Resume Editing a polygon after a Misclick puts the feature in a semi-finished state

[MPach]

This is a difficult one to describe and maybe it's been fixed in later versions, we're on version 2.9.12 (I'm not sure this is important because I don't think it's version specific), but it used to work in ArcMap, so I would assume it should work similarly in ArcGIS Pro. 

I'm creating a new feature in a  dataset and I misclick then the feature locks (for lack of better use of a word).

1)

This is the vertex that I drew last where I want to continue editing from

2) 

To begin editing again I use the Continue Feature option and I used to be able to trace along the line for 1 or 2 vertices then delete those vertices and the last vertex (finish vertex) would become active to continue drawing my feature. See screen shot below.

3) 

When I do that however a vertex at the beginning of the polygon feature engages though. See vertex circled in brown below. 

4) 

How can I engage the vertex that I finished on to continue editing? If I was just doing a few more vertices this wouldn't be a question, but I have to do thousands more. 

Thank you, 

Mark

[Scott_Harris]

@MPach Is the goal to delete or move some unwanted vertices in an existing feature? If so, it seems like you should use the Edit Vertices tool to delete/modify those vertices.

When you use Continue Feature on a polygon, your first click in empty space will create the first vertex of a new part (to create a multipart polygon) - so I wouldn't think that is what you want. BTW, this is how ArcMap works as well. If you want to avoid the multipart feature you could activate the Continue Feature tool followed by the Replace Sketch command - maybe that is actually what you want?

That will get you back to sketching the feature from the last vertex. From there you can make sure you have vertex editing turned on (see image below) so that you can fix those mistakes as you go - by hovering over a vertex and either deleting or moving it (something ArcMap couldn't do).

It also sounds like you are using the Trace tool in your workflows so maybe you are seeing some kind of difference in how it works in ArcMap vs. Pro? I'm not really clear on that.

Maybe this info will help?

Let me know. Thanks!

-Scott

[MPach]

Scott,

Thanks for getting back to me. I appreciate all the clarification questions. If I had video recording software I certainly would have tried to create a video of this because it's much easier to describe when seeing it in action. I'll answer all your questions below. 

No, the goal is not to delete vertices in an existing feature, I would definitely be using the the edit vertices tool if that was the case. 

Correct, I am not trying to create a new part of a polygon. I'm trying to continue editing the same feature I just was editing before it locked up from the last vertex that I stopped drawing on. I think I'm seeing strange behavior from the continue feature tool though. There are sometimes where I use it where it seems to be functioning as I would expect.

Here is the expected behavior: 

1) Click the continue feature tool

2) Click and draw a single vertex some where, which indeed draws a new part, BUT when you delete that single new vertex the polygon should start to let you continue editing from the last vertex that was drawn before the feature was locked. This is what I am trying to show in the 2nd and 3rd images in my original post. 

Unexpected behavior I'm seeing:

The unexpected behavior is doing steps 1 and 2 of the expected behavior described above, BUT this time the vertex that it allows me to continue drawing from is the vertex from image 4 of my original post, which doesn't make any sense because it was one of the first vertices where I started my polygon. 

I'm starting to think the unexpected behavior has something to do with the snapping options that I have on for whatever reason and I understand that logically that makes no sense. I'm going to try to reproduce this behavior and then maybe a bug can be logged because it's really really annoying when you've done 45 minutes of work trying to draw a huge polygon with all sorts of turns, then you misclick which locks the feature up, and you try to continue editing which doesn't work the way it seemingly should. 

If you want to see what I'm talking about in action I'm more than happy to do a screen sharing with you. 

What's strange is this seems like a super common thing to do, so I'm really surprised it hasn't come up already, unless of course, it's a strange bug caused by some specific combination of snapping settings or something similar. 

Thanks, 

Mark

[Scott_Harris]

@MPach I have a hunch that it could have something to do with first creating a multipart polygon (like your first screenshot shows) and the reordering of vertices that occurs when storing the feature's geometry. My other hunch is that you may not see the behavior when creating a singlepart feature. It's also possible that ArcMap behaved the same way.

Instead activating Continue Feature, you could use Edit Vertices to see where the last vertex is (the red one). That is where Continue will pick up from.

[MPach]

Maybe that is the problem and perhaps to provide more clarity to the issue, I was not trying to create a multipart polygon. This is supposed to be a single part polygon, however, when the misclick occurred the line work overlaps because of where the last vertex was located, south of the starting vertices. If that last vertex happened to be north of the original vertices this would likely be a single part polygon because of no overlapping lines. 

[MPach]

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@Scott_Harris wrote:

"Instead activating Continue Feature, you could use Edit Vertices to see where the last vertex is (the red one). That is where Continue will pick up from."

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I think this is actually part of the issue that I might need help with. Is there a way to kind of set the vertex in the sketch properties for that feature as the vertex to resume drawing from? That would be ideal and solve this problem. This is one of those situations that can very easily occur that the user has no control over (i.e. the polygon becoming multipart due to the overlapping line segments from the misclick) and having the ability to set the vertex from which drawing would continue gives the user control back over how things be continued. 

Just to break down the issue to make it clear. The software seems to be defaulting to a vertex at the beginning of the drawing when using the continue editing tool when the feature is multipart. The multipart feature however is a product of the misclick and the software's default behavior when there is a multipart feature after the continue editing is clicked happens to enable a vertex near the beginning of the feature as the continuation point. This is why being able to choose the vertex to continue editing from would be ideal. 

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Mark

[Scott_Harris · Accepted solution]

@MPach In more recent versions of the software, you can set the origin vertex of a polygon, but, unfortunately, this won't effect the position of the last vertex if it's not on the same part. Maybe having the ability to re-order parts would be a solution (if it existed)? See: https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-pro-ideas/change-feature-part-order-using-editing-tools/idi-p/1...

Until then, you may want to turn off the option to 'Enable double-click as a shortcut for the Finish button'? This might cut down on the unwanted misclicks like you describe?

I'm going to think a bit more about other possible workarounds/solutions to what you are seeing though.

[MPach]

Thank you for that recommendation. It's the best idea I've heard thus far. I'll do it right now. 

Much appreciated!