Color Polygon by Spatial Location

Question

Hi All,

I have two Polygon layers, one is "Land Parcels", and the other one is "Central Business District (CBD)".

Someone has asked me to provide a map showing the CBD area, color the properties within the CBD area Red, and all other properties blue.

I know I can do a simple select by location, export a feature class of CBD properties and color this way, but as this property layer changes daily I would like this map to be dynamic. So each time I open the MXD the map is up-to-date.

See attached area and two Feature Classes.

Adding a field is not an option unfortunately.

Any suggestions? Im not good at thinking outside the box.

I should also note that this plan will need to be updated and re-distributed every month, hence my automation request, rather than the export feature class workflow.

Cheers

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XanderBakker · Answer

Just wondering... if your data would reside in a database that supports spatial functions, would it be possible to Creating a query layer—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop using the spatial functions in the SQL expression of the database? That would yield a dynamic layer defined by the data and relations you define.

WesMiller · Answer

You could create a model that does the select by location and create a layer file. It's not the solution you're looking for but it's quick and easy, and would only take seconds to run

YovavZohar1 · Answer

Hi Ben,

As far as for the Desktop Tools (ArcMap), the only way is to attribute the Land Parcels as part of the CBD (some kind of a Flag field that gets 1 for CBD and 0/NULL for non-CBD parcels) and then symbolize the Parcels, using this field.

Another method would be to create a new table that has 2 colomns: 1 with Parcel ID and 2nd with the above mentioned flag field. Then, create a Join of this table to the Parcels feature class and symbolize the Parcels, using this field.

This can be done either by Spatial Join, or by Select by location and calculation.

There is no dynamic spatial join like you would desire in Desktop shelf apps.

Regards,