Keeping symbology when marging

[francescarusso]

Hi all,

I have to create a shapefile made of many different shapefiles (vector polylines). I would like to keep the symbology of these shaperfile so I have saved them as layers. This makes the trick but when I merge the .lyr I loose the symbology.

Any suggestion?

Many thanks,

F

[MicahBabinski · Accepted solution]

Hello Francesca,

Here is what I would suggest:

1. Symbolize one of the input shapefiles to your liking in ArcMap (sounds like you have already done this)

2. Right click the symbolized layer in the table of contents and choose "Save as Layer File" (sounds like you have already done this)

3. Merge the shapefiles. Remember to map the values for any fields you are using to symbolize (Using the field mapping control—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop)

4. In ArcCatalog, navigate to the layer file you saved in step two with your nice symbology and open its properties. Go to the data source tab.

5. Click the Set Data Source button and "point" the layer to your newly-merged shapefile. This should get you what you need.

Hope this helps!

Warm Regards,

Micah Babinski

[ChrisDonohue__GISP]

Less likely, but can sometimes be an issue -what can happen is the Value Field for the symbology gets defaulted to a field other than what you want for the layer file when the layer file is imported or applied to a feature class. When this happens the data will not display correctly as ArcMap is pulling from the wrong field.

Check that the field in your data that you are displaying based on is listed correctly under the Value Field setting.

Chris Donohue, GISP