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I have a shapefile with polygons representing unique populations. I want to determine contiguous polygons in my shapefile, and then extract the border separating contiguous polygons as a separate polyline file. Importantly, I require the created polyline file to indicate the two polygons it separates.

I am aware of Polygon Neighbor to produce a table of all contiguous pairs, but this doesn't help me extract borders as polylines.

Consider group A in the following example map:

Example Border

Group A has 8 contiguous pairs: AB, AC, AD, AE, AF, AG, AH, AI. I would like the output file to separate the aggregate border for group A into 8 separate lines, each line referencing only the shared border between each contiguous pair; e.g., the border of AH in red would be a single line in the output data. As noted before it is important that the output file also identifies the two groups each line separates.

To clarify, I require a general solution for all possible contiguous pairs in my dataset. I do not have a single group such as the example group A that I am interested in.

This question is similar to Extracting polyline of border between differing polygons using R or GRASS?, except I'm interested in a solution using ArcGIS 10.2 for Desktop. I have some knowledge of Python if an ArcPy solution is easiest.

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    If you need to identify from the polylines which polygons are on either side use Polygon to Line help.arcgis.com/EN/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//… and specify IDENTIFY_NEIGHBORS (advanced license required) It would be best if you didn't use shapefiles as the FIDs are not static, preferably convert the polygon shapefile to a geodatabase feature class (with static OIDs) so that the ids are reliable. – Michael Stimson Sep 8 '15 at 22:12
  • @MichaelMiles-Stimson: If I am able to figure out how to extract borders as polylines I will follow your suggestion. Thanks! – acd Sep 8 '15 at 22:39
  • That's what the tool does. Where polygons coalesce only one line is produced and if you specify it will store the OID/FID of the source polygons in a field. – Michael Stimson Sep 8 '15 at 22:48
  • @MichaelMiles-Stimson: Sorry I didn't read your comment correctly the first time around. Thank you for the response, I was able to almost do what I want with your suggestion. I say almost because approximately 1/5 of the polylines produced are disjoint; e.g., a single border segment might be split into 3 disjoint polylines, where one line has the appropriate left/right FIDs, but then the other two have only one of the FIDs and an unmatched FID of -1 for the other. Is this a common problem you are aware of? – acd Sep 9 '15 at 20:13
  • Yes it's a common problem, because of tiny gaps in the polygons the lines diverge and are populated with -1 (no polygon) on the outside. A tool like Eliminate or Integrate (see gis.stackexchange.com/questions/11004/… or gis.stackexchange.com/questions/154264/… - read the warnings) will help close the gaps, after the gaps are removed you should have single lines at the boundaries. – Michael Stimson Sep 9 '15 at 21:39
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This will convert your polygons into arcs very quickly. You need 2 layers in table of content: 1st - polylines, 2nd - polygons

import arcpy, traceback, os, sys,time
from arcpy import env
env.overwriteOutput = True
dissolved="in_memory/dissolved"

try:
    def showPyMessage():
        arcpy.AddMessage(str(time.ctime()) + " - " + message)

    mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument("CURRENT")
    theLinksLayer=arcpy.mapping.ListLayers(mxd)[0]
    PGONS=arcpy.mapping.ListLayers(mxd)[1]
    arcpy.DeleteFeatures_management(theLinksLayer)
    curT = arcpy.da.InsertCursor(theLinksLayer,"SHAPE@")
    with arcpy.da.SearchCursor(PGONS, "Shape@") as cursor:
        for row in cursor:
            feat = row[0].boundary()
            curT.insertRow((feat,))
    arcpy.Dissolve_management(theLinksLayer, dissolved,"","", "SINGLE_PART")
    arcpy.DeleteFeatures_management(theLinksLayer)
    m=0
    arcpy.AddMessage("Dissolving ...")
    curT = arcpy.da.InsertCursor(theLinksLayer,"SHAPE@")
    with arcpy.da.SearchCursor(dissolved, "SHAPE@") as cursor:
        for row in cursor:
            m+=1
            curT.insertRow((row[0],))

    arcpy.Delete_management("in_memory")
    arcpy.RefreshActiveView()
    arcpy.AddMessage("\nPolygons unbuilt into %i lines\n" %m)
    del curT

except:
    message = "\n*** PYTHON ERRORS *** "; showPyMessage()
    message = "Python Traceback Info: " + traceback.format_tb(sys.exc_info()[2])[0]; showPyMessage()
    message = "Python Error Info: " +  str(sys.exc_type)+ ": " + str(sys.exc_value) + "\n"; showPyMessage()

From here it is enough to spatially join lines to polygons (one to many, SHARE_A_LINE_SEGMENT_WITH) and dissolve output using line name and first, last polygon IDs to get this:

enter image description here

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  • Thank you for the very thorough response. I apologize but I am not following something very basic in your explanation. I am confused where the 1st polyline layer in the Table of Contents is coming from? My aim is to create a polyline layer of contiguous border segments so I don’t understand how to add it to the Table of Contents in the first place. Thank you. – acd Sep 9 '15 at 0:40
  • Create empty polyline feature layer. Make it sitting on the top of all the other layers. Place your source polygons layer below it. – FelixIP Sep 9 '15 at 1:06
  • To be honest there many other ways to derive polygon edges as Michael said. You might start editing empty polyline layer. Select all polygons, copy-paste to polyline layer. Go advanced editing, pick planarise. I offered script simply because it is sitting in one of my custom toolboxes and I preffer to use it – FelixIP Sep 9 '15 at 1:18
  • Thank you. I am learning to use script so I am slow but I prefer to do it this way. I created an empty polyline feature layer, placed it at the top, followed by my source polygon layer. When running the script I keep getting the error message: ERROR 999999: Error executing function. Cannot acquire a lock. Cannot acquire a lock. Failed to execute (Dissolve). I am unable to determine why the layers are locked when using the Dissolve tool? – acd Sep 9 '15 at 1:56
  • Try to change dissolved="in_memory/dissolved" to something like dissolved=r"c:\work\dissolved.shp". in_memory storage can be tricky. Also disable arcpy.Delete_management(in_memory). Note that I've added escept block at the end of script. No idea why it wasn't best at the start. Python is good, don't give up – FelixIP Sep 9 '15 at 2:00

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