How to use ArcExplorer?

Once you have downloaded the two free extensions, you can access the ArcExplorer Spatial Tool from the "Start/programs/Esri/ArcExplorer" location.

With ArcExplorer, you first have to add the layers you want to be displayed in your view.

• Choose the "Add layers" option in Layer or click the Add Layers button to open the Catalog.
• Double click the WWW icon.
• Double click Add Web Site to open the WWW Connection dialog.
• Type the hostname: http://idod-web.mumm.ac.be:8080
• Connect to one map service: type "Tool".
• Click OK to connect.
• In the Catalog, click on Tool. A list of layers is available to add to your view. To add a layer, double click its name. You can choose all the layers (one by one) or only those you are interested in.
• Click the close button to close the Catalog.

This procedure will give you a background map, with geographical information. You can save your project so you don’t need to add each layer again next time you open ArcExplorer and your project.

Visualising the query results of the IDOD database

If you want to be able to visualise your dataset once you have carried out a request (cf. Search IDOD), choose one of the two options of "SPATIAL ANALYSIS" in the drop down list of actions (on pages: "search summary"or "list of requests"). The resulting text -file will be transformed into a GIS compatible format (ESRI shapefile).

The choice of the data format ('Pivot A' or 'Pivot B') depends on what you want to do! (More information about query output formats)

• The Pivot A output format is used to visualise/analyse variables taking into account the different analysis methods.
• The Pivot B output format is used to visualise/analyse variables for which the analysis methods can be considered as comparable.
• The Record format and the Transposed format are not suitable for spatial analyses. Especially the record format contains more details of the data so we recommend you to have a look at it.

From the next page, you first have to download 3 files on your local drive.

• Open the ArcExplorer Spatial Tool Viewer from the "Start/programs/Esri/ArcExplorer" location . Add the geographical layers as described here above. A background map of the Belgian sea area is available, together with a set of tools.
• To add the result of your request, choose the "Add layers" option in Layer or click the Add Layers button to open the Catalog.
• Navigate to the folder that contains your shapefile (the 3 files downloaded on your local drive after having performed your request and chosen the Spatial Tool option).
• Double click the file to add. It will be added to the 'Table of contents/Legend of the map'.

You need to compare the field names of the shapefiles with the fieldnames in the original query result text-file. Due to the limitations of the spatial tool, the fieldnames are simplified in the shapefiles.

To use the ArcExplorer Viewer, have a look at Functions of ArcExplorer.

  Functions of ARCExplorer

  More information about ArcExplorer