GIS hardware/software and services at Newman library
Hardware | Printers | Software | Other software utilities | Technical support | Tutorials
Geographic Information Systems services at Newman library is located on the 2nd floor in Room 2010. Please check in at the Reference Desk located on the 1st floor.
Hardware
- A 1.9GHz Pentium Pro w/ 1 GB of RAM and a 80 GB HD along with a 1GB Jazz drive running Windows XP.
- A 450 mhz Pentium w/128 MB RAM and a 14.4 GB HD equipped with a 5 CD disc changer and a CD Recorder running NT Server 4.0
- Dual 650mhz Dell Server - w/500 MB RAM, a 30GB HD running Windoes 2000 Server on a network.
Printers
- Epson Color 1520 Inkjet printer: support sizes up to 17" x 22" (13.6" x 21.78" printable area)
- HP DesignJet 800PS 42
- HP Color Laser 4550 PCL
Software
GIS Software is available to Faculty, Staff , Students and the local community. There may be some cases where certain commercial software may not be available to non-students, because of particular licences agreements with the vendor.
| Package/version | Platforms | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ArcView 3.2 | Windows95/NT4 | Create thematic or "statistical" maps; viewing tiff images; importing ArcInfo map coverages; working with boundary files and geocoding(address matching). |
| ArcView Software Extensions | Windows95/NT4 | Add-on for ArcView to do advanced GIS tasks: (1) Spatial Analyst -- for raster (bitmap) GIS data |
| ArcExplorer 1.0 | Windows 95/NT4 | Free viewer for ESRI map data -- available directly from ESRI |
| Dbase III+ | Dos 3.2 or higher | Used to manipulate data in a dbf format to import into a GIS program |
| Access 97 | Windows 95/NT4 | Used to store data used in a GIS application. |
| Excel | Windows95/NT4 | Creating databases and spreadsheets; specific uses of databases for import into GIS mapping applications. |
| Landview IV | Windows95/NT4/ Power Mac |
Enables you to:create customized street maps, thematic maps, associated census tracts and block groups with a street address or point location on a map by which demographic data can be derived. |
| Microdem | Windows95/NT4 | This program used to manipulate and analyse 3 dimension data contained in DEM files. |
| Photoshop7 | Windows95/NT4 | Image manipulation, scanner utility; used to develop digital images for use in text and internet documents, allows for considerable image enhancement; also image format file conversion. |
| SAS/GIS | Windows95/NT4 | Used for data analysis and mapping statistical data used in such areas as demographics, marketing surveys, and epidemiological studies. |
Other software utilities
The packages below are shareware which are used basically for viewing and some manipulation of graphic files.
- Lview -- LView Pro is a comprehensive graphics package that enables you to create images from scratch or edit existing image files.
- Paintshop Pro -- Paint Shop Pro is an image-editing tool that supports more than 30 image formats and several painting and drawing tools.
Technical support
To obtain assistant with the above software packages, please contact Bruce Obenhaus by e-mail (obenhaus@vt.edu), or by phone at x231-6181 or Ed Brooks by e-mail (gisdata@vt.edu), or by phone at x231-9225, or ask for them at the Reference desk. Manuals for Arcview and it extensions may be borrowed for short periods from the Newman Reserve desk. There are several books on Arcview in the library stacks. Other users in various departments on campus may be able to provide some help as well. Site-license users cannot use ESRI Technical Support directly.
Tutorials on ESRI's Arcview/Extensions GIS software
University Of Michigan - This tutorial focuses on creating a map of Census Data using a Geographic Information System.
GIS LOUNGE - Tutorials in GIS
