Advanced ArcMap Editing

Andy Schmidt GIS Technician United Services Group

Productive Editing Techniques

Typical challenges when editing features
Controlling Feature Snapping Editing/Sketching Efficiently Assuring Coincidence and Accuracy Managing Feature Selection Bulk Editing

Snapping
Problem How do I know what I am snapping to?

Snap Priority


Open Snap options in the Editor dropdown Checked layers on top have a higher priority to be snapped to Drag layers up or down based on your need

Snap Tolerance
 

On Editor Toolbar Edit>Options Set snap tolerance to ensure snapping at your editing scale When editing press the T key to see your snapping range Pixel vs. map units
Depends on need & user

Snap Tolerance Tool



Set the tolerance as you edit or based on the features you are editing Tool located in the editor group

Snap Tips and Indicator



Snap Tips
Check snap tips in Editor options Hover over a valid feature to snap to and a box will appear

Snap Indicator
Bottom Right of ArcMap

Snap Overriding


Quick
Override snaps at any time by holding onto the spacebar while editing

Time Consuming
Uncheck all features in the snapping dialog

Selection Anchor


On all features there is a selection anchor when you select one or more features Always by default in the center of the feature or features Move selection by holding the Ctrl key and hovering over anchor Allows you to snap edge and ends to other edge and ends

Secondary Selection Anchor

 

 

Selecting the line feature Pressing the S key to create an Auxiliary Selection Anchor Position both anchors Clicking on the Rotate tool in the Editor toolbar to position the selection anchors The first anchor acts as the pivot point and the second anchor acts as the snapping point so the features can rotate and snapping will occur

Snapping to a Specific Feature



Click the tool palette dropdown arrow and click the Sketch tool RightRight-click the feature to which you want to snap your next vertex On the dropdown menu, choose Snap to Feature Click the part of the feature to which you want to snap the next vertex. The vertex will be placed at the nearest location that matches your selection.

Snap to Sketch


Edit Sketch Vertices

Allows snapping to newly added vertices

Edit Sketch Edges

Lets you snap to the edge of new sketch

Perpendicular to Sketch
Angular constraints are applied to 90 90 from last sketch

Sticky Tolerance


Allows you to set a minimum number of pixels your pointer must move on the screen before a selected feature is moved Useful way to prevent features from being accidentally moved small distances when they are clicked with the Edit tool Set on the General tab of the Editing Options dialog box

Editing
Remember 3 Ts of editing: On Editing toolbar check Target Layer Edit Task Edit Tool

Edit Tools
The Editor Toolbar
Edit tool: lets you select and modify features Tool palette: use these tools to create a sketch Current Task dropdown list: these tasks work with a sketch drawn using the sketch construction tools on the palette Target layer dropdown list: Sets the layer to which new features will belong Split tool: lets you split a line segment at a specific location Attributes button: Opens the attributes dialog box, show/edit attributes for selected feature

Edit session commands

Rotate tool: rotate a segment or sketch to a desired orientation

Sketch properties: Lets you specify the x, y (and m or z) locations of the vertices in a sketch

The Sketch Tool



Many different options depending on what you want to do. The pencil is the most common.

Sketch Tool


Use the Sketch tool to create point features and digitize the vertices of line or polygon features. After you finish the sketch, ArcMap adds the final segment and the sketch turns into a feature.

Sketch Tool Shortcuts

             

Ctrl + A Angle Ctrl + F Deflection Ctrl + L Length Ctrl + D Delta x,y Ctrl + G Direction/Length Ctrl + P Parallel Ctrl + E Perpendicular Ctrl + T Tangent Curve T key Display the snapping tolerance F6 Absolute x,y F7 Segment Deflection F8 Streaming Ctrl + Delete Delete sketch F2 Finish sketch

Arc tool


The Arc tool helps you create a segment that is a parametric (true) curve. Instead of being made of numerous vertices, a parametric curve has only two vertices as endpoints.

DirectionDirection-Distance tool


The Direction Direction Distance tool allows you to create a vertex using a distance from a known point plus a direction from a known point to define a bearing line.

DirectionDirection-Distance Tool Shortcuts

Shortcut Key Editing Function  D or A key Direction  D or R key Distance  Tab Change location

DistanceDistance-Distance Tool


This tool lets you create a point or vertex at the intersection of two distances from two other points.

DistanceDistance-Distance Tool
Shortcut Key Editing Function  D or R key Distance  Tab Change location

Endpoint Arc Tool



The Endpoint Arc tool allows you to specify the start and endpoints of the curve, then define a radius for the curve.

Shortcut Key Editing Function  R key Radius for Endpoint Arc tool

Intersection Tool


The Intersection tool creates a point or vertex at the place where two segments would intersect if extended far enough.

Midpoint Tool


The Midpoint tool lets you define the location of the next vertex by clicking two points; the new vertex is placed at the midpoint of the line between these points.

