Finding duplicate geometry

Duplicate geometry is when two features of the same geometry type are colocated, or are at the same location. The features can also share attributes and can be from two feature classes or the same feature class.

The Duplicate Geometry check searches a specified feature class for features that share the same geometry and are located in the same place. You can either search for all duplicate features or only those with identical attribution on editable fields. If you are validating attribution as well as geometry, you can optionally choose to ignore fields that are considered feature-level metadata. The check can be run on feature classes, subtypes, and features selected using a SQL query.

Once you have defined the criteria for the check, you can configure the notes and a severity rating. The notes allow you to provide a more specific description for the feature that has been written to the Reviewer table and are copied to the Notes field in the Reviewer table. The severity rating allows you to indicate how important the results from a check are in terms of your quality assurance/quality control processes. The lower the number, the greater the priority the check's results have.

Steps:

1. Start ArcMap.
2. On the main menu, click Customize > Toolbars > Data Reviewer.
3. Click the Select Data Check drop-down arrow on the Data Reviewer toolbar, click the plus sign (+) next to Duplicate Geometry Checks, then click Duplicate Geometry Check.

   The Duplicate Geometry Check Properties dialog box appears.
4. If necessary, type a unique name for the check in the Check Title text box.
   Note:

   The check title can be used to describe the conditions you are looking for with the check. This is useful when you have multiple instances of the same check to validate the same feature classes or tables but with different validation parameters.

5. Click the Feature Class/Subtype drop-down arrow in the Feature Class 1 area and choose the feature class and subtype on which to run the check.
6. To run the check on the entire feature class and save this setting, check the Always Run on Full Database check box.
7. To run the check on specific features in a feature class, click SQL to construct a SQL query.
8. Repeat steps 5–7 in the Feature Class 2 area.
   Note:

   If you want to run the check using selected features in feature class 1 and all the features in feature class 2, check the Always Run on Full Database check box.

9. To check for identical matches in attributes between features, check the Check Attributes check box.
10. To ignore feature-level metadata attributes for duplicate geometry, check the Attributes to Ignore (Feature Level Metadata) check box.
11. Click Select Attributes to choose attributes to ignore.

    The Attributes To Ignore dialog box appears.

    
12. Check the check boxes next to the attributes you want to ignore when finding duplicate features.
13. Click OK.
14. If necessary, type descriptive text for the check results in the Notes text box in the Reviewer Remarks area.
15. If necessary, click the Severity drop-down arrow and choose a value that indicates the priority of the check's results in the Reviewer Remarks area.
16. Click OK.
17. Click the Run Data Check button on the Data Reviewer toolbar.

    The Features to Validate dialog box appears.
18. Choose an option in the Features to Validate area.
    • Selection Set—The check is run on the features that are currently selected in the map.
    • Current Extent—The check is run on the current map extent, which is controlled by the map scale.
    • Definition Query—The check is run on the features that are displayed based on definition queries that have been created for the feature class.
    • Full Database—The check is run on all the features in the feature class.
19. To run the check only on features that have been edited in a versioned workspace, check the Changed Features Only check box.
    Note:

    The Changed Features Only option is available only for a versioned database.

20. Click OK.