Esri Mapping Center - Ask a Cartographer

Orient Layer A's symbology relative to Layer B's geometry?

April 11 2011 | 2 comments
Categories: Cartographic Effects, Cartographic Representations

Hello! Please see the attached; the summit symbol is driven by a point dataset, but I would like it to orient itself to the road (so the road drives through the two parentheses). I understand this would be straightforward with annotation, but wonder if there is an automated method as well. Thank you!

Mapping Center Answer:

First, you will need to convert your point and line feature class symbology into Representations. Then you can use the Align Marker to Stroke or Fill tool.

Attachment: orient point symbol to line geometry

SDE data and Representations/F-Linked Anno, etc. posted by Marianne Farretta on Apr 13 2011 7:37AM

My work is based on an SDE to which I do not have write permissions. The easy fix would be to bring my data into a personal or file geodatabase, but then a) it's divorced from live data, and b) I have to reconstruct all the SQL queries in the label manager to suit the File/Personal Geodatabase's desired syntax. In the broader context of wanting to perform more advanced cartographic techniques on somone else's SDE data, is there a workaround you'd recommend for a situation like this? Thank you!

Align Markers tool posted by Charlie Frye on Apr 15 2011 5:45PM

The Align Marker to Stroke or Fill tool might work--the caveat is that it only works on representation markers. I know it doesn't work well if the point is snapped at the end of a line, so hopefully you don't have many of those cases. The representation markers may also give you the opportunity to create a nicer looking symbol (than parentheses; though I understand if you don't have time).

http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//007000000025000000.htm

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