Trace Tool


The Trace Tool helps you create segments that follow along existing segments. The Trace Tool only follows selected features. Press o-key for trace ooptions and offset Distances are in + for right of the digitized direction and for left Tab key also traces the other side

Scale and Rotate Tools

Allows features to be scaled and rotated based on a point Shortcut Key Editing Function  A key Set rotate angle


S key Toggle secondary anchor

Stretching a Feature Proportionally

 

 

Click the Edit tool and click the feature you want to stretch. Click the Editor menu and click Options> General tab. Check the box to stretch the feature proportionately. Position the pointer over the vertex you want to move until the pointer changes. Drag the vertex to the desired location. RightRight-click any part of the sketch and click Finish Sketch. The feature is stretched proportionately

Switch Between Tools



Use the E Key to switch between sketch and edit

Edit Sketch Context Tools



Right click with a sketch tool while editing gives you many additional options or constraints

Sketch tool context menu

Editing Options


Editor>Editing options will give you options in how you enter values Direction Units Sample Quadrant Sample Azimuth

Sketch Units Conversions



Ensure units are defined When entering the length tell the units you want the measurement in

Sketch Properties


When modifying a feature you can

Remove vertices
 

Right click and remove Select many and Remove Right click on vertex no and choose add before Right click on part and choose to remove Edit coordinate explicitly

Add vertices exactly between two



Remove multi-parts multi

Modify coordinates


Working with Multipart Features

 

Think of Hawaii as a multipart feature Removing Explode with on advanced editing toolbar Delete parts in sketch properties Creating Merge two non connected features When drawing finish part to start next feature part Cannot be used with network features

Copying and Pasting Features



Use standard copy/paste for like geometry or lower geometry feature type Ensure target layer is correct Like attributes will copy as well

Copying and Pasting Attributes



Select the feature in the attributes window you want to copy Right click and choose copy Choose the feature you want to copy to and right click and choose paste

Edit Tasks
 

Create Tasks Modify Tasks

Reshaping modify portion of the line Cut Polygon split a polygon into two features Mirror features Create a mirror image of a feature Extend/Trim fix under and overshoots Modify reshape a feature

Topology
Auto Complete polygon Use existing polygons to finish sketch against

Reshape Feature Task



The Reshape Feature task lets you reshape a line or polygon by constructing a sketch over the feature.

Cut Polygon Task



Splits a polygon into two features by sketching across it Must start and finish sketch outside the polygon or snapped to its edge

Mirror Features Task



The Mirror task creates a mirror image of selected features on the other side of a line you create Select your feature then draw a mirroring line.

Extend/Trim Features Task



The Trim/Extend command reduces/extends the length of a line sketch you specify from the last vertex.

Auto Complete Polygon Task



Starting from the boundary of an existing polygon, use the Sketch tool to digitize a boundary of the new polygon that will share a boundary with the existing polygon. To finish the sketch just snap inside the existing polygon.

Advanced Editing Toolbar

Fillet Tool


Creates a circular to two line segments from the original feature The curve is constructed using a radius through tangent points to define the curve

Extend/Trim Tool


Extends lines until they touch selected lines Select feature you want lines to extend to Then click lines you want to extend

Trims the intersecting portions of lines Select feature you want lines to be trimmed by Then click the line segments you want to trim

Proportion Tool
 

Splits line into desired segments Type the lengths of the segments into which the line will be divided. Optionally, click Reverse to switch the orientation of the line if the arrows indicating the orientation of the feature on the map are the reverse of the order in which you entered the segments. The line is split proportionally to the length of the measured segments. Any difference between the line length and the sum of the length of the segments is allocated proportionately to the new lines' length.

Inverse Tool
 

Generates a COGO description of a line. The feature must be either a straight line or circular arc. It typically only has two vertices, but more are allowed as long as the feature is consistently straight or consistently curved. The current direction type and angular units are used when populating the attributes. All COGO line feature classes must have the following attributes as text fields: Direction, Distance, Radius, Delta, Tangent, Arc length, and Side. You can use the Create COGO Fields tool in ArcCatalog to add these fields to your feature class table.

Transverse Tool


Allows you to enter and edit precise distances and angles Allows you to save and load single transverses Format example for loading a transverse

Generalize Tool


The Generalize Tool simplifies the shape of the selected features the degree to which the geometry is simplified depends on the maximum allowable offset, which limits how far the output geometry can be from the input geometry.

Smooth Tool


The Smooth Tool is used to smooth the straight edges and angular corners of a feature. The feature geometry is replaced by a series of smoothed line segments.

