[GIS] How tool to split polylines into two-part lines at vertices in ArcGIS for Desktop 10.1

arcgis-10.1arcgis-desktopcogotopologyvertices

I'm using ArcGIS 10.1 SP1 at and we have a problem. There is a serious topology bug that I've mentioned in another question that is affecting our workflow. At present, Esri has stated the fix will be in 10.2, but my government is not able to upgrade to 10.2 so easily. Polylines flagged by topology as overlapping or not being covered by something are normally easily subtracted. With the bug, the subtraction affect the entire polyline, beyond the topologically incorrect area.

My workaround is to use the Split Into COGO Lines tool, which is on the COGO toolbar, to split the offending polyline at all nodes, including where the subtraction should end (checking for topology errors generates nodes). Then, when I do the subtract, it only wipes out the offending lines. However, it also adds COGO attributes to all the other segments along the former polyline. This attribute update behavior is undesirable.

Is there a simple tool that would split a line at all nodes or vertices indiscriminately–and either leave COGO attributes in place, or wipe them?

Best Answer

I seem to remember a few split line at vertex tools in the editing or advanced editing tools. There is one that will split lines at intersection and I think that's the name of it. I'd give better guidance but I'm not at my desk to see the tools in front of me.

Related Solutions

[GIS] Viewing vertices in ArcGIS Desktop

There is an example in the SDK samples http://resources.esri.com/help/9.3/arcgisdesktop/com/COM/ExtendAO/VertexLineSymbol.htm

Description This project provides a custom symbol to draw a line and its vertices. Simple custom functionality is provided to alter both the symbol used to draw the basic shape of the line, and the symbol used to draw its vertices. A property page is also provided to allow users to edit the properties of the symbol using the user interface.

[GIS] Splitting lines at vertices in ArcGIS Desktop with Basic level license

I've put together some code below which seems to create single segment lines from polyline (which can be multipart) feature classes while retaining their attributes.

I recommend that you run it against a small test dataset or two first, and if it seems to do what you want, then comment out or remove the print statements to gain some performance.

If you add this to a Python script tool then you should be able to use it in a model at either ArcGIS 10.1 or 10.2. Earlier versions will not be able to use it because I have included arcpy.da for performance.

import arcpy

inFC = r"C:\temp\testLines.shp"
outFC = r"C:\temp\testLinesSplit.shp"

if arcpy.Exists(outFC):
    arcpy.Delete_management(outFC)
arcpy.CreateFeatureclass_management("C:/temp","testLinesSplit.shp","POLYLINE","#","DISABLED","DISABLED",inFC)
arcpy.AddField_management(outFC,"inFID","LONG","#","#","#","#","NULLABLE","NON_REQUIRED","#")

iCursor = arcpy.da.InsertCursor(outFC, ["inFID","SHAPE@"])

with arcpy.da.SearchCursor(inFC,["OID@", "SHAPE@"]) as sCursor:
    for row in sCursor:
        inFID = row[0]
        # Print the current multipoint's ID
        #
        print("Feature {0}:".format(row[0]))
        partnum = 0

        # Step through each part of the feature
        #
        for part in row[1]:
            # Print the part number
            #
            print("Part {0}:".format(partnum))

            # Step through each vertex in the feature
            #
            prevX = None
            prevY = None
            for pnt in part:
                if pnt:
                    # Print x,y coordinates of current point
                    #
                    print("{0}, {1}".format(pnt.X, pnt.Y))
                    if prevX:
                        array = arcpy.Array([arcpy.Point(prevX, prevY),
                                             arcpy.Point(pnt.X, pnt.Y)])
                        polyline = arcpy.Polyline(array)
                        iCursor.insertRow([inFID,polyline])
                    prevX = pnt.X
                    prevY = pnt.Y
                else:
                    # If pnt is None, this represents an interior ring
                    #
                    print("Interior Ring:")
            partnum += 1

del iCursor

arcpy.JoinField_management(outFC,"inFID",inFC,"FID","#")

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