Obtain bearing of a geodesic line using arcpy

Question

Hi,

I'm trying to get the bearing of a geodesic line in a script, but cannot find a tool that can be used for that in arcpy. The Distance and Direction tool lets me get the bearing, however cannot be used in arcpy.

Any help would be appreciated!

DavidSolari · Answer

Untested, but this should get you in the ballpark:

# Get this polyline object somehow, cursors with the "SHAPE@" token work well
line = get_line()

sr = line.spatialReference
start = arcpy.PointGeometry(line.firstPoint, spatial_reference=sr)
end = arcpy.PointGeometry(line.lastPoint, spatial_reference=sr)

angle, distance = start.angleAndDistanceTo(end, "GEODESIC")

Peep the "angleAndDistanceTo" part of the PointGeometry docs for more info.

AlfredBaldenweck · Answer

Try calculate geometry?

Add Geometry Attributes (Data Management)—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

Only issue is that it modifies your table.