topic Re: Labelling woes... (in Pro or in ArcMap) in ArcGIS Pro Questions

Labelling woes... (in Pro or in ArcMap)

AdrianWelsh — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 14:04:58 GMT

I am not sure there is an "easy" answer to this but I have given up and am relying on GeoNet to pull me out of a jam.

Is there an "easy button" for labelling just the way I want it? Here are about 66 polygons that need labels visible for each one and need to see the polygon. In Pro, this is how they look without much change in the properties:

I want to see all the labels so I choose Never remove. This is what I get:

Even if I throw in a 50 point offset, 200 point max overrun, 50% buffer, 100 point feature weight to interior and boundary features (and other tweaks), this is my result:

Is there some sort of magic button that will not allow labels to overlap each other? I have attempted to mess around with all of the settings in the label properties and have not come up with a good solution (I do have Maplex Label Engine turned on). My best bet is to convert to annotations and move them that way, manually, by hand, one at a time. (small snippet: )

I keep thinking I'm missing something super obvious. Tell me where I can find the easy button (in ArcGIS Pro preferably or ArcMap - it doesn't matter). Thanks!

Re: Labelling woes... (in Pro or in ArcMap)

JayantaPoddar — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 14:44:04 GMT

How about using Maplex, and Key Numbering as a Fitting Strategy?

About key numbering—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop

Re: Labelling woes... (in Pro or in ArcMap)

TedKowal — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 14:45:48 GMT

You are showing two different scales above --- one where the problem is occurring and a much larger scale giving more room for placement. I produce as a report sign maps and have similar issues. Some tips I can give is to:

Use maplex
Tweak and design labels at a set scale that you wish to print at (This gives you your placement options vs label sizes)
Font size
Symbol Size
Offsets
Abbreviations
Placement options around the polygon

For me on my sign maps -- It was so crowded at the print scale ultimately I had you go the annotations. However I do use the above tips to place the labels prior to converting to annotations so that most of the labels are OK as is and only have to hand place a few (or fewer).....

Re: Labelling woes... (in Pro or in ArcMap)

AdrianWelsh — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 21:23:52 GMT

I had never really used key numbering. I tried it but didn't get the best outcome, unfortunately. Here is a sloppy screenshot

you can see numbers 1 and 2 but other things are thrown around like before. (the number code is at the top, not shown). Here's another look at a different scale:

So, I'm guessing key numbering isn't really going to give me the magic answer. Thanks for the suggestion!

Re: Labelling woes... (in Pro or in ArcMap)

AdrianWelsh — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 21:26:08 GMT

Nice catch Ted; they are at different scales.

I normally go through those exact same tips. Unfortunately my clients do not normally like abbreviations or smaller font/symbol size. Also, when a certain PDF size is requested, there usually isn't much wiggle room.

I was just hoping for some kind of magic 'repellent' that I can insert that would make labels shy away from it (like the opposite or a magnet). Thanks for the help!

Re: Labelling woes... (in Pro or in ArcMap)

JayantaPoddar — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 08:11:35 GMT

What are the other fitting strategies you are using?

Keeping the Key Numbering checked, let me know what happens if you

1. Uncheck Place Overlapping Features under Conflict Detection.

2. Use Halo Mask for Labels instead of the Text Box.

Re: Labelling woes... (in Pro or in ArcMap)

TedKowal — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 15:27:22 GMT

I sorta figured that.... there was one trick I used to some success on crowded map ... sorta like a repellent. I created a big buffer around the objects I wanted to label and added the labeling data to the buffer and set the rules for labeling to occur outside of the buffer (of course the buffer was invisible) --- the buffer was my repellent away from the map focus. That was a lot of trial and error and personally I don't know if it is worth the end results. If I have to print a map more once for a client--- Annotations is the way to go.

