Join line segments with similar bearing

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02-25-2017 02:11 PM
SherilynWilliams-Stroud
New Contributor

All the faults on my imported map are composed of small line segments. I'd like to combine the line segments that are connected and which have a similar bearing into single larger segments so that I can get the #fault trace lengths. Is there a way to do that?

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10 Replies
DanPatterson_Retired
MVP Emeritus

do you have a featureclass with the angles/bearings of the lines already calculated?  A picture would go a long way

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JoeBorgione
MVP Emeritus

Do they have any attribution that you can select by or dissolve with? 

That should just about do it....
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SherilynWilliams-Stroud
New Contributor

Yes, to both questions. I ran "Add Geometry Attributes" and added geodesic length, line bearing, and number of vertices. After adding the number of vertices, I can see that each segment has an common point with the next line - unless the line is not connected to any other line. As you can see from the image, there are lots of isolated faults, and some faults intersecting other faults at various angles. I'd like to be able to specify an azimuth minimum difference that will assign the grouped segments to a separate fault. 

Fault Map Image

I tried using merge after manually selecting connected segments, but the only way I could make it work would be to put each fault on it's own layer. The selected fault in the image is composed of 13 polyline segments.

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JoeBorgione
MVP Emeritus

Be careful with merging seemingly connected segments. Given the quality  (?) of the data you are likely to end up with multipart lines.  I don't understand how/why merging forced you to save the resulting feature to its own feature class. Can you provide a snapshot of the attribute table for the selected records?

That should just about do it....
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SherilynWilliams-Stroud
New Contributor

Thanks for your reply, Joe!

Below is a screenshot of the attribute table.

Screenshot of attribute table for fault segments

I may not be using the correct object names, but what I thought I was saving was a new layer - I'm on an evaluation license of ArcGIS Pro, and after saving one fault composed of connected fault lines and trying to do the same with a second one, I got an error message: I'm trying to recreate that message now, but experiencing what might be a SUE with the software. My mouse pointer turns into an icon that looks like an arrow shaped like a circular arc (I don't know what that is) whenever I move it into the map window regardless of the function I choose in the menu bar. I cannot select anything. When used escape to try to dismiss whatever function it's stuck on, the map rotates and flies away from the window far into space. Exiting without saving and restarting the program does not fix it. 

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SherilynWilliams-Stroud
New Contributor

The cursor is in rotate mode. I don't know how to turn it off.

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SherilynWilliams-Stroud
New Contributor

...AND, I turned it off by rebooting my computer. so that problem was solved.

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JoeBorgione
MVP Emeritus

Sorry-  I can't even spell ArcGIS P-R-O.  What/who is the source of the data?  I think I'd be making a phone call or two to see if there is anything better.

That should just about do it....
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DanPatterson_Retired
MVP Emeritus

faults is taking on a new meaning Joe?

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