Importing SDE 3 or PC ARC/INFO coverage annotation

1. Open ArcMap and add the annotation feature classes you want to import.
2. Set up the display of your annotation as you would like it to appear once imported.
3. Print some maps with your annotation to ensure that the text symbology is correct before continuing to step 4.
4. Add the Convert Coverage Annotation tool to ArcMap.
5. Make sure you have a geodatabase annotation feature class to store your imported annotation. You can create a new annotation feature class in the Catalog tree. If importing into a feature-linked annotation feature class, when you create a new annotation class, you must specify a default text symbol and an annotation reference scale. This text symbol should be the same as the symbol used to symbolize your annotation in ArcMap. The reference scale should be the scale at which you import the annotation.
6. Click the Convert Coverage Annotation button.
7. Check the annotation that you want to import. You can import multiple annotation feature classes at once, but they will all import to a single geodatabase annotation feature class. All imported annotation will have the same reference scale because all annotation in a geodatabase annotation feature class has the same reference scale.

Learn more about annotation reference scales

8. Click the In a Database option.
9. Click the Browse button and navigate to an existing geodatabase annotation feature class into which you want to import.
10. Click Convert.
11. Click Yes to add the imported annotation to your map.
12. Click Close to close the Convert Coverage Annotation dialog box.

Tip:

If your target annotation feature class has existing annotation features, a dialog box will appear asking if you want to delete all existing features. Click Yes to delete all existing features and replace them with the imported annotation. Click No to leave the existing annotation and append to these the imported annotation. Click Cancel to leave the existing annotation and exit the tool without importing.

Tip:

If there are errors, a message and dialog box appear after you import your annotation. You can get more information about the errors by checking the log files listed on the dialog box.

• A log file is only created if there are errors.
• The file is created in your user temp directory, which is commonly found under \Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Temp.
• The log file is named GL<feature class name>#.log. For example, if the target annotation feature class is AlbanyAnno, then the first error log file created for this target is GLAlbanyAnno0.log. The second file is GLAlbanyAnno1.log, and so on.
• The log file lists geodatabase errors associated with loading or changing features.

Tip:

If you are working with an ArcSDE geodatabase, when possible, import the annotation before you version your data. Doing so eliminates the processing time required for reconciling and posting the edited version back to the parent version.

Tip:

The row length for an annotation feature varies depending on: the length of the text string, whether or not the text is curved (curved text takes up more space), and the internal symbol storage. For text annotation, row lengths of 80–100 bytes are typical. Graphics stored as annotation require 400 bytes or more per row.

Tip:

When importing into feature-linked annotation, if your target annotation feature class is linked to a network feature class, you should import the annotation after building the geometric network. This is recommended because when features are snapped in the network building process, their geometry is modified in such a way that linked annotation features are not updated.