Create Geodatabase Model from Table List

Question

I'm looking for an easy way to turn a table listing feature class parameters into a Geodatabase. For example the table includes everything one would need to know to setup a geodatabase feature classes: DataSet, Name, Alias, Geometry Type, M, Z, Coordinate System, XY Tollerance, Fields and parameters.

The goal is to be able to develop a standard GIS model in MS Excel and quickly turn it into a Geodatabase. The model I am working on has 200+ feature classes so creating by hand would be very time consuming. I know this is done in Visio, but I find Excel to be an efficient way to plan your geodatabase model.

Please send any good ideas. Thanks,

-Lee

LeeDavis1 · Answer

Great tip, the x-ray tools for Catalog are very useful. However not as streamlined as I would have hoped. These tools are better for making changes to an existing GIS model using excel versus generating a new model from scratch.

The biggest problem with the x-ray tool is that when you edit the features in the xml workspace document each feature is on a separate tab in excel. This doesn't lend well to batch creation of features. Or batch editing of feature parameters. Also the parameter definition uses a set of certain codes to define the feature, and if you dont know the available list of codes it can be difficult. Or you can easily input a mistake into the XML which will error when you create the GDB.

I like the Python approach as well but am not so savvy in scripting.

Thanks

MarcoBoeringa · Answer

The goal is to be able to develop a standard GIS model in MS Excel and quickly turn it into a Geodatabase. The model I am working on has 200+ feature classes so creating by hand would be very time consuming. I know this is done in Visio, but I find Excel to be an efficient way to plan your geodatabase model.

Please send any good ideas. Thanks,

-Lee

No need for Python scripting here. X-Ray for ArcCatalog (ArcGIS 10.2) was specifically designed for this purpose, interacting with the geodatabase model by using Excel and XML workspaces. It allows you to change or build your geodatabase model in Excel, and than apply it to your geodatabase.

Introduction to X-Ray for ArcCatalog (Video)

There are also versions for 10.0 and 10.1 if I am right. Just Google for them if you need it.

AlexeyTereshenkov · Answer

I would suggest using Python for that. You would need to use xlrd package. When you will read each column, the cell values you will get become input parameters values for the Create Feature Class GP tool.

There is a good tutorial on how to read the Excel sheet here.