topic Re: Raster to Polygon problem in Data Management Questions

Raster to Polygon problem

jessevalles — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 13:50:45 GMT

Thanks in advanced.
I have over 100 aerials images that I want to convert to polygons using the raster to polygon tool, but I get an error for this tool [ATTACH=CONFIG]21130[/ATTACH].
All I want to do is to create a base map so that I know which aerial refers to specific area and be able to find it easily.
NOTE: Only have basic license, unfortunately.

Re: Raster to Polygon problem

DanPatterson_Retired — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 13:57:31 GMT

The critical error is the one above the highlighted error...your file is too big and the output shapefile is limited to 2 GB and cannot be created. There is no workaround other than tiling your input file.

Re: Raster to Polygon problem

jessevalles — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 14:19:57 GMT

Mr. Patterson,

I was just doing the tool for one tile.
I am attaching the properties for one of the files [ATTACH=CONFIG]21131[/ATTACH].
I am also choosing the simplify shape.
The other error is that I am not using an adequate type of file. I been checking for many ways to fix this but with no luck.
I am not even able to give coordinates to all the file using the define projection tool in a batch mode.
Thanks again.

Re: Raster to Polygon problem

DanPatterson_Retired — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 14:57:50 GMT

It is the output polygon shapefile that is too big. There is a 2 GB limit which is being exceeded.

Re: Raster to Polygon problem

jessevalles — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 18:21:19 GMT

I am fairly new to GIS, you know of a way that I can make the tiles smaller so that I can do this export.
Or is there a way to be able to touch the aerial and copy/paste the polygon shape that it has.

Re: Raster to Polygon problem

SteveLynch — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 14:37:31 GMT

In versions prior to ArcGIS 10 we wrote the output to .shp and then converted to whatever format you wanted. However, from ArcGIS 10 we natively write to the requested format.

Therefore, if you're using ArcGIS 10+ you can output to file geodatabase and you won't hit the 2.1GB file limit.

Regards
Steve

Re: Raster to Polygon problem

jessevalles — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 16:56:46 GMT

Thanks so much Steve,

Now the problem is that the table was created successfully but I cannot find it at the location that it was send to..
it does not appear in the geodatabase.
I already try several ways, the arc catalog, refreshing, closing the file and opening again.

Is there another way to do what the footprint from mosaic tool does but with the license that I currently have?[ATTACH=CONFIG]21165[/ATTACH]

Re: Raster to Polygon problem

GayathriAlallasundaram — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 17:33:20 GMT

Hi,

Are you saying the output polygon featureclass that was created as a result from the raster to polygon tool is missing in the file geodatabase? May be your geodatabase got corrupted, try to make a copy of your geodatabase in another folder location and see if the output is visible there.

Thanks,
Gayathri A.

Re: Raster to Polygon problem

jessevalles — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 22:10:34 GMT

Thanks to everyone that has been giving input,

I tried already changing the output database. but still it will not appear.
This is the process that I follow.
I open the raster to polygon tool, put in input raster, keep the value field, select the gdb file to output, and have simplify checked.
After this click OK, and in less than 5 sec. it will tell me that succeeded using the tool.
You can see the location of the file in the results window, but when the gdb is open there is nothing in there.

Re: Raster to Polygon problem

T__WayneWhitley — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 22:51:34 GMT

I noticed in your original post you said:

"All I want to do is to create a base map so that I know which aerial refers to specific area and be able to find it easily."

So, in that case, wouldn't simple polys built from X and Y min/max coordinates work? If so, see:

looping through rasters in an mxd
http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/75142-looping-through-rasters-in-an-mxd?p=265602#7

Rosie Bell has updated the pre-10 code to use arcpy - I'd recommend building the feature class in a table, so change pathnames accordingly. Otherwise you build a shapefile but you'll likely have to remember to build the spatial index for large layers. Also, I think my original code simply builds from a designated directory of rasters. Apologize for not making this a script tool (or maybe someone has already?) but I only use this occasionally - once on thousands of tifs that I assumed the run failed for, but it completed successfully to my surprise. Anyway, what I mean to say is that it is lightning fast with python.

One more interesting thing, if you've ever heard of a 'table-based' image catalog, additionally if you export the attribute table to an independent table (gdb table or dbf table), it becomes readable by ArcGIS as an image catalog... this is legacy support still available at 10.1 I believe, and what it serves as is to auto-load image tiles in the view extent (or a certain scale threshold, if you set the layer properties).

Enjoy,
Wayne

Re: Raster to Polygon problem

jessevalles — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 17:07:18 GMT

Hello everyone and thanks again for the feed back....

I have been trying both recommendations without success.
For the phyton script I get errors, I think that I have been setting my file path wrong.....
I have a drive F:\12109\2011 aerials which I callout "<F:\12109\2011 aerials>" and does not work with another error...

[ATTACH=CONFIG]21331[/ATTACH]
For the second suggestion I tried the tool From Raster to ASCII and then send it to a geodatabase so that I could observe the raster but I did not quite get this step. So I tried converting the table into x and y's but the fields that where created from the ASCII confuse me a lot.
Appreciate all the help..!

