topic Re: how do you calculate rotation angle for data driven pages in ArcGIS Enterprise Portal Questions

how do you calculate rotation angle for data driven pages

KarlKeough — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 16:52:40 GMT

I am using data driven pages with a pre-defined strip map grid. I would like to add the required rotation angle to an attribute field in my index layer. I can't find a way to make this work. I've tried the Calculate Grid Convergence Angle tool but this gives values that don't make sense (all values appear to be between -2 and 2, when the real rotation is far greater than that in most cases). I can make this work if I use the program to create the strip map grid, but not if I use an existing grid layer.

Re: how do you calculate rotation angle for data driven pages

DavidWatkins — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 21:27:12 GMT

The Calculate Grid Convergence Angle tool calculates the angle for true north from the center of each polygon. If you use the Strip Map Index tool in the Data Driven Pages toolset to create your index features the angle will be populated automatically. If you already have an index feature layer you can use one of the COGO Report tools on the COGO toolbar to measure the angles. I believe the Angle Between Two Lines, or the Distance and Direction tool will give you the angle you need.

Re: how do you calculate rotation angle for data driven pages

KimOllivier — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 10:00:44 GMT

It's much harder than that! I frequently want to adjust stripmap angles after they have been created and it is very difficult to calculate the angle of a polygon. COGO tools are no use because they only handle lines. You would have to split the polygons back to lines and then you would still not have a useful angle.

I wrote my own Python script and used math.tan2(y/x) to get bearings, that then had to be normalised.

You could use the new tool in 10.x Data Management>Features>Maximum Bounding Geometry
and set the option "Add geometry" which includes a nice field MBG_orientation suitable to use, but of course it is now in a new featureclass with all your nice attributes trashed, so you would have to make sure you group by SMAP_NUM , join back and recalculate. Still a bit less work that my Python script. But here it is anyway in case it helps you.

# UpdateAngle.py
# assumes rectangular polygons
# find bearing of longest side
# might have trouble with up
# 2 June 2011
# Kim Ollivier

import arcgisscripting
from math import *
import datetime
gp = arcgisscripting.create(9.3)
try:
    layer = sys.argv[1]
except:
    layer = "stripindex"
    ws = 'e:/teararoa/nz/current.gdb'
    gp.workspace = ws
if not gp.Exists(ws):
    print "ws",ws
    raise Exception
rotField = "smap_angle"
if  not gp.ListFields(layer,rotField):
    gp.AddField(layer,rotField,"FLOAT")

def calcbearing(dPt):
    '''
    calculate bearing of longest side
    '''
    # points
    pt1 = dPt[1]
    pt2 = dPt[2]
    pt3 = dPt[3]
    # lengths
    l1 = hypot(pt2[0] - pt1[0],pt2[1] - pt1[1])
    l2 = hypot(pt3[0] - pt2[0],pt3[1] - pt2[1])
    # bearings
    b1 = atan2(pt2[1] - pt1[1],pt2[0] - pt1[0])
    b2 = atan2(pt3[1] - pt2[1],pt3[0] - pt2[0])
    # print "test",round(l1),round(l2),degrees(b1),degrees(b2)
    # print dPt
    if l1 > l2 :
        degree = degrees(b1)
    else:
        degree = degrees(b2)
    bearing = 90.0 - degree
    if  bearing > 90:
        bearing = bearing - 180
    if  bearing < -90:
        bearing = bearing + 180
    return bearing
cur = gp.UpdateCursor(layer) ##,"ID = 1")
row = cur.next()
print
while row:
    feat = row.Shape
    for partNum in range(feat.partCount) :
        part = feat.getPart(partNum)
        dPt = {}
        n = 0
        for pt in iter(lambda: part.next(),None): # stops at null pt
            n+=1
            dPt = (pt.X,pt.Y)
    rotation = calcbearing(dPt)
    row.setValue(rotField,rotation)
    row.setValue("LastUpdate",datetime.datetime.now())
    # print row.objectid,row.id,row.island,rotation #,dPt
    cur.updateRow(row)
    row = cur.next()
del row,cur

Next the challenge will be to write something that will rotate the feature from the attribute. Numpy will be useful here.

