ArcGIS TRACE

As far as GIS/CAD integration goes, I have long stated you should choose the best tool for the job you are trying to do. As such, I have held the belief that if you are doing pure vector data creation/design work, a 'CAD' tool is probably better suited, and vice versa, if you are performing spatial analysis, high end cartographic output a 'GIS' tool is probably your tool of choice.

Over the last number of years I've been talking about how the lines are being blurred between these two camps based on recent advancements in many software tools. One tool that I've found to be extremely powerful in the Arc* products is the Trace command, and I have to admit that some of my beliefs are being challenged a little in light of some recent work I've been doing.

For example, let's say I'm working on a watershed analysis, and creating boundaries to represent the watershed. Now I'm not talking about an automated analysis procedure here, I'm taking about simply digitizing by evaluating contour elevations and other known features.

Consider the following graphic. The 2 red lines represent a water shed boundary, and of course the blue are represents a water body. Now that I have defined the watershed boundaries, I would like to create closed area's to be able to extract an overall area of the watershed.

In the past, I likely would have used a CAD tool for this, and through a series of polyline editing, trimming, cutting, etc, I would have come up with the polygon boundary along the water body edge.

However... this would be a great application of the Trace tool, to 'trace' along existing features.

With the Trace command enabled, you simply click on a feature you want to trace along, and move the cursor along that feature and voila. You can even select a different feature to trace along just by clicking on that feature to set it as the class to trace.

This would be a very handy tool for the 'CAD' vendors to implement into their suite of tools. Hint, hint, hint...

Warren

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