| Downloading And Using Some Useful ArcView Extensions | |
| The OSATools extension will greatly speed up the drawing of some shapes and provide consistency in representing archaeological sites in the OSA Iowa Site File GIS. The XTools extension provides many procedures you will want to use in ArcView projects. | |
| Can You Skip This? |
First, open up your ArcView project which you've already set up (see "ArcView Projects" if you've not done this). Go "File" menu, select "Extensions...", scroll down the list to see if "OSATools by GIS@OSA" and "XTools Extension" are available (list is not alphabetical). If it's there, make sure it's checkmarked along the left side, click "OK", go "File" menu "Project Save As..." & "OK", and ignore the rest of these steps. |
| Where To Save Them? |
If you don't have the extensions, you need to find out where you'll need to save them when you get them. So, in the ArcView project, make sure the "View" window is closed (X out of it), activate the main project window (find the window with icons in the left side, and click its top bar name), go "XTools" menu, select "Select Environment Paths", write down the full drive and path given for "HOME =", and click "Cancel". |
| Downloading OSATools |
Rightclick on this link to download the osatools extension zipfile, choose "Save Link As", do NOT change the name of osatools.zip or the type, change to the directory path you just notated above, and "Save". |
| Downloading XTools |
Rightclick on this link to download the xtools extension zipfile, choose "Save Link As", do NOT change the name of osatools.zip or the type, change to the directory path you notated above, and "Save". For more XTools information, visit http://www.odf.state.or.us/sfgis/, and read about "XToolsmh" in "GIS Tools". |
| Unzip The Extensions |
Go to your File Manager program, go to the directory you noted above, find osatools.zip and xtoolsmh.zip, and unzip the files using compression software such as Pkzip or WinZip. There should be one file named osatools.avx and one file named xtoolsmh.avx. Leave them in the directory you wrote down above. |
| Load Into ArcView |
Go "File" menu "Extensions...". At the LEFT, make sure to checkmark "OSATools by GIS@OSA" and "XTools Extension - Meters / Hectares", do NOT checkmark the "Make Default" box. Now, click "OK". Do "File" menu "Save Project As..." to implant this functionality into your project. |
| Using OSATools |
The OSATools extension made by GIS@OSA adds to your project one OSATools toolmenubutton  which contains three tool usage selections:  These tools are available for use when the "View" is active; just click the tool you want, and click on the "View" window at the position the new shape should be dropped in. The circle tool allows specification of the circle's radius (i.e., an OSA "dot" has a 10-meter radius and an OSA "circle" can have any radius greater than 10 meters). The equilateral triangle and inverted triangle each have 30-meter sides and are OSA standards as well. See the shape key for when to represent archaeological sites with these standard shapes. For other shapes, use ArcView's standard drawing toolmenubutton:  |
| Using XTools |
The XTools extension adds many menu items which are very useful when working with shapefiles. To obtain XTools help while in ArcView, hold down the "shift" key and select the XTools item for which help is desired. |
| Disclaimer | The Office of the State Archaeologist points users towards these tools as resources only and bears no responsibility for their upkeep and/or usage. Mike DeLaune of Oregon Department of Forestry State Forests created XTools; he may be reached at (503) 945-7352 or mike.g.delaune@state.or.us or http://www.odf.state.or.us/sfgis/. Heidi M. Lack of Iowa's Office of the State Archaeologist created OSATools (incorporating scripts by Lack and by Joe Artz). |