Getting Started in ArcGIS Pro

An important part of any map creation is good data organization. This begins with good file management and continues with managing layers in your workspace. As we noted in Chapter 1, How Maps Get Made, good file naming and organizational practices are critical to streamlining your mapping process. If you are working on your computer's hard drive, you may wish to set up a folder dedicated to your ArcPro projects (for example, C:\ArcProProjects). If you are working in an organizational server environment, create a folder according to your organization's file management policies.

ArcPro allows you to organize your project through the Contents pane, the Map View, and the Layout View. The Contents pane allows you to list your data layers in a variety of ways by drawing order, data source, and more. The Map View, like the Data View in ArcMap, is where you can see your data layers from a single Map Frame, geographically aligned and as they will appear in your final map. The Layout View is where you will assemble your final map output (with one or more map frames), add map elements, and finalize output for print or screen. In this chapter, we'll look at each in detail and practice organizing data for cartographic purposes.

A key feature of ArcPro is the ability to easily interface with ArcGIS Online and share data within your organization or publicly. Its new project file format also allows you to create multiple layouts with the same map frame and reuse map frames and layouts in multiple projects, which can save you time if you work with the same data regularly.

In this chapter, we will be covering the following topics:

• Opening a project
• Organizing the Contents pane
• Working in the Map View
• Transitioning to the Layout View
• Creating a map output