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Controlling polygon outlines when a hole has been cut

DavidGray1

Hello Community; I have been using the Divide/Clip under modify option to create interior polygon holes within a larger polygon. Using the input and output selections to cut a hole, an outline polygon is created within that larger feature as part of that feature. The input interior feature has to be deleted from the rows of features within the layer in question in order to "see through" the cut hole. But when adjusting the width properties of the outline polygon to the large feature the interior polygon hole line does not respond. Only the original large feature outline responds to changes. Any trick around this? I am using Pro 2.9.5 in W 10. Thanks, Dave

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RonaldHaug

Hi David,

Thank you for filling me in (very punny) on what you're doing and what the problem is.

All right, so here's another great way to do this.

Make a feature class called Lake Mead.

Make another called Islands.

If you've got Lake Mead and the Islands all on one feature class, export the selection of all islands to a file called "Islands" on your project geodatabase. The same goes for the Lake Mead Polygon.

Use Erase tool to remove Islands from Lake Mead.

Adjust line width of Lake Mead Erase.

This always works. Let me know if this solution works for your situation.

All comments

RonaldHaug

Hi David!

Donuts can be a bit problematic for me. I learned you have to create the outside polygon, and then click part part finished. Then make the donut hole, and click finished. Then save.

If you don't so it all at once use this method: https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/help/editing/cut-a-hole-in-a-polygon-feature.htm

All this talk of donuts is making me hungry. Try that and let us know how you managed.

DavidGray1

Thanks Ronald; My method so far has been to create the larger polygon of a body of water (Lake Mead) and then draw polygons for the various islands that are out there. Each feature is on the same layer to make the input and target selections work. And then with all editable selections box turned off, Divide/Clip the interior island polygon out of the interior of the larger lake polygon. This creates an interior island polygon that is part of the larger lake polygon feature and the row it is on. Then delete the original island polygon feature that is on a separate row in the attribute table. This works nicely and the island topo pops through the hole. But I have tried to reduce the width of the line outline for the larger polygon and it changes the large outline polygon line width but not the contained smaller island polygon line width. That is my current problem. And, yep, am burned out, gotta sleep on it. Dave

RonaldHaug

Hi David,

Thank you for filling me in (very punny) on what you're doing and what the problem is.

All right, so here's another great way to do this.

Make a feature class called Lake Mead.

Make another called Islands.

If you've got Lake Mead and the Islands all on one feature class, export the selection of all islands to a file called "Islands" on your project geodatabase. The same goes for the Lake Mead Polygon.

Use Erase tool to remove Islands from Lake Mead.

Adjust line width of Lake Mead Erase.

This always works. Let me know if this solution works for your situation.

DavidGray1

Hi Ronald; A new day and new energy. So what I did was test your recommended method on a second lake I was in the middle of creating and hadn't made the islands yet. Created a new, different feature layer called islands and drew the islands. (There are significantly less islands in Lake Mohave than there is in Lake Mead). This worked nicely. And then just turn off islands. I can now see that when the large lake outline and the island outlines were on the same layer, there was actually two island outline polygons. Not sure why changing the line width didn't work on all of them, but something is off there. And working with these input/output features on separate layers eliminates that. I will consider this as a solution. It is a nice fix and further reinforces a general lesson I have learned that it usually pays to create in catalog numerous different feature layers for different topics. It may seem redundant and cantankerous at times, but it certainly provides/retains control over the features. So now it leaves me with a separate question I have had for awhile. Is there a way to copy a feature from a row in an attribute table to another layer attribute table? Without creating/sharing to yet another file in a folder? Thanks! Dave

DavidGray1

Hi Community; It seems a followup question is necessary on this topic of cutting holes in polygons with the split tool. Since the above correspondence on this issue I have revisited the process after upgrading from 2.9.5 to Pro 3.3.2. No complaints with this, just am now wondering if it is a possible culprit on why I cannot get this technique to work now.

I actually revisited the same layers and features in the same Project that are covered above in this thread. I can see where I was successful before. And now cannot duplicate the process. Before, when specifying the input and target features, they were on separate layers. The Divide/Split process would add a polyline outline for the interior polygon to the larger Lake Mead polygon, and when turning the islands polygon feature layer off - voila! one could see through the hole and the shaded topo of the island would pop through. Very satisfactory.

Now, the process will not create and add an interior island polyline for that shape to the larger Lake Mead polyline feature and then also deletes that island polyline feature from the attribute table entirely. Without creating a window.

Is this related to the upgrade? I would not think so, but that is the only thing that has changed. ???

Input appreciated! Dave

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