The Case of the Missing Usability Enhancements in ArcGIS 9.2…
Let me start off by commending ESRI on the fine job they have done with the new usability enhancements in ArcGIS 9.2. That said, there are a few more that I would like to see…
That display vs. selection tab blunder- where am I?
Maybe its just me, but I find it a bit difficult to tell when editing a layer if the selection tab is active or the display tab is active (especially I have gobs of other layers in the TOC). I know that the selection tab is the one with the yellow icons by the Layers list at the top but when you have a tons of layers and you are down in the middle of the layers list its hard to tell which tab is active exactly without having to look at the bottom or the left. This results in me clicking in the display tab thinking that I’m specifying which layers are selectable and clicking in the selection tab thinking that I’m turning layers on/ off. I’ve caught myself doing this more than a few times now to blame it on the interface. Here is what I think ESRI can do to make things easier for us payin customers: Make the contents of the two tabs visually different. Simply making the boxes in the selectable layers tab bolder or a different color would help to reduce these common mishaps.
The Topology Editing Options won’t stay put after closing my MXD
While using the modify edge command to move several feature classes via Map Topology I notice that the selected nodes are way too large and usually covers over myproperty lines when zoomed in closely. To mimimize this problem, I’ve developed a habit of changing the topology elements symbology to .30 for selected nodes and .001 for selected edges. I do my edits, save the changes and the MXD file and finish up for the day. Next day I open said MXD again to do more edits… select the modify edge tool to move some more nodes and edges and notice that when I select a node its large again (didn’t I change this the last time?) I go to Editor—-> Options—-> Topology Elements Symbology and low and behold the nodes have reset themselves to 5 and the edges are back to 2. I set them back to .30 and .001 next day I have to set them back again. Next day after that, its OK, I get .30 and .001 I’m happy OK maybe now it will stick, next day we are playing the 5/2 game again. I’m unhappy about this, what a time waster.
A minor enhancement request oh beloved programmers
I like the new calculate geometry tool, I have to admit that my old calculator has gotten little attention since I upgraded to 9.2 almost a month ago. There are two ways to make this tool better. The first way is to include the ability to use a default calculation option. For example, I mainly calculate polygons so I use Area/ Acres US. I notice that the calculator remembers the map projection why can’t it remember that I like to calculate areas in Acres US? There should be some kind of option to specify this so I don’t have to pick it from the list every-time. Also would be nice if it saved these default between sessions. The second request is to put a button on the toolbar to click on a polygon in the main ArcMap window instead of having to go to tables everytime. I thought that this was doable from a demo I saw but I can’t calculate the geometry for a selected feature w/out going to the table. Odd… I think that you can do a graphic but not n actual feature… Still have to look into this one, have been so swamped with work I haven’t the proper time to check out all of the new stuff yet.
