Rubbersheet points to line feature

Question

Hello,

I have a large series of points (originally stations along a station axis) which I would like to rubbersheet to a secondary line feature. Unfortunately, because the original axis was not particularly straight to begin with, creating perpendicular station lines to the secondary line feature did not work as it was some distance removed, by which point station lines were no longer parallel (i.e., criss-crossed or were uneven distance apart along the secondary line).

I was thinking maybe I could transpose only "major" stations and rubbersheet the stations in between along the secondary line. Problem I forsee though is that the secondary line is not always straight between these major stations. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks

DanLee · Answer

It is a good idea to create some "displacement links" between major stations and corresponding locations along the secondary lines using the tools on Spatial Adjustment toolbar and then perform rubbersheeting.  This should get your points much closer to the lines.

Then perhaps you can run the Near tool on the adjusted points to obtain NEAR_DIST - distance from point to nearest line. You can then select all points with NEAR_DIST value > 0; can you now start an edit session and set snap option to snap to edge and then snap these points to lines?

MathieuCain · Answer

In 10.0, a new toolbox named Editing Tools is added. In that toolbox, you'll find the snap tool. Here is the link:

http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#/Snap/001v00000007000000/

The value you enter in Distance is not a fixed distance rather maximum distance - you can think of this as tolerance. So, any point on either side of your secondary line and within that distance will be snapped to the line at the closest point.

Thanks for the thought, however I am using an ArcView license, not ArcEditor or ArcInfo.

gpnobbir · Answer

In 10.0, a new toolbox named Editing Tools is added. In that toolbox, you'll find the snap tool. Here is the link:

http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#/Snap/001v00000007000000/

The value you enter in Distance is not a fixed distance rather maximum distance - you can think of this as tolerance. So, any point on either side of your secondary line and within that distance will be snapped to the line at the closest point.