Update Spatial Relationships

Update Spatial Relationships tool

To aid in general editing and maintaining relationships between features, Lucity GIS has a special functionality that will automatically update features in a feature class based on their location relative to features in other feature classes.  For example, most clients will want to have a relationship set up between Sewer Pipes and Sewer Structures so that sewer pipes are automatically assigned the upstream and downstream structure numbers.  If this spatial relationship is not set up, the user has to maintain these fields manually.  Another example is to create a relationship between the parcel feature class and the sewer service lateral feature class so that when new service laterals are drawn, they are automatically assigned an address based on the parcel proximity.

For more information on defining spatial relationships for features, see the Geodatabase Synchronization Setup for Spatial Relationships help guide.

To use the tool, complete the following steps:

1. In ArcMap, start an edit session.
2. Select the features you wish to have updated  by dragging a box around those features.

   

3. Click on the Update Spatial Relationships tool on the Lucity GIS Edit toolbar.
4. You will receive a message similar to the one below.  This verifies how many features are currently selected.  To continue, click "Yes".

   

5. A status bar will appear in the lower right- hand corner of ArcMap showing the progress of the update.  After the status has reached 100% you must save your edit session to finish the update process.

Do not use this tool to force features to synchronize to the desktop; instead, use the Force Synchronization tool.  This tool will not synchronize features that are not the target of a spatial relationship.

It is not necessary to use this tool on features you are currently editing; the desktop automatically updates spatial relationships anytime you make any changes to a feature.  This is not true if you are using the Lucity batch edit tool; changes made using the Lucity batch edit tool do not trigger spatial updates because typically the attributes that are edited using the batch edit utility do not participate in a spatial relationship.

This tool is most commonly used for these situations:

1. On data loaded using the ESRI data loader to update upstream and downstream structure numbers on sewer pipes and storm conduits.
2. On any other data loaded using the ESRI data loader that participates in spatial relationships.  For example, if trees are loaded using a data loader and you want to assign trees to the streets they associated with (if they are close enough to a street to be considered a street tree), you can use this tool to select the trees.  If the street layer is in the map, and if you have the relationship setup, it will update the trees to assign an attribute with the street number.
3. In situations where spatial relationships did not get updated due to an error in the software.
4. In situations where you have created new spatial relationships among your features.  Since the system does not automatically run the new relationship on existing features you would need to use this tool to update the database.
5. When using the batch editing tool.

   If, after using this tool, the attributes do not update as you are expecting them to update, it is possible that you do not have the features snapped, or it is possible that you do not have the spatial relationship properly defined.