Creating a difference polygon

If you are creating polygons of land uses, soils, counties, or property ownership, for example, you often need to create polygons next to one another. The polygons should share a border, but you want to avoid digitizing the border twice or having overlaps or spaces between polygons. You can use the Production Difference Polygon construction tool when creating new polygons to help ensure that your data forms a continuous fabric. With the Production Difference Polygon tool, you can digitize a new polygon that adjoins an existing polygon, using the existing polygon's geometry and the edit sketch to define the edges of the new polygon.

The Production Difference Polygon construction tool is similar to the Auto-Complete Polygon tool. However, the Production Difference Polygon tool allows you to create a new polygon that is coincident to polygons in any layer, not just polygons from the same layer.

A difference polygon created over two other polygon features

Steps:

1. Start ArcMap.
2. If necessary, load data in the map.
3. On the main menu, click Customize > Toolbars > Production Editing.
4. Click the Production Start Editing button on the Production Editing toolbar.
   Note:

   The Manage Features and Create Attributes, Update Attributes, or Metadata Attributes windows automatically appear when you start an edit session using the Production Start Editing tool.

   Tip:

   If the Create Attributes, Update Attributes, or Metadata Attributes window does not appear when you start an edit session, click the Show/Hide Attributes button on the Manage Features window.

5. Click the Create tab on the Manage Features window.
6. Choose the polygon template you want to use to create the difference polygon on the Create tab on the Manage Features window.
7. Click the Production Difference Polygon button at the bottom of the Create tab.
8. Drag a polygon in the map and double-click the end node to finish the polygon.

Tip:

Preexisting polygons must overlap the polygon you created.

Tip:

All the polygons you draw on the map are separate and will not merge with the others you draw.