The geometry for features such as multipoint, line and polygons may have one or more parts. In the case of multipoint, the feature's geometry is made up of one or more points. Geoprocessing tools generate results based the feature (ie all the points inside the multipoint). For example, using the Near tool with multipoint input (or multipart lines or polygons) will generate a result per feature, not one result per point inside the multipoint.
The following geoprocessing tools can be used to generate another type of data from an input multipoint feature class.
- Multipart To Singlepart: Takes each point in multipoint features, creates a single feature for each, and writes the result to the output point feature class.
- Feature To Point: For each input multipoint, a single point is written to the output point feature class. An option on the tool can be used to control if the output point will be the average (CENTROID option) of the input multipoints or simply coincident with one of the inputs (INSIDE option).
- Minimum Bounding Geometry: The minimum bounding geometry (convex hull, circle, rectangle) required to enclose the input multipoint is written to the output polygon feature class.
Another tool to be aware of is Dissolve, which takes points as input and, based on common attribute values, generates multipoints and writes them to a multipoint feature class. This is basically the opposite of what the Multipart To Singlepart tool does.