Cut Polygon without Deselecting

[EricRafn]

How do I cut a polygon without the operation deselecting my selection-set?

I'm classifying land as either irrigated, non-irrigated, or semi-irrigated by using Landsat and aerial imagery. In my current workflow, I make all my geometry edits first and then change the attributes second. But if I see missed/necessary geometry edit while I'm classifying then I can't make the edit at that moment because all the polygons that I still need to classify will be deselected.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

Thank you in advance,

--Eric

[JohnSobetzer]

If you are using 9x there is a developer sample called Cut Polygons Without Selecting that was so good I never used the regular tool.  See http://edndoc.esri.com/arcobjects/8.3/Samples/Editing/Edit%20Tasks/Cut%20Polygons%20Without%20Select... or http://resources.esri.com/help/9.3/ArcGISDesktop/dotnet/fd27ecf3-417b-4119-891b-411fb20b5e4b.htm.

I was unable to get it to work with 10x.  Bummer.  There was one for 10 Engine.   I just came across the next link in getting you the links above so I'll have to look at it more closely: http://help.arcgis.com/en/sdk/10.0/arcobjects_net/componenthelp/index.html#//00480000002v000000

If you don't/can't go the foregoing, you might create a temporary layer of your selected polygons, then deselect to cut or otherwise edit the main layer, and then edit the selected layer table.

[EricRafn]

Thank you, John.

[EricRafn]

Hi John, what will work best for me, when I have a selection-set but I'd like to do a geometry update, is to:

Create a Layer from Selected Features

Do the geometry update.

In order to reselect the remaining polygons that need to be classified, I then:

Do a Select By Location and choose to select only the features in my target layer (i.e. original layer) that are identical to my Source layer features (i.e the layer that I just created).

Thank you again for the suggestions!

--Eric

[JohnSobetzer]

I suppose it's not practicable given an interest in keeping code streamlined, and given all the different ways people can use a program, but it would be nice if every major change to the GUI came with two things.  First, with an option to use the classic or the new, preferably by toggling, and second, with a pdf showing the many ways it can speed up common tasks, the many ways it can slow other common tasks down, and some ways to work around the latter.  I would think the smart users/testers at ESRI have already explored the benefits/detriments/workarounds before deciding to include any change in a new version.

[KenBuja]

There is the option to use the "classic" editing environment. It take a little digging to change it, unfortunately. Open the tool AdvancedArcMapSettings.exe (found in C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS\Desktop10.0\Utilities) and select the Editor tab. Unchecking the checkbox "Create features using templates" reverts back to the 9.x editing environment.

[JohnSobetzer]

Yes Ken and that works well saving me many clicks for simple edits and allowing me to edit any layer whether defined, turned off, selected, oddly symbolized, etc. provided I am not in layout.  But I found I had to do a few more customizations to make it work like (better than) my prior 9x.

I always used in 9x an ArcScript called "Start editing data from ArcMap context menu" which set the target layer at the same time as it started editing for any layer selected in the TOC.  I found I could start it via a button for easy one click starts.  It works fine in 10.1 with VBA installed IF feature templates are turned off.

In this approach the Edit Task and target layer drop downs don't really get used except perhaps to verify what I'm doing.  To make up for Edit Task dropdown I had to add some of the edit buttons to the Editor toolbar, also a one time customization. This works better than trying to use the Edit task drop down as I did in 9x.

There can be one problem, the button or menu option to run it May not show up in new projects based on the normal.mxt forcing me to add it in every new project.  But I found if I saved this in a project called normal.mxd in my ArcMap templates folder, the button persists in all new documents based on the normal.mxd.  It comes up as the "Normal" in the My Templates Getting Started dialog box.

To make up for the inactivated dancing feature construction toolbar, I added the Editing buttons to a custom toolbar and docked it where it is easily reached when the editing is away from the buttons on the "top".

Now if I could only get a Cut Polygons Without Selecting tool to work I'd be better than I was in 9x for editing.

[Anonymous User]

Now if I could only get a Cut Polygons Without Selecting tool to work I'd be better than I was in 9x for editing.

If you dont mind a bit of DIY, ive replied to the thread over in arcobjects land.