topic Re: How do I create a square of a defined area around my points? in ArcGIS Mapping and Charting Questions

How do I create a square of a defined area around my points?

David-PaulKlein — Fri, 12 Jan 2018 09:56:52 GMT

How do I create a square of a defined area around my points when each point has a different size (see attached file)? My aim is to show the plot size on a map and colour it to show differences in the amount of carbon stored...

Thanks a lot for your help!

Re: How do I create a square of a defined area around my points?

XanderBakker — Fri, 12 Jan 2018 13:01:15 GMT

You can use some Python code to accomplish this. Sample code can be found here for a similar problem: https://community.esri.com/thread/84853

Re: How do I create a square of a defined area around my points?

David-PaulKlein — Thu, 18 Jan 2018 16:21:55 GMT

I'm not into Python yet, but I'll have a look. Thanks!

Re: How do I create a square of a defined area around my points?

XanderBakker — Thu, 18 Jan 2018 18:00:24 GMT

It is not that complex, if necessary I can explain the code or create a small toolbox from it to make it easier to use.

Re: How do I create a square of a defined area around my points?

David-PaulKlein — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 15:59:46 GMT

A small toolbox would be perfect! Could you be so kind to create one? Thanks a lot in advance. Paul

Re: How do I create a square of a defined area around my points?

XanderBakker — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 16:18:31 GMT

Question: Do you have ArcGIS Pro or ArcMap and what version do you have?

Re: How do I create a square of a defined area around my points?

XanderBakker — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 19:02:12 GMT

I have attached a 10.6 version of the toolbox.

And this is the result:

It is very likely that you don't have 10.6 (yet) since it was released last week. In that case you can construct the toolbox in your version, using the .py that you can find in the ZIP attached.

In case you have any problems just let me know and I will include a description of how to configure the toolbox for your version.

Re: How do I create a square of a defined area around my points?

David-PaulKlein — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 15:23:57 GMT

Wow, that looks perfect! Sorry I only have ArcMap 10.5 and furthermore I cannot find the attachment in your post. Sorry to cause so many problems 😕

Re: How do I create a square of a defined area around my points?

XanderBakker — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 16:10:08 GMT

No problem, I will try and add a description of how you can define the toolbox in 10.5 yourself. I don't have access to 10.5 at his moment to do it for you.

Re: How do I create a square of a defined area around my points?

XanderBakker — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 17:10:35 GMT

So here are the steps involved...

Go to the folder where you want to create the toolbox and copy the python script in that same folder.

In the Catalog pane of ArcMap, go to that folder and create a new toolbox:

... and give it a recognizable name (not like I did in the example below):

Next yo can add the script by right clicking on the newly created toolbox and select Add, Script...:

and fill out the fields:

Click on "Next" (Siguiente in my case) to go to the next screen.

Browse to the script and select it and hit Next:

The the screen to enter the script parameters will appear:

Enter the following:

1) your first parameter, the point featureclass:

Give it a display name (this is what the user will see)
Select "Feature Layer" as display type

In the lower section of the screen, make sure it is required, Input and not a multi value (default options):

For "Filter" select "Feature Class" and click on the button with the three dots to the right of it. This will show another dialog where you will only leave "Point" selected (this way only point feature layers van be selected):

Hit "OK" to close the dialog.

2) Width field

The second parameter is the width field:

Specify the display name and the data type "Field". In the lower section:

Click on the button with the three dots and select the relevant field types (only numeric fields should be shown):

This will limit the number of fields that are selectable in the dialog to those that are numeric. Hit OK to close the dialog.

Below the "Filter" you can see that I selected "Input_point_features" as "Obtained from". This will retrieve the list of fields from the feature layer specified as first parameter:

3) the height parameter

The Height field shold be configured following the steps from parameter 2 (width). The only thing that changes is the Display name:

4) the ID field

The ID field is very similar to the previous two fields:

Only the display name is different and the list of field types when you specify the Filter in the lower part of the screen:

List of fields:

As you can see the ID field can also be text and OID. Include and exclude the field types as you wish.

5) the output rectangle featureclass

The last parameter is the output featureclass. This should be defined as "Feature Class":

Furthermore, the Direction should be configured as "Output".

Now you script tool has been configured and is ready to use.

Re: How do I create a square of a defined area around my points?

David-PaulKlein — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 14:50:29 GMT

Wow, thank you so much for your efforts! I will try it out the next days

Re: How do I create a square of a defined area around my points?

delongtime — Sun, 12 Dec 2021 16:06:37 GMT

Thanks for this tool! Exactly what I need. Only, I'm having the following trouble. Can you troubleshoot your code for me? I'm using ArcGIS version 10.6. The error message I receive is as follows ... many thanks in advance:

Running script Point2Rectangle...
Failed script Point2Rectangle...

Traceback (most recent call last):
 File "C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\ESRI\Desktop10.6\ArcToolbox\My Toolboxes\point2rectangleID.py", line 62, in <module>
 main()
 File "C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\ESRI\Desktop10.6\ArcToolbox\My Toolboxes\point2rectangleID.py", line 18, in main
 AddIDField(fc_out, fc_in, fld_id)
 File "C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\ESRI\Desktop10.6\ArcToolbox\My Toolboxes\point2rectangleID.py", line 58, in AddIDField
 arcpy.AddField_management(fc_out, fld_id, fld_in.type, fld_in.precision, fld_in.scale, fld_in.length)
 File "c:\program files (x86)\arcgis\desktop10.6\arcpy\arcpy\management.py", line 3424, in AddField
 raise e
ExecuteError: Failed to execute. Parameters are not valid.
WARNING 000012: OBJECTID already exists
ERROR 000800: The value is not a member of TEXT | FLOAT | DOUBLE | SHORT | LONG | DATE | BLOB | RASTER | GUID.
Failed to execute (AddField).


Failed to execute (Point2Rectangle).

Re: How do I create a square of a defined area around my points?

XanderBakker — Mon, 30 Jul 2018 20:15:46 GMT

Can you share the data that you are using? I probably know what is going wrong, but would like to validate some things.

Re: How do I create a square of a defined area around my points?

delongtime — Mon, 30 Jul 2018 20:32:36 GMT

Thank you for such a quick reply. I actually resolved it myself ... I was premature with my question, and was actively editing my post when you replied. The problem lies with using the feature class' FID or OBJECTID as the unique identifier for "ID field". I created a new column and copied the FID over, and the tool worked properly when I directed it to use that column as the "ID field". However, I suppose you could edit your code to account for a user using the FID/OBJECTID as the "ID field" since it is listed as a valid field in the drop down menu.