17/2/23, 8:21 arcgis desktop - Calculating angle between two points (according to reference point)?

point)? - Geographic Information Systems Stack E…

Calculating angle between two points (according to reference point)?

Asked 9 years, 11 months ago Modified 8 years, 9 months ago Viewed 8k times

I need to calculate the angles between two points on ArcGIS. I have ArcInfo License, too. I
have 5 points on a diagram. One of them is my reference point. The other four creates angles
3 between each other. I need to calculate each angle automatically. Because I have 7500 of
these points. I'm also adding a picture of my points. I need to calculate the angles of point
number 1-2, 2-3, 3-4, 4-1.

arcgis-desktop point angles

Share Improve this question edited May 20, 2014 at 4:51 asked Mar 11, 2013 at 15:31
Follow PolyGeo ♦ Onur Alkan
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17/2/23, 8:21 arcgis desktop - Calculating angle between two points (according to reference point)? - Geographic Information Systems Stack E…

1 Will there always be a straight line through the reference point between points 1 and 4 (as shown in the
illustration)? If so, angle 4-1 will always be 180 degrees. – user3461 Mar 11, 2013 at 16:45

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The Generate Near Table tool (under Analysis Tools > Proximity) will get you started. You can
give the tool a search radius around your reference points and tell it to find the 4 nearest
3 other points, it will calculate the distance and angle to each of the 4 points from the reference
point. Make sure the Angle box is checked, Find Only Closest Feature is unchecked, and you
enter the appropriate number of nearest points to find:

Once that's done you will have angles to each point from the reference point, so you'll need to
do a little math to figure out the angles in your screenshot. The Near tool calculates angles
relative to the X axis so an angle of 0 would be due east, 90 would be north and -90 would be
south.

Share Improve this answer Follow answered Mar 11, 2013 at 16:12
Dan C
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17/2/23, 8:21 arcgis desktop - Calculating angle between two points (according to reference point)? - Geographic Information Systems Stack E…

1 Thanks for your help. I already calculated the angles (According to x-axis) all my 7500 points via this
tool. However I need the angels between the points, not the x-axis. I'm tri-ying to develop an excel
formula to calculate the angels with the angels to x-axis. Still workimng on it. Thanks for your precious
help –  Onur Alkan Mar 11, 2013 at 20:54

If my answer helped, please click the up arrow next to it to vote it up. Thanks! – Dan C Mar 11, 2013 at
22:09

You might be able to use math functions in a field calculate. There is a function for degree and
you can find more about it in the help docs.
-1
Share Improve this answer Follow answered Mar 12, 2013 at 3:57
user16056
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3 Perhaps you could elaborate more and provide links to the help documents. – Fezter ♦ Mar 12, 2013 at
5:12

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