I have a drainage network polyline feature the course of which is structurally controlled. To determine the dominant direction trends of the streams I need to plot a rose diagram. However, I am unable to derive directions of these polylines. There are 3500+ streams present in my AOI.
🤔 Want to know how to determine the direction of polyline features in ArcGIS? Here are some tips:
1️⃣ Look at the arrowheads on the ends of the polylines. If there are arrowheads, they typically indicate the direction of the feature.
2️⃣ If there are no arrowheads, you can use the "Calculate Geometry" tool in ArcGIS to calculate the length and direction of the polylines.
3️⃣ Another option is to use the "Flip Line" tool to reverse the direction of the polylines if needed.
Remember, understanding the direction of polyline features is important for certain analyses in ArcGIS, such as network analysis. 🌟
You can determine the coordinates of line start point and endpoint in any GIS software. Then create a new attribute table and in field calculator run the following code:
180 + math.atan2((!Shape.lastpoint.X! - !Shape.firstpoint.X!),(!Shape.lastpoint.Y! - !Shape.firstpoint.Y!)) * (180 / math.pi)
This gives the strike of a line.
In any ArcGIS product (Desktop or Pro), you can use the "Add Geometry Attributes" tool from the Data Management toolbox, and select "Line bearing". If you are using Pro (versions released after c. 2021), "Line bearing" is also an option when you "Calculate Geometry" in the attribute table.
Hello @Gregory! Thank you so much for responding to my question. Your recommendation worked instantly.
You can process your data using 'Linear Directional Mean' tool in ArcToolbox. The output file with attribute results are obtained.
Thank you sir. This tool produced the required attributes to my shapefile.
In ArcGIS, you can determine the direction of a polyline feature by using the "Calculate Geometry Attributes" tool.
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