[GIS] Drawing horizontally/vertically aligned rectangular polygon in ArcGIS Desktop

arcgis-desktopeditingpolygon-creation

I am trying to draw some rectangles in a polygon layer, to be used to highlight points for checking, and will be used in Data Driven Pages.

I want these to be horizontally aligned, however the "Rectangle" Construction Tool uses the direction you start drawing.

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As a result I have to select the Rectangle construction tool, click on the map to start drawing the polygon, right-click > Direction > 0 to restrict it to drawing east/west (horizontal), and then draw the rectangle.

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I have many of these I need to draw, so having all these extra clicks and keypresses seems excessive when I just want to draw a rectangle!

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How can I efficiently create horizontally aligned polygons in ArcMap?

Best Answer

Press the Tab key!

Start editing and choose the Rectangle construction tool as normal. Then press Tab. This will put the ArcMap Rectangle tool into straight (horizontal/vertical) align mode. It will stay in this mode for the Rectangle tool until you either press Tab again while using the tool, or you close ArcMap.

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Because it stays in the straight mode you can just keep drawing new rectangles, so eliminates the need for the continuous key/button presses while you add more rectangles. Even if you stop editing and come back to it later, it will still draw the straight rectangles.

See Creating a rectangle feature:

  • Keyboard Shortcut: TAB

    Press TAB to orient the rectangle straight (vertical or horizontal at 90-degree angles) rather than rotated. This enters a mode where all the rectangles you create will be straight. Press TAB again to exit this mode and create rectangles with a rotation angle.

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