Summary

This is a quick guide to setting up default angular units.

We recently changed to new workstations and a fresh install of ArcGIS 10.1 was done as part of the installation process. Whilst user preferences carried over, some of the default software preferences were lost during the transition. One such setting was the Angular Units under the Editor Toolbar in ArcGIS 10.1.

I discovered this issue whilst trying to edit a parcel fabric with polar angular units. No matter what traverse I punched into the software it would not cut the polygon. I tried troubleshooting the Cut Polygon tool as well as COGO's Ground to Grid Correction.

After a frustrating few hours of searching the web for answers I discovered a thread on GIS Stackexchange about these options for angular units.

Go to Editor Toolbar > Options

Above are the default settings. Direction Type and Units will affect the Direction/Distance traverses. The default settings wasn't working for me. I needed the North Azumith and Degrees-Minutes-Seconds for my traverses.

Direction type options:

Direction unit options:

Now go forth and cut polygons to your heart's content...

PS: You also need to make sure that the data frame you're working in has the correct coordinated grid and projection, but usually is dependent on the source data.

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