Show COGO Attributes in Parcel Line Feature Templates
When I am digitizing parcels, especially on a larger change like a subdivision plat, I am often adding many different line types. In order to reflect the recorded values of the lines, I like to manually enter the COGO attributes prior to digitization, as it is faster than creating the feature and adjusting attributes later.
I know that any feature template can be "stepped into", like so:
But I also know that any feature template can be edited to prompt for specific attributes:
In my editing workflows, I find it much more convenient to have the 4 most common COGO attributes (distance, direction, radius, arc length) available as prompts.
In short: I think it would be a good idea of for the parcel lines layer template that ships with Pro to have these attributes set to prompt already.
In more specific terms, I would like to see these lines added to the .lyrx file:
{
...
"layerDefinitions" : [
{
...
"featureTemplates" : [
{
...
"requiredFields" : [
"direction",
"distance",
"radius",
"arclength"
]
}
]
...
}
]
}
I've already done this myself, but I think other users would benefit from this being the default.
The funny thing about attribute "prompts" is that if you just ignore them in the Create Features panel, it's fine. Even though the .lyrx file lists them as "requiredFields", they are not actually required to create a feature. So, to answer your last question, no.
"Prompt" is really the wrong word for this setting, in my opinion. It's really just lets you keep certain attributes handy, and then you don't need to click into the full attribute list as often.
Here's me utilizing the prompts:
And here's me just ignoring them:
I am in no way inconvenienced by the prompts being present, but for manually entering COGO values, having them at hand on the feature template is a big time-saver. Interim lines and lines which have their COGO entered / calculated by other means would not be affected by this change, I don't think.
Of course, I did not consider the possibility of non-metes-and-bounds cadastres. But then, these templates are in the en-US subdirectory.
C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Pro\Resources\LayerTemplates\ParcelFabric\en-US
Perhaps this idea could be amended to only apply to localities in which metes and bounds are common?