topic Re: Run model from model builder in python in Python Questions

Run model from model builder in python

GuillaumeGolay1 — Wed, 22 Jun 2016 15:33:46 GMT

Hi,

I've built a model with model builder. When I run it from model builder it works but now that i've exported it to python, it doesn't work...

Here is my model:

# Import arcpy module
import arcpy

# Load required toolboxes
arcpy.ImportToolbox("C:/Users/w2sohi/Desktop/test/box.tbx","box")

# Local variables:
INTER = "C:\\Users\\w2sohi\\Desktop\\test\\INTER"

# Process: Recréer le localisateur d’adresses
arcpy.RebuildAddressLocator_box(INTER)

It seems that there's a problem with: arcpy.ImportToolbox("C:/Users/w2sohi/Desktop/test/box.tbx","box")

I have these error messages:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Users\w2sohi\Desktop\test\recreer.py", line 13, in <module>
    arcpy.ImportToolbox("C:/Users/w2sohi/Desktop/test/box.tbx","box")
File "C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS\Desktop10.1\arcpy\arcpy\__init__.py", line 90, in ImportToolbox
    return import_toolbox(input_file, module_name)
File "C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS\Desktop10.1\arcpy\arcpy\toolbox_code.py", line 441, in import_toolbox
    mymodule = generate_toolbox_module(toolbox, None, False, False, False, module_name, use_alt_alias)
File "C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS\Desktop10.1\arcpy\arcpy\toolbox_code.py", line 399, in generate_toolbox_module
    use_alt_alias))
File "C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS\Desktop10.1\arcpy\arcpy\toolbox_code.py", line 391, in <genexpr>
    code = u"\n".join(line if isinstance(line, unicode)
File "C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS\Desktop10.1\arcpy\arcpy\toolbox_code.py", line 311, in code_for_toolbox
    yield "__all__ = %r" % ([str(tool.name) for tool in toolbox.tools],)
UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode character u'\xe8' in position 3: ordinal not in range(128)

Thank you very much!

Guillaume

Re: Run model from model builder in python

BlakeTerhune — Wed, 22 Jun 2016 15:43:39 GMT

It has to do with the path. the slash u is reserved to identify unicode characters so it's not interpreting your path correctly. Try changing all the path separators (slashes) to a back slash and put an r in the front. Like this...

r"C:\Users\w2sohi\Desktop\test\box.tbx"

Probably should do the same with your other paths.

Further reading on the subject. Filenames and file paths in Python

Re: Run model from model builder in python

DarrenWiens2 — Wed, 22 Jun 2016 16:17:55 GMT

Buuuuut, they had '/u' not '\u' which should be correct, correct?

Re: Run model from model builder in python

MicahBabinski — Wed, 22 Jun 2016 16:22:43 GMT

Hey Guillaume,

I do agree with Blake's advice on specifying the paths using the 'r'. It may also be useful to specify an alias name in your toolbox properties. I've found importing toolboxes is much more consistent that way. Then, you can ditch the second parameter. Good luck.

Micah

Re: Run model from model builder in python

BlakeTerhune — Wed, 22 Jun 2016 16:22:55 GMT

I agree. But from the looks of the error message, it's clearly saying there's a UnicodeEncodeError on the line with the path name. I don't know what else it could be.

Re: Run model from model builder in python

FreddieGibson — Wed, 22 Jun 2016 21:29:52 GMT

What are the names of the tools in your toolbox? Looking at the error I'd assume that you're using characters in the name of your tools that are invalid ascii characters. According to the error you're using u'\xe8', which should be equivalent to è.

Re: Run model from model builder in python

DanPatterson_Retired — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 19:27:46 GMT

To elaborate on Freddie's comment

>>> a = '\xe8' #, which should be equivalent to è.  # python 2.7
>>> a
'\xe8'
>>> print(a)


>>> a = '\xe8' #, which should be equivalent to è.  # python 3.5
>>> print(a)
è

compare line 5 (inviso line) to line 9

Python versions above 3 enforce unicode, python 2.7 doesn't unless you 'u' it

Re: Run model from model builder in python

FreddieGibson — Wed, 22 Jun 2016 22:29:15 GMT

Hi Dan,

I'm thinking that their problem may be deeper than needing to make a string unicode. I would assume that if their tool contains unicode characters in the name it would run into a problem where Python 2.x does not support unicode identifiers.

https://docs.python.org/3.3/reference/lexical_analysis.html#identifiers

Behind the scenes calling ImportToolbox wraps the tool within a class. This class uses the name of the tool for the name of the class (e.g. arcpy.RebuildAddressLocator_box or arcpy.box.RebuildAddressLocator in the users code). If the name of the tool were something like RèbuildAddrèssLocator I'd assume you'd get the error they're seeing because you can't create an identifier in python 2 with this name.

Re: Run model from model builder in python

DanPatterson_Retired — Wed, 22 Jun 2016 22:47:43 GMT

that was the only thing that was confusing... the statement that everything worked in the model but not in python

Re: Run model from model builder in python

GuillaumeGolay1 — Thu, 23 Jun 2016 06:37:53 GMT

Thank you all for helping me!

So, I've changed the paths, following Blake's advise,

add an alias "box" to my toolbox "box.tbx", following Micah's advise.

Now the code looks like this:

# Import arcpy module
import arcpy

# Load required toolboxes
arcpy.ImportToolbox(r"C:\Users\w2sohi\Desktop\test\box.tbx","box")

# Local variables:
INTER = "C:\\Users\\w2sohi\\Desktop\\test\\INTER"

# Process: Recréer le localisateur d’adresses
arcpy.RebuildAddressLocator_box(INTER)

But, the error messages still remain the sames:

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "C:\Users\w2sohi\Desktop\test\recreer.py", line 13, in <module>

arcpy.ImportToolbox(r"C:\Users\w2sohi\Desktop\test\box.tbx","box")

File "C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS\Desktop10.1\arcpy\arcpy\__init__.py", line 90, in ImportToolbox

return import_toolbox(input_file, module_name)

File "C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS\