Lab 8 - Dot Map Density Lab

This lab was so time consuming making and placing all those dots but in the end it looks pretty cool.  Trisha said to use the minimum of features for this map.  I experimented with different layers (specifically the hydrographic layers, and county names).  In the end I opted to leave these off (even though I edited all the county names) because it distracted the eye from the primary purpose for the map.  That being the dot density.

I lifted the description about the lab from the Discussion Board

So why map density? It emphasizes patterns rather than individual locations.  When mapping areas of different sizes and when the location of each individual feature is mapped it may be difficult to distinguish how many are in a highly populated area.
There are two ways of mapping density:
1) map graphically with a dot map
2) map density value for each area


Things to remember about this map


1) dots are distributed randomly within defined area
2) do not represent actual locations of features
3) closer together dots mean higher density of features in an area
4)This method is good for showing clustered features.


The density value= total# or value of features/area of polygon


The downside to this type of calcuation/map is that you can see which areas have higher density but not specific distribution of density within area.

Tricks I Used
Created few sets of random Dot concentrations then used a unique copy paste function
use these steps
1) Select the features you want to copy (in this case a dot cluster)
2) Copy them with
3) Bring the copy to the front a frame appears around the cluster
4) Move the cluster to your desired site.
5) voila...it is now there.  Just and aside, these clusters can be rotated using the methods we learned in previous labs.