Splitting lines automatically at specific distances?

Question

I have a set of polylines I need to split at varying distances from their starting points. In general I'm looking for a something similar to the SPLIT function within the editor tool. There it is possible to specify a certain line length where the split should be applied. For instance: I have a line A of 3200m length, that I need to split into two separate geometries, one from 0 til 1700m, and one from 1700m til 3200m.

Does anyone have accomplished this using python? Or this there no way around ArcObjects? Or might there be a different solution I'm missing?

I'm using ArcGis 9.3.1. on WinXP with python 2.7.2.5.

Answer 1

You can use ETGeowizards (Polyline->Split Polyline). If you need to include this in a script or geoprocessing model, ETGeowizards can be pulled into ModelBuilder.

In PostGis you can use ST_Line_Substring

Answer 2

you can use two Data Management method with arcpy:

First of all is Split Line At Point (info):

import arcpy
from arcpy import env

env.workspace="C:/data"
arcpy.SplitLineAtPoint_management("streets.shp","events.shp","splitline_out.shp","20 Meters")

Second is Split Line At Vertices (info):

import arcpy
from arcpy import env
env.workspace = "C:/data"
arcpy.SplitLine_management("roads.shp", "c:/output/output.gdb/roads_split")

i hope it helps you...

Answer 3

I've used this ArcObjects class to split line features before at specific distances.

http://edndoc.esri.com/arcobjects/8.3/Samples/Editing/Edit%20Commands/Line%20Edit%20Toolbar/clsDivideLineFeatures.htm