Monday, 29 February 2016

arcgis desktop - Unable to rotate Marker Line Symbols


I have a line feature class that I am trying to symbolize with a Marker Line Symbol type. I have my symbology set up but I am having a problem with the rotation angle.



When I enter an angle in the box and click ok, the symbol does not rotate. If I go back into the Symbol Selector dialog box, the angle is still shown as 0. In this example, I am trying to enter 180 in the Angle box to make the arrow turn 180 degrees. Is this a bug, or is there a workaround?


enter image description here



Answer



I think it's a bug, or more perhaps more worded more precisely: it's a result of inadequate user interface portrayal of the symbol properties and their effects. My deduction is that the same dialog box for point symbol properties is re-used, but not all the controls there are applicable for Simple Line Symbols.


It would help to also add an additional graphic showing what the desired final complete line will look like, even a pencil sketch. For example, are you really after a marker line, where every x distance has a symbol, or is it just arrows at the middle and/or ends?


For a true symbol marker line, you need to use Cartographic Representation, which requires Desktop Advanced license. If you're fortunate enough to have that, see how to get started with fix symbol rotation to page.


Rich man's (CartoRep) example: equally spaced fixed rotation marker symbol.


[example: fixed marker along outline


Poor man's repeated marker line symbol: it works, angle is fixed at 45deg to page according to symbol properties, but the distance between each point varies.


example: simple repeated marker with rotation



click path for simple repeated marker with rotation


To round out the examples, for arrows at ends like you'd use to depict stream flow, see Line Properties >> Line Decorations and rotate to follow line. Here we've created a complex symbol, two arrow types on one line, by stacking lines (see "Layers" panel).


Stream flow with different arrows at beginning and end


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