In Pro 2.8.2, I can successfully create one feature by tracing. However, for an additional feature, the trace tool for feature construction will not work without quitting and restarting the software.
After one feature, the software does not respect my trace preferences. It behaves as if "trace selected features only" was selected. Also the software stops respecting user snapping preferences. It is not able to create any feature after the first one by tracing. Quit, restart.
My trick (when stuck on feature construction) dealing with other bugs was to temporarily select a different feature template in a different feature class, then switch back to the template required, though this isn't a fix for the trace tool bug.
Interesting Saed. I will try that when I next run into the problem.
My work around has been since my last post - to use existing polygons to clip the new (overlapping) polygon. I haven't had a problem with that other than the effort/time required.
Thanks for your post.
After struggling with this for a while now, I think I found a work around.
I'm drawing polygons by tracing on another line feature, some of those line layers came from CAD drawings.
Previously, when trace stopped working, I had to zoom in a lot so that it would continue tracing.
What I did today is that I used the "simplify line (cartography)" tool, I simplified the lines that I'm tracing from, using the "point remove" algorithm, I used a tolerance of 0.01 m.
after that I faced no issues so far.
Hi Anna,
Thanks for your reply. To clarify, I use the Bezier tool to draw polylines and polygons and often, as I have mentioned, the area covered by the map is large - country scale or larger, so there are many 'arc'. Continuing to zoom in before the trace tool would work again is of no practical use. ESRI did reproduce the error, which seems to have geographically bound component i.e. affects particular parts of the map *only* once it decides that it doesn't like that area. I can't define anything special that I do to cause the trace tool to fail - it seems to be random and can happen sooner or later in the compilation process.
I use the Bezier tool as it is quicker and more intuitive for drawing geologic unit shapes (for me at least) that will rarely, if ever, have a straight segment. I also use the equivalent tool when I draw in a vector graphics package, so it's always my go-to tool. Maybe if I only used straight line tool with the attendant issue of increasing the number of mouse clicks by orders of magnitude, the problem would go away...
I have tried a couple of suggestions in earlier responses to my original post, without success. I had effectively given up and used my work around - draw a polygon through existing ones and then clip it using those existing polygons. It's a pain, but work and is good for ensuring the topology is ok.
I'm on a much needed vacation at the moment, but over the next 3-4 months will be compiling several more maps and will try all suggestions again and report back.
Thanks for taking the time to post.
Cheers!
Do you have many "arc" segments in the map? This happens to me when I have complex CAD data converted to feature class with lots of curved segments. Selecting only those I want to trace and checking "Trace selected features" worked, as suggested by others above.
This has just started happening to me on 10.5 as well. None of the above suggestions or using classic snapping helps. It's just started after using the same laptop since 10.5 came out so it's really confused me as to why its suddenly decided that this bug is going to affect me.
Without healthy competition in the marketplace, this is what you get... corporations that really don't value the user experience!
ArcGIS Pro comes with ArcGIS Desktop, along with 100 credits for AGO. It requires an AGO login for the license manager. Once you get it up, disable anything that would consume credits like using ESRI geocoder.
It has been seven years almost to the day since the original post was generated on this forum, and the problem still hasn't been fixed. Since I commented on this forum about six years ago, I have completely revamped my teaching of GIS away from ESRI products for this precise reason. I won't mention the freeware I use by name (because I am pretty sure that ESRI's indifference to user concerns stops when rival products are mentioned in their forums), but it is the leading open-source product out there. The digitizer is a bit wonky, but works fine. Over the years, I have resisted teaching this software to students because I wanted them to graduate with transferrable skills, and the fact of the matter is that ESRI still dominates the GIS market. However, the freeware has a lot more flexibility than ArcGIS in so many ways because of the myriad plugins you can get. There are many online resources and user forums to help you troubleshoot problems--since the software isn't proprietary, there is almost always a fix generated in a matter of days. Given the complete indifference of ESRI to its customers' concerns, I strongly advocate those reading this post to give the other software a try. There is a bit of a learning curve at first, but it is not steep and you will not regret cutting the ESRI cord.
Agreed. Shame about the lack of courtesy in not informing me - as the original poster in this thread - that this may be the case. Why aren't I surprised?
