What is ArcGIS Desktop?

ArcGIS Desktop is a collection of software products for building complete geographic information systems (GIS). Unlike other versions of Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) GIS software (e.g., ArcView 3.x), ArcGIS Desktop versions 8 and 9 provide an integrated GIS, combining object-oriented and traditional file-based data models with a set of tools to create and work with geographic data. The following three applications comprise the ArcGIS Desktop software suite:

• ArcMap (mapping and data manipulation): ArcMap is a comprehensive map-authoring application for ArcGIS Desktop. ArcMap is the central application for all map-based tasks including cartography, map analysis, feature selection, and editing. For map viewing, ArcMap offers both geographic data view and page layout view.
  
  
• ArcCatalog (data management): As a shared ArcGIS application, ArcCatalog allows you to organize and access all GIS information (e.g., maps, globes, datasets, models, metadata, and services). ArcCatalog includes tools for browsing and finding geographic information; recording, viewing, and managing metadata; viewing datasets; and defining the schema structure of the object-based geographic datasets.
  
  
• ArcToolbox (data conversion, modeling, and spatial analysis): ArcToolbox includes a number of tools to do geographic feature overlay, feature selection and analysis, topology processing, and data conversion resulting in an output dataset. The geoprocessing framework allows you to use each geoprocessing function in a variety of ways. The tools can be used directly from a dialog, executed via command line, combined with other processes in visual models using Model Builder, or used in advanced scripts. The number of tools available to you depends on your ArcGIS product level. For more, see What are ArcGIS product levels and how might they affect my software usage?

In combination, ArcMap, ArcCatalog, and ArcToolbox perform all available GIS tasks (depending on the ArcGIS license product you use). For example, you can search and find a map document in ArcCatalog, and then open, edit, and enhance it in ArcMap using tools from ArcToolbox. You can also search for data through direct database connections in Access, SQL, Oracle, and other relational database management systems using OLE DB or Object Database Connection (ODBC) technology. Once you find it, you can drag and drop data from ArcCatalog into tools in ArcToolbox. When new geographic information is created using all three applications, you can document metadata for the resulting datasets in ArcCatalog.

For more about the critical GIS concepts that provide the foundation for ArcGIS, download the ESRI tutorial What is ArcGIS? (PDF, 17MB).

Also see:

• What is ArcView?
• What are GIS and remote sensing?
• At IU, in which STCs can I use GIS software?
• At IU, how do I purchase ESRI software?
• How do I use ArcGIS to connect to the Indiana Spatial Data Service?