About maintaining topological structure in the parcel fabric

This topic applies to ArcGIS for Desktop Standard and ArcGIS for Desktop Advanced only.

There are several tools available for correcting topological errors and data corruptions in the parcel fabric. Topological errors can arise from the migration of poor-quality parcel data and incorrect parcel joining. Data corruptions can arise from incorrect data entry, incorrect parcel joining, and so on.

Checking the parcel fabric for errors

You can use the Check Parcel Fabric command located on the parcel fabric context menu in the Catalog window to check the parcel fabric for topological errors and data corruptions. Errors are detected in parcels, lines, points, line points, and control points.

Parcel errors

Maintaining topological connectivity

Merging points

There should always be one common point for all coincident parcel corners, curve center points, and endpoints of connection lines. Common points maintain the internal topological connectivity of the parcel fabric.

The Mean Points tool located on the Parcel Editor toolbar can be used to merge and find the average coordinate of a group of points that lie within a specified tolerance of each other.

Merge points

Merge curve center points

Adding line points

Line points are parcel corner points that lie on adjacent parcel boundaries without splitting the boundaries. Sometimes line points are not detected during the joining process or during data migration. You can use the Add A Line Point tool located on the Parcel Editor toolbar to assign line points to parcel corner points.

Note:

You can only use the tool to assign line points to parcel corner points that already do not split an adjacent boundary line.

Tip:

To remove line points, use the Delete A Line Point tool located on the Parcel Editor toolbar.

Merging lines and line points

The Merge Parcel Courses tool can be used to merge collinear parcel line courses or segments into a single line. This tool is useful for merging those line segments that should form a single parcel line but have been split by adjacent parcel points. Once the tool is used to merge line segments into a single line, any adjacent parcel points sitting on the line become line points.

The Merge Parcel Courses tool is located under the Parcel category on the Commands tab of the Customize dialog box.