Unfortunately, ESRI's base appears to be dominated by major government departments and large corporations. For small companies they have no incentive to fix issue i.e. accountability to us is absent without leave. Their customer communications (for the same reasons) is also pathetic. We shouldn't have to chase significant problems where a base functionality - tools they included in the software they licensed us to use for many $ - fail to work properly. Beyond an acknowledgement that they reproduced my problem, I heard nothing about actions they were investigating to fix it. I understand it may be complex, but it's a tool, sold with the licence, that randomly doesn't work. According to Naomi (next post) ESRI marked the NIM as DECLINED; does that mean they're not interested? I guess so.
Hmmm... As I mentioned in a post very early on, I sent a map to ESRI that was giving me a problem and they reproduced the issue in the areas where I was experiencing trace tool failure. Then... 'crickets'.
I admit to not knowing (i.e. not used) the Pro version. I'm reluctant to spend any more money on ESRI products, if that is what it would take to have that version. I haven't renewed my maintenance, because I don't see the value in spending thousands $ for ??
'WAY in' is correct, so much so that it would take a map maker a long, long time to complete even a small polygon to the post of it being pointless and the project never ending. My only work around that actually works is as I described years ago (!!) and that is to draw a polygon over adjacent ones and then clip the new polygon using existing ones. If there's a free side(s), then of course you would have to draw that boundary accurately.
For those of us who actually create maps from absolute scratch, and don't have the luxury of pre-prepared maps of roads and real estate boundaries, this tool should be 'gold', but instead it's 'lead'. I have recently created a new map over a substantial area not previously known, or understood, and had the same issue pop up in a couple of places. Oh dear...
According to my notes on the issue from August 2011. ESRI marked the NIM with DECLINED.
Typical ESRI Support
I originally reported the problem to ESRI in 2011, it was given a NIM and never addressed again. I do not believe they ever plan to address the issue.
Didn’t work for me…
Thanks, but This did not Help us with the trace tool... If zoomed out too much it just won't trace. Only solution is to zoom in as tight as possible and have as few layers as possible.
The Trace Tool problem has been a known Desktop ESRI BUG since 9X, that has never been addressed. The Trace Tool does however perform beautifully in ArcGIS Pro.
Removing the spatial index did not solve issue. Zooming WAY in permits poly creation, but then it fails when you zoom back out to create adjacent polygon, it again fails. Tried everything suggested here, classic snapping, snapping tolerance, re-starting, etc. Still failed.
Here are links for how to understanding (and removing if necessary to fix the trace tool problem) the spatial index.
Add Spatial Index—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop
Remove Spatial Index—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop
Or maybe you can reset/rebuild it:
Rebuild a spatial index—ArcGIS Help | ArcGIS Desktop
You may need more than a basic license to work with the relate tools. ESRI note:
"License: You must have ArcGIS Desktop Advanced or Desktop Standard to rebuild,
drop, or re-create the spatial index of a feature class in an enterprise geodatabase or database."
Make sure you head the warnings before you rebuild your spatial index!
I have had problems with the geographic extents of my project are not correct. These are related:
An overview of spatial references—ArcGIS Help | ArcGIS Desktop
Mark
I hope this helps ... last year I was doing a lot of tracing and kept running into this problem. One time I somehow forced the "The spatial index grid size is invalid" error popup. After researching that error, I deleted the spatial index for the layer I was editing and didn't have the problem again.
All,
It's been 6 years since I first posted on this problem and guess what, it's still there...
I understand that there may be programming difficulties, but this is a fundamental problem. It is a critical tool for map making involving the natural environment. I am again experiencing refusal to trace, either at all at any zoom level, or causing ArcMap to crash. Like all the other instances it develops in one specific part of a map where it resides forever, regardless of restarts, updates, or making a cup of tea.
ESRI: please explain why I should continue to pay or maintenance when what to me is a fundamental tool for ensuring correct topology and efficient mapping does not work and cost me time and money.
Thanks.
It's August 2017 and I still have this problem. As others have, I've tried all the suggestions above and none have worked. I'm using 10.3.0.4322.
Hi Kylie,
Thanks. Will give this a try when the problem arises again. And yes, programmers need to remember that they're working for 'users', not other programmers...
I'll report back when when I have had the chance to try your work around.
Brett,
When I have to trace geographically large areas, I will choose the "Trace selected features" option in the Trace options (hit the O key on your keyboard when using the trace tool)... It works more times than not. Also, open your feature Cache tool bar and play with some some of the cache settings. But ESRI should have fixed this by now! This proves that those designing the software don't Really use it!
