Batch masking

The Batch Masking tool and Masking Rule Manager work together to provide a system for the batch creation of masks. You can create rules that can then be used with the Batch Masking tool to create masks based on the information in those rules. This process reduces the work that would be involved in manually creating masks by streamlining the process of deleting old masks, creating new ones, and placing them into the appropriate feature classes.

To see how this tool is used in a data information management and chart production environments, see the sample production tutorials that are available with the Aeronautical Solution setup.

Managing masking rules

The Batch Masking tool relies on masking rules as input parameters. Each of these rules contains the information necessary to create one particular type of mask for one specific feature layer. When a new row is added for a new rule, exclamation points appear in the required fields. However, it is recommended that all the fields be filled out.

The fields of a masking rule are the following:

• The Rule Name attribute is not used during the creation of masks, but is a way for you to easily find and identify specific rules by giving them a unique name.
• The Description allows you to explain what the particular rule is for. For example, a description could be "Creates a 4-inch convex hull mask around the features in X feature class."
• The Input Layer can be a point, polygon, annotation, or line feature. The layer must be added to the Table Of Contents window when you create the rule since you can only select layers from the Table Of Contents window when creating rules.
• The Output Layer must be configured with a masking feature class schema for the Batch Masking tool to work correctly. Use the Feature Outline Masks geoprocessing tool to create the masking feature classes. Be sure to transfer all attributes in the Feature Outline Masks geoprocessing tool. Once you create the masking feature classes, you can add those masking layers to your MXD to use as the Output Layer in your masking rules. The output layer can only be a polygon feature layer.
• Margin is a number corresponding to the number of units of buffer space the mask should have around the feature it relates to. Margin is used to determine the mask size. For example, if you set a margin of 3 and choose meters for units, your masks will have a 3-meter buffer around each masked feature. A margin of 0 will create a mask that has no margin around the feature (other than the one created by the different mask types). A negative margin value will create a mask smaller than the feature. Also, the symbology is used as the geometry, so even if you have a point feature, you can still have a margin of 0 and have a mask created.
• Units corresponds to the unit of measure for the margin.
• Mask Type specifies the type of mask created by the tool. There are different types of masks that can be created. However, the Convex_Hull type is the most commonly used because it has the most detail using the least amount of vertices. Using too many vertices when creating masks can increase draw and export times (for example, Exact mask type).
• Placed only applies to annotation feature layers. It is ignored for all other feature types. The placed attribute determines whether masks will be created for unplaced pieces of annotation or not. Typically, this check box is checked for annotation layers.
• Transfer Attributes allows you to specify which fields from the input features should be copied to the mask features. The choices are
  • ALL—Transfers everything from the source (This method is the recommended choice so that you can use the same definition query on your masking layer as you do on your feature layer.)
  • ONLY_FID—Copies the feature ID of the related source feature
  • NO_FID—Does not transfer anything