find and set point in the center of an ellipse

Question

Dear Forum,

does anyone have an idea how to find the coordinates in the center of an ellipse an set a point there? I have a file with 8 ellipses in the area that i examine. (produced with the drawing function and converted to polygons)Now i want to get out the center coordinates of every ellipse and then the result should be a point file with these centerpoints. I have no idea and hope you'll help

thank you

Chris

RussellBrennan · Answer

Chris,

Here is some code that will find and print the centroid of a polygon using a Search Cursor.
import arcpy

polygonfc = 'c:	emp\fgdb.gdb\studyarea'

rows = arcpy.SearchCursor(polygonfc)
    for row in rows:
    feat = row.getValue('SHAPE')
    centroid = feat.centroid
    print centroid

You could then use the centroid values to create points.

Here are some links that you may find useful:
Working with geometry in Python:
http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//002z0000001s000000.htm

Accessing data using cursors:
http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//002z0000001q000000.htm

Insert Cursor:
http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//000v00000038000000.htm

ZarzuraMeyer · Answer

Dan

thank you for answering; the problem is my license. For that tool i need an Arc Info license. I only have access to ArcView...
hm but thanks for trying to help

Chris

DanLee · Answer

Chris,

The geoprocessing tool Feature To Point can produce centroid points from polygons - you get a point feature class as the output:
http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#/Feature_To_Point/00170000003m000000/

Then the Add XY Coordinates tool can add the X and Y coordinate fields to the point feature class:
http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#/Add_XY_Coordinates/001700000032000000/

Hope that helps. Thanks.