Replace sketch geometry

Replace Sketch replaces your unfinished sketch with the geometry of the topmost visible feature you right-click on a map. It is available on the context menu when you create or split polyline or polygon features.

This tool can be useful when you need to split a polygon feature along a complex linear feature such as a river, and preserve the attribute values.

When you create features, you can replace a polyline sketch with the geometry of a polyline or polygon feature. Polygon sketches only accept polygon geometry.

1. On the Edit tab, in the Features group, click Create .

   The Create Features pane appears.

2. In the pane, click a polyline or polygon feature template.

   The template expands to show the tool palette, and the construction toolbar appears in the map.

   

3. Next to the tool palette, click the Active template button .

   The tool palette and the feature attribute table for the template appear in the pane.

4. In the attribute table, type the values you want to apply to the new feature.
5. On the Edit tab, in the Snapping group, click the Snapping drop-down menu and enable your snapping preferences.

   To temporarily turn off snapping as you create the feature, press and hold the Spacebar.

6. In the pane, click Polygon .
7. Click the map and create at least two vertices.
8. Hover over an existing polygon feature, right-click it, and click Replace Sketch .

   The geometry of the topmost visible feature replaces the active sketch, and the sketch updates coincident with the existing feature. If a suitable feature is not found, the sketch remains unchanged.

9. Continue creating the feature.
10. On the construction toolbar, click Finish , or press the F2 key.

    The new feature is the current selection.

    Tip:

    Turn map topology off if you need to move the finished feature without moving the existing feature from which the new geometry was copied.