Moving Point Features (within a Polygon) to the Edge of those Polygon Features

Question

I have a bit of a complex task, and was wondering if anybody has knowledge that could assist me.

Data: Water utility data that is not connected through a geometric network. Data includes Parcel (polygons), Water Service Meters (Points), Service Laterals(Lines), and Water Mains (Lines). Meters reside within the Parcels and are connected to nearby Mains through Laterals.

Task: I have been asked to relocate the Meters from within the Parcel polygons to the closest edge of said Parcel polygons. To complicate matters, I need to ensure that in the end, the Meters are connected to a Main (any nearby Main).

Answer 1

You have not said what your license level is, it's always important you state this as this dictates the solution. Assuming you have at least Standard you could use the SNAP tool.

I've not worked with water networks so my image below may not be correct but it at least shows you the tool.

In the image below you have polygons with points and your mains. It's not clear from your question if mains stop at the boundary or enter them? So I have examples of both.

I set the snap rules as shown below:

The end results is this: Note where the main enters the polygon the point does not move to the edge.

Answer 2

I believe what you want to do it edit the features using a snap tool, this link gives you info, which you can drag into python to extract the snippet.

http://www.esri.com/news/arcwatch/0412/use-the-snap-geoprocessing-tool-to-automate-editing.html

You should be able to set rules within the editing tool which will allow you to decide if there is a connection, or you could select only the features which are connected to the Main, and run the edit on those alone.