3. CREATING DATA (First steps)
3a. Geodatabases and Feature Classes
3b. Line feature class
6. Preparing a print-quality map
3b. Creating a line class within the feature dataset
1. Double-click on your Feature Dataset to open its contents window.
2. Right-click in the contents window, select New –> Feature Class.
3. In this first window, name your line feature class. Since we’re making a geologic map, an appropriate name might be “lines” or “contacts”. Don’t worry about the Alias.
4. Make sure that the “Type of features stored in this feature class:” drop-down menu is set to “Line Features”. You’re creating lines, no need to store them as points or polygons. You’ll create those later.
5. Click “Next”.
6. In this next window, you’ll do a few things. First, add in a new field (simply by clicking in the first empty box below where it says “SHAPE”) to define the different types of lines you’ll have. Helpful if you name this field “type” or something like that. From the drop-down menu that will appear immediately to the right, select “Short Integer”. Set “Allow NULL values” to “No”, and make the “Default Value” zero.
7. Click “Finish”.
The following figures show all the information for steps 4-6 above.
8. In the previous step, we created a new field that will allow us to create different types of lines (e.g. contacts, faults, fold axes, etc.). Before we can edit our newly created line shapefile/ feature class, we need to define the types of lines that we will need. Double-click on your new feature class, this will open the “Feature Class Properties” window.
9. Take a look at the following figure:
First, click on the “Subtypes” tab. Next, change the “Subtype Field” to the one you created- in the case of this tutorial, the subtype is named “type”. Now, you can enter in all the different types of lines that you will have on your map. It is helpful to know this ahead of time so you can anticipate how many “Codes” you will need.
For example, on this tutorial map there will be the following 8 types of lines:
Code: 0 Description: New Subtype
1 contact certain
2 contact uncertain
3 fault certain
4 fault uncertain
5 thrust fault certain
6 anticline
7 syncline
8 map border
Your own map may vary, be sure to have this information handy when assigning different types of lines.
Click “Okay” when you’re done.
NEXT: Creating a topology class
Creating a geologic map using ArcMap 10.x 