Process TomTom MultiNet street data in shapefile format for creating a nationwide address locator

Summary

ArcGIS Geocoding supports creating a nationwide address locator using the US Streets with City, State, ZIP address locator style. The address locator requires some address attributes and the City names, State and ZIP fields. The TomTom MultiNet Street layer in shapefile format is provided in multiple folders. To create a nationwide street layer, the shapefiles can be merged together using the ESRI geoprocessing tool. Currently the MultiNet dataset contains fields for official administrative area names, not postal city names. For nationwide geocoding, postal city names are preferred. This article also describes how to populate the City names by adding the City name fields from the postal code table.

With this additional information, the data can be used to create a nationwide address locator using the US Streets with City State ZIP address locator style available in ArcGIS version 9.2 or above.

Procedure

1. Create a temporary folder called TA_GC in Windows Explorer. Unzip all the *_gc.*.gzip and *_pc.dfb.gzip files in all folders of the MultiNet dataset. Save the unzipped files in the TA_GC folder. This will use about 50 GB disk space. The *.gc shapefiles are the street layers that contain the address attributes for geocoding, and the *.pc.dbf is a table containing records of postcodes and city names.
2. Start ArcCatalog (version 9.2 or above). Create a new empty file geodatabase with the name streets.
3. Open ArcToolBox and double click the Merge tool in the Data Management Tools > General toolbox.
4. Select all the unzipped *.gc shapefiles as the input datasets. In the Output Dataset box, select the streets file geodatabase that was just created and specify a feature class name such as streets. Click OK to start merging the shapefiles.
   
   
   
5. Repeat the same process to merge all the *.pc.dbf files. Save the result table with the name postcodes in the same file geodatabase.
6. Open the Add Field tool under the Data Management Tools > Fields toolbox. Add a new field called CITY_L with field type as text and length as 50. Click OK to add the CITY_L field.
   
   Repeat the step to add another new field named CITY_R to the feature class. These two fields will be used to store the joined City names for the left and right side of the streets.
7. Open the Join Field tool under the Data Management Tools > Joins toolbox. Use the streets feature class as the Input Dataset, L_PC as the Input Join Field, the postcodes table as the Join Table, and POSTCODE as the Output Join Field. In the Join Fields list, check the box next to NAME. Click OK to join the fields. The NAME_1 field is added to the Streets feature class when the process is finished.
   
   Repeat the same step but select R_PC as the Input Join field to join the city names to the feature class based on the postcodes on the right side of the streets. A new NAME_12 field is added to the feature class when the process is finished.
   
8. Open the Calculate Field tool under the Data Management Tools -> Field toolbox. Use the Streets feature class as the Input Table, CITY_L as Field Name and select [NAME_1] as the Expression. Click OK to start copying the values in the NAME_1 field into the CITY_L field.
   
   Repeat the same step but select CITY_R as Field Name and [NAME_12] as the Expression. Click OK to start copying the values in the NAME_12 field into the CITY_R field.
   
9. Use the Delete Field tool under the Data Management Tools > Field toolbox to delete the NAME_1 and NAME_12 fields.
   
10. Now the streets feature class may be used to create an address locator using the US Streets with City, State, ZIP address locator style. Use the L_ORDER01 or R_ORDER01 as the State Abbreviation field.