Draw and paint

In ArcGIS GeoPlanner, all project team members can sketch and draw in the active scenario using symbols from a palette and drawing tools.

Symbol Palette pane with Industry selected

Drawing tools

The following drawing tools are available:

Drawing tools
  • Draw Point—Used to create points with a mouse click.
  • Draw Freehand Polyline—Create lines following mouse movement.
  • Draw Polyline—Create lines following mouse clicks.
  • Draw Freehand Polygon—Create polygons following mouse movement.
  • Draw Auto-Completed Freehand Polygon—Create freehand polygons that adjoin each other. This tool creates polygons that append to the boundary of an existing polygon following mouse movement.
  • Draw Polygon—Create polygons following mouse clicks.
  • Draw Auto-Completed Polygon—Create polygons that adjoin each other. This tool creates a polygon that appends to the boundary of an existing polygon following mouse clicks.
  • Draw Circle—Create round features.
  • Draw Ellipse—Create ellipse features. Available in a drop-down menu beneath Draw Circle.
  • Draw Rectangle—Create rectangle features. Available in a drop-down menu beneath Draw Circle.
  • Split—Divide a polygon or polyline by sketching a dividing line through it.

Draw a point

You can use the Draw Point tool to create a point feature from one of the point templates in the symbol palette.

  1. On the application toolbar, click Design.
  2. Click the Drawing Tools button Drawing Tools.

    The Draw toolbar appears.

  3. Click the point symbol on the toolbar and choose a symbol in the symbol palette.
  4. Click the map to add the point.

Create a line

You can create lines using Draw Freehand Polyline or Draw Polyline, and one of the line templates from the symbol palette.

  1. On the application toolbar, click Design.
  2. Click the Drawing Tools button Drawing Tools.

    The Draw toolbar appears.

  3. Click the Draw Freehand Polyline (or Draw Polyline) tool.
  4. Click one of the line symbols on the symbol palette.
  5. Click the map, drag to draw the freehand line, and release the mouse to complete.

You can also click the map to create a vertex for the polyline and double-click to complete the line.

Create a polygon

You can create polygons using one of the polygon templates from the symbol palette with one of the polygon drawing tools.

  1. On the application toolbar, click Design.
  2. Click the Drawing Tools button Drawing Tools.

    The Draw toolbar appears.

  3. Click one of the polygon drawing tools.
  4. Select one of the polygon symbols on the symbol palette.
  5. Click the map to draw the polygon.

Split a polygon or a polyline

Use the split tool to divide a polygon or polyline. This tool is useful for creating subdivisions from larger parcels.

  1. On the application toolbar, click Design.
  2. Click the Drawing Tools button Drawing Tools.

    The Draw toolbar appears.

  3. Click Split Polygon Split.

    The Spit Tool panel appears.

  4. Click the drop-down arrow in the Split Tool panel and choose a design layer that contains the polygons or polylines that you want to split with the line you sketch.
  5. Sketch a line through the polygon (or polyline) that you want to split. Double–click to stop sketching and perform the split.
    Split tool red line horizontally intersecting an orange rectangular polygon

Snapping

Snapping allows you to create features that connect to each other so your edits are more accurate. Once you enable snapping in GeoPlanner, you can snap vertices in your new features to any feature layer in your map. You can also use snapping in the Measure tool. If you enable snapping, snapping feedback when you measure distances, areas, and locations is available.

Note:

The following edit tools do not support snapping:

  • Draw freehand polyline
  • Draw freehand polygon
  • Draw auto–complete freehand polygon

To use snapping with these tools, sketch your features first and double-click your shape to show its vertices. You can then snap individual vertices of the shape to other vertices, points, or edges.

You cannot snap to feature layers hosted in map services.

Enable snapping

Complete the following steps to enable snapping:

  1. Click Design.
  2. Click the Drawing Tools button Drawing Tools.

    The Draw toolbar appears.

  3. Click Snapping in the active toolbar.

    Snapping is enabled. Click Snapping again to disable snapping.

Tip:

You can also enable or disable snapping while you are sketching by pressing the Ctrl key. This allows you to enable snapping temporarily while sketching a feature.

Paint a feature type

Use the Paint tool to propose an alternative type to an existing feature. The Paint tool updates an existing feature's type to the selected symbol in the Symbol Palette pane and changes any default attribute values. Attribute values are never updated to null.

  1. On the application toolbar, click Design.
  2. Click Paint Paint to display the Paint toolbar.
    Paint by click or rectangle
  3. Choose a symbol in the Symbol Palette pane.
  4. Click an existing feature in your active scenario to change its symbolization to what you chose from the Symbol Palette pane.

Update many features using the Paint tool

You can update many scenario features at once using the Paint tool. This tool allows you to either drag a rectangle around or lasso one or more scenario features. Any feature that intersects the shape you draw is updated to the type you select in the Symbol Palette pane. The tool will also update any attributes to default values. Attribute values are never updated to null.

  1. On the application toolbar, click Design.
  2. Click Paint Paint to display the Paint toolbar.
    Paint by lasso
  3. Choose one of the tools:
    • Paint by click or rectangle—Updates one or more features by clicking and dragging a rectangle around or through features you want to update.
    • Paint by lasso—Updates one or more features by sketching a shape around or through features you want to update.
  4. Choose a symbol in the Symbol Palette pane.
  5. Drag a rectangle around or lasso existing scenario features you want to update.

Creating stencils

Stencils are useful for when you want to draw multiple features with the same shape and size as a data layer feature. Creating a stencil provides you with a new drawing tool based on a feature that you choose to import and is available on the Draw circle drop-down arrow. The stencil keeps the same shape and default values on each new feature that you create.

  1. On the application toolbar, click the Design tab.
  2. Click Select Feature Select Features.
  3. Using the Select tool Select, select a data layer feature on the map.
  4. Click Import in the pop-up that appears for the selected feature.

    The Import dialog box appears.

  5. Click the Layer drop-down arrow and choose Stencils.

    Import dialog box with Stencils as the specified layer

  6. Name your stencil layer.
  7. Click Import.
  8. Click Drawing Tools Drawing Tools.
  9. Click the Draw circle drop-down arrow.
  10. Choose the stencil that you created.

    Click anywhere on the map to add the new stencil.

A scenario layer feature is inserted on your map.

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