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offset points from a line

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06-04-2013 06:46 AM
tomcousins
Emerging Contributor
I've got a series of points recorded as an offset off from a baseline that I need to plot.

using the COGO feature I have plotted in the polyline features but I'm trying to plot in the points in a similar fashion but I cannot seem to find a way to do it.
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3 Replies
RichardFairhurst
MVP Honored Contributor
I've got a series of points recorded as an offset off from a baseline that I need to plot.

using the COGO feature I have plotted in the polyline features but I'm trying to plot in the points in a similar fashion but I cannot seem to find a way to do it.


Do you have your points set on the line?  Do you know the distances of the points along the line from a given starting point.  If so, use Linear Referencing.  Use Create Routes Features on your lines.  The value for the position along the line will be the measure value of the points on the line and the side offset distance will make the points parallel and tangent to the line.  Just change the offset between positive or negative values to alter the side of the line the point will appear on.

If the points are already created on the line use Locate Features Along Route to get their measure so that you can convert them to events and apply the side offset field to position them as offset points.
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tomcousins
Emerging Contributor
Do you have your points set on the line?  Do you know the distances of the points along the line from a given starting point.  If so, use Linear Referencing.  Use Create Routes Features on your lines.  The value for the position along the line will be the measure value of the points on the line and the side offset distance will make the points parallel and tangent to the line.  Just change the offset between positive or negative values to alter the side of the line the point will appear on.

If the points are already created on the line use Locate Features Along Route to get their measure so that you can convert them to events and apply the side offset field to position them as offset points.


I'm not 100% sure how to try the method you've mentioned above anyway you can break it down a bit?

I've managed to plot the points manually using direction/length and point at the end of a line but I'm looking for a faster way to do it, Like on COGO where I put in the distance offset and what side of the line and it creates an offset-ted polyline

The data I have at the moment is a table with 4 columns, ID, Distance, Offset, Description.
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RichardFairhurst
MVP Honored Contributor
I'm not 100% sure how to try the method you've mentioned above anyway you can break it down a bit?

I've managed to plot the points manually using direction/length and point at the end of a line but I'm looking for a faster way to do it, Like on COGO where I put in the distance offset and what side of the line and it creates an offset-ted polyline

The data I have at the moment is a table with 4 columns, ID, Distance, Offset, Description.


I listed the tools and linear referencing does exactly what you want.  Use the Linear Referencing Toolset.  Start with Create Route Features and turn your lines into LR routes.  Since it sounds like you have distances along the line and offsets in your point table then make your table of points an event table by right clicking it and making the field that corresponds to your line name the Route ID, the distance along the line is the measure of the point (DISTANCE) and the offset distance field the side offset (OFFSET).  The offset units must match the XY projection of your lines/routes and should.  That is all there really is to it except that to go left or right one set of side offsets is positive and the other is negative.  Figure out which is which and multiply your distance offsets by -1 on the side that uses negative values (there are two options that can make either side positive or negative).

Just get started with Create Route Features.  LR is the way to work with linear features that does everything you described.  It can create offset lines if do all the steps above for a line event table, but you check the option for line events and provide two measure value fields instead of just one.

As long as your table is filled in with the data all points or lines are created in one step as an event table.  No need to do them one at a time.

It sounds like all you need to add to your table is a field for RouteID (assuming ID is the point ID and not the line ID).  The RouteID field value would match the values in the field you use from your lines in the Create Route Features tool as the Route ID field.  Make sure you build your Routes in the same orientation assumed by the Distance value in the table you have.
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