Creating Inset Maps

by Cliff Merriman, Bob Peterson and Debbie Kaiser
October 2009

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Creating Inset Maps (PDF; 613 KB)

The use of an inset map is a great way to show additional information without making a map look too “busy.” Two styles of inset maps can be used. The first (below) is a small-scale inset, and the other (step 4b) is a large-scale inset with zoom lines.

In this example, an ownership map and a second dataframe with the county location will be created.

Step 1. Create the first map layout (for example the ownership map).

Step 2. Go to Insert, Data Frame.

Notice that a new Data frame below has been added below the “Layer” data frame in the Table of Contents (TOC) and is now on top of the map in the layout view. If desired, rename the data frame by right-clicking and going into Properties, General Tab and renaming. While active (indicated by the blue dotted lines) drag the data frame to the desired location on the layout view.

Step3. To add layers to the new data frame, just left-click on the desired layers and drag down to the new data frame. (Holding the shift key down while left-clicking allows you to add multiple layers at once. The layers are copied to the new data frame. If you want the consplan drawn in the New Data Frame, the base layer must be added first. The Add Data tool can also be used if the new frame is active.

Step 4. The new data frame can now be used to zoom into a smaller area or zoom out to a larger area.

Step 4a. To “capture” the extent of the first data frame in the new data frame, right-click on the new data frame and go to Properties and click on the Extent Rectangle Tab. Select Layer in the left window and click the arrow to move the Layer over to the right window; then click on the Frame Button. Create a border that is visible and click OK. If desired, the background of the data frame can also be changed for better viewing. Click on the Frame Tab and select the desired frame properties. In this example, a border and a gray background color was selected.

A text box was added to the new data frame. The final map product looks like this:

Step 4b1. The following example shows how to zoom into a desired location. If your original data frame is zoomed out to the county level, then the new data frame can be zoomed into a desired location, in this example, a tract and ownership map. Caution: This option is not feasible for large scale ranch maps. Use the first option.

To do this, select the New Data Frame; then either manually type in the desired scale or use the magnifying glass to reach desired scale. Once this is done the map should look like this:

Step 4b2. Once the New Data Frame has been scaled, resized and relocated to suitable sizes and locations, lines should be drawn referencing the relative location of the New Data Frame. To do this, click on the draw button located in the bottom left corner of ArcMap and select a line.

Draw lines referencing relative location of the Consplan in the county. The New Line tool is similar to the Toolkit editor tool used to draw Resource Inventory Lines. To stop drawing a line, just double-click on the end point. New Line tool must be selected for each line that is drawn. When done, the map should look like this:

Once drawn, the lines may be difficult to see. To change the symbology of these lines double-click on them. This will bring up the properties window. Next click on the Change Symbol button; this will bring up a window that will allow the width and style of the line to be edited. Select a style and width then click OK. This will need to be done for each line.

Once the lines are edited, the map should look like this:

Step 5. Go to File, Export and export the map to a pdf document. Make sure resolution is “medium”. Open the pdf to insure the map created successfully and then print from the open pdf document. This is much faster than printing from the map layout screen.

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Last Modified: 10/15/2009