Field Mappings in Modelbuilder Arcgis 10 - Append tool

Question

Original User: bbunch76

Hi everyone,

I have an issue with the append tool in modelbuilder. I am appending a number or of featureclasses to a single feature class. The append works fine but the text fields do not come over. The output featureclass just has null in those particular attributes. I have seen some other websites/posts that relate to a similar type issue with 9.3 and earlier.

I have researched various methods that people have suggest with little success. If I run a test process with known inputs it works fine. When it is part of a much larger model where inputs are only known at the run stage, I have had to add a variable of field mapping parameters to match the same as the input feature classes that all share the same three fields and this has not worked.

I am on 10 SP2.

I don't really want to have to use any python scripts. All too often when python changes to a new version it results in breaking things from my experience.

Has anyone had this issue and discovered a workaround? or something that I am missing that I can try?

The attached images show the differences in model readiness (obvious) 🙂 and their respective field mappings that are automatically created on the known inputs version of the model and the manually added ones on the append process with unknown inputs.

This is very frustrating.

Thanks

Brady

known inputs.jpg

append.jpg

known inputs field mapping.jpg

append field mapping.jpg

EricG_4-1742488932914.png

EricG_5-1742488932915.png

EricG_3-1742488933214.png

EricG_0-1742488932901.png

Anonymous User · Answer

Eight years later and I'm still running into this issue. When I run Append in a model or as an automatic task it won't map the fields. In my task I have to have the user run the step to ensure the tool works.

HelenYang · Answer

I have the same issue. The only work around I have been using is to edit the model, open the tool, click Test, then set back to No_Test. The field mapping works fine from there.

This is really annoy. My automation task stops working when it hits the place. I have to manually run this part of the model.

It appears for me that the model didn't refresh information as often as it requires during execution.

I tried to add in a small python script to refresh the workspace, it didn't work.

Similar situation occurs when I detected a feature class existence. If the feature class has been created in previous part of the model, the Exists function never return true.

I hope that Esri could provide effective info on how to refresh the workspace during the model execution.

Anonymous User · Answer

Original User: jrflannery

I am having the same issues.  I am creating route event Milepost points and am appending the results to an existing SDE featureclass.  All works well except that all of the attributes for the appended Milepost features in the SDE featureclass are <Null>.  It does not matter if I append directly from the in-memory events or append from the output of a "Make Feature Layer" tool.

Frustrating...