How to 'Interpolate' features to a surface without creating a seperate file?

ChrisStephens1

Is there way to do what the 'Interpolate Shape' tool does but calculates the z values into the Shape field of the input feature instead of making a new output? As far as I can tell the only other way is by using the 3D Analyst toolbar and selecting the 'Interpolate' tool based on the geometry I need but I'd rather not have to click that every time I digitize something but would prefer to do it after all my features at once after they're created. 'Interpolate Shape' does that but makes a separate file, which does not fit into my workflow. Is there another way? Perhaps using the Field Calculator?

XanderBakker

OK, you have polylines with Z enabled, yet Z has no value assigned yet.

What I would do in this case is create a tmp point featureclass with the vertices of the polygons and information on original OID of the polyline, part number and point number (to be able to link the vertice after Z has been defined back to same vertice in the polyline). Next, assuming you have spatial analyst available, is use the tool extract values to points to extract the Z value for each point into a new tmp featureclass (you could do this using the IN_MEM workspace, but it depends on the amount of points, if this will work in memory).

The next step would be to create a search cursor and fill a dictionary from the points with the Z values as attribute (use OriginalOID_PartNumber_PointNumber as key and the Z as value) and use this when you create the update cursor to update the Z value if the individual vertices.

You can find detailed information on working with 3D geometries in arcpy in my blog post here: Working with 3D and M-aware geometries in Arcpy