[GIS] Selecting features with attachments using ArcMap

arcgis-desktoparcmapattachments

I have an attachment enabled feature class that has photos attached to points. However while any feature in the layer might have a photo, only 10-15% actually do.

How can I narrow in on just those?

The only methods I've discovered rely on one by one interrogation (identify popup windows or attribute table while editing), which is not at all interesting to me in this context.

Best Answer

On the Enabling Attachments help page it says:

When you enable attachments, ArcGIS creates a new table to contain the attachment files and a new relationship class to relate the features to the attached files.

Consequently, you are able to use that relationship class to determine which features are present, and they will be only those with attachments.

To select your features with attachments use the instructions on the Exploring the related objects of an object in a table help page. My instructions here are paraphrased from those.

Right-click on the feature class and use Joins & Relates | Relate to relate using the OBJECTID to the *_ATTACH table's ATTACHMENTID
Use the List By Source view of the Table of Contents to open the *_ATTACH table that represents the attachments.
Select All the rows (attachments).
Click Options > Related Tables, then click the path label for the relationship. A new table dialog box opens for the attribute table of the feature class with attachments enabled, and all features with an attachment should be found selected there.

I just tested this at ArcGIS 10.2 for Desktop and it worked! I used a Standard license but you are not trying to modify a relationship class, just view using one, so a Basic license should be fine to use.

Related Solutions

[GIS] Exporting features with attachments for use outside ArcGIS

http://support.esri.com/em/knowledgebase/techarticles/detail/41763

For ArcGIS 10.1+

from arcpy import da
import os

inTable = arcpy.GetParameterAsText(0)
fileLocation = arcpy.GetParameterAsText(1)

with da.SearchCursor(inTable,['DATA','ATT_NAME']) as cursor:
   for row in cursor:
      binaryRep = row[0]
      fileName = row[1]
      # save to disk
      open(fileLocation + os.sep + fileName, 'wb').write(binaryRep.tobytes())
      del row
      del binaryRep
      del fileName

Georeferencing Photos – How to Georeference with No Spatial Reference in ArcGIS Desktop

Knowing the position of the camera, relative to the ground, and assuming the ground to be flat, it should be possible to create target control points at each of the four corners of the image. Then pass those control points to the Warp tool. The source control points would be found by examining the unprojected extent of the image.

To use a higher order transformation, I think you'll need additional control points at interior points, thereby adjusting the scale of the image in the middle more than near the edges.

Warp is useful when the raster requires a systematic geometric correction that can be modeled with a polynomial.

Update

If you just want a quick and dirty approach, then you might be better off building a world file for each photo, by adding an offset to the mid point (assuming that's where your GPS point falls) to describe the corner of the photo, and a pixel size in the linear units of whatever projection you're using.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[GIS] Exporting features with attachments for use outside ArcGIS

Georeferencing Photos – How to Georeference with No Spatial Reference in ArcGIS Desktop

Related Question