topic Re: polygon to point preserve attachments in ArcGIS Online Questions

polygon to point preserve attachments

Anonymous User — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 18:14:20 GMT

Hi all,

I am trying to preserve attachments when i convert feature to point in arcgis desktop in order to have users collect in the field. Is that possible?

Thanks,

Alex

Re: polygon to point preserve attachments

DanPatterson_Retired — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 19:53:37 GMT

Note sure I understand the question, but this link provides a list of the tools that honor the preserve attachments environment setting and the file types that don't.

Maintain attachments

Re: polygon to point preserve attachments

Anonymous User — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 20:09:28 GMT

Dan,

I have a polygon feature class with attachments. I need to convert this polygon feature class to a point feature class (our customer wants to use points instead of polygons to sue in collector). When I use "feature to point" GP tool to convert the polygon features to point, there is no way for me to preserve the attachments (GlobalIDs) from the original polygon feature class. I therefore cannot get the attachments from the polygon feature class to point feature class.

Re: polygon to point preserve attachments

DanPatterson_Retired — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 20:21:03 GMT

The link provides the available options for tools that preserve this environment setting. append, copy, copy features, copy rows, featureclass to featureclass and table to table. Which, as you suspected, is going to maintain the geometry of your inputs, if you go down an order or two, you lose this capability. It is too bad that an Intersect wasn't on the list since that would have been a good one.

I also suspect that you have ruled out Table to Table then a join to a point centroid featureclass as an option. I can only speculate, since I have no need for attachments in my work.

Re: polygon to point preserve attachments

Anonymous User — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 20:26:38 GMT

I have not tried your last solution yet and that might be a perfect fit for me. I will test that out right now and get back to the forum with what I found.

Re: polygon to point preserve attachments

Anonymous User — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 21:05:33 GMT

I just tried without success. It seems like when you join a table with attachments to a feature class (point) you loose the attachments. I cannot think of any other ways of preserving these attachments.

Re: polygon to point preserve attachments

DanPatterson_Retired — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 21:09:05 GMT

I can't think of any other options, they seem to be quite specific and I presume that a polygon featureclass isn't in the plans or possible. Good luck

Re: polygon to point preserve attachments

shan_sarkar — Fri, 07 Jul 2017 11:35:31 GMT

Alex,

As you are aware that the attachments use OBJECTID as the primary for creating the attachment table and I am assuming that you already have successfully created the attachment table for the polygon. So here is what I want to confirm, is there any other field which can be used to identify the geometry with the respective attachment?

I guess what I am asking is if there is a Polygon with some ID field (except OBJECTID) which can be used to run a normal attribute join with the attachment table except REL_OBJECTID.

If there is, then you can simply run the Feature To Point—Help | ArcGIS Desktop and convert the polygon to point while retaining the exact same attributes of the polygon layer in the point output. Then use the ID field and create attachments using the Add Attachments—Help | ArcGIS Desktop

I hope this helps!

~Shan

Re: polygon to point preserve attachments

DanPatterson_Retired — Fri, 07 Jul 2017 11:43:15 GMT

feature to point splits the attachments out... the only tools that preserve what is needed are listed in my previous post... therein lies the dilemma since Alex tried the suggested workflow which would have maintained the ID fields... but to no avail... I assume that he tried the Add Attachments in the first place.. but I guess he will have to clarify

alex.gole_ELDORADOCOUNTY‌ maybe you can clarify your workflow

Re: polygon to point preserve attachments

shan_sarkar — Fri, 07 Jul 2017 13:15:12 GMT

That will be helpful to refine the workflow. However, the steps that I suggested were based on the assumption that there is a ID fields maintained somewhere in the spatial and non-spatial table and if in case there is not then probably incorporate that as it will be handy to tackle this issue.

Re: polygon to point preserve attachments

Anonymous User — Fri, 07 Jul 2017 15:13:29 GMT

Shantonu,

- The attachments are added via the GlobalID/rel-globalid not OBJECTID/rel-objectid. GlobalIDs were used here because I need to be collecting data via collector.

- The only common ID fields between the point FC and the attachment attribute table are these two: GlobalID/rel-globalid. I don't have any other join fields.

- Least importantly but yet still an issue, The "Add attachments" tool requires that you provide a "Match path field" which the closest "match" field in my table would be "ATT_NAME" and this is not a a path field.

Re: polygon to point preserve attachments

Anonymous User — Fri, 07 Jul 2017 20:47:15 GMT

I found a way to preserve attachments when converting from polygons to points:

1) FC poly ==> create GUID field

2) Attachment Table ==> Create GUID field

3) Calculate each GUIDs for eachtable (polygons and attachments) with the GlobalIDs(polygons) and rel-globalids(attachments) values

4) Create a new text field in the Attachment table called Path (length 100 or more)

5) Calculate the path field like this:

6) Export attachments using this tool How To: Batch export attachments from a feature class to your local machine "C:\atch" for me.

7) Use Feature To Point—Help | ArcGIS Desktop tool to convert poly to points

😎 Add GlobalIDs to the new point FC Add Global IDs—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop

9) Enable Attachments to the new point FC Enabling attachments—ArcGIS Help | ArcGIS for Desktop

10)Use theAdd Attachments—Data Management toolbox | ArcGIS Desktop tool to add the pictures back

Input Join Field : GUID of your point feature class

Match join field: GUID of your attachment table

Match Path: field that stores the path to the pics on your PC

11) Done.