Use Domains for symbology when available

[JFBellemare]

When assinging symbology to a layer, if a feature class uses a domain for it's field attributes, ArcMap should use the domain to fill out possible values instead of having to read throught the whole table (especially when some domain values aren't used yet - these won't come up).

[mattwilkie]

yes, yes, yes!

[RikkiAnaka]

This would be very useful for us. We have tried to future proof our domains to include features that we may want to map in the future but currently do not have any associated features. There seems to be no good way in either ArcMap or Pro to only show the symbology classes of features that are present in the database and/or in the current view. I know this can be done in the layout legends but it would be nice for end users who want to change symbology not to have to sort through the entire list of domain items when those features aren't present in the database.

[rburke]

Brilliant idea; may be merged with Symbolize - Add all Values: option to base on doma... - Esri Community ?

[KoryKramer]

We understand that this is an aged request but wanted to point out that this is what ArcGIS Pro does.

In the example below, note that the domain contains a value of 17 - Volcanic. Even though that value is not present in the attribute table, when the CAUSE field is used to symbolize the layer, note that 17 - Volcanic is included as a symbol class. 

 

[rburke]

@KoryKramer  - I tried doing this as recently as last week. I had to add dummy data to my map to prompt symbology to grab my domain classes. What's the workflow you used to get that to happen?