Re: Labelling woes... (in Pro or in ArcMap)

AdrianWelsh — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 22:26:10 GMT

So I learned that in order to uncheck Place Overlapping Labels in Pro, you have to turn OFF Maplex Label engine:

Place overlapping labels—ArcGIS Pro | ArcGIS Desktop

Turning this off results in losing many of the other benefits that maplex brings. Here is the result after step 1:

And here is the result after using halos instead of call out boxes:

It looks like there is no magic button for this predicament and have to go with converting to annotations... Thanks for your help!

Re: Labelling woes... (in Pro or in ArcMap)

AdrianWelsh — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 22:30:12 GMT

Ted, I like the invisible bubble buffer! But, yeah I can see how that would be a lot of trial and error. Maybe ArcGIS-Pro-X-Factor-Info version 92 will have the answer we need! (What I'm saying is, I don't see there be a 'solution' any time soon for this).

Thanks!

Re: Labelling woes... (in Pro or in ArcMap)

DanaNolan — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 22:57:46 GMT

My observation is that Never Remove causes all the other rules to not work well. They seem to be ignored in ArcMap (don't have Pro yet). I never use it because I don't have confidence that I can tell what's going on, even though I am hugely experienced with Maplex. If you're overriding rules, you don't learn the rules well, right?

You could try the simple callout style background text with just leader lines, or as you did, just halos/masks. It looks in the early example that Maplex is trying to not cross those big talk-bubble leaders. It also looks like your not letting the fonts scale smaller.

Rather than converting everything to annotation, I get labels to fit sometimes by selecting out the nonplacers into a different labeling class with perhaps smaller fonts or other options that help labels fit. The final label rendered by the second could have been drawn by one class (it is not smaller than my minimum scale), but it won't. I have an untested theory that having two classes keeps the placement battle shorter or simpler, so the label engine does not give up on any labels. I have 2 it particularly dislikes, so I do sometimes put these in a map annotation class called Unplaced.

Re: Labelling woes... (in Pro or in ArcMap)

AdrianWelsh — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 23:08:19 GMT

Dana, that's an interesting theory on having two classes in order to show the unplaced labels. I like that!

I guess in some cases my needs will outweigh any label options thus forcing me to use annotations. What I mean is, this particular map (and other ones like it) need to show most of the polygon boundary and give it a big fat label. If the label fits fully inside the polygon then perfect! If not, then I likely have to move it completely outside with the leader pointing in the middle somewhere.

Re: Labelling woes... (in Pro or in ArcMap)

SamuelTroth2 — Thu, 07 Sep 2017 09:35:11 GMT

As you have already figured out there is no magic 'place all labels perfectly' button in ArcMap or ArcGIS Pro. To get the most from the Maplex Label Engine you need to fully utilise the placement properties and try the options that Ted has suggested.

I will add that there is a preferred offset setting in Maplex where you define the preferred offset as a value and specify a range within which the label is allowed to place. See below for where this option is in ArcGIS Pro.

Hope that helps.

Re: Labelling woes... (in Pro or in ArcMap)

AdrianWelsh — Thu, 07 Sep 2017 20:41:45 GMT

Hi Samuel,

Thanks for the reply. I have played around with these values many times to try and trick the system into doing what I want it to do. I have not had the results I wanted from it.

Re: Labelling woes... (in Pro or in ArcMap)

DarrenWiens2 — Thu, 07 Sep 2017 21:01:32 GMT

For my two cents, it depends if you need to do this many times or just once. If just once, bite the bullet and manually place annotations. If many times, add a number column to your parcel layer, edit the numbers so they will label in a logical order, label with those numbers, and place a number/name table on the map (I've done this on more maps than I care to admit).

Re: Labelling woes... (in Pro or in ArcMap)

AdrianWelsh — Thu, 07 Sep 2017 21:23:14 GMT

Darren,

I kind of have to do it multiple times but with completely different data and map orientations. So, I have been biting the bullet and manually moving these things (there are times when simple label hacks work, it all depends on the scope of the project). But, I guess it would be good to do this number table thing to make the map look nicer... Thanks for the advice.

