Creating Points Layer From Non Spatial Table

AdamKlein

I have a table of origin-destination pairs, in which the origins and destinations are census tracts. This table does not include coordinates. In ArcMap, I have related it to a census tract polygon layer, so theoretically any of the O-D points can now be mapped through relation. Is it possible to create a points layer from the table if coordinates are only available through a related layer and not the table itself?

JaySandhu

If you have the census polygon layer, you can run the Feature To Point GP tool with the Inside option checked. This will create a point feature class layer of the polygon centroids. You can then run the Add Geometry Attributes tool on this point feature class to add the X,Y coordinates as fields to that layer. Then you can add the relate to your table and calculate fields on your table to move your X,Y fields on to it. Now you can run the Make XY Event Layer on your table to create a feature layer from it. You can probably skip the calculate fields step and use the Make XY Event Layer tool directly on the related table.

Regards,

Jay Sandhu