Masking feature representations(ArcInfo and ArcEditor only)
Release 9.3 Last modified April 24, 2009	Print all topics in : "Editing feature representations"

About masking feature representations

Once you have established a masking relationship between a feature class representation in your map and a polygon feature class, you can interactively remove portions of feature representations from view by drawing masks. Unlike layer masking, the masks you draw will affect only the specified feature representation. Other representations in the same feature class representation will not be affected.
You can interactively create masks on selected feature representations using the Mask tool . This will add polygons to the masking polygon feature class that is linked to the feature representation. You can also assign existing polygons to mask specific feature representations by linking them together with the Attribute inspector. The polygon and the feature representation must belong to two feature classes that have a many-to-many relationship class linking them together, and the masking relationship must be activated.
Learn how to establish and activate a mask layer for a feature class representation

How to mask feature representations

Making new masks interactively

1. In an edit session, select a feature representation that belongs to a feature class representation that has a masking relationship activated.
   
2. Select the Mask tool from the Representation toolbar.
   
3. Click and drag with the Mask tool over the portion of the selected feature representation that you want to mask from view.
   
This gesture will create a polygon feature within the masking feature class.

Tips

With the Mask tool active, right-click and click Options to toggle between a round and a square mask, and to change its size. You can also toggle between a round and a square mask by pressing the Tab key. You can interactively change the size of the mask by holding down the Shift key while dragging with the Mask tool. The mask feature class does not need to be present as a layer in the map to make masks; however, you may want to add this feature class to the map temporarily to see or modify the masking polygons. Press K to switch from other representation tools to the Mask tool .

Making masks from existing polygon features

1. In an edit session, use the Edit tool on the Editor toolbar to simultaneously select both the feature representation to be masked and the masking polygon.
   
2. Open the Attribute Inspector by clicking the Attributes button on the Editor toolbar.
   
3. Expand the masking polygon layer by clicking the Expand button .
   
4. Find the entry in the tree that corresponds to the selected feature representation, right-click it, and click Add Selected.
   
This will link the two features via their relationship class and mask the feature representation with the polygon.

5. Remove or turn off the mask layer to see the result.
   

Tip

The masking polygon and the feature representation must belong to two feature classes that have a many-to-many relationship class linking them together, and the masking relationship must be activated. Learn how to establish and activate a mask layer for a feature class representation

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