7 replies to this topic

[benbakelaar]

I haven't really ever used labels that seriously in ArcGIS before, but my current project requires it. Right now, my main problem is that I've labeled a street grid, and those labels show "up" through all the layers on top of it. I have a focus area which I am overlaying on the street grid, and it hides the street lines (as I want), but not the labels. Is there anything I can do?

One thing I tried was to select all the lines on the street grid within my focus area, but I wasn't able to delete them from the table (I don't really want to either) and there is no tool in ArcToolbox that I can see to create a new street grid MINUS the selected lines/focus area.

[supercooper]

I believe the labels applied by truly "Labeling" a feature class will always be on top of all of your data layers. You might try jacking around with the feature weight and label weights to see if that does anything.

Worse case you could clip your streets based on the polygon, then the street features wouldnt even be there, so no labels.

Or could you somehow query the streets out by Select by Location where the streets layers intersects the polygon??

Just some thoughts....

[DaveB]

I haven't really ever used labels that seriously in ArcGIS before, but my current project requires it. Right now, my main problem is that I've labeled a street grid, and those labels show "up" through all the layers on top of it. I have a focus area which I am overlaying on the street grid, and it hides the street lines (as I want), but not the labels. Is there anything I can do?

One thing I tried was to select all the lines on the street grid within my focus area, but I wasn't able to delete them from the table (I don't really want to either) and there is no tool in ArcToolbox that I can see to create a new street grid MINUS the selected lines/focus area.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

As far as I know labels always draw above feature layers. If you convert the labels to annotation in a geodatabase you can order them just like feature layers and have the annotation draw under any or all feature layers.

From your description of a focus area (a polygon feature?) and hiding street lines you could try setting the feature weight of the focus area to high, which would prevent labels from being placed within the focus area feature.

[Matthew Hampton]

If you turn the labels into annotation you can also selectively remove them - but make sure the scale/extent is going to stay fixed for your data frame.

[danielle]

Try this:

- Select only the streets you want to label.
- Right-click -> Selection -> Create Layer from Selected Features
- Label the new layer

Danielle

[benbakelaar]

Try this:

- Select only the streets you want to label.
- Right-click -> Selection -> Create Layer from Selected Features
- Label the new layer

Danielle

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ah, exactly what I needed! Thanks Danielle.

cartomat, I will definitely experiment with annotations in the future.

DaveB, I was lost for a bit but then figured out I needed the Labeling toolbar I did try to set the feature weight to high, but it did not seem to have any effect! I was going to post a screenshot showing what I was doing, but since I've got the quick-fix solution I need, I'll save it for another day/thread Thanks though.

supercooper, exactly what I was trying to do, I got confused though because you can only use the "Clip" tool for features INSIDE the polygon feature. As for select by location, I had them selected, but didn't know where to go next. x)

[Geographic Techniques]

Or if you want to use the same street layer, just add a new field to that layer's data base, like "DISPLAY" or something, select the road segments you want to label, and calculate the DISPLAY field with "Yes" or something, then SQL Query on the "Yes"s in the display field for labeling.

Doug

[benbakelaar]

Or if you want to use the same street layer, just add a new field to that layer's data base, like "DISPLAY" or something, select the road segments you want to label, and calculate the DISPLAY field with "Yes" or something, then SQL Query on the "Yes"s in the display field for labeling.

Doug

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Doug that's a good idea... I would do that in a second in Excel. However, ArcGIS's data manipulation interface is cumbersome and confusing... I can imagine that task taking me 10 more minutes than it should! I guess once you work through it a few times you can probably accomplish it fairly quickly though.