Locating points along a line, perpendicular to that line

Question

Disclaimer: I have next to no experience with code, and I'm relatively new to ArcGIS, but I figure that my problem is such that learning to write a code would probably go faster than trying to do this manually.

I'm in a particularly frustrating situation trying to locate sets of several hundred points, a few thousand total. The points were surveyed using the only prominent landmark; specifically, all I have to locate them is a distance measurement along the line, and a perpendicular distance from that point (I believe my life would be easier if either measurement was made at a regular distance, but this is not the case). They are, at least, all on the same side of the line.

I'm assuming I would need to populate a table with said measurements and point identifiers, but beyond that...

Fortunately, I have people in my life that will put up with my lack of knowledge, but I'm sure they would be more appreciative if I had snippets of code to get me started. Any ideas? I know there will be a cumulative error associated with line placement, but there isn't much that can be done about that.

RichardFairhurst · Answer

Excellent. Better than I could have hoped.

I've created the lines as accurately as possible with the available data, but there's still plenty of room for error. Fortunately, there is stationing data associated with the line files that do have coordinates. Once I have those, everything should work out nicely. In theory.

If you have known stationing you can use the Calibration tools to fix those measure values and interpolate the remaining measures for increased accruacy relative to your field data.  Anyway, you should look at the Linear Referencing help to get more information on what you can do.

AnthonyTimpson2 · Answer

Linear referencing always has its quirks.

Currently working with a dataset of 2698 points distributed along about 8100 feet of pipeline in a tank farm.. Plenty of SNAFU in all that..

DevinMannix · Answer

Excellent. Better than I could have hoped.

I've created the lines as accurately as possible with the available data, but there's still plenty of room for error. Fortunately, there is stationing data associated with the line files that do have coordinates. Once I have those, everything should work out nicely. In theory.