protective decomposition
Function Description
Protective decomposition decomposes complex polygon objects with multi-level island-hole nested relationships into polygon objects with only one level of island-hole nesting. The difference between protective decomposition and decomposition is: if the polygon object to be decomposed has island-hole relationships, the result after protective decomposition will retain the simplest level of island-hole relationship polygon objects, while decomposition will decompose the island-hole relationship polygon objects together.
- The protective decomposition function is applicable to line layers, polygon layers, and CAD layers.
- Only complex objects or compounds can be decomposed; simple objects cannot be decomposed.
- When decomposing a complex object (i.e., an object containing multiple sub-objects), the generated multiple single objects are all simple objects (except for island-hole objects); when decomposing a compound, multiple single objects are generated, and except for island-hole objects, if the generated single objects still contain compounds, they can continue to be decomposed until all are simple objects.
As shown in the figure below, an island-hole object is combined with another object; after performing the protective decomposition operation on it, the new objects obtained are an island-hole object and a single object:

Figure: Protective Decomposition of Complex Objects - In the attributes of the generated new objects, the field SmUserID and non-system fields inherit the corresponding information from the source object; other system fields are assigned by the system.
Function Entry
- Edit Data Tab -> Feature Editing Group -> General editing -> Group and Ungroup -> Protective Decomposition
Operation Steps
- In the editable state of the layer, select one or more complex objects or compounds.
- In the Edit Data tab, under the General editing drop-down menu, click the Protective Decomposition button in the Group and Ungroup group to perform the protective decomposition operation.