Address locator not using modified .cls file

Question

I have made a customization to the US Streets locator style for our application. We've changed "SR" to map to "STATE ROAD" instead of "HC" in the us_addr.cls file in the C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS directory. When I run StanEdit, it maps "SR" correctly. When I do a test in ArcMap using the Geocoding Standardize Addresses tool, picking the the US Streets with City, State, Zip and AltName, it works correctly also.

I've created a locator in ArcCatalog using the US Streets with City, State, Zip and AltName style and registered it on my local server (which is the same machine I did the above testing on). When I run the batch geocoding tool using that locator or use the Find Address tool, it maps "SR" to "HC".

So I'm thinking that I'm not editing the correct us_addr.cls file. But I have no idea where the locator is pulling from. Is there any documentation anywhere (besides the Geocoding Rule Base Developer Guide - been all thru that) that explains how to modify the locator syles?

We are running ArcGIS 9.3.1 SP 2.

Answer 1

HC and SR are of the type "R", and most often end up becoming the prefix type (PreType, PT) of an address. The default address styles in ArcGIS only support PT up to 6 characters. Changing the second column of the SR entry in the .cls from HC to "STATE ROAD" won't pick up the ROAD part of it.

Rather, my better guess is that your reference layer has STATE ROAD as part of the street name field, not the prefix type field, true? If so then changing the .cls file alone isn't going to solve it. You'll need to make a change to the .xat file and re-encode yourself a new .pat using the Encodpat.exe utility. Test your edits first using the StanEdit.exe utility to ensure the input address gets parsed in a way that matches the way the address values are stored in your reference layer's attribute table.

That's good that you are familiar with the Geocoding Dev manual you referred to above. As for the Locator template (.loc), you won't need to edit that. To fix this, needs adjustments to the .cls and .pat.