Add-in for removing of unnecessary vertices

Problem

When building geometric networks in GEONIS version 5.4 and 2017.0, unnecessary vertexes were built.

Cause

Starting at ArcGIS 10.3 the creation of a geometric network is creating vertices if two edges are crossing. These crossing edges won't be connected. Though there are no direct consequences on the logical topology, however this increases the risk of incorrect associations being created during the next geometry processing or network building.

http://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/10.3/manage-data/geometric-networks/about-creating-geometric-networks.htm

The creation of unnecessary vertices only happens if the setting "Snap features within specified tolerance" is defined when defining the geometric network. This is the standard for creating the network using the update module. It is currently not possible to deactivate the snapping in the GEONIS Update Module settings.

Solution

To clean up these unnecessary vertexes, an ArcMap add-In is available. The add-in can be downloaded here:

Download add-in

Installation:

The add-in can be installed via a double click and is then visible in the Add-In Manager in ArcMap. The command "NetworkCleaner" can then be added to any toolbar via the customization mode in ArcMap.

Usage:

1. Load GEONIS project and start add-in
2. Selection of the database to be processed
3. Selection of the geometric network to be processed. Several networks can be selected.
4. Specify whether the add-in should process the entire geometric network or only the visible section.
5. Start the process. The progress and the results are logged in the log window.

Since editing a large data set takes some time, we recommend limiting the execution to a section in step 4.

Dealing with simple edges:

For simple edges such as cable connections in the Solution Electro, it is not possible to prevent the lines from being broken when saving if a start or end point is located on a vertex. This corresponds to the behavior of simple edges defined by ESRI. These line features did not conform to the geometric network even before the add-in was applied. These newly created features can be identified by their creation date and the data can be cleaned up manually.

Remark to parameters:

Angle Range: Only touching edge features that lie within the specified angle range are handled by the add-in.

Length Tolerance: Maximum allowable length change. If the process would change a feature by more than the specified length, the corresponding feature will not be changed.