Introduction to control points

Control points are special vertices that allow you to apply symbol effects to a line or polygon feature. When they are enabled, you can add, remove, and convert them to and from standard vertices.

For example, by adding or converting vertices to control points, you can use the suppress effect to give the appearance of gaps between pairs of control points to what is essentially a continuous line feature.

The example shows the suppress effect constrained by control points.

Control points can also be used to constrain the pattern of a symbol effect. For example, you can use them to constrain the middle of a dash effect to display at every control point.

The example shows the dash symbol effect without control points.

In this example, the disruption in the dash pattern phasing is spread evenly along the length of the feature, minimizing the cartographic impact of the pattern that might otherwise occur where the line feature changes direction.

The example shows the dash symbol effect constrained by control points.

To learn more about symbol effects, see Use symbol effects.

Tip:

Control points can also be used to migrate ArcMap representations. To learn more about how representations are supported in ArcGIS Pro, see Draw layers with representations.