This page features troubleshooting questions students have asked for Intro to GIS Lab 1: Getting Started with GIS.
Q: The data isn’t displaying within the map pane. Its just an empty topo map of Vermont. What am I doing wrong?
Answer: Your files will not disappear unless you actually delete them, so that should not be a concern. Other things to try if your data do not appear as expected: 1) check the Contents Pane to be sure they are included in the list of data; 2) if the data is listed in the Contents Pane, right-click the layer name and choose Zoom to Layer – this will help identify if there is a spatial alignment issue (i.e. there’s a problem with the coordinate system); and 3) check the Symbology – sometimes ArcGIS chooses a color that’s hard to see as the default symbology for the data layer – right-click the data layer from the Contents Pane, choose Symbology, and select a color (scheme) that will show up against your Basemap. This is not an exhaustive list, but between the suggestion provided by Peter and this short list here, you should be able to solve most problems of this nature.
The instructions for this lab have been very clear and easy for me to follow. At one of the very last steps, however, I’ve run into issues. I changed the coordinate system to WGS 1984, and then all of a sudden my Residential Location layer disappeared from the map, despite being checked in the contents pane. I’m now getting an error saying “Layer does not have a feature”. I’ve tried playing with the symbology and different coordinate systems but nothing seems to be working. Any advice?
Answer: Confirm that you set the Coordinate System to WGS 1984 Web Mercator Auxiliary Sphere and not just WGS 1984? They are different. If you want to include a screenshot of your error message, that sometimes can help me provide more targeted advice.