Add {ASCII} format to arcpy.ddd.ASCII3DToFeatureClass Tool

WentaoChe

It would be very useful to add {ASCII} format to arcpy.ddd.ASCII3DToFeatureClass Tool.

Now, there are 3 formats are available for ASCII3DToFeatureClass Tool, namely XYZ, XYZI, or GENERATE formats, {ASCII} format is not included.

" The structure of the ASCII file consists of header information containing a set of keywords, followed by cell values in row-major order.

The format of the file in general is:

NCOLS xyz
NROWS xyz
XLLCORNER xyz
YLLCORNER xyz
CELLSIZE xyz
NODATA_VALUE xyz
row 1
row 2
.
.
row n

"   Quoted from ASCII 3D To Feature Class (3D Analyst)—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

Thank you in advance

Wentao Che

Tokyo, Japan

WentaoChe

@MarkBryant , Thank you very much for your valuable advice.

The reason I suggested this idea is that I'm trying to convert a DEM raster (either tif or Grid) to a point shape file, and Raster to Point tool is taking considerably longer than the 'gridpoint' + 'arcshape' tools available in Arc/Info. I've proposed an idea to enhance the performance of 'RasterToPoint' Please Improve RasterToPoint performance  , and I'd appreciate it if you could evaluate it. 

Here's an example for context: with columns and rows of 1000 and 750 respectively,

1. The arcpy.conversion.RasterToPoint Tool takes about 41-46 seconds.
2. The 'gridpoint' + 'arcshape' combination from Arc Commands only takes 12 seconds. Breaking it down, the grid to coverage takes 6 seconds, and the coverage to shape file also takes 6 seconds.

I've compared the performance of ArcGIS Pro 3.1.2 and Arc/Info 10.0 on the same PC, while processing thousands of Grid or tif files. This performance issue is the primary reason why I have not yet transitioned from this particular AML to Pro's Python code.

I believe that arcpy.conversion.RasterToPoint tool should be faster, or at least not considerably slower than the old but reliable Arc/Info tools. Could my perspective be misguided? 

I wish that the ASCII Raster format could be added to the 'ASCII 3D To Feature Class' tool. This could provide an alternative to the 'RasterToPoint' tool.

Thanks again,

Wentao Che