Collapse Road Detail (Cartography)

License Level:BasicStandardAdvanced

Summary

Collapses small, open configurations of road segments that interrupt the general trend of a road network, such as traffic circles, for example, and replaces them with a simplified depiction.

Configurations are collapsed regardless of road class if the diameter across the open area is less than or equal to the Collapse Distance parameter. All uncollapsed roads from the input collection are copied to the output feature class.

To learn more, see How Collapse Road Detail works.

TipTip:

This tool is generally used to simplify a relatively large-scale road collection at a smaller scale, where it is appropriate to depict traffic circles or other small interruptions to the network as a simple intersection. At medium scales, it may be preferable to retain these configurations as separate features and possibly exaggerate them. In that case, consider using the Resolve Road Conflicts tool instead to ensure that symbolized lines are displayed without symbol conflicts. If both Resolve Road Conflicts and Collapse Road Detail tools will be run on the same collection of roads, it is advisable to run Collapse Road Detail first.

Illustration

The Collapse Road Detail tool uses a collapse distance (shown in red) to remove small interruptions in a road network
The Collapse Road Detail tool uses a collapse distance (shown in red) to remove small interruptions in a road network.

Usage

Syntax

CollapseRoadDetail_cartography (in_features, collapse_distance, output_feature_class)
ParameterExplanationData Type
in_features

The input features containing small enclosed road details, such as traffic circles, to be collapsed.

Feature Layer
collapse_distance

The diameter of or distance across the road detail that is to be considered for collapse.

Linear unit
output_feature_class

The output feature class containing the collapsed features—features that were modified to accommodate the collapse—and all unaffected features.

Feature Class

Code Sample

CollapseRoadDetail tool example (Python window)

The following Python window script demonstrates how to use the CollapseRoadDetail tool in immediate mode.

import arcpy
from arcpy import env
env.workspace = "C:/data/cartography.gdb/transportation"
arcpy.CollapseRoadDetail_cartography("roads.lyr", "250 Feet", "roads_collapse_250")

Environments

Reference Scale

The reference scale is only considered when the Collapse Distance parameter is entered in page units.

Related Topics

Licensing Information

ArcGIS for Desktop Basic: No
ArcGIS for Desktop Standard: No
ArcGIS for Desktop Advanced: Yes
3/3/2014