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I am trying to redo a polygon it is so messed up that it can't just be fixed it needs to be delete and redrawn but I don't know how to do this and save the attributes.

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    Have you tried using the Replace Geometry tool, assuming it is available to you at your license level? You would just select the polygon you don't want, click on the tool, and draw the poly shape you want. – John May 17 '16 at 16:34
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    @johns, you should add that as an answer. – Tom May 17 '16 at 17:12

2 Answers2

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The best way that I know of is to select the 'messed up' polygon in an edit session and move it out to the side and out of the way. You then can redraw your fresh polygon in the empty space.

Once this is done you select your new tract, hold shift and select your messed up polygon, then in the "Attributes" window you right click the messed up polygon's name in the tree and select copy attributes then right click the new polygon's name in the tree and select paste attributes.

Once this is done you can select only the messed up polygon, right click it and select delete. Then if you have data such as acreage and X,Y values like I do in my tables you may need to select the corrected tract and recalculate the geometry for this newly drawn tract so that it displays those values correctly as well.

I've attached some images for reference: I kinda "messed up" a small tract for reference,

enter image description here

Then moved it,

enter image description here

Then copied the data and drew a corrected tract in it's place.

enter image description here enter image description here

Finally you copy the attributes from one and paste them into the other

enter image description here

Then you can "Calculate Geometry" on any attributes that may have changed with the redraw.

enter image description here

Hope that solves it.

Joshua A
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Joshua's answer works but is to me a bit tedious. When I need to totally redraw a 'hedgehog' polygon I use Scale to shrink, draw the new one over the top as a new polygon in the same feature class (layer), select both the shrunken old one (has the right attributes) and the new (has the right geometry) and then Editor::Merge being sure to merge into the oldest polygon.

To help speed this up I set shortcut keys to Edit tool, Scale and Merge operations (alt+V, alt+S and alt+R) so the whole thing is done in a few keystrokes and mouse clicks.

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Michael Stimson
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  • Replace geometry is the only safe one. This way you won't mess up auto fields, e.g. global ID or oid especially if they used in relationship – FelixIP May 18 '16 at 04:39
  • I wont disagree with you @FelixIP on global IDs and relationships, I don't use them so am inexperienced. As for the OID that is taken from the feature merged into (the one with the attributes) so is not lost/changed. – Michael Stimson May 18 '16 at 04:45
  • I misread the question. Key word is polygon and your method will work with it. Not with other geometries. I use my own tool, it works on separate feature classes and selections – FelixIP May 18 '16 at 05:31
  • That sounds like a handy tool @FelixIP; I used to have a tool in VBA that started sketch on a single selected feature, removed all the vertices and started the digitization of a new geometry (polygon or line) but with the changes to VBA in ArcGis and the way the edit sketch operates I haven't updated it... perhaps I should. – Michael Stimson May 18 '16 at 05:58