idea Splitting Lines retaining attributes in ArcGIS for AutoCAD Ideas

Splitting Lines retaining attributes

DerekBannon22 — Wed, 25 May 2022 16:05:14 GMT

When splitting lines on a Web Feature Layer the attributes are completely gone on the two new features.

What I think would be a better function is that the attributes would be identical for the two new features that were created when one line was split into two.

Re: Splitting Lines retaining attributes

jcarlson — Wed, 25 May 2022 16:17:00 GMT

It has to do with the split/merge policy on the feature layer. Unless you have a domain with a default value specified, it's going to set them both to "null". In a geodatabase, you can set the policy to inherit values from the parent in some way, but I don't know if that's possible in a web layer.

I'd love to see an option of defining the split/merge policy for a layer outside of domain-specific settings.

Re: Splitting Lines retaining attributes

MichaelVolz — Thu, 26 May 2022 12:40:44 GMT

Does it matter what type of weblayer it is (hosted vs referenced)?

Can you get this to work for a referenced web layer tied to an enterprise geodatabase where domain values are set?

Re: Splitting Lines retaining attributes

DonKuehne — Thu, 26 May 2022 20:43:24 GMT

The attributes of ArcGIS features in the AutoCAD drawing are stored on the AutoCAD entity itself or are pulled from the default values for the feature layer if the attribute is not specifically set to a non-default value. Standard editing tools of AutoCAD like TRIM or BREAK will create a new entity and modify the geometry of the original entity. The new entity will gain its attributes from default values. The original attributes will be retained on one of the parts. Some AutoCAD editing functions may delete the original entity and create one or more new entities, these will also have the default attributes (lose the original attributes).

When you COPY an entity the attributes are retained on both the original and new entity. You may consider workflow modifications where you copy a feature entity first and then modify the two versions that will retain the attributes to accomplish the "splitting" of a feature.

GIS specific editing tools are a good idea either to build yourself with the supplied AutoLISP API or as a future enhancement to the core software.

Re: Splitting Lines retaining attributes

LindsayRaabe_FPCWA — Fri, 27 May 2022 06:50:21 GMT

This sounds like this topic: Splitting tool wipes values from AGOL feature serv... - Esri Community for which we've just sorted a solution with assistance from ESRI Support.

In summary, on layers published prior to 2.9, the split policy was set to "default" and ArcGIS Pro ignored it and duplicated the attributes. After 2.9, ArcGIS Pro honoured the policy, meaning we started losing attributes. The solution to this is to edit the JSON at the service admin URL and insert/modify the split policy to "Duplicate". More details in above post.

Re: Splitting Lines retaining attributes

DerekBannon22 — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 18:41:47 GMT

@LindsayRaabe_FPCWA

This would only work if you had domains though, correct? On attributes without domains it would just add the default value?

Re: Splitting Lines retaining attributes

LindsayRaabe_FPCWA — Thu, 02 Jun 2022 00:31:01 GMT

@DerekBannon22 the issue was that only fields with domains were having their values wiped when a feature was split. Fields without domains (i.e. free text) retained their values as there was no split policy applied at all.

Therefore, the above fix only applies to fields with domains as they have been given the split policy after initially being published without it (a few versions ago) and the default policy applied was to wipe the values - not duplicate.

Re: Splitting Lines retaining attributes

Randy_Garcia — Thu, 04 Aug 2022 15:39:13 GMT

As Don mentioned above, this issue while in Pro is outside of that. ArcGIS for AutoCAD is not using the same logic as ArcGIS pro to handle this. When we bring a feature service in to ArcGIS for AutoCAD we are adding both the geometry and attributes to the AutoCAD drawing. When you split the line using the AutoCAD tools, AutoCAD does not copy that extra bit of info we store that contains the attributes to the newly split line. The split is considered something new and thus has missing attributes. We would need to develop a tool to let you copy attributes from on feature to another in order to make this happen. This is also possible now if you were to use the lisp API to develop your own command or tool to do that. Step one would be to use esri_attributes_get (https://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/arcgis-for-autocad/index.html#/esri_attributes_get_AutoLISP/061p0000003z000000/) and then pair that with esri_attributes_set (https://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/arcgis-for-autocad/index.html#/esri_attributes_set_AutoLISP/061p00000047000000/)

Re: Splitting Lines retaining attributes - Status changed to: Under Consideration

Randy_Garcia — Thu, 04 Aug 2022 15:39:42 GMT

Re: Splitting Lines retaining attributes

MichaelDavidsonPM — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 18:26:30 GMT

Hi @DerekBannon22,

Accompanying the version 435 release of ArcGIS for AutoCAD in Jan. 2025, the product team created a repository of LISP samples. We included a LISP sample that you motivated with your Idea post.

Linked below is a description, sample data set, steps, and sample LISP code for copying the attributes from one entity and adding them to another entity. Please let us know if this addresses your Idea.

https://github.com/Esri/ArcGIS-for-AutoCAD-API-Samples/tree/main/Samples/CopyAttributes/AutoLisp

Re: Splitting Lines retaining attributes - Status changed to: Closed

MichaelDavidsonPM — Tue, 22 Jul 2025 16:14:23 GMT

Hi @DerekBannon22,

Thanks again for posting this Idea. Please check out the LISP sample linked in the 04-22-2025 post, and please let us know if this helps with the line splitting/attribution workflow!