replace null geometry in an existing row? or copy/paste geometry to existing row?

[markcheyne]

hi - I have an unversioned polygon feature class in ArcSDE/Oracle. This feature class has rows, but the geometry of each row is null - because I created this feature class from an existing Oracle table. Now I want to use ArcMap's editor like this - select a row, digitize its geometry. Trouble is, if you digitize a new polygon, ArcMap wants to add it to a new row, not a selected existing row.

I found that there is a Replace Geometry tool (http://support.esri.com/en/knowledgebase/techarticles/detail/37825), which seems to target this case, but it does not work if the feature class is unversioned - the tool never enables. It works as advertised if the feature class is registered as versioned and you open a versioned edit session. For lengthy reasons registering the feature class as versioned is not an option.

I found one interesting alternate path - I copied a row of interest to a file geodatabase, on which that tool works, and created the row's geometry. So this might work if there was a way to copy/paste its geometry back to the selected row of the original feature class. Trouble is, all the copy/paste features of ArcMap want to do the paste as new rows - I want to past the geometry into an existing row. Anyway this is a convoluted alternative anyway, I'd rather get the original idea working, but I'll take this if its all I've got.

Any editing whiz out there with a plan?

Thanks, Mark

[markcheyne]

Got it. I guess I just couldn't get my head around ArcMap 10's template-based editing model. I switched ArcMap back to ArcGIS 9's editing environment (search the Desktop help system for 'Reverting to the ArcGIS 9 editing environment'), so I could get my paws on the 'edit task/edit target' model - specifically the 'Reshape Feature' edit task. Start an edit session, select my row of interest, select that edit task, select the pencil tool, and digitize away. Its nice that it still uses the Arc 10 snapping scheme.

[LisaStanners]

Hi Mark,
I am having trouble reproducing your problem. I have a simple line and point feature class in a feature dataset that I loaded on SDE (both Oracle and SQL server) and made sure not to register them as versioned. In arcmap I unchecked the "ability to undo and redo" setting on the Versioning page. Then started the edit session. Even without doing anything the replace geometry tool is active, and works if i select a row that doesn't have a geometry yet. Can you add more details or steps? Any third party software installed that disables commands.
Thanks,
Lisa Stanners

[markcheyne]

hi lisa, thanks for reply. I really appreciate you taking time to investigate!

you reproduced my scenario exactly, with out of box ArcGIS 10 Desktop ArcInfo, no 3rd-party tools at all, except that my FC is polygons whereas you tested points and lines, and my FC is not in a dataset. In case it matters, our SDE datatype is SDE-BINARY, high precision. since I found another successful path using the ArcGIS 9 editing model, I am willing to chalk it up to local ArcSDE gremlins and move on.

MC