4 replies to this topic

[natcase]

I'm looking at taking a serious plunge in the deep end of ESRI software. We have ArcEdit, and we've done a couple small projects internally, but I really feel at sea in terms of understanding how the software and file components work with each other. Kind of like a GIS person jumping into the world of Adobe...

ESRI's classes in cartography (like "Cartography with GIS") seem to be targeted at people with the opposite problem: lots of GIS, little cartography. But barring something specifically for experienced cartographers looking for an intro to Arc, that course sounds like it might be a good "sideways" way to get a background into cartographic tools in Arc. There's a prerequisite intro to Arc I can take online.

Anyone else been in the same boat and found a perfect fit? Anyone else taken this ESRI course and care to comment on it?

[DaveB]

Nat,
I sat in on the cartogarphy course when they first presented it in-house, and also reviewed some of the materials in subsequent updates. I think there is probably much more about cartography than GIS or ArcMap. You'd probably not get your money's worth out of it.

I asked one of the lead instructors for recommendations and he suggested looking at the following possibilities depending on your specific needs:
ArcGIS Desktop I: Getting Started with GIS
Instructor-Led (Classroom)
http://training.esri...ID=50111280_9.X

ArcGIS Desktop II: Tools and Functionality
Instructor-Led (Classroom)
http://training.esri...ID=50111385_9.X

ArcGIS Desktop III: GIS Workflows and Analysis
Instructor-Led (Classroom)
http://training.esri...ID=50111422_9.X

There are also the tutorials in the documentation. I'm not sure what there is as far as online courses, but sounds like you've already looked at what's on offer there.

I hope this helps.

[mike]

Nat,

Please take a look at the ESRI Press publications that we have come out with. http://www.esri.com/esripress

A good one to take a look at is the new GIS Tutorial, Third Edition for 9.3. It will help you get into the details of the software and help you understand many of the tools in it. And of course Designed Maps has a nice ArcGIS Desktop index that relates many cartographic terms to how it is done in ArcMap.

[BioGeoMan]

Not to downplay the quality or utility of ESRI courses, but I found that sitting in front of the computer using the software for hours upon hours was the best way to familiarize myself with the software and all its applications. I do, however, think that college or ESRI coursework is a more efficient way to learn the software, but also relatively expensive.

For beginners, you could pick up the Getting to Know ArcGIS book at a used book store and that would be as good as taking the course ESRI offers under the same title. The book is easy to follow and has step by step lessons and projects to familiarize the user with the GIS interface and basic tools.

The best source of knowledge for ESRI software is the User Forum on ESRI's website. Hours spent exploring that forum would yield a wealth of information.

And since you already have an extensive background in Cartography, I will not go into the value of general Geographic knowledge that I usually recommend to people who want to learn "to make maps using GIS".

M.

[natcase]

Nat,
I sat in on the cartogarphy course when they first presented it in-house, and also reviewed some of the materials in subsequent updates. I think there is probably much more about cartography than GIS or ArcMap. You'd probably not get your money's worth out of it.

I asked one of the lead instructors for recommendations and he suggested looking at the following possibilities depending on your specific needs:
ArcGIS Desktop I: Getting Started with GIS
Instructor-Led (Classroom)
http://training.esri...ID=50111280_9.X

ArcGIS Desktop II: Tools and Functionality
Instructor-Led (Classroom)
http://training.esri...ID=50111385_9.X

ArcGIS Desktop III: GIS Workflows and Analysis
Instructor-Led (Classroom)
http://training.esri...ID=50111422_9.X

There are also the tutorials in the documentation. I'm not sure what there is as far as online courses, but sounds like you've already looked at what's on offer there.

I hope this helps.

Just a quick followup. I took the ArcGIS Desktop II class in New York a couple weeks ago, and it was tremendously helpful. I'm impatient with most classroom software instruction, but this was paced just fine. It basically took me from knowing maps but not ArcGIS, and got me to where I understand the basics and could probably do some basic data manipulation for exort to Illustrator. It wasn't complete (I especially feel the need to explore the cartographic representations end of things), but it was a great basic, and I had time during the exercises to fool around a bit.