Re: Labelling woes... (in Pro or in ArcMap)

DanaNolan — Fri, 08 Sep 2017 15:50:23 GMT

You can do that in Maplex with 1 or 2 label classes, 1 for a polygon. You can choose the 'can place label outside' option with place inside the polygon as the primary choice, and limit or prevent label overrun. The leader lines won't show on the inside placement, and the bigger polygons or polygons in less crowded areas will be labeled inside, the smaller, with leader line, outside placement.

Re: Labelling woes... (in Pro or in ArcMap)

ChrisDonohue__GISP — Fri, 08 Sep 2017 16:34:05 GMT

I usually take the same approach as Darren Wiens. If Maplex isn't cutting it for full labeling (which oftentimes is the case), use it just to get things are far as you can and then create annotation. Then bite the bullet and manually edit the annotation. Use an numbering or letter system, with a table to the side if the client is OK with that. If the client insists on the full label being on the map, prepare to spend lots of time manually moving labels, as Maplex, while helpful, doesn't always do the whole job effectively.

The less technical challenge that often comes with this is explaining to a perplexed client why a map with just a few labels is easy to generate, while a map depicting many things crammed together takes several times longer to complete.

By the way, if some aspiring developer out there comes up with a third-party automated labeling system that would solve the complex labeling issues, I know plenty of people who would be willing to spend some cash $$ on buying that solution.

Chris Donohue, GISP

Re: Labelling woes... (in Pro or in ArcMap)

DavidHenrie — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 15:38:13 GMT

I've had similar problems with labeling parcels. There is NO magic bullet. I have pounded my head on this problem for way over a year as I have tried to create a digital parcel map. I have tried all of the things that have been mentioned here. What I finally did was create different labeling classes for the parcels. You know where it asks if you want to label everything the same under the label tab?

I used the [SQL Query] button to set up the size requirements for a specific class to be able to label. For example, I originally set up 3 different classes "small .5-3acres", "med 3-7acres", "large >7acres". Then, for the small class, I set the SQL query to only label if the acreage size was less than 3 acres and greater than .5 acres.

The smaller parcels I labeled with really small text and I abbreviated the text. Then, with the larger parcels, I used larger text and allowed the label to display 20 characters before I truncated the owner name. Then, on the really large parcel, I allowed everything to be shown.

After playing with that for a while, I saw that there were still parcels that weren't labeling correctly, so I had to expand and refine the sizes of the classes. I now have about 7 classes.

I built this for something that would be used over and over again. I made it into a service that can be displayed at a bunch of different scales. (once again not what you are doing) But, I set up 13 levels of scales for my labeling.

I know that this isn't the magic bullet that you were looking for. It was a pain in the behind. But, I needed something that was going to work for a big project that would be used over and over and served out over the intranet.

Good luck!

Re: Labelling woes... (in Pro or in ArcMap)

AdrianWelsh — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 17:20:30 GMT

Chris,

I appreciate the reply. I say you and I get together and come up with this cash-cow of auto-easy-labeling! (though, I am not even sure where to start). I agree that some clients do not understand why it takes so so so much longer to mess with a complex map of just labels. Maybe we should form a labeling support group and share our grievances together.

"Hi, my name is Adrian, and I'm labeling 300 polygons on an 8.5x11 map"

[grimaces from the crowd] "Hi Adrian"

"It all started when Client A argued that a web map was too complicated...."

....and it goes on like this...

Re: Labelling woes... (in Pro or in ArcMap)

AdrianWelsh — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 17:27:00 GMT

Hi Dave, good to hear from you! I think this is a cool approach. I agree that this can work with some systems really well and maybe not as well with others.

But this gives me a few ideas on how to make some sort of automated approach to this. I wonder that if instead of using a set area (like .5 to 3 acres) if I could create five label classes, have the map automatically calculate a rough area of extent size, and/or grab a scale of polygon areas for breaking down 5 'classes' of areas using natural breaks or something.... Well, that sounded better in my head than when I wrote it. Either way, it's an interesting thought and I'll try to come up with something sort of useful for the next time I am asked to do something like this!