[GIS] Merging polylines that join in ArcGIS Desktop

arcgis-10.0arcgis-desktopdissolvevector

I have a number of polylines (around 9000), a number of which have one or both ends touching another polyline. I would like to merge these ones together into one polyline – thus reducing the number of polylines and ensuring that each line represents one real-world object (rather than having multiple lines per object).

I cannot find a scriptable (preferably through a Python script) way to do this.

Is this possible?

Best Answer

Try the Dissolve tool with the UNSPLIT_LINES option.

Aggregates features based on specified attributes.

...

  • The Unsplit lines parameter with two options, DISSOLVE_LINES and UNSPLIT_LINES, only applies to line input. When the default DISSOLVE_LINES option is specified, lines are dissolved into a single feature. When UNSPLIT_LINES is specified, only two lines that have a common endpoint (known as pseudonode) are merged into one continuous line.
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