Editor Tools


Under the Editor Tool Dropdown Creates features on target layer Does not update attributes

Move Tool


Move features a desired distance in map units

Split Tool


Splits a line into two pieces based on distance or percentage

Divide Tool


The Divide Tool allows you to divide a selected line into a number of segments Select a line feature to split it into segments Select a point feature to create points along the line

Buffer


Buffers selected features a desired distance and creates features on the target layer

Copy Parallel


Copies a feature parallel to your selected features Negative values copy to the right of digitized direction Positive values copy to the left of digitized direction

Merge


Merges two features together Caution: May create multimulti-part features Cannot be used in Geometric Network Features Uncheck preserve overlapping segments to help eliminate multipart segments

Union


Union works like merge except it creates a new feature and retains the old features You can Union features based on different layers You can use Union in a geometric network where you can not use Merge

Intersect


Creates a new feature from the common parts of two selected features of the same geometry type

Clip


Only polygon features can be clipped Can use any selected feature as the bases of a clip Preserve will keep the areas that are inside the buffer and remove all other touching features Discard will only remove the area within the buffer distance

Topology Toolbar
1. 2.

Start Editing On the topology toolbar, click the Map Topology button

3.

Check the features that will participate in the topology. Also set the cluster tolerance.
The cluster tolerance is the minimum distance vertices can be next to each other. If vertices fall within this distance, they will be snapped together.

4.

Click the Topology Edit tool and click the features you want to edit using the map topology. The map topology is created for the features that are visible in the current display extent.

Topology Edit Tool

Shortcut key Editing function  Shift Add to/Remove from the selection  Ctrl Move the selection anchor  N key Select nodes  E key Select edges  S key Split and move node

Shared Features


Choose which Features you want to participate

Selecting Features


Ways to select features Use the selection tools Use the editing tools Select by attributes Select by location

Selection Tab


Use selection tab for setting and unselecting features Bold layers have features selected and count Right click for other selection options

Hidden Selection Tools



Buried selection tools found in the customize options Add to a Toolbar or Context Menu

Select by Attributes


Create SQL to create-addcreate-add-remove or select from based on desired criteria Ability to save and rere-run

Unselect Individual Features

 

Hold Shift & click on feature Right click on attribute window and select unselect

Layer Selection Options



Options available for feature layer by right clicking Create layer of selected features for display Make this the only selectable layer

Selecting the Next Feature



If multiple features are stacked on top of one another pressing the n key will cycle through the features

Select By Location


Selected features based on spatial proximity Can be used in conjunction with other selection operations for result

Bulk Editing


Ways to update multiple features quickly and accurately

Bulk Editing Using the Attributes Window



Clicking on the top most heading then entering in the value will update all attributes of that feature

Field Calculator For Updating Multiple Records

 

Updates all features if none are selected Updates only the selected features if features are selected Right click on the attribute table and choose calculate values

Field Calculator
 

 

Enter in values, expressions or functions Fields are enclosed in square brackets [ ] Text strings are enclosed in double quotes: "text" Use & to join functions Use () to give priority to functions Check advanced for VBA functions

Field Calculator Utilizing Joins



When joining features based on a one-toone-toone or many-to-one join you can pass many-tovalues from the join table to the feature table by calculating features You cannot calculate based on relationships or create joins on one-toone-tomany or many-to-many cardinality many-to-

Common Field Calculations

  

[Field1] & [Field2] = Field1Field2 [Field1] & & [Field2] = Field1 Field2 [Field1] &TEXT& [Field2] = Field1TEXTField2 [Number] * .5 = Resultant Answer

Other Calculations


Easy Calculate http://www.ian Download at http://www.ian-ko.com/ A bunch of useful saved calculations that can be used Proper Text strconv( [Field] ,vbPropercase) Last name isolate from full name Left( [field] , (InStr(1, [field] , " ")-1)) ")-

Field Calculator For Populating New Data

 

Using functions and nesting functions to create new data Below will pull the house number out of the address string

Complex VB Calculations


To add the x coordinate of points:

Dim Output As Double Dim pPoint As IPoint Set pPoint = [Shape] Output = pPoint.X

Field Calculator Utilizing Geoprocessing



Use ArcTool box to calculate values Allows you to build many calculates within a model

Field Calculator Utilizing Models



Can use Model Builder to create complex calculations without knowing programming Allows you to rerun the calculations many times using parameters

Creating a Model


Backup data incase of incorrect model creation Open ArcTool box and Right Click to create a new toolbox Next right click on new toolbox to create a Model Drag geoprocessing tools that meet your needs into your model Connect them logically with the connect tool

Creating a Model
   

Set up desired parameters in the tools Add data to satisfy the model for each tool Save the model Run the model

Help Tips
Find ArcGIS Desktop Help Online  Application Help http://webhelp.esri.com/  ArcScripts http://arcscripts.esri.com  ESRI Support Center: http://support.esri.com  Forums  Knowledge Base  Technical Articles  EDN ESRI Developer Network: http://edn.esri.com  Other GIS User Groups  United Services Group http://www.usgweb.com Andy Schmidt aschmidt@usgweb.com 763-241763-241-2234