Which topology rule to use?

[Zeke]

I'm creating a topology with parcels and subdivisions to learn how to create and use topologies, with the eventual goal of migrating to a parcel fabric. Most, but not all, parcels are in subdivisions; subdivisions are usually, but not always, contigous with other subdivisions (platting subdivisions wasn't required until a few years ago, and thare are quite a few free standing subdivisions). Both parcels and subdivisions are polygons.

My question is what topology rules are most appropriate for this arrangement? I'm currently trying:
Subdivisions: Must Not Overlap, Must Not Have Gaps
Parcels: Must Not Overlap, Must Be Covered By (Subdivisions)

I mark parcels that aren't in a subdivision as exceptions, but some parcels have an error where they should be in a subdivision, but part of their area is mistakenly drawn outside the subdivision, a Must Be Covered By (Subdivisions) error. The only right-click fix for this, Create Feature, creates a new subdivision from the entire parcel, which is clearly incorrect. If it created one only from the parcel area in error, which I could then delete, that would be fine, but it doesn't do that.

I can fix this manually ok, but not sure if Must Be Covered By (Subdivisions) is the correct rule. The Help page also lists:
Area Boundary Must Be Covered By Boundary Of, but this sounds like the subdivision must be filled by parcels, when there are actually streets, rows and other, non-parcel features instead. There's also no fix listed, so I assume this would be a manual fix situation. Also, this marks all parcels in the subdivision, but not sharing a boundary, as errors. While they could be marked as exceptions, this would be a lot of exceptions.

Sorry for the long explanation, but am I on the right track for rules and/or fixes? Thanks.

[TimHodson]

Hi Greg,

Note that the geodatabase topology and the rules that we've defined for loading into the fabric work best by defining discrete sets of toplogies for each parcel type, and loading these into the fabric separately. If your ultimate intent is to move the data into the fabric, then I'd recommend doing a mini dataloading exercise into the fabric now, so that the process is clear, even though you may not be going into production on the fabric immediately. I think that by doing this data-load prototyping, many of your questions will be answered. I good starting point for data loading is this whitepaper:

http://www.esri.com/library/whitepapers/pdfs/loading_data_parcel_fabric.pdf

Hope this helps,
-Tim

[Zeke]

Thanks Tim. I am working on just a test area now, a copy of the subdivisions, parcels and outblocks (legacy parcels not in a platted subdivision) in one square of the city grid. My understanding from talking with someone at the LGM island at the UC was to first run a topology on the data, then migrate that to the parcel fabric.

I actually just finished running and correcting my test topology and have everything cleaned up, at least according to the rules I've set up. I'm just not sure if they're the rules I should be using to prep the data for the fabric, or if I should have others instead of or as well. I'll read the white paper and see what that says.