Resolve Building Conflicts (Cartography)

Summary

Resolves symbol conflicts among buildings with respect to linear barrier features by moving, resizing, or hiding buildings.

Illustration

Buildings are moved to avoid conflicts and rotated to align with nearby road features. Some buildings are resized or hidden.

Usage

• This tool assesses graphic conflicts of symbolized features. The symbology extent and the reference scale are used in conjunction with one another. Run this tool only after you have finalized the appearance of the symbols, and ensure that the reference scale corresponds to the final intended output scale.

  To learn more about this tool, see How Resolve Building Conflicts works.

Caution:

This tool does not produce output layers; it alters the geometry of the source feature classes of the input layers. It is recommended that you make a copy of the input features before running this tool.

• The Invisibility Field parameter value must be present and named the same for all input feature classes. The data type must be short or long integer. Features that should remain visible are assigned a value of 0; those that should be removed from the display are assigned a value of 1. Use a layer definition query or a selection to display the resulting simplified collection (that is, invisibility <> 1). You can use multiple invisibility fields to store different results—corresponding to different output scales—in the same feature class.

• When point building layers are used as input layers, the Angle property of the marker symbol layer must be set to a field in the feature class. This field will store the rotation adjustments. If the building symbol contains two or more marker symbol layers or if there are two or more symbols in the building layer, set all marker symbol layers in the symbology of the layer to the same field in the attribute table. The Rotate clockwise setting of the Angle property must match for each marker symbol layer.

• Before conflicts are assessed, polygonal buildings are enlarged to a minimum size specified by the Minimum Allowable Building Size parameter. Minimum size is measured as a linear distance along the shortest side of a rotated bounding box best fit to the feature. To review the final size of buildings in the output results, add a double or float field named RBC_SIZE to any of the input building feature classes. As the tool processes, this field will update with the shortest side of a rotated bounding box around each feature.

• The Hierarchy Field parameter is optional. If it is not specified, buildings will be assigned a relative importance based on the perimeter of the building and proximity to barriers. Larger buildings closer to more than one barrier will be assessed as more significant than smaller buildings relatively far from a barrier. You can use a partially populated Hierarchy field in which only the significant buildings are attributed with a hierarchical value and all other features (with a NULL hierarchy value) will have their relative significance internally calculated. The data type of the field must be short or long integer.

• If the Hierarchy Field parameter is used, you can make buildings remain visible by assigning them a hierarchy value of 0. They will not be masked by the tool. A building with a hierarchy of 0 is considered locally important, so nearby buildings may be compromised more than they would if that building was not visible. Buildings with a hierarchy of 0 can still be transformed (moved, rotated, or resized) to resolve conflicts and match other required parameters.

Caution:

A warning is issued if the input features are not in a projected coordinate system. This tool relies on linear distance units, which will create unexpected results in an unprojected coordinate system. It is recommended that you run this tool on data in a projected coordinate system to ensure valid results. An error occurs and the tool will not process if the coordinate system is missing or unknown.

• Any buildings that are geometrically in conflict with barriers (that is, the actual geometry—not just the symbology—of the building overlaps that of a barrier feature such as a road) will not be moved off the barrier feature. These buildings may be flagged for masking in the course of conflict resolution processing, but they won't be moved. A conflict will remain.

• If the symbology of the barrier features is not symmetrically distributed across the geometry—that is, the symbol is thicker on one side of the line than the other—a larger building-to-barrier gap may appear on the side of the barrier with the thinner symbology.

• Processing large datasets or a number of barrier layers together may exceed memory limitations. In this case, consider processing input building data by partition by identifying a relevant polygon feature class in the Partition Features environment setting. Portions of the building data, defined by partition boundaries, will be processed sequentially. The resulting layers will be seamless and consistent at partition edges. See How Resolve Building Conflicts works for more information about running this tool with partitioning.

Parameters

Dialog

Label	Explanation	Data Type
Input Building Layers	The input layers containing building features that may be in conflict or smaller than allowable size. Buildings can be either points or polygons. Buildings will be modified to resolve conflicts with other buildings and with barrier features. When point building layers are used as inputs, the Angle property of the marker symbol layer must be set to a field in the feature class. This field will store the rotation adjustments. If multiple marker symbol layers in the same point symbol have the Angle property connected to the same field, the Rotate clockwise setting must match in each of those marker symbol layers.	Layer
Invisibility Field	The short or long integer field that stores the invisibility values that can be used to remove some buildings from display to resolve symbol conflicts. Buildings with a value of 1 will be removed from display; those with a value of 0 will not be removed. Use a definition query on the layer to display visible buildings only. No features are deleted.	String
Input Barrier Layers	The layers containing the linear or polygon features that are conflict barriers for input building features. Buildings will be modified to resolve conflicts between buildings and barriers. The orient value is Boolean, specifying whether buildings will be oriented to the barrier layer. Gap specifies the distance that buildings will move toward or away from the barrier layer. A unit must be provided with the value. A gap value of 0 will snap buildings directly to the edge of the barrier line or outline symbology. A null (unspecified) gap value means that buildings will not be moved toward or away from barrier lines or outlines except movement required by conflict resolution. Note: If no unit is provided with the gap value (that is, 10 instead of 10 meters), the linear unit from the input feature's coordinate system will be used.	Value Table
Building Gap	The minimum allowable distance between symbolized buildings at scale. Buildings that are closer together will be displaced or hidden to enforce this distance. The minimum allowable distance is set relative to the reference scale (that is, 15 meters at 1:50,000 scale). The value is 0 if the reference scale is not set.	Linear Unit
Minimum Allowable Building Size	The minimum allowable size of the shortest side of a rotated best-fit bounding box around the symbolized building feature drawn at the reference scale. Buildings with a bounding box side smaller than this value will be enlarged to meet it. Resizing may occur nonproportionally, resulting in a change to the building morphology.	Linear Unit
Hierarchy Field (Optional)	The short or long integer field that contains hierarchical ranking of feature importance in which 1 is very important and larger integers reflect decreasing importance. A value of 0 causes the building to retain visibility, although it may be moved somewhat to resolve conflicts. If this parameter is not used, feature importance will be assessed by the tool based on perimeter length and proximity to barrier features.	String

