Drawing lines at angles from xy coordinate

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12-03-2015 01:54 PM
LauraBlackburn
New Contributor III

I have three fixed points and a number of lines I would like to draw that radiate out from each point.  I have tried to use the bearing distance to line tool but it keeps failing for some reason and I'm not exactly sure how to draw my lines otherwise.  I am using the angle field for the bearing and this is in degrees (I think...the values fall between 0 and 360).  And my distance field is the 20yrSpread field which is in KM.

Any help is greatly appreciated...see the attached table.

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14 Replies
LauraBlackburn
New Contributor III

Richard,

I tried making all those values ones and it still didn't work.  I do completely understand what you are saying, though.

I guess I'll try a few more changes to the table and see what happens.

Laura

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LauraBlackburn
New Contributor III

Thanks to all of your for all of your helpful comments.  It ended up working when I changed the table to a csv file.  I guess Arc 10.3.1 and Excel 2013 don't play nicely together.

Thanks so much for your help - this forum is great for a speedy response to most all of the GIS problems I run into!

Have a great weekend!

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RichardFairhurst
MVP Honored Contributor

I suspect when you converted the data to a cvs file ArcMap imports the field names that began with numbers differently.  Also, if you check the output of the Bearing Distance to Line tool the cvs file created I bet the 15yrDisplacement and 20yrSpread field names changed to begin with a letter.

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DanPatterson_Retired
MVP Emeritus

So in summary...

the tools allows you to work with ill-formed data files without checks for the things that will cause it to crash. 

There are several links on how to work with excel files, which are quite good, unfortunately, the advice therein is not checked by the tool itself. 

And there are a few help file topics

Understanding how to use Microsoft Excel files in ArcGIS—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop

Formatting a table in Microsoft Excel for use in ArcGIS—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop

and several other links elsewhere for the user to search out and explore

LauraBlackburn
New Contributor III

Arc did allow me to bring the CSV file in with numbers at the beginning of field names, but when that table is exported into a gdb then the field names are changed to include an "F" at the beginning of the numeric field name.

Also, thanks Dan for links.  I'll check into those and try not to create poorly constructed excel files.

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