the Mexican State
The ArcMap
project/MXD activity 2 was created and saved.
Under Map documents properties menu the file menu was selected, and the
name was change to Mexico, a title and the author’s name was also entered. The
add button was then click and the following were selected: World_countries, Mex_boundary,
Americas_admin. To illustrate the
boundaries the following approach was used: selecting by attribute and a new
selection was created. Then a new layer
was created (by export). After doing so, some labels were applied to the
world_countries by choosing new fills colors and symbols to the CNTRY_NAME.
After finishing adding values and symbols, the map was flip to layout view and
a layout and legend were selected, an arrow, scale bar and scale text were
added, as well as a dynamic text.
Lastly, the frame tab was selected some features were selected for the
tab and finally it was exported to JPG and saved as activity 2_map1.mxd.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-L3SFcisnQCYwhwsMlv5Wp8HLYNo97p6r58RBS2ubfnL4aAgCIn5CN-2pY7e5Sj39czCvl2RVFqjkFXRRNYQsk3p4kCjJB9PixEKmblPwOyQSrbkw5eDEFSjEHof_zH-KphJrC8GX0rE/s640/Activity2_map1.jpg)
Second Map illustrating many layers of
Mexico
The layers Mex_rails, Mex_Rivers, Mex_Roads, Mex_urban
were selected and Mex_state was unchecked. Under mex_rivers, the symbol tab was
selected and under categories and unique values the RANK field value was
selected and values such as primary and major were added. The same procedure was used to display only
roads and rails. In this map, advanced
labelling was chose for Mex_urban, with a scale of 1:5,000,000. The labels were
then converted to annotations to allow you to manipulate them individually just
like a text box. Before creating annotations your map needs to be in data view.
Labels and symbols were added, as well as a legend, scale bar and scale
text. Finally, an inset map was created
and a data frame was inserted highlighting Central America region, the map was
exported to JPG and saved as Activity2_map2.
Third map created using Raster to
illustrate the elevations of
Mexico
First,
everything was removed from the previous map except world_countries from the
“Layers” data frame. The Layer Mex_Elev raster was added and under its symbol
properties stretched Symbology was selected, a color ramp was chose to display
the information. A legend was inserted, as well as a scale bar and scale text
an inset frame to display the area. Finally, the map was exported to JPG and
saved as activity3_map3.