Pro: Create 3D points along a 3D line

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1
04-03-2018 07:25 AM
Status: Open
ThomasColson
MVP Frequent Contributor

Perhaps this is already offered/idea, but I can find neither. A very common request that GIS folks get in land management agencies, where there are lots of trails going up and down mountains, is "how far is it? What are the mile posts? Where is the middle? How far to the stream crossing/bridge/water source?". Using 2d interpolation and measurements just doesn't work, where the difference between 2d and 3d line length can be a 1 to 1.5 ratio in some cases (a trail in 2d measure 1 mile, where in fact it is 1.5 miles due to terrain). This is handily summarized in Construct Points on polyline at 3d distance  ,Creating point file along line (trail) at regular distances (0.20 miles) using ArcGIS Desktop? - Geo... ,http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=afb3cb8727c54ceba30c1df1c734f97a ,ArcGIS Toolbox - Create Points on Polylines with ArcPy – Ian Broad , and solved in Arc with http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=9416fbdf13474923b462567e750417df 

With linear referencing I can create true 3d length and use hatching to show those miles, but I can't convert the hatches to a feature class. How To: Create a route with measured values that reflect the 3D length of a line 

1 Comment
NigelBaker

I too would like to see this.

I work with 3D polylines generated in a specialist software which we then edit in Arc.

However when i join 2 3D features the join is assigned a 0 Z-value.

an easy way to do this, say with interpolation between features or assigning the Z value of the last vertex or something similar to maintain a pseudo 3D would be better than nothing.