points to line

[KaileyAdams]

Okay, so I'm trying to use the points to line tool. I've used it before and it has worked fine. But for some reason now whenever I use the tool it will do its thing at the bottom of the screen and act like it's going to give me something. And it does, kind of. When the tool finishes running a new layer will pop up on the left side, i.e., January_1998_points_to_lines. And this is fine, and it will have whatever symbol it was randomly assigned under it. This is what happens when things go right, except for the fact that no lines pop up on the map when the layer does. It is just the layer, and after the layer pops up, if I try to click anything at all the program will not respond and I have to shut it down. This is really getting frustrating. I'm very new to this stuff so it could be a simple fix, but I have no idea. If anyone could help I would really appreciate it!

[DanLee]

It sounds like you are using ArcGIS 10 with the background processing turned on (by default). Is it the case if you run Buffer tool?

To turn the Background processing off, go to "Geoprocessing" on the top tool bar --> click "Geoprocessing Options ..." --> Under "Background Processing" menu block, uncheck "Enable" box. That will disable the background processing. Now if you run a tool from tool dialog, the processing window will stay until it finishes.

Does Points To Line run through now? Are you getting the line output? If not, could you share your data and describe any parameters used (Line Field and Sort Field)?

[KaileyAdams]

Unfortunately the same thing happened again. The buffer tool runs fine, but there is still the problem with the points to line tool.
The data I'm working with started in excel, I added it to my map using the add XY data function. From there I exported the points to my geodatabase. This is where I'm supposed to be able to use the points to line tool. I only put in a value for the line field. The points I'm working with mark different locations where mid latitude cyclones have been recorded for a certain month of a certain year around the world. The lines I am trying to create would represent the tracks of these cyclones. Different cyclones would have different amounts of points, depending on how long they lasted. The line field value I select is 'storm' which should, and has in the past, connect these lines correctly. So, only points for storm 1 would connect, the same with storm 2 and 3 and so on.
I have done the same thing with data almost identical to what I'm working with now. I'm not sure if the problem stems from the computer I'm working with or what.
Thank you for trying to help me with this problem.

[DanLee]

Could you post a sample data that can reproduce the problem?

[KaileyAdams]

This is the excel workbook for April of 1994

[DanLee]

Thanks for the data. What version of ArcGIS are you using?

I tested in ArcGIS 10 SP3. I could not use Add XY data to add the points directly because the new format .xlsx is not supported. So here is what I did:

1. Saved the Sheet1 from your file as a .csv file.
2. Used Add XY data to add the points to ArcMap - I specified the Geographic Coordinate System, GCS_WGS_ 1984.
3. Exported the layer to a feature class in a gdb.
4. Ran Points To Line based on storm values successfully. The output contains 243 lines. (I noticed some duplicated points in the input, e.g. two of the three points of storm value 1 are dups; the three points of storm value 4 are identical.)

Could this work for you?

[KaileyAdams]

I am using ArcGIS 10, I'm not sure what the difference between this and your version is.
I tried following what you did and it worked the first time, whenever I tried to replicate it though, it did not.
Whenever I try to save a .csv file I have three options, to save it as a CSV (Macintosh), CSV (MS-DOS), or CSV (Comma delimited).
I have tried all of these, even though I was pretty sure the Macintosh one wasn't going to work, I tried it anyway. I think I saved it as the second one the first time I tried it (the time that worked) but after that I get the same results I did before. It runs the points to line, the layer shows up on the left, but nothing shows up on the map and after that when I try to click anything ArcMap doesn't respond and I'm forced to close the program.

[JonathanQuinn]

I was just taking a look at the Excel sheet you provided; when I bring it into ArcMap and look at the field headings, they show values that don't match up with the headings in Excel:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]14237[/ATTACH]

I copied and pasted all of the cells into a new .xslx file, saved it, and when I brought that table into ArcMap, the field headings came in correctly:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]14238[/ATTACH]

The points to line and buffer tools worked successfully using point data created from this Excel sheet.  Do your field headings look correct when looking at the attribute table from the Excel sheet?

[DanLee]

Kailey,

I saved as CSV (Comma delimited) and I can repeat the process successfully.

When I tried to bring your Excel file into ArcMap, it displayed a message saying the data has no spatial reference; so the resulting point feature class is "No Geometry". So I am seeing differently from what Jonathan saw.

Again I am using 10.0 SP3. Perhaps some system differences are causing the problem?

When you followed my way, did you specify the GCS everytime? Was there any error message from Points To Line? Do you have any colleagues around who can try on their computers?

[robertrichardson1]

I tried following what you did but could not, when I tried to run it, it did not run as you described. It runs the points to line, the layer shows up, but nothing shows on map and when I try to click ArcMap,  it did not respond. After that I close ArcMap. What version of ArcGIS are you using? There is a problem with the points to line tool, I suspect. I'm not sure if the problem is me or the computer. I'm very new to this program and unaware how to fix, I have no idea. What should I do to receive the information that you have received?