zig-zag becomes a straight line....?

[PaulStockton]

I'm wondering if I changed a setting that would prevent me from creating or modifying certian features.  An example would be if a polygon section were to be digitized with many accute angles (  such as -^-^-^-^-^- ), finishing the sketch would return ( --------- )?  Other editing features work fine.  Thanks for your help.
WinXP, Arc10.1

Paul

[JimCousins]

Paul,
Make sure you are using the straight line segment drawing tool.
Regards,
Jim

[PaulStockton]

Thanks for your reply.  However, I am still encumbered with this problem.  I have removed and rebuilt my editor toolbar with just the basic tools, disabled snapping, tried the same digitizing operation with another terminal in the office  ( other terminal works ).

To reiterate, If I were to digitize a polygon feature with a portion of the polygon "------^-^-^-------" ; after finishing the part the return would be "----------------".   Simularly, if I were to digitize a multipart polygon with a narrow open space between edges, such as " ============"  my return might be  " =====        ======"  as ArcMap decides the open space between the polygon edges is insignificant and joins the two part feature into one. 

I would appriciate any help in correcting this matter as I am about to start digitizing more of these type of features.

Thank you
Paul

[JohnSobetzer]

So you want the zig zags and ArcMap is flattening them out?  You might check to be sure all the snapping is off.  In 10 there is the default snapping and the classic and you might still have the classic enabled.  Check all your tolerance settings not just the snapping; from any that were set in creating your layer or a topology, to those in the editor's options like the sticky move tolerance.    They may differ between your install and those on the other computer.  Note that those that involve number of pixels settings will hinge on how close you zoom in.

[RobertBorchert]

I would say it may be your technique and settings.

In the line of the previous response. 

click the Editor Drop down menu.  Under general turn on Classic Snapping and apply.  now open the snapping window and make sure everything is unselected.

Now the drawback is you will not able to snap to vertices of other polygons.  So if you turn on what you want to snap to you can prevent snapping by holding down the space bar.  that disables all snaps.

Are you trying to digitize INTO a existing Topology?  If so your Topology setting could be flattening out those lines based how your Topology was built.  I do not utilize topology in our field so I do not know for sure on that.

Thanks for your reply.  However, I am still encumbered with this problem.  I have removed and rebuilt my editor toolbar with just the basic tools, disabled snapping, tried the same digitizing operation with another terminal in the office  ( other terminal works ).

To reiterate, If I were to digitize a polygon feature with a portion of the polygon "------^-^-^-------" ; after finishing the part the return would be "----------------".   Simularly, if I were to digitize a multipart polygon with a narrow open space between edges, such as " ============"  my return might be  " =====        ======"  as ArcMap decides the open space between the polygon edges is insignificant and joins the two part feature into one. 

I would appriciate any help in correcting this matter as I am about to start digitizing more of these type of features.

Thank you
Paul