Re: Raster to Polygon problem

T__WayneWhitley — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 17:11:15 GMT

Sorry, you have to take out the '<' and '>' characters...use full pathnames, etc., and raw strings if possible, as in:

r'<your full pathname string>'

...so, something like:

r'C:\temp'

Hope that helps...
Wayne

Re: Raster to Polygon problem

T__WayneWhitley — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 19:13:40 GMT

Reviewed this again today, and it appears you are also mixing hard-coded pathnames with pathname variables, so let the following code serve as an example, where the 'variable section' should be the only section you need to adjust (see the attached py as well):

# import the needed modules
import arcpy, os
arcpy.env.overwriteOutput = True

##########################################
## VARIABLE SECTION - MODIFY THIS SECTION ONLY
# here's where you need to define some variables

# The following variable is for setting the workspace to a directory of rasters:
arcpy.env.workspace = r'F:\12109\2011 aerials'

# ...variable for the polygon shapefile or feature class for the raster outline (grid) output pathname, for example:
GridName = r'C:\temp\test.shp'

# ...variable, a numeric value, specifying the text field length needed to hold the pathname...
# If it is a long pathname, then a longer field length will be required:
IMAGEfldLen = 200

## END VARIABLE SECTION - DO NOT MODIFY BELOW THIS LINE
#########################################

outPath, outName = GridName.rsplit(os.sep, 1)
arcpy.CreateFeatureclass_management(outPath, outName, 'POLYGON')

fields = ['IMAGE', 'XMIN', 'XMAX', 'YMIN', 'YMAX']

arcpy.AddField_management(GridName, fields[0], 'TEXT', '', '', IMAGEfldLen)

for i in range(1, 5):
         arcpy.AddField_management(GridName, fields, 'DOUBLE', 18, 17)
 
rasters = arcpy.ListRasters()
arrayObj = arcpy.CreateObject('Array')
 
outRows = arcpy.InsertCursor(GridName)
 
for raster in rasters:
         extent = arcpy.Describe(raster).extent
         arrayObj.add(extent.lowerleft)
         arrayObj.add(extent.lowerright)
         arrayObj.add(extent.upperright)
         arrayObj.add(extent.upperleft)
         arrayObj.add(extent.lowerleft)
         feat = outRows.newRow()
         feat.Shape = arrayObj
         image = os.path.join(arcpy.env.workspace, raster)
         feat.setValue('IMAGE', image)
         feat.setValue('XMIN', extent.xmin)
         feat.setValue('YMIN', extent.ymin)
         feat.setValue('XMAX', extent.xmax)
         feat.setValue('YMAX', extent.ymax)
         outRows.insertRow(feat)
         arrayObj.removeAll()
 
del outRows

A note of interest here -- as an 'extra' attribute table feature, attributes are set up so that if using within ArcMap, you have the option of exporting the attribute table to a separate dbf or gdb table (save to a different name than the shapefile/fc) and when adding to ArcMap, it serves as a 'legacy' image catalog...you have to add it after completing the table export process, i.e., so that it's read as an 'image catalog', not just as a table. Images will be auto-loaded --- adjust display properties accordingly from the table properties window.

Re: Raster to Polygon problem

JakeGalyon — Tue, 21 Jan 2014 18:29:17 GMT

Wayne,

I am needing to create an image catalog. I have downloaded your python script, but I am getting this error? Suggestions?

Runtime error
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<string>", line 39, in <module>
AttributeError: 'Extent' object has no attribute 'lowerleft'

Re: Raster to Polygon problem

T__WayneWhitley — Tue, 21 Jan 2014 19:34:11 GMT

With 10.2.x, apparently the case has changed for the Extent property get...it's camel-case now i.e., lowerLeft, lowerRight, etc...

See this:
http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.2/index.html#//018z00000072000000

So you'd need to fix that for every corner point -- note these returns are point objects loaded into the array object which in turn is used to create the index grid polygon or footprint for the raster...

Probably you'll want to look into the raster catalog support provided for rasters - this image catalog legacy support may now no longer be supported with 10.2.x versions, but if you like you can still use it for the footprints I guess if you need. I haven't checked the rest of the script to see if the other props/methods are still supported so use at your own risk -- my guess is if you got this far, you are good to go, just fix the case on your corner property commands (fix all refs to lowerLeft, lowerRight, upperLeft, upperRight).

Wayne

PS - I just checked and this legacy image catalog format is still supported at 10.2.1.
Good luck! Make sure you export the fc output to a table to use as an image catalog - do not load the table as a gp output automatically or if it does remove it...then load it as a completely separate process to your map so that it is 'recognized' as an image catalog...I think the default is to show a wireframe for over 9 images....change this as you wish and save to a layer file if you want to save your own user-defined settings. For example, I made mine scale-dependent.

Re: Raster to Polygon problem

JakeGalyon — Tue, 21 Jan 2014 19:54:16 GMT

Thanks for the help. However, I am still confused. This is due to my lack of knowledge on this subject. Could you please provide an example? I appreciate it.

for raster in rasters:
         extent = arcpy.Describe(raster).extent
         arrayObj.add(extent.lowerleft)
         arrayObj.add(extent.lowerright)
         arrayObj.add(extent.upperright)
         arrayObj.add(extent.upperleft)
         arrayObj.add(extent.lowerleft)

Re: Raster to Polygon problem

T__WayneWhitley — Tue, 21 Jan 2014 20:15:41 GMT

The image I attached should be self-explanatory...see the change needed?

You can edit the py file in a text editor, use IDLE, or whatever editor you wish - change 'lowerleft' to 'lowerLeft', etc.

Okay? Sorry, I meant to load the jpg earlier but forgot.

Wayne

PS - If you happen to miss fixing a line, then you'll get a similar error which will give you a line number the error is on - so go to the corresponding line and fix the error and run again...this is the msg that gave you the line number in the script the 1st time you ran it (line 39):

File "<string>", line 39, in <module>

Re: Raster to Polygon problem

JakeGalyon — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 11:11:59 GMT

I also had to change xmin to XMin etc. That worked I appreciate the help! This will save me alot of time. Thanks.