Grid Properties

Grids and Graticule properties control context and display of created grids. Manage these properties through a dockable window opened using the Grids and Graticules Designer window tool.

The Grid Properties window

Access a grid's properties by right-clicking it in the Grids and Graticules Designer window. The Grid Properties window contains two tabs, Grid General and Feature Settings.

Grid General properties

The Grid General tab displays grid context information like name and coordinate system.

Properties available on the Grid General tab

• Type—The type of grid that will be created. All grids of the same type will have the same appearance. Type defines a style of grid, map product or series.
• Description—A specified description of the grid.
• Primary Coordinate System—There are five ways to automatically calculate primary coordinate systems. The geographic coordinate systems of the grid template, source extent, and feature dataset must all match. The Grids and Graticules Designer and the Make Grids and Graticules Layer geoprocessing tool will enforce this requirement. The coordinate system calculation methods are set up using the Grids and Graticules Designer and stored in the grid template xml file. The calculation methods are used when a grid definition xml file is loaded into the Make Grids and Graticules Layer geoprocessing tool. You can change the primary coordinate system when running the geoprocessing tool. The calculation methods are
  • Fixed—The coordinate system set in the Grids and Graticules Designer will be the default coordinate system that displays in the Make Grids and Graticules Layer geoprocessing tool.
  • Calculate UTM Zone—The coordinate system chosen will be a UTM projection based on the extent specified. The base geographic coordinate system will also adjust to ensure that it matches the geographic coordinate system used by the AOI.
  • Calculate Central Meridian and Parallels—A base coordinate system must be specified in the Grids and Graticules Designer, and it must be a projection that has at least one meridian or parallel property, or both. When the xml and the extent are specified in the Make Grids and Graticules Layer geoprocessing tool, the base project will have meridians and parallels updated to divide the extent evenly.
  • Use Environment—The coordinate system from the active environment is used when running the Make Grids and Graticules Layer geoprocessing tool.
  • Coordinate System Zones—The coordinate system is determined from polygon feature classes loaded in the Coordinate System Zones area. This will display as Use <feature class name> in the Type drop-down list.
• Coordinate System Zones—Controls how to handle neatlines that span coordinate system zones. See Coordinate system zones and neatline clipping for more information.

Feature Settings properties

The Feature Settings tab controls grid display information like reference scale and rotation.

Properties available on the Feature Settings tab

• Reference Scale
  • Fixed—The scale value is specified.
  • Use Environment—Used when running the Make Grids and Graticules Layer geoprocessing tool. When this option is used, the reference scale is derived in the following order:
    1. Geoprocessing Reference Scale environment setting
    2. Active data frame's reference scale
    3. Active data frame's scale
    4. Grid XML file
• Rotation
  • Fixed—Defines a fixed rotation in degrees.
  • Calculate True North—Rotates the grid to true north.
  • Use Environment—Derives rotation from the active data frame if possible. If not, it uses any values set in the Fixed text box.
• XY Tolerance—The XY tolerance is the minimum tolerated distance between geodatabase features. This distance is expressed in the units specified by the grid's primary coordinate system. Features that fall within the set XY tolerance will be considered coincident. The XY tolerance must be set to at least the precision of the chosen geodatabase dataset or a value of zero. The precision of the database is determined by taking the inverse of the X/Y domain's scale and projecting this value into the grid's primary coordinate system. XY tolerance controls the following:
  • Components—When points, ticks, or grid lines fall near a segment component, the cluster tolerance will determine whether they are created. The larger the tolerance, the less chance that these types of components are created.
  • Endpoints—When endpoints on a grid line with a defined orientation intersect a segment with the same orientation, the cluster tolerance will determine if they are created. An example of this is when grid lines with an east–west orientation intersect a segment with the same east–west orientation. This cluster tolerance function is optimized for rectangular maps.
  • Annotation weighting—If endpoints fall within the tolerance and weighting is applied, the annotation will be removed.
  • Segments—A temporary generalization is applied to the area of interest to determine the number of sides/segments for map sheets. The Douglas-Poiker algorithm is used with the value of the cluster tolerance. Features that are created in the geodatabase that fall below the cluster tolerance will be deleted.
• Data frame clip to shape neatline—The neatline to use to clip the data frame to a specific shape using the grid.
• Representation Preferences—Sets the representation's name, Rule ID field, and override.