Identifying geometric network build errors

This topic applies to ArcGIS for Desktop Standard and ArcGIS for Desktop Advanced only.

License:

Although geometric networks can be both created and edited in ArcGIS for Desktop Advanced and Standard, they are read-only in Basic

When building a geometric network, the feature classes that are selected to participate in the network may contain features whose geometries are invalid within the context of a geometric network. These geometries include the following:

• Features that have empty geometry
• Edge features that contain multiple parts
• Edge features that form a closed loop or have the same from and to junction
• Edge features that have zero length
• Junctions coincident with an edge-feature vertex having a different z-value
• Standalone junctions; which are junctions not connected to any edges
• Edge features prevented from collapsing on themselves because their length is near the snapping tolerance

Features with invalid geometries are identified during the network building process and recorded in the network build errors table. The table is identified as the geometric network's name appended with _BUILDERR, for example, the network MyNetwork will have a network build errors table called MyNetwork _BUILDERR. The table is located at the workspace level and lists the Object ID, Class ID, and Errortype for each error. The Errortype value corresponds to the esriNetworkErrorType enumeration, which lists the possible reason why a feature's geometry is invalid with a geometric network. At the end of the geometric network build process, a message box indicating that there are build errors which need to be examined are displayed.

The network build errors table is a user-managed table. As such, it does not get updated when the features listed within it are edited. It is up to the end user to update the table's contents as soon as possible after creation so that the table will correctly reflect the state of the features. The table is used by the Network Build Errors command within ArcMap to identify the features with invalid geometries.

The methodology for repairing a network build error is dependent on the type of invalid geometry.

Learn more about repairing network feature geometry

Learn more about other network connectivity detection and repair tools

Steps:

1. Click Customize > Toolbars > Geometric Network Editing.

   The Geometric Network Editing toolbar is added to ArcMap.

2. Add your network feature classes to ArcMap.
3. On the Editor toolbar, click Editor > Start Editing.
4. In the ArcMap table of contents, select a layer that participates in the geometric network.
5. Click the Network Build Errors command.
6. A dialog box indicating the number of errors is displayed, and the features with illegal geometries are selected.
Note:

• If you built your geometric network in an ArcSDE geodatabase, you will need to register the data as versioned before you can start editing.

  Learn more about registering and unregistering data as versioned

• If the number of errors indicated by the Network Build Errors dialog box does not match the number of selected features, you may have illegal features with empty geometry or zero length. Open the attribute editor to identify the illegal features according to feature class.