Using Integrate tool in ArcMap

Question

I am looking for advice on using the Integrate tool.

I have 2 road layers I need to conflate and find the mismatched ones.

Is it possible to avoid any move from the master layer (the one with higher rank 1 )?

In the documentation it says:

Note that features in the feature class with a rank of 1 may move when a large x,y tolerance is used.XY Tolerance (optional)

The distance that determines the range in which feature vertices are made coincident. To minimize undesired movement of vertices, the x,y tolerance should be fairly small. If no value is specified, the xy tolerance from the first dataset in the list of inputs will be used.

Answer 1

have a look at the snap tool in the "editing" toolbox. It snaps the vertices of features in one layer A to the vertices/or edges of features in layer B. There is no change made to layer B.

Remember that the tool is just moving vertices, if A is coarser (has fewer vertices) than B, you may want to use the densify tool to add vertices to B.

Answer 2

The Polyline Global Snap Wizard allows you to snap polyline layer A to polyline layer B. Only polyline layer A changes geometry, and -depending on the options- vertices are introduced where necessary.

Polyline layer B remains as it is. This would be your master road layer.

This is not a free function, you have to buy ET GeoWizards to make use of the tool.

Answer 3

Try looking at the Feature Compare tool which:

Compares two feature classes or layers and returns the comparison results. Feature Compare can report differences with geometry, tabular values, spatial reference, and field definitions.

Answer 4

If I were you to use the integrate tool , I would make a backup in the event if you messed up or you don't like what you see. There is no turning back like undo. I would zoom into closer and measure the distance like miles or meters. To use that , go to the Tools menu and then go to Measure ( the icon looks like a ruler with questions mark and arrows. If you are using ArcGIS 9.3.1.

To back up, You can put it in another folder and copy the data into the new folder or put it a geodatabase. Or you can back it up to external hard drive things like that.