topic Re: Dissolve Polygon Symbology in Mapping Questions

Dissolve Polygon Symbology

MikeMacRae — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 19:57:44 GMT

Hey everyone,

I am trying to dissolve the symbology of a layer, so that all the individual polygons appear as one. Basically, if you took the 'Dissolve' tool and ran that to dissolve a polygon feature class, that's what I want.

I've gone through the 'Symbol Level Drawing' procedure here:

http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.1/index.html#//00s500000025000000

But the lines still persist.

Basically, I have a bunch of polygons that represent areas of disturbance (i.e. a forest clear cut). I have a Text field I use and populate 'Y' if it is a clear cut polygon and 'N' if it is not. I use that field as my 'Value Field' in the Help menu procedure above. I follow every step verbatim and I still get the lines. See the attached image. The gray hatching represents the clear cuts. Within that layer, you can see the the lines that separate the individual clear cut polygons.

I can't use the 'Dissolve' tool because it creates a new feature class. For various reason, I cannot use a new feature class.

If anyone can suggest something, I am all ears! 🙂

[ATTACH=CONFIG]19482[/ATTACH]

Re: Dissolve Polygon Symbology

CPoynter — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 01:06:05 GMT

Hi,

If you don't want to make a new feature class, why not start an edit session, do a query to select the relevant polygons and do a merge and save.

Ensure you have a copy of your data before you try this!!!!

Regards,

Craig

Re: Dissolve Polygon Symbology

Anonymous User — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 16:51:03 GMT

Original User: BrokenLegMike

Hey Craig,

Thanks for the suggestion, but unfortunately I cannot merge the features in the database. I use this feature class in multiple layers and I need the features to be separate in order to symbolize the other layers properly.

Mike

Re: Dissolve Polygon Symbology

JimW1 — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 17:53:50 GMT

My suggestion is to remove the outline on the hatch and decrease the seperation of the lines to give the overlay better definition.

They'll cope without an outline (from experience).

If you are really worried about losing the outline, add another version of the layer under the hatch and make it solid white with no outline. Then set the transparency and the colours of the other polygons should bleed through but your hatched are will still have definition.

Re: Dissolve Polygon Symbology

Anonymous User — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 18:34:11 GMT

Original User: cpoynter

Could you try a subtype or representation rule.

Regards,

Craig

Re: Dissolve Polygon Symbology

ChristopherThompson — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 18:56:40 GMT

Thanks for the suggestion, but unfortunately I cannot merge the features in the database. I use this feature class in multiple layers and I need the features to be separate in order to symbolize the other layers properly.

I don't think the suggestion was to get rid of these features, just to create a new feature class that has all the polys of a given type merged so you can achieve the effect you want. Is this impossible to do if you consider the result of the merge a 'throwaway' product that exists solely for the purposes of this map? That way you preserve the actual data but achieve the cartographic need. Analytical and cartographic needs are often at odds with one another in this way.