Stacking duplicate features using Duplicate Vertical / Array editing tools

Question

I am attempting to stack polygon features by creating multiple duplicates at once. I thought I could achieve this by using the Duplicate Vertical or Array editing tools and setting any of the offsets to zero feet, but when I hit Duplicate/Array, no additional features get created. It only works if the offset is greater than zero, but I need my features to stack exactly on top of each other with no vertical or lateral offset. Is this intentional or a bug? If it is intentional, meaning it's not possible to set the offset to 0 feet, then there should be some warning or the execute button should be grayed out.

Scott_Harris · Answer

Thanks for the additional context and feedback. The development team will consider enhancing existing tools to accommodate your workflow in a future release.

Stephanie-Ingraldi · Answer

Hi Scott,

Yes, copy/paste is not desired since I need to make many duplicates at once multiple times over (I am stacking parcel data onto condo building footprints. I am aware of the one-to-many join workflow, but this doesn't work when I need to stack multiple buildings within one parcel). Right now, I am just using Duplicate Row, but it would be more efficient to create all duplicates at once.

Scott_Harris · Answer

@Stephanie-Ingraldi The Duplicate Vertical and Array tool are expecting something other than an offset of 0. We wanted to prevent cases of unwanted duplicates. As far as getting duplicates, I assume Copy > Paste isn't a desired workflow for you?

For what it's worth, you can click Paste as many times as you need. Maybe you need hundreds of duplicates?