Exercise 2a: Importing data with the Quick Import tool

Complexity: Beginner Data Requirement: ArcGIS Tutorial Data Setup Data Path: C:\arcgis\ArcTutor\Data Interoperability\ Goal: Import GML data using the Quick Import tool.

The Quick Import tool converts any data source supported by the Data Interoperability extension and loads it into a geodatabase using a simple one-to-one translation. This tool is ideal for importing nonnative data when your workflow does not require feature geometry or schema to be modified.

In this exercise, you import Geography Markup Language (GML) zoning data.

Using the Quick Import dialog box, you perform the following tasks:

• Choose the FME reader and specify the data source.
• Accept the default reader parameters.
• Accept the coordinate system defined by the data source.
• Specify the destination staging geodatabase.
• Import the data.

After importing the data, you add the dataset to ArcMap to verify your results.

Open the tool and specify input

Prerequisite:

The Data Interoperability extension must be enabled.

Steps:

1. Start ArcMap.
2. Click the Catalog Window button on the Standard toolbar.
3. Find and open the Quick Import tool using the Search window .
4. Click the Input Dataset browse button.

   The Specify Data Source dialog box opens.

Choosing the FME reader

Steps:

1. Click the Format browse button.

   The FME Reader Gallery dialog box opens.

2. Type gml in the Search text box.
3. Click the row listing Geography Markup Language (GML) and click OK.

   The FME Reader Gallery dialog box closes.

Specifying the data source

Steps:

1. Click the Dataset browse button.

   The Select File dialog box opens.

2. Navigate to the C:\arcgis\ArcTutor\Data Interoperability\zoning folder.
3. Click the zoning.gml dataset and click Open.

   The Dataset text box is populated with the path and file name.

   Caution:

   Some file extensions can be associated with more than one format. It is good practice to visually confirm that the format and file extension are correctly matched before closing the dialog box.
4. Click OK.

   The Specify Data Source dialog box closes.

Specify the output geodatabase and run the tool

The Quick Import tool creates a geodatabase as output. The output staging geodatabase can be used directly or for further processing.

Steps:

1. Click the Output Staging Geodatabase browse button, navigate to the C:\arcgis\ArcTutor\Data Interoperability\zoning folder, type zoning in the Name text box, then click Save.

   The Output Staging Geodatabase text box is populated with the path and name.

2. Click OK.

   The tool executes the conversion in the background. A progress bar at the bottom of your map displays the name of the tool. When the tool is finished, a pop-up notification appears in the system tray. You can examine the details of the conversion in the Results window.

Add the data to ArcMap

Steps:

1. Type C:\arcgis\ArcTutor\Data Interoperability\zoning\zoning.gdb in the Location text box and press ENTER.

   The location is added to the Catalog tree under the Folders Connection heading.

2. Drag the zoning feature class into ArcMap and verify your results.

This completes the exercise.

Continue to the next exercise: Exercise 2b: Exporting data with the Quick Export tool.