ArcGIS 10.2 Model Builder soil sample points interpolation

Question

I have built a model in model builder that is supposed to take an unprojected shapefile join it to an excel table field  project the joined shapefile and then perform kriging using Geostatistical Analyst and then clip the raster output to a boundary. The model in the image below will project both the boundary and the raster however it will not clip the raster and when it is added to the map the boundary and the raster will not display in the same map as if the coordinate systems are different. I am not a programmer and an intermediate level GIS user I could really use some help!

Thanks

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AndrewWindham · Answer

Thanks guys let me try this and I will let you know the results.

Andrew

ChrisDonohue__GISP · Answer

Neil and Chad have some good points to consider for anyone doing analysis.  What they mention are essentially best practices in organizing data for analysis.  By doing these best practices, one will avoid many headaches and help insure the results you get are valid.

To summarize:

1.  Start out by making sure all the inputs have projections and coordinate system before anything else.  If they already have a projection, but it is not he one desired, use a process to convert them to the one desired.  As Chad alludes to, avoid the pitfall of assigning a desired projection to something that already has a projection - instead, use one of the several methods to convert from the current projection to the desired one.

2.  Expanding on what Neil mentioned, it's usually best to take a feature class with joined data and combine it into one dataset before running analysis.  Take the joined dataset and create a new feature class from it.  This new feature class will permanently have the joined data in it, eliminating potential issues due to the Join.  Then check the result.  Note that it is common for issues in field names to crop up here, so checking it (and then editing your input Excel table to resolve them, if needed) is important.  For example, look out for field names in Excel that contain restricted characters, have spaces, are very long, etc.  Also, check that the data types are as expected.  For example, did a string field become a number type when it should of stayed string?  The bigger reason for doing this is that it identifies potential common issues before the model runs and blows up, or returns unexpected results.

Chris Donohue, GISP

ChadKopplin · Answer

The unprojected shapefile needs to have the original projection set, you cannot define it to something else, you would need to use the actual projection tools to change to projection or use the on the fly projection from the data frame.  The data will not display because the shapefile and the projection of the data frame do not truly match up.  Once each layer is defined to their native projections this should work.  I hope this helps.