When sketching point features whose symbols need to face a particular direction, you can choose from several ArcMap and ArcFM tools to speed the process of setting each symbol's angle of rotation.
- By setting a default value for a feature class's symbol rotation field, an administrator can give all new features in that class the same initial rotation angle.
- With the ArcMap Rotate tool an editor can rotate one or more existing features manually, or press the 'a' key to enter a precise number of degrees.
- With the ArcFM Manual Angle Setter edit task, an editor can place a new feature and visually set its rotation angle in just two clicks. (See demo)
- With the ArcFM Auto Angle Setter autoupdater, when an editor snaps a new point feature to an existing linear feature, the new point feature takes the linear feature's rotation angle as its own.
An administrator can assign the ArcFM Auto Angle Setter to any networked point feature class through this process: In ArcCatalog, right-click the feature class and choose ArcFM Properties Manager. On the Field Info tab, select the field that stores the rotation angle. In the Field Properties list below, set On Feature Create and On Feature Update to ArcFM Auto Angle Setter.
No matter what tools you use to set symbol rotation, for the rotation to appear correctly in ArcMap the feature layer's properties must specify the attribute which stores the rotation angle: In the Table of Contents, Display tab right-click the feature layer and choose Properties. On the Symbology tab, from the Advanced button choose Rotation. From the drop-down list choose the appropriate field, then click OK in all dialogs. Save the Stored Display to keep this property change for the future.
In ArcMap you may also adjust the relative angle between the existing linear features and the new point features. In the Table of Contents, Display tab double-click the point feature symbol. In the Symbol Selector dialog, change the angle to the desired amount. This change will affect all point features that share this symbol, and should also be saved in the Stored Display.
