A quick tour of parcel editing in the parcel fabric

This topic applies to ArcGIS for Desktop Standard and ArcGIS for Desktop Advanced only.

Parcel Editor toolbar

The Parcel Editor toolbar contains the tools and menu commands needed to access and work with your parcel fabric, for example, the Select Parcel Features tool, the Parcel Explorer window, the Parcel Details window, and the Maintain Control Points dialog box. Other commonly used parcel editing tools and commands, such as the Job Book command and Create Connection Line tool, are also available on the Parcel Editor menu and toolbar. You can also start and stop an edit session from the Parcel Editor toolbar. The Parcel Editor toolbar is required to edit parcels in a parcel fabric in ArcMap.

Parcel Editor toolbar

Tool	Description
Select Parcel Features	Displays the parcel fabric selection cursor which is used to select and interact with parcels and lines in a parcel fabric layer. Right-click a parcel to access common parcel editing commands.
New Parcel	Opens the Parcel Details dialog box which is used for the data entry of new parcels. Click Keep And Join to save and join the new parcel to the parcel fabric or click Exit Without Saving to exit out of the data entry environment.
Maintain Control Points	Opens the Control dialog box which is used for adding, deleting, and running a check fit of control points in a parcel fabric. Control points displayed in the current map extent are listed in the list box.
Match Control Point	Opens the Control dialog box which is used to link currently listed control points to parcel fabric points.
Create Connection	Opens the Create Connection Line dialog box which is used for creating connection lines between two chosen fabric points. Connection lines are used to connect isolated parcel blocks so that a parcel network is formed that can be adjusted by the fabric least-squares adjustment.
Mean Points	Displays a crosshair cursor that is used to drag a box around fabric points to merge them into a single point. Points are only merged if they do not have lines between them.
Add Line Point	Opens the Add Line Point dialog box which is used for adding line points to parcel points that should sit on adjacent parcel boundaries, but not split the boundaries. The boundary is identified by choosing a start and an end point of the boundary.
Delete Line Point	Opens the Delete Line Point dialog box which is used to delete an existing line point.
Parcel Details	Opens the Parcel Details dialog box which is used for creating new parcels and viewing the properties of a selected parcel.
Parcel Explorer	Opens the Parcel Explorer dockable window which lists selected parcels by their plan. A list of unjoined parcels and saved parcel constructions is also displayed.
Point Report	Opens the Point Report dialog box that is used to display geometrical information about points in the parcel fabric.
Name Parcels	Displays a crosshair cursor which is used to drag a line over adjacent parcels for sequential naming. Double-click to finish dragging the line and to open the Parcel Sequence Naming dialog box.
Annotate Parcel Courses	Opens the Annotate Selected Features dialog box, which is used to create annotation for a selection of parcels in the parcel fabric. Duplicate dimensions are removed.
Transform Parcels	Opens the Transform Parcels toolbar which is used to transform and move a selection of parcels. The tool becomes available when there is a selection of parcels present in the map display.

Parcel Details dialog box

The Parcel Details dialog box is used when editing and creating parcels. It can be opened by clicking the Parcel Details button on the Parcel Editor toolbar. Parcel polygon attributes of a selected or opened parcel are displayed on the Properties tab of the Parcel Details dialog box. On this tab, you can also specify the parcel's related plan or record of survey and set parcel polygon feature templates for new parcels. The Lines tab displays parcel traverse and misclose information. When a parcel is open for editing or when a new parcel is being created, several parcel editing commands become available on the Parcel Details dialog box, such as COGO commands and Build parcels (from line work) commands.

Parcel Details dialog box

Parcel Explorer window

The Parcel Explorer window can be opened by clicking the Parcel Explorer button on the Parcel Editor toolbar. The Parcel Explorer window lists selected parcels by their plan or record of survey name. If you are working in a fabric job, all parcels are grouped by their plan or record of survey name in the open job. If the current parcel fabric has unjoined parcels, these parcels are listed under Unjoined Parcels. You can select and right-click parcels either in the map or in the Parcel Explorer window to access various parcel editing commands and tools.

Parcel Explorer window

The Plan Directory dialog box

The Plan Directory dialog box can be accessed from the Parcel Editor menu on the Parcel Editor toolbar. The Plan Directory dialog box can also be accessed from theParcel Details dialog box when editing parcels. On the Plan Directory dialog box, you can find a list of all available plans existing in the parcel fabric. A plan or record of survey, which is prepared by a surveyor, is the legal recorded document that defines and describes a parcel or parcels. Plan information is stored in the nonspatial plans table of the parcel fabric. You can create a new plan from the Plan Directory dialog box, or you can migrate plan information into the parcel fabric when migrating parcels. If no plan exists or you choose not to work with plans, a default system map plan is used when editing parcels.

Plan Directory dialog box

Job Book dialog box

The Job Book dialog box tracks and displays edits to parcels in the parcel fabric. Each edit or mini job is automatically created and is date and time stamped. You can zoom to and pan to the extent of each one. You can right-click each job or edit to select the parcels edited, or pan to and zoom to the parcels. You can also add meta data to each edit or job by opening the job properties.

The Job Book dialog box can be accessed by clicking Parcel Editor > Job Book on the Parcel Editor toolbar.

Job Book dialog box

Parcel editing tools

In an edit session or open fabric job, right-click a parcel to open it and edit its attributes on the Parcel Details dialog box. When right-clicking a parcel, you can also access commands such as Parcel Division, Construct from parent, and Parcel Remainder.

Parcel Editor Options dialog box

The Parcel Editor Options dialog box is used to set parcel fabric editing options such as snapping tolerances and the parcel traverse adjustment type.

Parcel fabric information models

A parcel fabric information model is a parcel fabric dataset that has been enhanced with the data model and parcel editing workflows of a chosen organization. Currently, the parcel fabric can be enabled with the Local Government Information Model (a model for local governments in the USA).

Data migration

A topologically clean, validated topology of parcel feature class data can be migrated to a parcel fabric. A geodatabase topology is created in a feature dataset containing a feature class of parcel lines; a feature class of parcel polygons; and, optionally, a feature class of points (parcel corners). If your existing parcel data consists only of polygons, you can convert the polygons to lines using the Polygon To Line geoprocessing tool. The topology is validated against a required set of rules, and once the topology is clean, it can then be migrated to a parcel fabric using the Load A Topology To A Parcel Fabric geoprocessing tool.