Introduction

As you have begun to see, ArcGIS Pro is a powerful tool for visualizing data. However, you have only begun to scratch the surface. One of the things that makes ArcGIS Pro so powerful is its ability to make use of many different data types and formats.

Unlike other programs, such as Word, Excel, or even AutoCAD, ArcGIS Pro is not limited to a single file type. Based on your experience with previous recipes you have learned that ArcGIS Pro makes use of project with a .aprx file extension. In the projects, you accessed a file geodatabase to add new layers to a map and you were able to import a map file with a .mapx file extension. These are just three of the many different files you can bring into ArcGIS Pro. You will encounter many more the longer you use ArcGIS Pro.

In this chapter, you will begin to explore some of the various data formats you can use with ArcGIS Pro, and their limitations. You will start with the two basic data categories, Raster and Vector, to ensure you have a good foundational understanding of GIS data. From there, you will learn how to create Esri data storage types, such as a Geodatabase and shapefile. Next, you will see how to access non-Esri CAD formats so they can be added to your maps. Finally, you will explore the use of traditional tabular data in ArcGIS Pro.