Moving symbols

Question

For cartographic purposes I would like to nuge a few of the symbols of features in a feature class to make them more visible. Is there a way to move the symbol without editing the feature class? I want to maintain the locational integrity of the feature class.

RichardFairhurst · Answer

For cartographic purposes I would like to nuge a few of the symbols of features in a feature class to make them more visible. Is there a way to move the symbol without editing the feature class? I want to maintain the locational integrity of the feature class.

Representation is designed to do this and is best for saving the symbol locations permanently.  I believe that there are some restrictions on using representations with the Basic license level, but I am not sure how many.

Another trick would be to select the features you want to manipulate and export a selection layer.  Then borrow the symbology of the original layer and modify the symbol offset values in the symbol editing dialogs.  You would probably have to invert the selection and do the same with the rest of the features to avoid showing overlapping symbols.

Or similarly, if each feature has a unique ID other than the ObjectID export the feature selection as a new feature class and symbolize it with an offset symbol.  You could join it to the other original feature class and set the definition of the layer to show only the features not in the new features class with the statement:

JoinedFeatures.ObjectID Is Null