I manually create parcels from points in ArcGIS 10.1: Using Arc Catalog to create a new polygon file (shapefile) => Go to Editor (on mxd Map) to start Editing => Use the Construction Tools to draw the parcels (i.e. using "polygon") => pick the points to form a parcel/polygon. I got the following error: The feature could not be created. The geometry is invalid in the "Create" box - see the attahed docx file for details. I do not know why I got this error. Please kindly help and advise.
Hi Jim, Thanks for your response. 1) I did have the "shapefile" created via the ArcCatalog. It was shown on the TOC of my mxd Map. 2) I re-did this thing and made sure that the XY coordinate Systems in the "Points" of my old input and the "Parcel" to be created were the same (i.e. they were matched). I executed it (i.e. picked 4 points to form a parcel) and I got the same error message. I am lost completely now. Jim, do you have further comments or solutions to this problem? Please res[pond again. Thanks, Scott Chang
Hi Jim, Thanks for your response. 1) I did have the "shapefile" created via the ArcCatalog. It was shown on the TOC of my mxd Map. 2) I re-did this thing and made sure that the XY coordinate Systems in the "Points" of my old input and the "Parcel" to be created were the same (i.e. they were matched). I executed it (i.e. picked 4 points to form a parcel) and I got the same error message. I am lost completely now. Jim, do you have further comments or solutions to this problem? Please res[pond again. Thanks, Scott Chang
You are not correct Scott and Jim is correct. You have point shapefiles, but no polygon shapefiles in your map. The TOC screenshot proves that. Create a new shapefile and make it a polygon shapefile and Add it to the Map, or use the buffer tool on one of the points to output a polygon shapefile that you could modify (buffer would preserve your point attribute schema and use the same coordinate system as your points). Then delete the buffers if you don't want them and try creating polygons then. I am not aware of a way to directly use points to make polygons outside of a python script or snappiing to the points as you draw a polygon. Simply selecting points won't work and you cannot copy/paste points into a polygon layer. The Feature to Polygon tool for example requires either lines or polygons to work.
My friend has ArcGIS 10.0 in my organization and he used the XY coordinates of 8 points in Ft. McNair site (near Washington. DC) in eastern Marylad to input the 8 points and then he did the creating a 4-side parcel from 4 points by the method described in my first thread successfully. He did this kind of thing in the early version of ArcGIS many times before. He think that this problem may be an issue with ArcGIS 10.1 that is installed in the Window 7 Operating System. Any further thoughts or comments?
My friend has ArcGIS 10.0 in my organization and he used the XY coordinates of 8 points in Ft. McNair site (near Washington. DC) in eastern Marylad to input the 8 points and then he did the creating a 4-side parcel from 4 points by the method described in my first thread successfully. He did this kind of thing in the early version of ArcGIS many times before. He think that this problem may be an issue with ArcGIS 10.1 that is installed in the Window 7 Operating System. Any further thoughts or comments?
Thanks, Scott Chang
I have never heard of workflow like that without some other process or steps. I go back to Arcmap 8 in Windows and old ArcInfo versions in Unix. There is no documentation of a workflow like this in the help for any version I have ever seen. If you can find any help documentation from the version your friend used please post a link to it.
Edit:
Your friend must have the Production Mapping extension and be using this process. My organization never purchased that extension, which is why I have never heard of this workflow. The extension is available for all current versions of ArcMap, but must be purchased in addition to ArcMap Desktop and the extension must be enabled and properly configured before this workflow will function.
When you boil the tool down, it appears to me that some of its settings are interactively performing the same operation as the Points to Lines tool to create a line path that is closed and then the Features to Polygon tool to convert the line path into a polygon, so a geoprocessing method is possible by outputting the first tool to an inmemory line and polygon feature class and then doing an Append to the final target feature class. Alternatively a Python script could do the same somewhat more interactively. In any case, it is clear from the help I have referenced that a tool needs more than just a selection of points to build a polygon boundary that traces a parcel outline in an orderly way if a convex hull is not what you want.
This seems a very simple feature. Why not create a polygon shapefile, start an edit session, turn on snapping to points, and digitize the polygon you wish using the points as snapping guides? Regards, Jim
