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Invisible Fields Become Visible After Create New Layer From Selection

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06-15-2019 02:19 PM
RobertStevens
Frequent Contributor

I have a point dataset, with many of the fields invisible.

I create a selection on that point dataset, and use selection=>create layer from selected features. That works, but now all the fields which had been invisible now become visible. Why? That doesn't seem logical. I didn't want them to display in the old dataset, and it is unlikely that I want them to display in the new subset.

Not a big deal, but more pointing and clicking. I seem to do much pointing and clicking with arcmap. Too much.

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6 Replies
DanPatterson_Retired
MVP Emeritus

Feature Class to Feature Class—Conversion toolbox | ArcGIS Desktop 

and you can delete the fields you don't want from the fieldmap

The difference is that you now have a new dataset with the fields you don't want rather than trying to rely on a view of the original file with the fields hidden

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RobertStevens
Frequent Contributor

Dan

Yes, but the reason to hide fields is to make the user experience better yet keep the possibility of resurrecting some or all of those fields. For example, Business Analyst datasets have several hundred fields. It is tiresome to have to scroll left to right to find those of interest, yet at some future data I might see the need to visit a handful of those fields.

There are many workarounds, yes, but this seems like a poor default behavior.

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DanPatterson_Retired
MVP Emeritus

That is what the original dataset is for... copies and views provide a static picture

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RobertStevens
Frequent Contributor

Dan, I have frequently found your posts most useful, and I thank you for them. This is a pretty small potatoes issue, certainly, but I really think you are being an apologist for a second best ESRI design decision. If I have fields invisible in the original dataset, it is more likely that not that I wish them to rmain invisible in some new dataset created from it by the operation described.

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DanPatterson_Retired
MVP Emeritus

Robert... I am not an apologist by any stretch of the imagination (just ask some of the esri peeps that have been around since 1998)

I just organize my workflow differently than you

I have not expectations for anything, so I plan accordingly.

It mitigates surprises and disappointments

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RobertStevens
Frequent Contributor

Amen to your last two sentences.

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