If you followed the directions above, this new layer will be named “Refuge.” So far, so good.ġ3) When you click “OK,” a new layer will appear in the Table of Contents on the left hand side of the screen. Let’s practice drawing the boundaries of your proposed refuge.Ģ) Right-click on the folder you are working inĤ) You will see a new window on the screen called “Create New Shapefile”ĥ) Give your new shapefile a “Name” (like “Refuge)Ħ) Under the “Feature Type” dropdown, choose “Polygon.”ħ) Note: if you wanted your new layer to be a points layer, you should choose “Points” etc.Ĩ) Under “Spatial Reference: Description” you will see “Unknown Coordinate System” but you want your new shapefile to line up with the coordinate system of your base map of Alaska.ĩ) To ensure this, click the “Edit” button.ġ1) Select and “Add” the shapefile that is your base map, and then click “OK.” This assigns the same GCS to your new layer as that of the base map.ġ2) Note that the “Create New Shapefile” window now displays “GCS_North_American_1983” as the “Geographic Coordinate System.” This is the same GCS as the file you originally downloaded from the Census. You will need to create a new layer that shows the boundaries of the refuge. Let’s say you want to propose a new wildlife refuge area in Alaska. Let’s apply a projection to help make it look a bit more accurate.ĥ) Open the Properties of the Data Frame called “Layers” and click on the “Coordinate System” tabĦ) Browse the folders to find a “Predefined”, “Projected Coordinate System” Open it in ArcMap 10 and check it out.įor this example, we want to focus on Alaska, so we won’t need the rest of the US.ġ) Use your editing tools to delete everything but Alaska.Ĥ) This view of Alaska looks quite distorted.
Here is an example of how to do this.ġ) Go to and click “Geography”Ģ) Then, click “TIGER Page”>”TIGER/Line Shapefiles & Files”>” 2010 TIGER/Line® Shapefiles Main Page” (Note that the 2011 TIGER page is still incomplete).Ĥ) From the dropdown list, choose “Counties (and equivalent)” and click “Submit”ĥ) From the “County and Equivalent (2010)” dropdown list, choose “All states in one national file” and click “Download.” This will download a boundary file of the entire US, divided up by county boundaries. There is a new method of doing this in Version 10 of the software. Editing & Creating Your Own Shapefiles in ArcMap 10ĪrcMap allows you to create and edit your own shapfile layers.