{"id":121441,"date":"2007-10-04T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-04T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/uncategorized\/symbolizing-plss-lines-with-the-cut-curve-geometric-effect\/"},"modified":"2007-10-04T03:00:00","modified_gmt":"2007-10-04T03:00:00","slug":"symbolizing-plss-lines-with-the-cut-curve-geometric-effect","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/mapping\/symbolizing-plss-lines-with-the-cut-curve-geometric-effect","title":{"rendered":"Symbolizing PLSS lines with the Cut Curve geometric effect"},"author":4331,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":""},"categories":[22941],"tags":[38211,38451,23211,31301],"industry":[],"product":[],"class_list":["post-121441","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mapping","tag-arcgis-methods","tag-cartographic-representations","tag-map-data","tag-symbology"],"acf":{"short_description":"By Aileen Buckley, Mapping Center Lead\n\n\n\nIn the United States, the Public Land Survey System (PLSS) is a way\u00a0of subdividing land. The U...","flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

By Aileen Buckley, Mapping Center Lead<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In the United States, the Public Land Survey System (PLSS) is a way\u00a0of subdividing land. The USGS topographic map symbols<\/a> for displaying PLSS data are an excellent way to symbolize PLSS data on not only topographic maps, but because the topographic symbols are\u00a0 so well recognized, the same symbols can be used on many other kinds of maps. In the image to the left, the “plus” marker symbol shows where a found corner is located, however, if no corner has been found, then no marker should be shown, leaving a gap that signifies the doubtful location of the corner. Next we will describe how to use cartographic representations to symbolize township, range, or section lines to leave a gap at the corners, allowing corners to be added (as point features) or gaps to be shown.<\/p>\n

The image below shows what happens when a dashed line symbol is applied to polygon outlines when using ArcMap’s standard symbols. The overprinting of the dashes along shared polygon edges\u00a0occurs because polygon start and end nodes are not always coincident, and the dash line pattern will always start\u00a0at a\u00a0polygon’s start node (the first vertex).<\/p>\n

\"PLSS<\/p>\n

To solve this problem, the feature class containing the PLSS polygons should be converted to lines by using the Polygon To Line tool<\/a>.\u00a0 (Make sure to save the lines in a geodatabase because the next step requires using cartographic representations which can only be used in geodatabases.)<\/p>\n

Next, right-click on your layer\u00a0and choose Convert Symbology to Representation. In this case the dash pattern is 6:2. The result is partially satisfactory because the lines are consistently drawn with the correct dash pattern. However, this initial solution creates a new problem. As shown below, the \u201cT\u201d or \u201c+\u201d symbol has a specific meaning when depicting PLSS information on USGS maps. This indicates \u201cfound-indicated\u201d section or closing corners, which is not actually the case for this map.<\/p>\n

\"PLSS<\/p>\n

Since\u00a0the representation is incorrect, the representation\u00a0rule requires enhancement. The solution is to apply the “Cut Curve” geometric effect to the representation symbol layer. Click the “+” button (circled in red below) to add the Cut Curve geometric effect. This will\u00a0create a feature representation line pattern that is shortened on one or both ends by a defined distance. In this case cut values of 2.5 points resulted in the correct symbol appearance (below).<\/p>\n

\"PLSS<\/p>\n

Below is the result:<\/p>\n

\"PLSS<\/p>\n

To complete the display of\u00a0PLSS data, add the point features representing the corners and symbolize them.\u00a0 You may need to adjust the Begin Cut and End Cut parameters for the Cut Curve geometric effect to accomodate your corner symbols.<\/p>\n"}],"authors":[{"ID":4331,"user_firstname":"Aileen","user_lastname":"Buckley","nickname":"Aileen Buckley","user_nicename":"abuckley","display_name":"Aileen Buckley","user_email":"abuckley@esri.com","user_url":"","user_registered":"2018-03-02 00:15:57","user_description":"Dr. Aileen Buckley is a cartographer researcher and Senior Principal GIS Engineer at Esri. I'm on the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World Team, making, writing, and talking about maps. I'm also involved in a number of cartographic societies and association, and I'm the chair of the ICA Ethics in Cartography Commission.","user_avatar":""}]},"yoast_head":"\nSymbolizing PLSS lines with the Cut Curve geometric effect<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/mapping\/symbolizing-plss-lines-with-the-cut-curve-geometric-effect\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Symbolizing PLSS lines with the Cut Curve geometric effect\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/mapping\/symbolizing-plss-lines-with-the-cut-curve-geometric-effect\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ArcGIS Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" 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