Building a Geodatabase: Updated for Version 8.3

ESRI's ArcGIS Desktop products-ArcView, ArcEditor, and ArcInfo-enable users to create and manage a geodatabase, the world's most advanced spatial object-oriented data model. ArcView enables users to create and manage simple features (points, lines, and polygons) in a personal geodatabase. ArcEditor and ArcInfo support full read-and-write access to any geodatabase. The key advantage of this data model is that it allows you to easily build intelligent models of spatial systems. You can assign behaviors to individual features, define relationships between classes of features, create business rules, and apply high-level topological models without any programming. You are also free to extend the geodatabase model and object behaviors without limits by using any Component Object Model (COM)-compliant programming language. Building a Geodatabase introduces you to geodatabase concepts and shows you how to implement geographic database designs. Whether you are importing existing data or building a new geodatabase from scratch, this book makes it easy to find a task and work through the steps to get it done.

You'll learn how to

Migrate existing geographic data into a geodatabase

Create new feature classes, feature data sets, and tables

Add behavior to your features by creating subtypes and validation rules

Create relationships between objects in your geodatabase by creating relationship classes and geometric networks

Design your geodatabase using Unified Modeling Language and create your geodatabase schema using Computer-Aided Software Engineering tools

Create new features and edit existing features with behaviors Create and edit dimension features to annotate your maps and drawings

Work with a versioned geodatabase

Begin by following the quick-start tutorial to get an overview of how to create and edit a geodatabase, and then actually create your first geodatabase. If you prefer, jump right in and experiment with geodatabases on your own. When you have questions, you'll find concise, step-by-step answers inside, fully illustrated to help you complete a task.

The Editors of ESRI Press include many software developers, instructors, and programmers with many years experience working with ESRI software.