Problem with Dissolve network

JenniferPollom

I dissolved my network dataset using Dissolve network tool.  The new network dataset is not recognized by Catalog.  It has a question mark icon beside it.  How can I have Catalog recognize the network dataset?  There might acutally be problems with the output in general.  There are 0 junctions in the output.  A feature dataset is created with 5 objects:
- ND_8_DirtyAreas (Polygon feature class with one record, the extent rectangle of the roads feature class.)
- Roads (Line feature class with 7,346 records.  The source roads feature class has 14,865 records.  This seems like a large decrease in the number of roads.) 
- Roads_Override (Point feature class with 7,121 records.  I don't know what to do with this.)
- Roads_prep_ND (This one has the question mark icon.)
- Roads_prep_ND_Junctions (Point feature class with 0 records.)

DougSterling

Hi Jay,

I have just discovered the network dissolve function and I have managed to run it fine.
However I have some questions.

My original network has as its source an edge feature set (call it EFS) which had some custom fields such as the name of my roads.
The output of the dissolve network produced a copy of that feature set but with some of the original fields missing including the name of my roads.

Now how do I bring back the new network (the output of the DN) to the location of my old network without losing any information?
I would like the new network to be linked to the unaltered EFS and not to the incomplete version.

I hope I am explaining my problem clearly.

Thanks,

Guillaume

Dissolve Network merges coincident features and updates street field values whenever possible so long as the attributes can be correctly merged and the network topology is correct.  Fields that do not participate in the network dataset cannot be transferred to the dissolved feature class because the dissolve tool does not know how to maintain them.

Fortunately dissolve will correctly merge and maintain your road names if the network dataset uses them to generate directions.  You can read about adding directions to your network dataset here:

http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//00470000000q000000

All fields that are used to generate directions will be preserved during the dissolve process.  All fields that are used in directions, attributes, elevation fields, etc are preserved during the dissolve process.

Doug