Setting up your laptop computing environment for the course

First of all, due to the unavailability of computer labs throughout the course, we ask each student to bring their own laptop to work with ArcGIS in each lecture. If you cannot purchase an ArcGIS license, you will have to find someone who’s happy to share their laptop with you during the course.

Before the course starts on Monday 27 August, please install in your laptop (1) ArcGIS, (2) 7-Zip, and (3) Atom with its Script package. We do not want to waste our lecture hours for software installation. We will not wait for you to install software once the course starts.

 

ArcGIS

Exactly how you can purchase and install ArcGIS is beyond my knowledge, because ESRI, the ArcGIS vendor, offers a deal that differs from country to country. Contact ESRI of your country for how to purchase software license and how to install.

When you purchase ArcGIS license, make sure the license includes (1) ArcGIS Desktop Advanced, not Basic or Standard (2) Spatial Analyst extension (3) 3D Analyst extension. Otherwise you cannot use all of the data editing tools of ArcGIS that our course covers.

ArcGIS is a Windows software. If you use a MacBook, use VMware or Parallels Desktop to run Windows on your machine (as I do).

 

7-Zip

During the course we will download and uncompress data files with which we practice editing spatial datasets in ArcGIS.

Window’s native file uncompressor has some limitations. So we will use free software 7-Zip instead. (WinZip is an alternative, but it has unnecessary and confusing complications. 7-Zip is simpler to handle.)

For step-by-step instruction to install 7-Zip, see: https://slides.com/kudamatsu/install-7-zip/fullscreen#

 

Atom and its Script package

From Lecture 2 onwards, we will practice programming with Python (to allow others to replicate our research). We use Atom, a free text editor, to program Python code for ArcGIS. It has several advantages over other text editors. One of such is its Script package which allows us to run Python within the text editor window.

For step-by-step instruction to install Atom and its Script package, see: https://slides.com/kudamatsu/install-atom/fullscreen#/

 

Once again, please make sure that you have installed all these by the time our course starts on Monday 27th August.

Unfortunately, I cannot be available for your questions regarding installation. For ArcGIS, contact ESRI in your country. For 7-Zip and Atom, installation should be straightforward.

 

UiO users

For users at UiO, the above software is available in the Software center on computers at the University and available to download and install at home at winprog.uio.no. For users unable to obtain ArcGIS, it may be possible to work in groups during the course, but this only works if as many as possible have acquired ArcGIS.

By Masa Kudamatsu
Published Aug. 15, 2018 12:10 PM - Last modified May 15, 2019 9:36 AM