2007
Exercise Creating a File Geodatabase
In this exercise you will create a file geodatabase utilizing ArcCatalog. Creating a new file
geodatabase involves creating a special file folder on disk using ArcGIS. This is a simple,
straightforward process that is performed by using ArcCatalog or geoprocessing tools.
File Geodatabase Usage Tips
• Each dataset can scale up to 1 TB in size.
• Designed to be edited by a single user and does not support geodatabase versioning.
• Works across operating systems.
• Uses a very efficient data structure that is optimized for performance and storage. File
geodatabases use about 1/3 of the feature geometry storage required by shapefiles.
• Also include a read-only compression option that allows users to create a read-only,
highly compressed, and optimized geodatabase.
• Recommended over personal geodatabases.
Step 1: Creating a new file geodatabase using ArcCatalog
• Open ArcCatalog. Right-click the file folder in the ArcCatalog tree where you want to create
the new file geodatabase. In this case, C:\un\exerciseDBS\
• Point to New.
• Click File Geodatabase. ArcCatalog creates a new file geodatabase in the location you
selected.
• Rename the new file geodatabase to ExerciseFGB by right-clicking on the new file
geodatabase and choosing Rename.
Exercise File Geodatabase, page 1 of 5
2007
Additional Notes:
Creating a new file geodatabase using geoprocessing
Use the tool Create File GDB in ArcToolbox to specify the path name to the file folder location
and name of the new geodatabase you want to create.
The Create File GDB tool is located in the Data Management toolbox in the Workspace toolset
(Data Management > Workspace).
Step 2: Migrating Existing Data to the File Geodatabase
• Right click on the ExerciseFGB file geodatabase and click Import.
• Select Feature Class (single).
• Select the Ward_NW.shp shapefile as input features from the C:\un\exerciseDBS\data
directory.
• Output location is c:\un\exerciseDBS\[Link]
• In the Output Feature Class box, type Ward_NW.
• Click OK. (see below)
Exercise File Geodatabase, page 2 of 5
2007
• Close the geoprocessing dialog box when process is completed.
• You may receive a message in the geoprocessing dialog box. “The output resolution is larger
than the input feature class resolution.” Click Close to close the dialog box. What this
means is that in ArcGIS 9.1 and earlier versions, geoprocessing tools produced 32-bit data.
The output from geoprocessing tools in ArcGIS 9.2 is 53-bit. This message informs the user
of the higher resolution of the output data. Go to ArcGIS Desktop Help: Migrating to High
Precision for additional information.
• To migrate a database table to a file geodatabase, the steps are the same.
• Right click on the Ward_NW file geodatabase and click Import.
• Select Table (single).
• Select the NWest_POP_table.dbf table as input from the C:\un\exerciseDBS\data
directory.
Exercise File Geodatabase, page 3 of 5
2007
• Output location is C:\un\exerciseDBS\[Link].
• In the Output Table box, type NWest_Pop_table
• Click OK
Step 3: Creating a New Feature Class
• In the ArcCatalog tree, right-click the ExerciseFGB file geodatabase.
• Point to New.
• Click Feature Class.
• Type a name for the feature class, NewFC. To create an alias for this feature class, type in
an alias. Use NewFeatureClass as an alias for this exercise.
• Select the Type of Features from the drop-down list that will be stored in this feature class.
Select polygon.
• Skip geometry properties, but if your data require m- or z-values, you must check the
appropriate check boxes.
• Click Next.
• Click Import… and navigate to a feature class that uses a spatial reference that we want to
use as a template. In this exercise, navigate to [Link] and select Ward_NW
feature class. If you did not have a template feature class, you would choose a spatial
reference by using the Select… button. Click Next.
• Accept default value for xy tolerance. The default xy tolerance is 1 mm on the Earth's
surface at the point of projection.
• By default, the Accept default resolution and domain extent check box is checked. If you
want to manually adjust the domain and extent values of your new dataset, uncheck this box.
For this exercise, keep the box checked. Click Next.
• The configuration keyword applies to ArcInfo and ArcEditor users that have a file or ArcSDE
Enterprise geodatabase. Configuration keyword allows you to create a table using a custom
storage keyword. This does not apply to our exercise.
• Click Next.
• To add a field to the feature class, click the blank row below “SHAPE”, then type the new
field name, EACODE
• Click in the Data Type column next to the new field's name, and select Text from the list.
• For Field Properties, change Length to 13. Keep the remaining default properties.
• Click Finish.
Exercise File Geodatabase, page 4 of 5
2007
This is the resulting file geodatabase.
Tips
To have your frequently used coordinate systems appear at the top of the list in the
wizard, begin by closing the wizard. Now, in ArcCatalog, turn on the Coordinate
Systems folder ( go to Tools > Options dialog, General tab) if it is not already turned on.
Inside the Coordinate Systems folder, drag and drop, or copy and paste, the coordinate
systems you use most frequently into the top level of the folder. For example, copy a
coordinate system from inside one of the subfolders and then right-click the Coordinate
System folder and choose paste. (If you drag and drop coordinate systems to the top level
of the Coordinate System folder, they are automatically copied, not moved, by
ArcCatalog, so they'll will still be accessible via their original subfolder too). You can
also create new subfolders or reorganize the existing subfolders. Now when you go into
the New Feature Class wizard again, you'll see those coordinate systems that you moved
to the top of the Coordinate Systems folder at the top of the list.
• You can click Save As to save the coordinate system as a .prj file.
• Click Import to populate the Spatial Reference Properties dialog box with information
from another feature class. You can then customize the template's spatial reference.
• To modify a predefined (or a template's) coordinate system or to define a custom
coordinate system from scratch, click Custom on the Coordinate System dialog box.
• Since the size of the spatial domain is dependent on the value of precision, when the
precision is changed, the maximum z-value will change to fit within the size of the spatial
extent. Similarly, when the maximum z-value is changed, the precision will change to fit
the domain extent.
Exercise File Geodatabase, page 5 of 5