Derived Output

Label	Explanation	Data Type
Output Layers	The updated input features.	Layer

Python

arcpy.cartography.ResolveBuildingConflicts(in_buildings, invisibility_field, in_barriers, building_gap, minimum_size, {hierarchy_field})

Name	Explanation	Data Type
in_buildings [in_buildings,...]	The input layers containing building features that may be in conflict or smaller than allowable size. Buildings can be either points or polygons. Buildings will be modified to resolve conflicts with other buildings and with barrier features. When point building layers are used as inputs, the Angle property of the marker symbol layer must be set to a field in the feature class. This field will store the rotation adjustments. If multiple marker symbol layers in the same point symbol have the Angle property connected to the same field, the Rotate clockwise setting must match in each of those marker symbol layers.	Layer
invisibility_field	The short or long integer field that stores the invisibility values that can be used to remove some buildings from display to resolve symbol conflicts. Buildings with a value of 1 will be removed from display; those with a value of 0 will not be removed. Use a definition query on the layer to display visible buildings only. No features are deleted.	String
in_barriers [[Layer, Boolean, Linear Unit],...]	The layers containing the linear or polygon features that are conflict barriers for input building features. Buildings will be modified to resolve conflicts between buildings and barriers. The orient value is Boolean, specifying whether buildings will be oriented to the barrier layer. Gap specifies the distance that buildings will move toward or away from the barrier layer. A unit must be provided with the value. A gap value of 0 will snap buildings directly to the edge of the barrier line or outline symbology. A null (unspecified) gap value means that buildings will not be moved toward or away from barrier lines or outlines except movement required by conflict resolution. Note: If no unit is provided with the gap value (that is, 10 instead of 10 meters), the linear unit from the input feature's coordinate system will be used.	Value Table
building_gap	The minimum allowable distance between symbolized buildings at scale. Buildings that are closer together will be displaced or hidden to enforce this distance. The minimum allowable distance is set relative to the reference scale (that is, 15 meters at 1:50,000 scale). The value is 0 if the reference scale is not set.	Linear Unit
minimum_size	The minimum allowable size of the shortest side of a rotated best-fit bounding box around the symbolized building feature drawn at the reference scale. Buildings with a bounding box side smaller than this value will be enlarged to meet it. Resizing may occur nonproportionally, resulting in a change to the building morphology.	Linear Unit
hierarchy_field (Optional)	The short or long integer field that contains hierarchical ranking of feature importance in which 1 is very important and larger integers reflect decreasing importance. A value of 0 causes the building to retain visibility, although it may be moved somewhat to resolve conflicts. If this parameter is not used, feature importance will be assessed by the tool based on perimeter length and proximity to barrier features.	String

Derived Output

Name	Explanation	Data Type
out_layers	The updated input features.	Layer

Code sample

ResolveBuildingConflicts example 1 (Python window)

The following Python window script demonstrates how to use the ResolveBuildingConflicts function in immediate mode.

import arcpy
arcpy.env.workspace = "C:/data"
arcpy.env.referenceScale = "50000"

arcpy.cartography.ResolveBuildingConflicts(
   ["C:/data/footprints.lyr", "C:/data/bldg_points.lyr"],                                
    "invisible",
    [["C:/data/roads.lyr", "true", "5 Meters"],
     ["C:/data/trails.lyr", "false", "10 Meters"],
     ["C:/data/streams.lyr", "false", "5 Meters"]],
    "10 meters", 
    "15 meters", 
    "bldg_hierarchy")

ResolveBuildingConflicts example 2 (stand-alone script)

This stand-alone script shows an example of using the ResolveBuildingConflicts function.

# Name: ResolveBuildingConflicts_standalone_script.py
# Description: Resolves the symbology conflicts between
#              buildings and nearby barriers,
#              in this case - roads
 
# Import system modules
import arcpy
from arcpy import env

# Set environment settings
env.workspace = "C:/data"
env.referenceScale = "50000"

# Set local variables
in_buildings = "C:/data/footprints.lyr;C:/data/bldg_pts.lyr"
invisibility_field = "invisible"
in_barriers = "'C:/data/roads.lyr' 'true' '5 Meters';\
              'C:/data/trails.lyr' 'false' '10 Meters';\
              'C:/data/streams.lyr' 'false' '5 Meters'"
building_gap = "10 meters"
minimum_size = "15 meters"
hierarchy_field = "bldg_hierarchy"

# Execute Resolve Building Conflicts
arcpy.ResolveBuildingConflicts(in_buildings,
                               invisibility_field,
                               in_barriers,
                               building_gap,
                               minimum_size,
                               hierarchy_field)

Environments

Cartographic Coordinate System, Reference Scale, Cartographic Partitions

Licensing information

• Basic: No
• Standard: No
• Advanced: Yes