I know there are several similar threads here related to this, but there are some additional details I'd like to get feedback/insight on.
Background: I have 2 feature classes. One is a FC of polygons which represent areas of different forest activity, and these areas can be associated as groups based on a unique identifier [i.e. polygons are organized into groups; each group has a unique value]. The other FC contains dissolved polygons based on each group and contains the unique group identifier as an attribute. Therefore, these FCs have a 1:N relationship.
Objective: Automate the update process (select>dissolve>append) of the second feature class.
Discussion: A simple option here would be to simply delete all records in the 2nd FC and repopulate based on a fresh dissolve process at some interval; there are only ~20k records here so it's not that big of a deal. I'm hoping to find a more elegant solution here (with logic that I can then apply to other processes).
One alternative I've read about is building a dictionary from the source FC and then evaluate the target FC. The closest example I've found is here.
Questions: Could anyone comment on the general logic here based on what I'm trying to achieve? Any alternative ideas jump out at you? Most of the script in the other thread I understand, but at the moment I'm not really solid how to implement the evaluation process I need in the cursor.
Thanks in advance for any insight you might have!!