topic Re: Convert points to multipoint feature class in Data Management Questions

Convert points to multipoint feature class

RobinZhang — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 15:37:55 GMT

I have a points layer. I'd like to group some of them into point clusters (and leave the rest as is). For all the points that I'd like to make into clusters, I have an attribute field where they share a common value. I thought that I could convert the point feature class to a multipoint feature class based on the common attribute value, but my hypothesis hasn't worked so far. I have tried to create a new multipoint feature class and load the points. I have also tried copy and paste in an editing session. Both cases the same error message: the geometry doesn't match. I would appreciate any suggestions.

Re: Convert points to multipoint feature class

JohnSobetzer — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 14:36:47 GMT

If you run a dissolve and have a check in the create multiparts features box does that work?

Re: Convert points to multipoint feature class

KimOllivier — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 18:53:29 GMT

Multipoint featureclasses are a separate class from point featureclasses. You can't 'leave the rest alone' in the same featureclass. It doesn't really matter, single points groups will be just the same as a normal point, after a dissolve the featureclass will be multipoint. The problem then is that the featureclass is incompatible with 'singlepoint' so you cannot merge or cut-and-paste, just as you cannot merge lines into polygons [unless you use Workstation].

A further issue you might be trying to solve is to aggregate the multipoints into a single point. This would require a different tool, which finds the centroid of the cluster to place a single point.

Re: Convert points to multipoint feature class

RachelDe_Loza — Wed, 04 Oct 2017 15:53:22 GMT

This was a good tip. I have a similar situation, where I have a point feature class that I want to create a multi-point from.

I performed a Dissolve with the "create multiparts" box checked.

From there I selected the dissolved point feature and using advanced editing tools "Exploded" the points.

From there I selected the desired points and "Merged" them.

The problem here is you won't be able to maintain your original tabular data (though this could possibly be remedied by a spatial join)

Thanks for the tip Sobetzer