Calculate Geometery grayed out.

Question

What do I do when Calculate Geometry is grayed out, unavailable for a newly created shapefile, in an edit session, or out of an edit session?

Win 7 Pro, 64 bit, ArcGIS Desktop 10.2.1

deleted-user-yFo_UoWEJbkc · Answer

I realize this question was asked a few years ago (and self-resolved), but I only just encountered it yesterday and figured out what the actual problem was, especially if you don't want to add a new field to your data. Go into the Field Properties (right-click the Shape_AREA field header) and uncheck the "Make field read only" box, which now frees up the field for editing and calculating geometry, in or out of an edit session.

PaulHuffman · Answer

Oh, I see, I first need to add a field to hold the area calculation. Calculate Geometry doesn't create one for me.