Splitting line at newly created point feature

Splitting Lines at Newly Created Point Features: A Human’s Guide

Okay, so you’re working with maps and data, right? And sometimes you need to, like, chop a line in half exactly where you dropped a pin. Sounds simple, but it’s a bread-and-butter task in the GIS world. We’re talking about splitting a line feature at the spot where you’ve added a new point. Why bother? Turns out, it’s super useful for everything from planning cities to keeping an eye on the environment. Let’s dive in.

Think about it: you’ve got a road, and you need to mark where it changes from asphalt to concrete. Boom, point feature! Splitting the line there lets you track that change. Or maybe you’re mapping a river and need to divide it into sections based on where tributaries flow in. Splitting lines lets you do that too. It’s all about breaking down those continuous lines into manageable chunks.

So how do we actually do this? Well, different software has different ways of tackling it. Here’s a peek at a couple of the big players:

ArcGIS Pro: The “Split Line at Point” Powerhouse

ArcGIS Pro has a tool literally called “Split Line at Point.” Makes sense, right? You’ll find it tucked away in the Data Management toolbox. Basically, you tell it which line you want to split and which point you want to split it with. It can even look for points near the line, which is handy if your data isn’t perfect (and let’s be honest, whose data is?).

Here’s the gist:

A couple of insider tips for ArcGIS Pro:

• “Pairwise Integrate” is your friend: If your points and lines aren’t exactly lined up, this tool will nudge them together. Just a heads up: it changes your original data, so back it up first!
• Attributes stick around: Don’t worry, your data won’t disappear. The new line segments keep the old attributes. Plus, you get some extra fields to track where they came from.
• Basic license blues? The “Split Line at Point” tool needs a fancy license. But you can get around it with a little Python scripting.

QGIS: The Open-Source Swiss Army Knife

QGIS is a bit more DIY, which is why some people love it. You’ve got a few ways to skin this cat.

General Wisdom

No matter what software you’re using, keep these things in mind:

Getting Scripty

Want to automate this whole process? Python is your answer. Libraries like ArcPy (for ArcGIS) and Shapely/Geopandas are incredibly powerful.

Here’s a taste of what you can do with Shapely and Geopandas:

python