Circle Call-Out?

[RickLawson]

In our shop we are creating the parcel layer for counties using imagery and the scanned paper maps in .tiff format as the reference.  One of our final actions is to label the parcels as they were on the paper maps...with a circle containing the Parcel Identification Number. 

Where we have polygons that were too small to legibly hold the circle with the PID they always represent this (on paper) with a call-out 'leader line' directing the circle with the number to the polygon.  We have checked with our local ESRI office and this particular label was not reproduced for ArcGIS at 10...but it apparently existed in previous versions of desktop. 

So my question is...has this been recreated out there by a user?  I feel fairly certain that there are enough folks that are running the same process that we are that this label is critical to the workflow. 

As always...thanks in advance for any information.  If, in fact, this has not been addressed we are considering creating this in-house and I will certainly share our results. 

-GG

[DarrenWiens2]

It's not ideal, but as a quick fix you could make 2 copies of the layer, label one with a callout balloon with very small margins, and put another label with a circle background on top. I don't know if this would work with a lot of conflicting labels (ie. would both labels rotate the same?).

[RickLawson]

Thanks Darren!  I'm hoping an ezree staff will chime in here soon to confirm that this doesn't exist in ArcLand so we can proceed with programmin'!

[RickLawson]

****crickets****

[ChrisBuscaglia]

Hello Rick,

Sorry from the lack of response from the Esri camp, we sort of have a mixture of genres here...one being Land Records and the other being general symbology/labeling. 

I'm trying to get to the bottom of it, I'll respond when I have more information.

Chris

[RickLawson]

Thanks Chris!  Look forward to hearing if there is an answer to this one! 

And like I said...let us know as soon as you can if there isn't.  We may try to do this in-house.

-GG

[ChrisBuscaglia]

Hello again Rick,

Looks like this was never really supported with ArcGIS, but there is a sample that I think does what you are asking.  Please re-direct the post to the ArcGIS Desktop forum if not.

http://resources.esri.com/help/9.3/arcgisdesktop/com/samples/Cartography/Symbols/Text_Backgrounds/Cu...

Sorry again for the delay.

Chris

[RickLawson]

Hey Chris...do you have a specific instruction on how to register the .dll? 

I tried this...but it didn't work...

To register a dll or ocx file :

Click Start >Type in Search Bar:

regsvr32 <path & filename of dll or ocx>

Click Enter.

[RickLawson]

Okay Chris...here's what happened after we downloaded the sample...

1.  Register the dll.
We accomplished this with no issues.

2.  Open the 'Component Category Manager' by running categories.exe from your installations Bin directory.
This is located at C:\ProgramFiles\ArcGIS\Bin\Categories.  Done without issue.

3.  Select the 'Text Background Property Pages' component category and use the 'Add Object' button to add the TextCallouts.PropertyPage.
We did this with no issues.

4.  Select the 'Text Backgrounds' component category and use the 'Add Object' button to add the TextCallouts.CircleCallout.
Again, no issues.

5.  Open ArcMap.
Yep...no problem.

6.  Add a text element onto your map.
Done.

7.  Right-click on the selected element and select 'Properties' from the context menu.
At 10 this is known as 'Attributes', not 'Properties' for text elements.

8.  Select 'Change Symbol'.
Done.

9.  Select 'Properties'.
At 10 this is 'Edit Symbol...'

11.  Select the 'Advanced Text' tab.
Done.

12.  Click on 'Text Background', then select its related 'Properties' button.
Done.

13.  In 'Type', select 'Circle Line Callout'.
The new type does not appear in the list. 

Can you or someone there try to run this to see if you experience the same issue with 10? 

Sorry to be such a pain...but again, this is a critical label that we need in order to effectively complete our workflow.  Strange that we have all these obscure and rarely used CAD symbols yet this one is pretty commonly used and is nowhere to be found?!

[ChrisBuscaglia]

**At 10 this is known as 'Attributes', not 'Properties' for text elements.

This is most likely the problem, let me investigate and get back to you.

Chris