topic Re: Error creating output feature class when reprojecting shp files in ArcGIS Pro Questions

Error creating output feature class when reprojecting shp files

LiamTyler — Sat, 18 Oct 2025 18:17:52 GMT

I'm trying to reproject shapefiles and I keep getting stuck with this error

ExecuteError: ERROR 000208: Error creating output feature class Failed to execute (Project).

https://imgur.com/a/2cfXVox
Here is all of my code.

import arcpy from arcpy import env env.overwriteOutput = True env.workspace = r"D:\GEOG3530\Ex4\DataEX4" # List feature classes and their coordinate systems in given folder folderFiles = arcpy.ListFeatureClasses() for fc in folderFiles: fcdesc = arcpy.Describe(fc) print(str(fcdesc.basename) + " is in " + str(fcdesc.spatialReference.name)) for fc in folderFiles: fcdesc = arcpy.Describe(fc) infc = fc print(infc) outfc = "D:/GEOG3530/Ex4/Ex4proj/Ex4proj.gdb/Results/" + fcdesc.basename print(outfc) sref = arcpy.SpatialReference('USA Contiguous Lambert Conformal Conic') print(sref) arcpy.management.Project(infc, outfc, sref)

list feature class code block output:

CA_Cities_Selection is in GCS_WGS_1984
CA_Earthquakes is in GCS_WGS_1984
CA_Outline is in GCS_WGS_1984

for loop output before error occurs:

CA_Cities_Selection.shp
D:/GEOG3530/Ex4/Ex4proj/Ex4proj.gdb/Results/CA_Cities_Selection
<geoprocessing spatial reference object object at 0x000001BFCC5A3E70>

And here is the full error message

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- ExecuteError Traceback (most recent call last) Cell In[27], line 9 7 sref = arcpy.SpatialReference('USA Contiguous Lambert Conformal Conic') 8 print(sref) ----> 9 arcpy.management.Project(infc, outfc, sref) File ~\AppData\Local\Programs\ArcGIS\Pro\Resources\ArcPy\arcpy\management.py:20421, in Project(in_dataset, out_dataset, out_coor_system, transform_method, in_coor_system, preserve_shape, max_deviation, vertical) 20419 return retval 20420 except Exception as e: > 20421 raise e File ~\AppData\Local\Programs\ArcGIS\Pro\Resources\ArcPy\arcpy\management.py:20403, in Project(in_dataset, out_dataset, out_coor_system, transform_method, in_coor_system, preserve_shape, max_deviation, vertical) 20399 from arcpy.arcobjects.arcobjectconversion import convertArcObjectToPythonObject 20401 try: 20402 retval = convertArcObjectToPythonObject( > 20403 gp.Project_management( 20404 *gp_fixargs( 20405 ( 20406 in_dataset, 20407 out_dataset, 20408 out_coor_system, 20409 transform_method, 20410 in_coor_system, 20411 preserve_shape, 20412 max_deviation, 20413 vertical, 20414 ), 20415 True, 20416 ) 20417 ) 20418 ) 20419 return retval 20420 except Exception as e: File ~\AppData\Local\Programs\ArcGIS\Pro\Resources\ArcPy\arcpy\geoprocessing\_base.py:532, in Geoprocessor.__getattr__.<locals>.<lambda>(*args) 530 val = getattr(self._gp, attr) 531 if callable(val): --> 532 return lambda *args: val(*gp_fixargs(args, True)) 533 else: 534 return convertArcObjectToPythonObject(val) ExecuteError: ERROR 000208: Error creating output feature class Failed to execute (Project).

I initially thought the problem was backslashes in the file path, but I switched those to forward slashes and it didn't fix it. I don't really understand how to read the error messages yet because I'm new to coding completely.

At one point I also go this error.

ExecuteError: 000354: The name contains invalid characters.

I'm not really sure what I'm missing here. I appreciate all help, thanks.

Re: Error creating output feature class when reprojecting shp files

DanPatterson — Sat, 18 Oct 2025 19:06:32 GMT

Try adding a ValidateTableName into your code and dump the /Result/ section of your output environment path

Validating table and field names in Python—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

Re: Error creating output feature class when reprojecting shp files

BrendanNewell — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 00:14:12 GMT

Can you confirm that the output does not have any special characters or spaces in the output name..?

Re: Error creating output feature class when reprojecting shp files

ModyBuchbinder — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 04:12:05 GMT

In your code the var outfc have a feature dataset named Results.

Does it exists?

Re: Error creating output feature class when reprojecting shp files

Robert_LeClair — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 15:39:54 GMT

With a little help from the internet, I "wrote" this script that defines input folder/output file geodatabase location, sets the output spatial reference, lists the shapefiles in the folder with their coordinate system and projects them to USA Continuous Lambert Conformal Conic. You'll need to change the input_folder and output_gdb but it "should" work:

# Define input folder and output geodatabase

input_folder = r"C:\temp\shapefiles"

output_gdb = r"C:\temp\shapefiles\test.gdb"

# Set the spatial reference (e.g., WGS 1984, EPSG:4326)

spatial_ref = arcpy.SpatialReference(102004)

# List feature classes and their coordinate systems in given folder

folderFiles = arcpy.ListFeatureClasses()

for fc in folderFiles:

fcdesc = arcpy.Describe(fc)

print(str(fcdesc.basename) + " is in " + str(fcdesc.spatialReference.name))

# Loop through all shapefiles in the input folder

for file_name in os.listdir(input_folder):

if file_name.endswith(".shp"):

input_shapefile = os.path.join(input_folder, file_name)

output_feature_class = os.path.join(output_gdb, os.path.splitext(file_name)[0])

# Project the shapefile into the file geodatabase

arcpy.Project_management(input_shapefile, output_feature_class, spatial_ref)

print(f"Projected {file_name} to {output_feature_class}")