Construct polygons from features

Available with Standard or Advanced license.

In the Modify Features pane, click Construct Polygons to create polygon features on a specified polygon layer from existing closed line feature boundaries. You can include features on the target polygon layer as input boundaries.

For example, you can generate new parcel polygon features by selecting existing lot lines that create closed boundaries on a survey plat feature layer.

Construct polygons

To construct polygons, select the polyline features from which you want to create the polygons, choose a feature template, and click Construct.

1. If the current map does not contain a polygon feature layer, add it.
   1. On the View tab, click Catalog Pane , and expand Databases .
   2. Expand the default database or the database containing your data.

      To create a polygon feature class, right-click the database, click New and click Feature Class.

   3. Drag the feature class onto the map.

      A feature template with default settings is autogenerated for the new layer.

2. On the Edit tab, in the Features group, click Modify .

   The Modify Features pane appears.

3. Expand Construct and click Construct Polygons .

   The tool opens in the pane.

4. Click Active Select and select the closed line boundaries from which you want to create polygon features.

   The selected features appear as a list in the pane.

5. To manage the selection in the pane, do the following:
   • To remove a feature, right-click it and click Unselect .
   • To keep only one feature in the selection, double-click the feature, or right-click and click Only Select This .

     

6. Click the Template arrow and choose a polygon feature template.

   The template specifies the layer on which the new features are generated and the attribute values assigned to each new polygon feature.

7. To change the default tolerance setting, click the Cluster Tolerance box and change the value.

   Note:

   Line features are processed as closed boundaries when their geometry falls within the tolerance distance. The default XY tolerance is 0.001 meters or its equivalent in feature units.

   For most use cases, the default setting is the best practice. Increasing the cluster tolerance can potentially reduce the spatial accuracy of your results and distort the new polygons.

8. Check or clear Use existing features in target.

   Enable this setting if you want to include features on the target polygon layer as input boundaries.

9. Click Construct.