Planarize polyline features

Available with Standard or Advanced license.

In the Modify Features pane, Planarize splits overlapping polyline features on the same layer into individual segments at each intersection and deletes any coincident line segments. The angular pitch for z-enabled polyline segments is preserved, and new vertices are assigned interpolated z-values.

Attribute values are copied from the parent feature to the new segments. Attribute values constrained by attribute domains are determined by the domain Split Policy defined by the source geodatabase.

The cluster tolerance defines the distance within which segments and vertices are determined to be coincident. A minimum value is automatically calculated, but you can change it. For most use cases, the automatic setting is the best practice. Increasing the cluster tolerance too much can cause endpoints, vertices, and other geometry to be interpreted as coincident features, and they may collapse or distort.

Planarize

To planarize overlapping polyline features on the same layer, click Planarize , select the features, and click Planarize.

1. On the Edit tab in the Features group, click Modify .

   The Modify Features pane appears.

2. Expand Divide and click Planarize .

   The tool opens in the pane.

3. In the pane, click Active Select , and select overlapping polyline features on the same layer.

   The selection appears as a list in the pane.

4. To refine your selection, right-click a feature in the list and use the following commands on the context menu:
   • Flash —Flashes the selected features in the map.
   • Zoom To —Zooms the view to the selected features.
   • Pan To —Pans the view to the selected features.
   • Only Select This —Removes all other features from the selection.
   • Unselect —Removes the feature from the selection.
5. To change the default Cluster Tolerance, type the new value in the text box using the same units as your data.
6. Click Planarize.

   The selected overlapping polyline features on the same layer are split into individual segments at each intersection. Coincident line segments are deleted, and the new segments contain attribute values copied from the parent feature.