What you say is basically what I had to do, but also as I said, it's impractical when complex geometry is, and the layer is geographically broad. My impression was that the larger the geographic area, the sooner the issue manifests itself. When I posted originally I was compiling a geologic map of part of Mauritania. I posted again with the same problem during the compilation of a new map for he whole of Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and it was this dataset I sent to ESRI (on their request) and with which they reproduced the problem.
This tool is critically important in my workflow when compiling geologic maps - it greatly decreases the time it takes to complete the compilation. I hope ESRI pulls their finger out and actually does address it.
We have also had this exact problem since 10.0
A work around we found is that you have to zoom in to as small an extent as possible and usually the trace tool will begin working again. I think that arcmap's trace tool starts to choke when there is too much geometry displayed on the screen, because it reads all visual vertices into memory. By zooming way in, it reduces arcmaps task of storing all the geometry.
Five years after my initial post and the problem still exists...
I sent data (on request) to ESRI and they reproduced the problem, but had no solution. I repeat, this was five years ago. As a recap, I found that I had to zoom progressively more and more in to get the trace tool to work. With large layers this is totally impractical. Given the fact that ESRI reproduced the issue, I am astounded that no fix, or info update (a basic courtesy I would have thought) has been forthcoming from them. Shameful customer service. But then again, the larger the company, the less they care (even when users are paying $thousands on 'Maintenance' agreements) about individual users with equally important deadlines to meet. We're not all tertiary qualified GIS experts, we're users qualified up to doctoral level in other disciplines. End of rant!
Come on Esri, what's going on to resolve this issue??
I came to this thread because I was having the same problem, very frustrating. There was a pop-up when I selected start editing that said my layers were in a different projection than the data frame. After I changed the projection of the data frame to the match my layers trace began working again. I hope that helps!
It's frustrating that this problem seems random. It doesn't matter if the area is complex or not. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't. I found that zooming in helps. Sometimes I have to zoom way in. I'll finish a partial sketch (red square on vertex), pan or zoom, and begin tracing again. Sometimes I can zoom out and the trace function starts working optimally again, sometimes it doesn't. It's annoying to zoom in so close at times, but the job gets done with minimal frustration. I hope they figure out this bug.
Hi all!
I know this is a rather old thread, but I'm having the same issue.
What helped was to select the features to be traced first, then, after clicking on the trace icon, open the options for tracing (press o key) and enable the option to trace selected features.
This let me trace the selected features without any problems.
Hope this helps,
cheers!
Marc Seliger
I had this same problem and none of the solutions above worked for me. I found that I could only trace within the view that I first selected the Start Editing tool. The Trace tool wouldn't work outside that area.
Solution
To fix this I zoomed so that the entire layer I wanted to trace was completely in view, then I selected Start Editing.
It worked fine after that, but I had to do the same thing if I stopped then started editing, which is annoying.
Hope this helps.
Add one more frustrated user here... none of the solutions above worked:(
It is amazing how an immensely useful tool like this, that has existed for years, can keep being screwed up so bad. I am so tired of ESRI's "it works for us" or "well, it works sometimes" excuses... How many people would buy a car where steering wheel turns only one of the wheels, or if brakes work only half the time?
I think for the price we are all paying for the software, we deserve at least basic tools that work with some level of consistency...
I just found this thread because I was having the same issues with the trace tool. I believe I've found at least one of the causes of this problem. I had placed an arc segment to use for cutting a polygon. Immediately, I was unable to use the trace tool. If I panned my view until the arc segment was out of sight, I could use the trace tool again. I deleted the arc segment and again, was able to trace. Because I had to use that arc as my cutting edge, I resorted to generalizing the arc segment with a very small maximum allowable offset value (to retain the general shape of the arc). Trace became functional again. Sounds like arc (curve) segments may be a key to this issue...
- Keith
OK... My first major project in 10.2 has ground to a halt by this issue. I have tried the solutions above and THEY DO NOT WORK.
Has ESRI acknowledged this in formally in any way, or is it another in the vastly long list of bugs that they pretend doesn't exist?Mind mindbogglingly frustrating...
"Use Classic Snapping" caused ArcMAP to crash.
I found switching to “Use Classic Snapping” in Editing Options helped with this issue, and in general with editing.
I am having the random trace tool issue with ArcMap 10.0 SP5. None of the fixes discussed here seem to work; I'm just going to try it again in a few hours. Very frustrating...
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