How to find the orientation (N,NE,S,WE..) of adjacent Polygons

DanielaPalacios · ‎10-12-2014

Hello Everyone,

I have been strugguling with an issue. I need to create a table that stores the length and orientation (n,s,e,w,nw,ne,sw,se) of the boundaries that are shared between adjacent polygons. I have been able to determine which polygons are neighbours using the polygon_neighbour tool which also tells me how long is the boundary that they share and it is awesome.

However, I havent been able to determine the orientation of this boundary. Lets say for example that I know that Polygon A, shares a boundary with polygons B,C,D and E, and I also know their respective length, how ever I dont know the orientation of this polygons (B,C,D,E) to A.

I have used a tool call Calculate Adjacent Fields, and it is also very good, but if two polygons, lets say B,C are north to polygon A, this tool will only choose the biggest, or major one, and I need to know the orientation of both polygons as both of them share boundaries with polygon A.

Please, I would really appreciate your help on any ideas to solve this. I was thinking maybe by knowing the orientation (angle) between the centroid of one polygon to the centroid of another, but havent got a clue how to go around this idea, becuase I dont want to do it polygon by polygon as they are like 1500 polygons.

Thanks a lot

JohannesBierer · ‎10-12-2014

Maybe you could use this the Calculate Polygon Main Angle tool.

Advanced License.

Have a look here: Calculate the orientation of polygons

DanielaPalacios · ‎10-13-2014

Hello Johannes Bierer, thanks for your answer.

I have run the tool and it seems to give me the orientation of each polygon. But does that mean that it gives me the orientation of a polygon in reference to another polygon?..

Can I say with this tool, that Polygon A has Polygon B at the North, because the orientation of Polygon B is north? What if this polygon B is actually at the south of polygon A. Do you understand where I am going from?

I dont need the orientation the polygon itself, but the orientation of the polygon according to another polygon.

Thanks

JohannesBierer · ‎10-13-2014

Hi Daniela,

in this case you could use

Feature to point (Centroid)

Point to line

And then orientation of the line:

https://community.esri.com/thread/27393