How to create balloon label with certain distance from point feature

Question

In ArcGIS Pro I'm using the Maplex labeling engine on a point featureclass to create labels. Each valve has a number label and some have a Balloon label also. The leader line of the balloon label starts from the point feature itself. Is it possible to make the leader line start with a certain distance from the point feature (like in the second example)?

In the example below the balloon label is overlapping some other features. I expected the balloon label would be placed above the valve, but the valve number (01) is in its way. If the leader line should start from a specific distance I think it would work. Any suggestions how to achieve this?

Jesse Wickizer · Answer

There isn't a way to tell Maplex to terminate the callout at the edge of the symbol or a specified distance from the point symbol. However, using a Composite Callout may provide a workaround for your situation.

The Composite callout is similar to the Balloon callout but has some additional features. One of those is to split the callout line between a balloon-style "dart" and a simple leader line style. Set the Leader line symbol color to null, and adjust the Proportion of dart drawn as leader to control how far the invisible leader portion will extend.

This produces and end result like this.

As for the balloon overlapping other features - add a feature weight to the point label class to instruct Maplex to avoid placing labels over the top of the point features.

ABishop · Answer

In the conflict resolution tab, try either increasing the percentage of the buffer or making it a hard constraint by checking the box.