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1. Using a web browser, search for "h-gac gis" and select the result as shown below or go directly to: http://www.h-gac.com/rds/gis-applications-and-data/gis-datasets.aspx.
   
   
   
   
2. Under the Dataset Categories section, click the Transportation button to filter the results by subject.
3. Under the Datasets section, click Major Roads.
4. Click Download Dataset.
5. Click the blue Download button.

Houston METRO Downloads

The Houston METRO website provides GIS data for the public transit system in Houston provided by METRO. For this tutorial, you will need the bus stops and bus routes data, which is included in the downloadable zip-file containing all of the GIS data available on the site. To obtain this data:

1. Using a web browser, search for "houston metro gis" and select the result as shown below or go directly to: https://www.ridemetro.org/Pages/NewsDownloads.aspx.
   
   
   
   
2. Scroll down to the bottom of the webpage and locate the Zipped Data Shape Files section.

There are two links in this section that look promising: METRO GIS Data Layers and METRO GIS Data. From the perspective of a GIS user, there is nothing about those particular link names that is helpful in deducing which link to download. After testing both downloads, we determined that the Metro GIS Data download contains only the METRO service boundary, while the METRO GIS Data Layers download contains 

1. Click METRO GIS Data Layers to download.

1. Click Bus Routes and Bus Stops to download.

HCAD

Though it is not used in this course, the Harris County Appraisal District (HCAD) Public Data is another great online source that provides similar data such as highways, utilities, and water districts and is available at: http://pdata.hcad.org/GIS/index.html

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Any time throughout the tutorial that you see reference to the file path C:\Users\gistrain\Desktop\IntroTutorialData, you will need to substitute it with the file path you have just selected.

The following step-by-step instructions and screenshots are based on the Windows 7 operating system with the Windows Classic desktop theme and ArcGIS for Desktop 10.1 SP1 software with an Advanced license. If your personal system configuration varies, you may experience minor differences from the instructions and screenshots.

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Once you have downloaded the Bus Stops and Bus Routes data from Houston METRO and the SuperNeighborhoods and Freeways data from COHGIS, you should be able to find the data files in your Downloads folder. You will see that all the files are zipped, meaning they contain compressed files of data within them (you can tell a file is zipped when the file type column reads “Compressed (zipped) Folder”). You will need to unzip the folders to be able to see the data inside them. To do that:

1. Open the Downloads folder.
2. Ensure that you see the following zipped folders in your Downloads folder.

    

   1. 1. Census_2010_By_SuperNeighborhood

      2. Major_Roads

      3. METRO_

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   1. 1. BusStops

      2. METRO_BusRoutes

   2. Select all three four folders.
   3. Right-click any of the selected folders and select 7-Zip > Extract here.

   Discussion on why to extract in downloads folder, rather than project folder.

    

   Your data should now be in a file folder in its decompressed format and ready to be brought into ArcGIS Pro.

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   1. From the Start menu, launch ArcGIS Pro.
   2. When ArcGIS Pro opens, under the Create a new project section, click the Blank project template.
   3. In the 'Create a New Project' window, for Name, type "Intro".
   4. For Location, click the Browse... button to the right.
   5. In the 'Select a folder to store the project.' window, click Computer in the left column and click Desktop in the right column and click OK.
      
      
      
      
   6. ClickOK once againIn the 'Create a New Project' Window, click OK.
   7. Maximize the  the ArcGIS Pro application window.
   8. In the 

   Exploring the ArcGIS Pro User Interface

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   1.  application window

   Managing GIS Data

   1. In the Catalog pane on , under the right, expand Folders section, click the arrow to expand Folders > Intro > Intro.gdb. You will notice there is no data in the geodatabase. Over the next few steps, we will import the data we downloaded online from the Downloads folder to our Project Geodatabase.

   Connecting to a folder

   1. RightIn the Catalog pane, right-click Folders and  and select Add Folder Connection.
   2. In the left column, click My Computer. In the right column, click Downloads and click  C:/ > Users > gistrain.ADRICE and single click on Downloads. Click OK.
   3. In the Catalog pane, expand Downloads.
   4. Fully Fully expand all  all folders and geodatabases in  in the Downloads folder.

   Exploring GIS Data File Formats

   Previewing GIS data Using the Catalog View

   previewing metadata & projections

   previewing features

   Examining GIS Data Coordinate systems

   1. Your 'Folders' directory should look like the below.
      Image Added

   Importing and Exporting Data in the Project Geodatabase

   Importing (copying) Geodatabase Feature Classes into the project geodatabase

   Importing (converting) shapefiles into the project geodatabse

   Exporting geodatabase feature classes to shapefiles

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   For this tutorial, we are working with vector data which is a spatial data format that uses points, lines, and polygons to represent real features on the Earth's surface. Vector data is ideal for discrete themes with definite boundaries. A Feature Class is a vector storage format that represents a homogeneous collection of common features. There are two types of Feature Classes: a Shapefile feature class and a Geodatabase feature class. A Shapefile feature class is an open source format. Its file extension is .shp and its icon is green. A Geodatabase feature class is an Esri proprietary format. A Geodatabase feature class must be stored inside a Geodatabase (.gdb) and its icon is white. To better organize our project, we will import data into our Project Geodatabase.

   1. In the Catalog pane, click the Major_Roads geodatabase feature class from the Major_Rivers.gdb and drag-and-drop it into the Intro.gdb. A progress bar will appear that reads 'Copying...' Once it is complete, you will see a copy of Major_Roads inside the Intro.gdb as shown below.
      
      Image Added
   2. Census_1010_By_SuperNeighboorhood, METRO_BusRoutes, and METRO_BusStops are Shapefile feature classes, so these Shapefiles require a different method to be imported into the Project Geodatabase. In the Catalog pane, right-click on Census_1010_By_SuperNeighboorhood.shp and select Export > Feature class(es) to geodatabase.
      
      Image Added
      
      
   3. In the Geoprocessing pane, click the Folder button to the right of the blank input features drop-down.
   4. In the 'Input Features' window, click Project > Folders > Downloads in the right column and click Open.
   5. Select METRO_BusRoutes.shp and METRO_BusStops.shp and click OK. 
   6. In the Geoprocessing pane, accept default settings as shown below and click Run. 
      
      Image Added
      
      
   7. In the Catalog pane, right-click on Intro.gdb and select Refresh. 
      Your Project Geodatabase should now contain four Geodatabase feature classes: Major_Roads, Census_1010_By_SuperNeighboorhood, METRO_BusRoutes, and METRO_BusStops.
      
      Image Added
      
      
   8. In the Catalog pane, in the Folders section, right-click on Downloads and select Remove.