Common errors that may occur during editing

Following are some common errors that may occur during editing.

Errors that may occur when you start editing

When ArcMap encounters problems starting an edit session on the data you chose, a dialog box appears providing additional information. You can receive errors, warnings, or information messages.

Coordinates or measures are out of bounds

This error occurs when a coordinate of a feature is beyond the extent of the feature class domain. It can happen when you are creating a new feature or editing the coordinates of an existing one.

Coordinates must fall within the range of the feature class x,y domain, as well as z- or m-domain, if the feature class can store those values. The domain is set when the feature class is created and cannot be edited later. If you need to create a new feature at that x,y location or with those z- or m-values, export the feature class to a new feature class and increase the domain values.

The spatial index grid size is invalid

The spatial index is used to improve performance when working with data in file geodatabases or ArcSDE geodatabases. If you attempt to perform an edit that will result in the new feature being spread across too many spatial index grids, a message appears indicating the spatial index grid size is invalid, and your edit fails. You are most likely to see this if you attempt to create a feature that greatly differs in size from the features that are already in the feature class. If you need to create a very large feature, for example, you should either delete the spatial index altogether or increase the grid size and number of grids. You can add the grid back when you are done editing.

Some examples where you might encounter this error when editing include digitizing a large feature; merging or unioning features across a large area; scaling a feature; editing, reshaping, or moving vertices so that a feature increases in size; or buffering with a large offset.

When the software crashes

You should save your edits periodically so they can be recovered in case a software error occurs. To prevent crashes, ensure that you have installed the latest ArcGIS service packs and patches and that any add-ons or extensions are compatible. In addition, when editing, you may want to run the Check Geometry and Repair Geometry tools to find and fix any data problems that could cause software issues.

If ArcGIS exits unexpectedly, send the automatic error report to ESRI and consider contacting ESRI Support Services with your data and the steps you performed immediately prior to the crash.

For additional information on how to resolve software crashes, see Knowledge Base article 32797: ArcMap.exe has encountered an error and needs to close. We apologize for the inconvenience.

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5/6/2011