Symbolizing multiple polygons as one by dropping internal boundaries?

Question

Using ArcMap (ArcGIS 10.2 for Desktop), is there a way to symbolize two features within the same feature class as one feature without editing the feature and merging them?

For example, if I have a map of the United States (feature class) and all the states are individual features within this feature class and I want to symbolize the United States as a whole without the state divisions, could I do this?

I realize I could remove the outline, but that would also remove the outline from the United States as a whole, and I don't want to do that.

I feel like there is a simple answer for this, that I just have not discovered.

Answer 1

Ok, so I found the answer to my question. I could try to go on in length as to how to accomplish this task, but I would rather let ESRI do it. If you go to this link,

http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//00s500000025000000

you will be given very specific instructions on how to do this from start to finish. It is actually a bit more complicated than I thought it would be, but it can be done.

Answer 2

It sounds like you want to read up on advanced symbology options using Join and Merge symbology options (different from Join and Merge editing, table visualization, and geoprocessing tools). Check out the article at http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.2/index.html#/What_is_symbol_level_drawing/00s500000039000000/

I have personally never used this for the purpose you are talking about here (working with polygons), but I have had some definite success applying the concept to lines with multi-level symbols such as making for smooth looking road network rather than choppy individual road segments. From the examples it seems like the polygons should allow you to accomplish what you need, so long as a there's a field (ex: in your case COUNTRY field) you could symbolize on and then use in advanced symbology.

Hope it helps.

Answer 3

I think what you are looking for is the DROPLINE functionality which did not survive the ArcInfo Workstation to ArcGIS Desktop transition.

There is currently an ArcGIS Idea to have that restored:

It would be nice to have the option to drop the lines between polygons that have the same values for a specified field. This functionality used to be available in ArcPlot as the DROPLINE command and was widely used as a way to avoid creating a new dataset with the dissolve command.