Using Map Topology Editing Tools

in ArcView
This tutorial, written by Colin Childs, is a companion to the article ArcGIS Topology
for ArcView Users, also by Colin Childs, that appeared in the JulySeptember 2003
issue of ArcUser magazine.

What You Will Need

ArcGIS 8.3, ArcView license

Sample data from ArcUser Online

An unzipping utility such as WinZip

Map topology helps to preserve coincident geometry between features. In this

tutorial you will learn how to modify common boundaries between parcels employing the map topology tools available on the Topology toolbar in ArcMap using an
ArcView license.
When you create a map topology, traditional line, point, and polygon features take
on different roles for the duration of a topology editing session. Line features and
polygon boundaries become topological edges. Point features, whether the endpoints of lines or the places where edges intersect, become nodes.
Tutorial Overview
Although addtional topology tools are available with ArcEditor or ArcInfo licenses,
this tutorial was written for ArcGIS users with an ArcView license. Please ensure that
you are using an ArcView license while completeing this tutorial.
In this tutorial you will

Create a map toplogy

Modify, reshape, and move an edge
Use the Auto Complete tool
Move a parcel boundary using Split/Move Node
Data for This Tutorial
Before exploring the map topology tools and methods available in ArcView, go to
the ArcUser Online Web site (www.esri.com/arcuser) and download the sample dataset, Maptopology.zip.

Figure 1: Unzipping the sample data archive

Maptopology.zip will install tutorial data <your
drive>:\MapTopologyTutorialData.

Step 1: Start and Load Data

1. Unzip Maptopology.zip using a utility such as WinZip. This will install the tutorial
data in <your drive>:\MapTopologyTutorialData.
2. Start ArcMap and open Tutorial.mxd, located in MapTopologyTutorialData folder.
Investigate the data layers data in the Table of Contents. Notice that the points and
lines are coincident with parcel boundaries. The Parcels layer contains a township
subdivision. You will edit some of the parcel polygons in this layer along with the

Using Map Topology Editing Tools

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parcel boundary lines and endpoints that were used to construct the parcels.
3. Tutorial.mxd contains bookmarks that will help you locate the features you wil be
editing. Investigate the bookmarks by choosing View > Bookmarks. Choose the CulDeSac bookmark to zoom to the upper right portion of the township parcels.

Note: The same data for this tutorial is available in shapefile format in the Tutorial folder and
can be used instead of the personal geodatabase feature classes, if desired.
Step 2: Adding the Topology Toolbar
In the Editor toolbar, click the Editor menu and choose Start Editing. In the Editor
menu, choose More Editing Tools > Topology. The Topology toolbar appears. Dock
the Topology toolbar under the Editor Toolbar. Only the Map Topology tool is active.
Step 3: Creating a Map Topology

Figure 2: Choose the CulDeSac bookmark

to zoom to the upper right portion of the
township parcels.
Only the Map Topology tool will be active in the Topology toolbar.
1. In the Topology toolbar, click the Map Topology button. This will open Map Topology dialog box.
2. In the Map Topology dialog box, click Select All to ensure that all three feature
classes will participate in the map topology. Click OK. This exercise uses the default
cluster tolerance. However, you can set the cluster tolerance for map topology. See
page 6 of this tutorial for more information on cluster tolerance.
Note: Layers, representing annotation feature classes, dimension feature classes, and feature

classes that participate in geometric networks, cannot be included in a map topology.

3. Click on the Topology Edit Tool.

Click a shared boundary (edge) between
two parcels in the northeast of the cul de sac to select as shown in Figure 3. Map
topology is now created for the features that are visible in the current display extent.
The topology edge will be displayed in magenta. You have just selected both a parcels polygon edge (shared by two polygons) and a parcel line. Now any edit you
make will be reflected in both feature classes.

Using Map Topology Editing Tools

Figure 3: Click a shared boundary (or edge)

between two parcels. The topology edge will
be displayed in magenta.

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Step 4: Modifying An Edge

Now lets modify the selected edge by inserting and moving a new vertex.
1. In the Editor toolbar, click on the dropdown box for Task and choose Modify Edge
as shown in Figure 4. Right-click anywhere on the selected edge and choose Insert
Vertex from the context menu. A new vertex is inserted in the selected edge.
2. Click on the newly added vertex and drag it to a new location as shown in Figure
5. Right-click on the vertex and choose Finish Sketch from the context menu. This
change was applied to the parcels that shared that edge as well as the parcel lines.
Step 5: Reshaping An Edge
The next step will be to reshape a shared edge. When a feature is selected, a topology cache is built for the features in the current extent so that the shared geometry
between different feature classes can be edited.
1. Select an edge between two parcels next to the one previously modified. Click the
Task dropdown box on the Editor toolbar and select Reshape Edge.
2. Click on the Sketch tool on the Editor toolbar. This tool will be used to create a
new shape for the selected edge.
3. Use the Sketch tool to add the jog in the parcel line as shown in Figure 6. Double-click
on the last sketched vertex (i.e., the fourth vertex added). Either snap or cross the sketching line to indicate the end of the reshaped edge. The edge is reshaped and the new
shape is applied to the boundaries for both the Parcels and ParcelLines layers.

