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I am looking to generate points along a series of connected lines at regular intervals, but I wish to keep this interval even when a line is branching into 2 or 3 other lines. All the regular tools I tested in ArcMap or QGIS generate points on a feature basis meaning that the interval restart at each node.

On the picture I drew road network (blue lines), direction flow (orange arrows) and desired points (red dots). The first point is at 50m from the beginning of the first line, then a second 50m further but then there is a node within the next 50m. The usual tools would then start "fresh" on the two branches but I want to keep the 50m distance between the last point before the node and the first point on each branch. How could this be done? I suppose some topology may be needed...

Desired points along lines

I am looking for a free solution, ideally with Python, QGIS, SAGA, GRASS, GDAL or alike. In last resort, I could use ArcMap.

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Calculate distance to outlet (using network analyst, maybe. I used networkx) for every node:

enter image description here

Transfer this info into links table:

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Create routes - linear referencing:

arcpy.CreateRoutes_lr(in_line_features="LINKS", route_id_field="Route", out_feature_class="C:/SCRATCH/SCRATCH.gdb/ROUTES", measure_source="TWO_FIELDS", from_measure_field="From_T", to_measure_field="To_T", coordinate_priority="UPPER_LEFT", measure_factor="1", measure_offset="0", ignore_gaps="IGNORE", build_index="INDEX")

Note fields I used in above (!).

Create table like that in Excel to cover longest segment:

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Add text field aLink to Routes, populate it by "A" and index that field. Use create query table to multiply records from Excel table:

arcpy.MakeQueryTable_management(in_table="ROUTES;fromExcel", out_table="QueryTable3", in_key_field_option="ADD_VIRTUAL_KEY_FIELD", in_key_field="", in_field="", where_clause="ROUTES.aLink = fromExcel.R")

and create event layer using Routes and extended table:

enter image description here

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  • Thanks. I was able to do a similar thing with arcgis pro's network analyst. Using the "service area" feature, I set it to create lines (instead of the default polygons) and accumulate distance at the start/end points. I had to manually enter my list of breaks (10,20,...,200,210,...500,) as there is no "every X unit" ability. This created the lines in a feature class, and I could use the "vertex to points" tool to change the ending vertex of each line into a point.
    – Benny Jobigan
    Commented Mar 5, 2023 at 21:44
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I suggest to use v.to.points (this will create points at a specified distance along your input lines in new vector map)

Note that the distance between generated points will be in map units.

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  • It is not ArcGis (a) and how does it handle branching issue (b) ?
    – FelixIP
    Commented Mar 21, 2019 at 3:45
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    I just tested GRASS v.to.points but it doesn't handle branching nor does it use a regular interval on all features, only within each feature.
    – Jean-François Bourdon
    Commented Mar 21, 2019 at 12:59

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