Tip of the Month

Overlapping Polygon Display Order:

A shapefile can contain a number of overlapping poygons. Sometimes smaller polygons will be drawn underneath other larger polygons and are not visible. The default drawing order is based on the features internal OID. Below are instructions on how to set your own drawing order for polygons within a shapefile.

In ArcGIS you can change the display order by going to the Layer's property dialog box by right-clicking on the layer > Properties... > Symbology.

In the symbology tab click on the Advanced button.

Click the box next to Draw this layer using symbol levels sypecified below and use the up and down arrows on the right to toggle layers display order.

 

The layers are now displayed in the order you set.

 

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