It would be very useful to be able to draw polygons freehand (like you can in ArcGIS Pro), instead of by adding individual vertices. This would be especially useful when creating polygons that are rounded and require many vertices to properly draw.
Another route to make this happen is to allow the "Copy geometry" operation on the markup layer. You could use the markup tool to draw a line or polygon shape, select the line or shape, then use the "copy features" option currently available for data layers only to copy the geometry to a data layer.
There are advantages to this approach over freehand editing the polygon data in the data layer; it allows you to sketch the shape until it looks right, giving you a drafting ability before the time consuming task of entering data begins.
The limitation I could see is that once data was entered with a free hand option, it could not be edited by free hand option unless there were more advanced editing features incorporated like the "reshape" editing tool available in the desktop software. It would become impossible with the markup workflow described above to salvage data you entered about a polygon or line. Once the geometry was copied from the markup feature, that's it, you can only modify the geometry vertex by vertex (not fun).
Hello, we are currently using ArcGIS Pro and Trimble TerraSync out in the field. We want to move to just Field Maps, however it doesn't offer freehand polygon creation. We need freehand and can't switch to Field Maps with its current capabilities. We have many layers when working out in the field, so markup is not an option. We work on a boat and it's difficult to stay stationary so we have to work quickly.
Is this feature on the road map? Or is the idea that we have to purchase Sweet if we want the freehand draw option for polygon/line capture on map based surveys? The lack of functionality in this area makes Field Maps completely unusable for a lot of applications and the additional cost of Sweet is hard to justify if you only require additional drawing tools. We do habitat surveys and the additional time that would be needed both onsite to capture polygons point by point, plus the time to tidy up gaps and overlaps afterwards means Field Maps isn't a viable option. I appreciate there is a Sweet Phase 1 survey at reduced cost but with the move to Biodiversity Net Gain we are now surveying using UKHAB so the Phase 1 option is no good either.
At the Esri 2022 UC, one of our staff members talked to someone at Esri who said it was on the Roadmap but it seems like it's a little further out than any of us have hoped.
Maybe someone from Esri can chime in now about the status of this idea?!?
In the meantime, I'm just thankful for everyone who has given kudos (thumbs up) to this idea and spread the word to their colleagues!
I agree with most of the field folks here. I need to add avalanche occurrence polygons to my maps in the field (ideally an apple pencil) and this current method is so time consuming that when we are flying I cannot keep up with the data I need to enter. ESRI, please add this functionality to Fieldmaps sooner than later.
This is looking less hopeful, below is the response from the Q&A from Esri UK's 2023 winter update webinar where 'Will ArcGIS Field Maps ever support freehand drawing?' was the most upvoted question:
Currently, we are not aware of any plans for this to appear in an upcoming release of ArcGIS Field Maps. To help drive the future of our apps and make sure we build the capabilities needed to support your field operations, we encourage people to head to Esri ArcGIS Field Maps Community to submit and upvote ideas. In the ideas you’ll find a couple of existing suggestions for freehand digitising that may fit your use case
