GIS Software Guide: GIS Software

At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, there are multiple options for accessing GIS software.

For information on accessing ArcGIS Online, see the "ArcGIS Online" section. 

For information on downloading ArcGIS Pro or ArcMap, see the "Installing ESRI GIS Software" section.

For information on downloading GRASS or QGIS, see the "Open Source GIS" section.

For information on accessing GIS software on campus, see the "Computing Lab" section.

For information on accessing GIS software remotely, see either the "Accessing GIS Software Remotely with a Mac" or "Accessing GIS Software Remotely with a PC" pages.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has a site license with Esri for ArcGIS Online, which includes access to the online mapping platform and a suite of specialized applications.  

To create an organizational account, follow these steps:

1. "Sign In" ⇒ "Your ArcGIS organization's URL" (option under "ArcGIS login") ⇒ unc.maps.arcgis.com ⇒ UNC Chapel Hill SSO
2. Sign in with your Onyen and Onyen pasword
3. Thereafter, you'll always login this way.   

 For further assistance, please contact our GIS Librarian. 

ESRI will be retiring ArcGIS Desktop; as of 7/1/2024,  we are no longer able to provide a license file

For those who want to install GIS software on your machine, UNC has a site license for ArcGIS Pro. Please note that ***Esri does not officially support ArcGIS software installed on Macs***. Those who would prefer not to install GIS software should see the "Computing Lab" box and open source alternatives can be found in the "Open Source GIS" box.

• ArcGIS Pro (follow both steps):  If you have problems running ArcGIS Pro, please contact our GIS Librarian.
  1. To download the desktop application for ArcGIS Pro, please visit the UNC Software Distribution page for ArcGIS and login with your Onyen. 
     1. For students, use the software ordering portal
     2. For faculty/staff, please go through Departmental Shopping with Software Distribution
  2. Important: An ArcGIS Online Account is required to run the software. To create an organizational account, follow these steps:
     1. "Sign In" ⇒ "Your ArcGIS organization's URL" (option under "ArcGIS login") ⇒ unc.maps.arcgis.com ⇒ UNC Chapel Hill SSO
     2. Sign in with your Onyen and Onyen password
     3. Thereafter, you'll always login this way.   

Open Source tools are a great place to start, particularly for Mac users. There are several popular open source GIS applications for the desktop that include: 

Advanced users may wish to explore using a programming language, such as R or Python, for GIS analysis. For assistance, contact Matt Jansen.

Students who would prefer not to install GIS software on their computers have several options available, including the Data Services Computer Lab on the 2nd floor of Davis Library. The computer lab offers 10 PC computers for use by UNC at Chapel Hill affiliates, which have ArcMap, ArcGIS Pro, QGIS, ENVI, and more installed.

Remote access to GIS Software is available through the ITS Virtual Lab and the Virtual Computing Lab (VCL). Instructions on connecting to a VCL image or the Virtual Lab are provided on the Accessing GIS Software on a Mac and Accessing GIS Software on a PC pages of this guide.

ArcGIS Pro and OneDrive

Students wanting to access GIS files from OneDrive should save all necessary data and project files in one folder, download the folder locally to the machine they are using, and then re-upload the folder to OneDrive when they are finished working.

Although it is possible, accessing files directly from OneDrive with ArcGIS Pro is not supported by ESRI and can cause errors that include lost data, corrupted files and projects, and other errors. For workarounds and other potential errors, please see ESRI’s official statement on using ArcGIS Pro with OneDrive