Exercise 3: Working with visual specifications

Available with Production Mapping license.

Complexity:

Beginner

Data Requirement:

ArcGIS.com

Goal:

Set the visual specification workspace location, apply representations configured using visual specifications, and customize visual specification rules.

Symbology allows you to represent features so they are meaningful to those looking at your map or chart. Representations allow you to customize the appearance of features by storing symbol information with the feature geometry inside the geodatabase. For cartographic purposes, representation symbology provides more control than standard symbology and can help you meet stringent cartographic specifications or improve the display.

Visual specifications take advantage of representation symbology. Visual specification rules store the combinations of feature attributes used to determine the symbols for particular features within a feature class. The rules can then be applied to multiple datasets to ensure consistent rendering of data.

The product library can be used to store your visual specification rules. In this exercise, you will set the visual specification workspace, apply visual specifications to layers within your Austin East map, and create a new visual specification rule.

Exercise 3a: Setting the visual specification workspace location

1. If necessary, start ArcMap and open the Austin East map.
2. On the main menu, click Customize > Toolbars > Production Symbology.

   The Production Symbology toolbar appears.

3. Click the Visual Specifications button on the Production Symbology toolbar.

   The Visual Specifications dialog box appears.

   

4. Ensure that Product Library is the option for the Visual Specifications Table Location drop-down menu.
5. Ensure that the Display Calculated Representations and Calculated Fields tabs check box is checked.
6. Click OK.

Exercise 3b: Applying a visual specifications

1. Click the ArcToolbox button on the Standard toolbar.

   The ArcToolbox window appears.

2. Expand the Production Mapping Tools toolbox.
3. Expand the Symbology toolset.
4. Double-click the Calculate Visual Specifications tool.

   The Calculate Visual Specifications dialog box appears.

   

5. Add the RoadL and WoodyA layers to the Input Features list by dragging and dropping these layers from the table of contents.
6. Ensure that the product library is set in the Visual Specification Workspace parameter.
7. Check the check box next to TopoMap 1:24,000::TopoMap 1:24,000 Specification in the Visual Specifications list.
8. Click OK.

   The representations are calculated for the RoadL and WoodyA layers. Representation fields are added to each feature class. The map display in ArcMap is updated to display the representation symbology for the data.

   

9. If necessary, click Close on the Calculate Visual Specifications dialog box.
10. Click the Close button in the upper-right corner of the ArcToolbox window.

Exercise 3c: Updating visual specification rules

Similar to the workflow of creating and modifying a grid definition that you performed earlier, in this exercise you will be acting as a team lead and making modifications to the visual specifications rules used by others on the team. You will add a new rule to the visual specification so that the next time another user runs the Calculate Visual Specifications tool using the same specification workspace, the new symbols will be displayed in their map.

1. In the Table Of Contents window, click the List by Drawing Order button .
2. Right-click the WoodyA layer, ensure that this is the only layer selected, and click Properties.

   The Layer Properties dialog box appears.

   

3. Click the Calculated Representations tab.
4. Right-click in the white space below the Processing Order column and click New Rule.

   A new record is added to the table.

5. Double-click in the Rule Description field and type WoodyA_Forest.
6. Click the ellipsis (...) in the Representation Name cell.

   The Representation Properties dialog box appears.

   

7. Ensure that WoodyA_Rep is displayed in the Name drop-down menu.
8. Click OK.
9. Click the SQL Statement drop-down arrow and click <<Edit SQL Statement>>.

   The Query Builder dialog box appears.

   

10. Expand Target Table [WoodyA].
11. From the Fields list, choose FCsubtype and click Add To WHERE.
12. Click All Values.
13. Click the = operator.
14. Double-click the 1-Forested value.

    The WHERE text box should now contain an entry of FCsubtype = 1.

15. Click Verify to ensure that the query syntax is correct and that there are features with this attribute value.
16. Click OK to close the verify results from the query text.
17. Click OK on the Query Builder dialog box.
18. If necessary, scroll right in the table until you see the Representation Rule field.
19. Click the ellipsis (...) in the Representation Rule cell.

    The Representation Rule Selector : Polygon dialog box appears.

    

20. Click Production Sample.style.
21. In the Polygon Representation Rule list, select a representation such as Trees (woods/jungle) 5C030A028.
22. Click OK.
23. Ensure that the Update Feature Class(es) check box is checked.
24. Click OK to close the Layer Properties dialog box.

    

The representations are changed for the WoodyA layer. Notice that most of the tree features in the map are now displayed with the chosen representation. When this specification rule was modified to add the forest symbol, it updated the current Austin geodatabase, but the visual specification workspace was also updated with this new rule so that the next user of this specification will also see the new symbol in their maps.

In this exercise, you have learned how to set the visual specification workspace, apply visual specifications to layers within your Austin East map, and create a new visual specification rule. In Exercise 4: Performing cartographic edits, you can learn how to perform cartographic edits to the data by modifying the representations of features.