Create a measured network

• RivEX is capable of converting a river network into a measured network (PolylineM FeatureClass).

• Such datasets when labelled with route ID's can be used for linear referencing.  You can display point and line data measured along your network.  If you are unfamiliar with linear referencing please refer to the online ESRI help for an overview.

• RivEX can convert only Shapefiles into PolylineM Shapefiles.  If your data is in another format such as a coverage or geometric network, RivEX will fail to process your data.

• Select your network, polyline ID, From and To node fields and press Build to construct the data dictionaries.

Whilst the data dictionaries are not used during the conversion process they do provide a useful validation of the network.

• Set the field which is the RivEX field for Distance to Mouth.  You must have generated this using RivEX before you can use this conversion tool.

• Set the unit of measurement.  This is the measurement you want you network to be in, not the units of the original dataset.  If for example your event data was capture in Kilometres but your network is in meters you need to set the units to Kilometres as this will allow you to map your event data.

• Provide a valid file name for your output.

• Click on Go! and the data is exported into a PolylineM Shapefile and then measured.  The status bar will show you the current percentage converted.  The output is written to the same directory as the original dataset.

• Having created this dataset you can test it by using the Identify Route Locations tool (you may need to add this from the customize dialog before you start RivEX).

• To be able to plot events along the measured network you must attribute your polylines with route ID's.  What ID's you assign to the polylines is entire up to your organisation. You may have a numeric system that identifies reaches along your network or a simple code used for the river name.