Re: how do you calculate rotation angle for data driven pages

Randy_A_Stapleton — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 22:00:21 GMT

Has anyone found a Simple solution to this? I am experiencing the same problem

Re: how do you calculate rotation angle for data driven pages

DarrenWiens2 — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 22:09:58 GMT

I believe you will still have to rely on a custom python script, although using arcpy geometry objects will likely shorten Kim's script considerably. I'll try to follow up on this.

Re: how do you calculate rotation angle for data driven pages

DarrenWiens2 — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 10:00:47 GMT

Here is a 10.1 script you can use to calculate the data driven page rotation angle into a field called calcAngle, for an index feature class of rectangles.

>>> import math
... with arcpy.da.UpdateCursor("RECTANGLE_INDEX_FEATURE CLASS",["SHAPE@","calcAngle"]) as cursor:
...    for row in cursor:
...        points = []
...        for part in row[0]:
...            for pnt in part:
...                points.append(pnt)
...        lines = []
...        for i in range(1,3):
...            lines.append(arcpy.Polyline(arcpy.Array([points,points[i-1]])))
...        if lines[0].length > lines[1].length:
...            firstShort = 0
...        else:
...            firstShort = 1
...        dx = points[firstShort].X - points[firstShort+1].X
...        dy = points[firstShort].Y - points[firstShort+1].Y
...        ang = math.degrees(math.atan(dy/dx))
...        row[1] = 360-ang
...        cursor.updateRow(row)

Re: how do you calculate rotation angle for data driven pages

JackZHANG — Mon, 09 Mar 2015 06:33:01 GMT

Thanks for Darren's script which works perfectly. However I found it requires the 4 points of the polygon be created in a certain order, which might be all right for index polygons created via DDP tool, but in our case we often got the index polygons from other source like CAD design where how it was created not always guaranteed. So I modified Darren's code a bit to allow the calculation work on polygons created in any direction. cheers,

Re: how do you calculate rotation angle for data driven pages

JohnUrbano1 — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 02:19:58 GMT

So, Darren's script was originally setup for rectangles, but it looks like your version will work with polygons of any number or vertices. Is that correct?

Secondly, I am not an advanced user and have generally always stayed within the confines of the cookie cutter tools in Arcmap. I don't know how to implement a script in Arcmap. Can anyone refer me to a good thread or link on how to do this so I can actually use this thing?

Thanks All - what a great community this is.

Cheers!

John

Re: how do you calculate rotation angle for data driven pages

RichardKennedy2 — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 13:13:19 GMT

Hi Darren,

This looks exactly like what I need however I cannot get the code to work for me. I am trying this in 10.3. I get the error message :Runtime error
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<string>", line 6, in <module>
TypeError: 'float' object is not iterable

I changed the Feature class and field names to match my layer. ("Release_Grid",["Shape","calcAngle"]

Any suggestions?

Re: how do you calculate rotation angle for data driven pages

DarrenWiens2 — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 16:16:41 GMT

Make sure you use "SHAPE@", a special token for the actual geometry.

Re: how do you calculate rotation angle for data driven pages

RichardKennedy2 — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 16:27:25 GMT

Got it! Thank you!!

Re: how do you calculate rotation angle for data driven pages

HayleyHume-Merry — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 02:41:35 GMT

Just letting you know there is a typo in your script on Line 15, this causes it to fail instantly.

Also, I kept getting an error on Line 22, float division by zero (tan = - dy/dx). I didn't have time to look into it so I used the script posted by Darren in the end. It may be specific to my input, I'm not sure.

Re: how do you calculate rotation angle for data driven pages

Jack_Zhang — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 05:59:24 GMT

Thanks Hayley Hume-Merry‌ pointed out the typo. also John Urbano I just saw your message today. the script only works for 4 point rectangle. However, FYI since then I have been using Minimum Bounding Geometry (by width) tool to work out the rotation angle of polygon of any shape. Just make sure you enabled the Add geometry characteristics as attributes to output option at the bottom of the tool. The output features include a field called MBG_Orientation, which is the orientation of the longer side of the resulting rectangle. I could then derive the rotation angel depends on if the data drive page layout is portrait or landscape.

Re: how do you calculate rotation angle for data driven pages

jireland_pickett — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 21:02:00 GMT

Still having this issue in July of 2023. Does anyone else have a better solution? The only work around I came up with is after you rotate the strip index polygons, then draw a line snapping to mid point of each polygon, then rerun the strip index tool with 0 overlap, and if necessary do a spatial join with the newly created polygons and field calculate the angle field if you want to update your original strip index polygons.