Join Lines
Join two or more contiguous lines into individual linestrings using manual and automated methods. When lines are joined, they are converted into linestrings, thereby increasing their versatility. The resulting linestring's direction and properties are determined by the first (base) line that you choose.
There are two ways lines join:
- By making their end points coincident if they are within 0.0001 m of each other
- By drawing a straight segment between the nearest end points if they are further than 0.0001 m apart
Note: End points with different elevations cannot be joined.
Note: This command works on 2D data in the plan view; end points with an elevation of 0 (zero) are converted to 2D end points.
Prerequisites:
- CAD polyline, arc, or linestring
To join two lines manually:
- Do one of the following:
- Select Join Lines in CAD > Edit.
- Right-click a linestring or polyline, and select Join Lines from the context menu.
The Join Lines command pane displays.
- Select the Two lines option.
- Pick a line in a graphic view. The line's name is recorded in the Base line box.
Note: If desired, click the
icon to toggle the auto-advance mode on. When the icon looks like this 
, the base line you selected is retained and this box is skipped when joining additional lines.
Tip: You can toggle the Auto-advance mode on/off by pressing [Control] + [.] (period or decimal point). The
Note: If you find that you need to edit any of the lines you are trying to join, click the Edit icon after you have picked the line. You can also click the Edit icon before you pick the line, and you will be prompted to specify the line to edit. This enables you to move a line's end point within the distance tolerance that allows coincident end points of lines to be joined without adding a straight segment. - Pick the line you want to join to the base line. The line's name is recorded in the Line to join box. The lines are joined and converted into a single linestring.
- To join additional pairs of lines, continue to pick lines to connect to the current base line.
- Continue to join additional lines, or click .
To join one line to many consecutive lines:
- After step 1 above, select the One line to selection option.
- Pick a line in a graphic view. The line's name is recorded in the Base line box.
- Pick a set of lines to join to the base line, or click and choose a selection option. The number of lines selected is recorded in the Lines to join box.
- Press or click Join. The command searches from the base line to each consecutive line, joining them until it reaches a break in the lines or a branch to multiple lines where it stops. The number of lines that were successfully joined to the base line is reported at the bottom of the pane.
Note: Lines that are not within the 0.0001 m tolerance of each other cannot be joined using this method.
To join all consecutive lines:
- After step 1 in the first procedure, select the All selected lines option.
- Pick a set of lines to join in a graphic view, or click and choose a selection option. The number of lines selected is recorded in the Lines to join box.
- Press or click Join. The command searches from each selected line to each consecutive line, joining them until it reaches a break in the lines or a branch to multiple lines where it stops. The number of lines that were successfully joined to the base line is reported at the bottom of the pane.
Note: Lines that are not within the 0.0001 m tolerance of each other cannot be joined using this method.