Figure 4: In the Editor toolbar,

choose Modify Edge.

1
2
4
3

Figure 6: Use the Sketch tool to add this job to the selected parcel boundary line.

Using Map Topology Editing Tools

Figure 5: Add a new vertex to an edge

and modify that edge by dragging the
new vertex to a new location.

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Step 6: Moving a Shared Edge

When using the Topology Edit tool, moving an edge will cause all the connected features to rubberband.
1. Verify that Modify Edge is the selected task in the Editor toolbar. Click the Topology Edit tool in the Topology toolbar.

2. Click on an edge to select it and drag the edge to move it to a new location. All
edges connected to the selected edge you moved will be stretched to the new location. This stretching (i.e., rubberbanding) affects the parcel polygons as well as the
parcel lines.

1
3

Figure 8: Start sketching at the point shown as

1 in Figure 8 and digitize a new polygon that
will share a boundary with an existing polygon.

Figure 7: Use the Topology Edit tool in the Topology toolbar to click and drag
an edge to move it to a new location. All the edges connected to the selected
edge will be stretched or rubberbanded.
Step 7: Auto Completing Polygons Using Existing Polygon Geometry
The Auto Complete tool lets you create a new polygon that shares a boundary with
another polygon without recreating the common boundary. Technically, this is not a
map topology feature, but it is useful in ensuring data integrity.
1. Choose View > Bookmarks > New Parcels to zoom in on an area in which new parcels have been added.
2. In the Editor toolbar, choose Auto-Complete Polygon from the Task dropdown list.
Click the Sketch tool in the Editor toolbar.
3. Start sketching at the point shown as 1 in Figure 8 and digitize a new polygon
that will share a boundary with an existing polygon. Either snap or cross the digitizing line to the existing edge to indicate where to stop digitizing the boundary of
the new polygon. Double-click on the last digitized vertex to finish creating the new
polygon.

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Hold down S key

Release S key

Figure 10: The Topology Edit tool allows you to move the shared boundary between two parcels without rubberbanding the connected edges.

Step 8: Moving a Parcel Boundary Using Split/Move Node

In this step, you will use the Topology Edit tool to move the shared boundary
between two parcels without rubberbanding the connected edges. The snapping
properties should be set first.
1. In the Editor toolbar, set Task to Modify Edge and choose Editor > Snapping. In the
Snapping Environment dialog box, check the boxes under Edges for the ParcelLines
and Parcels layers.
2. In the lower portion of the Snapping Environment dialog box, check the box next
to Topology nodes, listed under Topology Elements as shown in Figure 9.
3. Choose View > Bookmarks > SplitMove to zoom to the target parcel for this editing operation.
4. Click the Topology Edit tool from the the Topology toolbar. Hold down the N key,
select one end node of the parcel boundary, and hold the Shift key and select the
related edge.
5. Press and hold the S key while moving the selected node. Snap the node to
another part of the north border of the parcel. The node and edge will move to the
new location without rubberbanding the edge.
6. Perform the same operation for the node at the south end of the same selected
edge. The parcel boundary, parcel lines, and parcel points will be moved without rubberbanding connected edges as shown in Figure 10.
7. From the Editor menu in the Editor toolbar, choose Stop Editing. Click No so that
edits will not be saved and choose File > Exit and do not save the map document.

Using Map Topology Editing Tools

Figure 9: In the main menu, choose

Editor > Snapping. In the Snapping Environment dialog box, check the boxes under
Edges for the ParcelLines and Parcels layers.

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Summary
In this tutorial you learned how to use various map topology editing tools available in ArcGIS
with the ArcView license to modify the coincident geometry. You can incorporate these tools
into your data maintenance procedures to ensure data quality and integrity.

Cluster Tolerance
The cluster tolerance is the distance in which coordinate locations are considered identical.
rathe than the maximum distance a vertice can move. Increasing the cluster tolerance may
cause additional features to be considered coincident and snapped together, An inappropriate cluster tolerance s may reduce the spatial accuracy of data. As a rule of thumb, the
cluster tolerance is set to one tenth of the coordinate accuracy.

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