Creating raster attributes with multiple rasters

by ESRI – Submitted by Lakshmi Sankaran – Sr. GIS Analyst | Seminole County Public
Works

Prerequisite: Requires ArcEditor or ArcInfo License

In ArcCatalog

1. Click a feature class within a geodatabase.

2. Click the Preview tab.
3. Click the Preview drop-down arrow and click Table.
4. Click the Options button and click Add field.
5. Type a name for the new field of type raster.
6. Click the Type drop-down arrow and click Raster.
7. Edit any of the properties that may need editing.
8. Click OK.

Tips
• Only one field of type raster may be used on each feature class or table. Use a
different table with a related field to associate more than one raster dataset with
each feature.
• Creating fields of type raster in an ArcSDE geodatabase requires an ArcEditor or
ArcInfo license.

Updating attributes of type raster (ArcMap is required for these steps)

1. Add the feature class that has a raster field that needs to be updated into ArcMap.
2. Click the Editor toolbar button to show the Editor toolbar.
3. Click Editor and click Start Editing.
4. Click the Target drop-down arrow and click the appropriate layer.
5. Click the Edit tool .
6. Select the feature that needs its raster attribute updated.
7. Click the Attributes button on the Editor toolbar to show the attributes for the
selected feature.
8. Click the value for the raster property (the value will either be <Null> or Raster)
to select it.
9. Click the Show Raster button (the small square to the right of the value for the
raster property).
10. Right-click in the new window and click Load.
11. Navigate to the location of the updated raster dataset.
12. Click the updated raster dataset.
13. Click Add.
14. Close the Attributes dialog box.
15. Click Editor and click Stop Editing.

Tips
• Only appropriate raster imagery should be added as an attribute to a feature class.
All valid raster formats are available, but it is highly recommended that only
small pictures be used for this field.
• Updating fields of type raster in an ArcSDE geodatabase requires an ArcEditor or
 ArcInfo license.

Create table for additional rasters per feature.

This table will be used to store additional images (photos) for a feature in a
feature class, as the software out of the box only allows 1 image per feature as noted in
the instructions above.

In ArcCatalog
1. Right click on the geodatabase.
2. Select New > Table
3. Name the table.
4. Click Next.
5. Select Configuration keyword.
6. Click Next.
7. Create at least 3 fields as shown in the New Table dialog below.

Click Finish
 NOTE: An OBJECTID column will automatically be created for the table
when completed.

Add Rasters to the table in ArcMap.

1. Add the new table in ArcMap to load the photos into the Raster column.
2. Open Table.
3. Using the Editor toolbar, Click Editor and Start Editing.
4. Edit table with ID numbers, Description, and then click the > button in
Raster column.
5. Right click in box to load associated raster, and Select Load…

6. Navigate to location of raster, Select image, and Click Add.

7. Continue until all ID’s, and images are added to the table, the Stop Editing
and Save Edits.

Join Feature Class and Multiple Raster Table with a Relationship Class.

In ArcCatalog
1. Right click on the Geodatabase.
2. Select New > Relationship Class
3. Name the Relationship Class and set Origin and Destination (shown below).
4. Click Next.
5. Select Simple (peer to peer) relationship.
6. Click Next.
7. Specify a label name (any name under 32 characters in length) in the two text
lines, and Select the None radio button.
8. Click Next.
9. Select the radio button for 1:M (one to many)
10. Click Next.
11. Accept ‘No’ radio button (default selection)
12. Click Next
 13. Select the ID field in the Feature class and table to join (ie; Parcel ID).

14. Click Next.

15. Click Finish.

Add Feature Class to ArcMap to test Identify tool.

1. Add Feature class to ArcMap.
2. Select Identify tool.
3. Select Feature.
4. View Image and additional images (expand the + in Identify window).