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Mask aeronautical features

In this topic

  1. Define masking rules
  2. Create masks on a chart

Available with Production Mapping license.

After you have configured your cartographic and annotation features, you can use the Make Masks from Rules tool and the Apply Masks from Rules tool, both found in the Topographic Production toolbox, to mask your aeronautical data on a map. Adding a mask on your aviation features, including annotation features, can provide a visual contrast to features that appear close together or overlap on an aeronautical chart. Masking rules are feature specific configurations defining how polygon masks should appear on a map. You can do this by customizing a masking rule file. You can use those masking rules to create polygon masks on an aeronautical chart.

Define masking rules

You must define masking rules before you can use the Make Masks from Rules tool. Masking rules are stored in XML files on your computer if you downloaded and installed the ArcGIS Aviation Charting product files package. You can use a sample masking rule file called Sample_MaskingRules.xml as a template for your own custom masking rules.

Note:

You can find the sample masking rules file at the following directory: <installation location>/SampleConfigs/ICAO/Enroute/Masking. You can open the sample masking rules in a plain text editor.

At the top of the Sample_MaskingRules.xml file, there is extensive documentation describing the XML structure of the masking rules.

The following masking rule shows how to create masks for the ATSRoute feature class in the Aeronautical Information System (AIS) schema. If you are familiar with masking rules in the ArcGIS Defense Mapping workflow, you will notice that this rule masks by feature layer rather than by color. This masking rule creates a box-shaped mask around features in the ATSRoute_C_A feature class (the source) and apply those masking polygons to features in the ATSRoute_C (the target) feature class. The masks generated by these rules are stored in a new polygon feature class called ATSRoute_C_A_M.

<RuleGroup>
	<Mask Size=".5" Units="Points" Type="Box"/>
	<Source SymbolPart="All_Parts" LayerType="AnnotationLayer" Color="*" ColorSpace="RGB"/>
	<Target SymbolPart="All_Parts" LayerType="FeatureLayer" Color="*" ColorSpace="RGB"/>
	<TargetExclusions></TargetExclusions>
	<Rules>
		<Rule Name="ATSRoute Masks" SymbolLevelDrawing="false">
			<MaskFeatureClass>ATSRoute_C_A_M</MaskFeatureClass>		
			<Source LayerNames="ATSRoute_C_A" Query="ANNOTATIONCLASSID IN (0)"/> 
			<Targets>
				<Target LayerNames="ATSRoute_C" />
			</Targets>	
		</Rule>
	</Rules>
</RuleGroup>

Create masks on a chart

After you have created a masking rule file for your chart, you can use that file to generate polygon masks on your features. The Apply Masks from Rules tool configures your layers so that they properly display masks.

Complete the following steps to create masking polygons for your aeronautical features.

Note:

This workflow assumes that you have already created a masking rules file.

  1. Open a project in ArcGIS Pro containing the aeronautical features you want to mask.
  2. Open the Geoprocessing pane.
  3. Run the Make Masks from Rules tool from the Topographic Production toolbox.

    The tool creates mask feature layers based on your masking rules file and adds them to the map.

  4. Open the attribute table for each output feature layer from the Make Masks from Rules tool and verify that the features contain the source MapId_Txt field for the area of interest (AOI) you want to use for your chart.
  5. Use a definition query to filter the output feature layers by MapId_Txt to only show features in the AOI you are using for your chart.
  6. Run the Apply Masks from Rules tool in the Topographic Production toolbox.

    Your mask feature layers update on the map, showing the correct geometry for the polygon you configured in your masking rules file.

    Note:

    If you already have configured masking features on your map, you can update masks based on changes to your data set by running Make Masks from Rules. You do not need to run Apply Masks from Rules unless you've changed your masking rules.

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In this topic
  1. Define masking rules
  2. Create masks on a chart