Would like to create star and snowflake symbols

SteveCline

I am trying to replicate a technique used in the attached photo which uses what they call, "star and snowflake symbols" for multivariate analysis.  Is there any functionality in Desktop that might accomplish this or a similar visualization?

Source: Slocum, T. A., McMaster, R. B., Kessler, F. C. and Howard, H. H. 2005. Thematic Cartography and Geographic Visualization, Prentice‐Hall. 2nd edition (p. 355)

South Carolina QOL.jpg

1349-uc25-day3-YM21990.jpg

DarrenWiens2

Here's how you can do it with arcpy geometries (10.1+):

>>> fc = "grid" # input feature layer
... sr = arcpy.Describe(fc).spatialReference # spatial ref
... points = []
... lines = []
... polys = []
... fields = ["SHAPE@","var1","var2","var3","var4","var5","var6","var7","var8"] # geometry plus 8 variables
... maxDist = 5 # value multiplier
... with arcpy.da.SearchCursor(fc,fields,spatial_reference=sr) as cursor: # loop through features
...     for row in cursor: 
...         centre = row[0].centroid # centre point
...         newPolyPoints = []
...         for i in range(1,9): # loop through variables
...             x = centre.X + math.cos(math.radians(i*45))*row*maxDist # x offset
...             y = centre.Y + math.sin(math.radians(i*45))*row*maxDist # y offset
...             newPoint = arcpy.PointGeometry(arcpy.Point(x,y),sr) # create point geometry
...             points.append(newPoint)
...             newLine = arcpy.Polyline(arcpy.Array([centre,newPoint.centroid]),sr) # make ray lines
...             lines.append(newLine)
...             newPolyPoints.append(newPoint.centroid)
...         newPoly = arcpy.Polygon(arcpy.Array(newPolyPoints),sr) # make snowflake polygon
...         polys.append(newPoly)
... arcpy.CopyFeatures_management(points,r'in_memory\points') # write points
... arcpy.CopyFeatures_management(lines,r'in_memory\lines') # write lines
... arcpy.CopyFeatures_management(polys,r'in_memory\polys') # write polygons