Feature To Line

Function Description: Creates a feature class containing lines generated by one of the following methods: converting polygon boundaries to lines, splitting lines, or splitting polygons or lines at the intersection of two features.

Data Description

Input and Output Relationships:

Input and Output Relationships for Feature to Line

Notes:

• Input attributes can optionally be preserved in the output feature class, as determined by the Preserve Attributes option on the dialog.
• When multiple feature classes or layers are specified in the input list, the order of these entries does not affect the output feature type. However, the spatial reference of the top entry in this list will be used as the output spatial reference.
• If input lines or polygon boundaries connect, intersect, or overlap at locations other than the start and end vertices, they will be split at intersections; each split line will become an output line feature. If input lines or polygon boundaries do not intersect with another feature, they will still be written out as complete line features.

• If the Preserve Attributes option is selected, attributes from all input entries will be preserved in the output, in the order listed. A new field FID_xxx (where xxx is the name of the specific input feature class) will be added to each output entry and set to the source feature ID. Output lines will be associated with their attributes as follows:

  • For overlapping lines or polygon boundaries within the same input feature set (e.g., boundaries between two polygons), two line features with the same geometry will be written to the output.
  • For overlapping lines or polygon boundaries between different input feature sets (e.g., a line overlapping a polygon boundary), only the line feature with attributes from both source features will be written to the output.
  • If an output line does not overlap any feature from a specific input feature set, the value in the FID_xxx field will be -1, and values in other fields for that feature set will be zero or null.

• If the Preserve Attributes option is not selected, no input attributes will be preserved in the output feature class; only one line feature will be written to the output for each set of overlapping lines or polygon boundaries.

• When the input features include adjacent polygons and you want to retain the shared boundary line as an attribute with left and right polygon IDs in the output, use the Feature to Line tool instead.

Steps

Find and double-click the Feature To Line tool in the toolbox to open the tool's dialog window.

Feature To Line

Parameter Description:

• Input Features: The input features can be lines, polygons, or both.
• Preserve Attributes (Optional): Specifies whether to retain or discard the attributes of the input features in the output feature class.
  • Checked - Retain input attributes in the output features. This is the default setting.
  • Unchecked - Discard input attributes in the output features.
• Output Feature Class: The resulting line feature class.
• Add Result to Project: This option is only applicable if the output feature class result is saved to the GPKG database of the project. When checked, a layer will be automatically created for the result data and added to the project.