topic Re: Accidentally moved a large polygon, how do I "glue" it back ? in Data Management Questions

Accidentally moved a large polygon, how do I "glue" it back ?

deleted-user-fYqUTpSygLUT — Tue, 28 May 2013 16:19:04 GMT

Dear community,

I'm a beginner with ArcMap and I'm working on administrative boundaries for my country. Anyway while editing the polygon I've accidentally moved it for a few cm/inches and saved the work without noticing it so I can't undo it. How to i glue it back with the existing vertices? I tried to move it manually with maximum zooming but even if they're aligned visually their vertices aren't glued.
Here's an example of the map:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]24738[/ATTACH]

Re: Accidentally moved a large polygon, how do I "glue" it back ?

RobertBorchert — Tue, 28 May 2013 16:27:46 GMT

Well I can say you didn't choose a simple polygon to have an accident with.

Ok multi-part fix but it should work.

Multiple solutions.

First make a copy of your polygon layer
Working on your copy.
now select all the polygons around the moved polygon. Merge them together.

Select your bad polygon and reshape it so it is a big rectangle around the place where it should be.

Select the merged polygons and clip the new rectangle. Keep the part in the void.

Now you should have a polygon that perfectly matches the spot it used to be. Now copy and paste the new polygon into the layer it came from and get rid of the moved one. Make sure all the attributes came with it.

It will take you a lot less time to do this than it took me to write it.

Second method.

Redraw it. as I pointed out not a simple polygon.

Make a copy of the polygon layer as previously stated and merge the polygons together.

However you can trace it pretty easy. Move the moved polygon off to the side.

Select the polygon merge that is around your void. Use the trace tool to draw the replacement polygon in. This may be fraught with minor difficulties but it works pretty well. Copy the attributes from the old polygon to the new one and delete the moved one.

Dear community,

I'm a beginner with ArcMap and I'm working on administrative boundaries for my country. Anyway while editing the polygon I've accidentally moved it for a few cm/inches and saved the work without noticing it so I can't undo it. How to i glue it back with the existing vertices? I tried to move it manually with maximum zooming but even if they're aligned visually their vertices aren't glued.
Here's an example of the map:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]24738[/ATTACH]

Re: Accidentally moved a large polygon, how do I "glue" it back ?

deleted-user-fYqUTpSygLUT — Tue, 28 May 2013 16:38:13 GMT

Well I can say you didn't choose a simple polygon to have an accident with.

Ok multi-part fix but it should work.

Multiple solutions.

First make a copy of your polygon layer
Working on your copy.
now select all the polygons around the moved polygon. Merge them together.

Select your bad polygon and reshape it so it is a big rectangle around the place where it should be.

Select the merged polygons and clip the new rectangle. Keep the part in the void.

Now you should have a polygon that perfectly matches the spot it used to be. Now copy and paste the new polygon into the layer it came from and get rid of the moved one. Make sure all the attributes came with it.

It will take you a lot less time to do this than it took me to write it.

Second method.

Redraw it. as I pointed out not a simple polygon.

Make a copy of the polygon layer as previously stated and merge the polygons together.

However you can trace it pretty easy. Move the moved polygon off to the side.

Select the polygon merge that is around your void. Use the trace tool to draw the replacement polygon in. This may be fraught with minor difficulties but it works pretty well. Copy the attributes from the old polygon to the new one and delete the moved one.

Thank you for the help, anyway I have a question. By "make a copy of the polygon layer" you mean make a copy of the Shapefile? Because I'm adding the polygons directly in the shapefile without creating lyr (layer) files.

Re: Accidentally moved a large polygon, how do I "glue" it back ?

RobertBorchert — Tue, 28 May 2013 16:47:23 GMT

Correct.

Right click on the feature in your table of contents and export it.

Do your work on the copy of the feature.

Then paste the corrected feature into your good feature.

Thank you for the help, anyway I have a question. By "make a copy of the polygon layer" you mean make a copy of the Shapefile? Because I'm adding the polygons directly in the shapefile without creating lyr (layer) files.

Re: Accidentally moved a large polygon, how do I "glue" it back ?

deleted-user-fYqUTpSygLUT — Tue, 28 May 2013 17:43:03 GMT

Correct.

Right click on the feature in your table of contents and export it.

Do your work on the copy of the feature.

Then paste the corrected feature into your good feature.

Thank you very much, It worked.
I'm really happy that this forum has members like yourself who care about the users problems and try their best to give adequate help almost immediately. 🙂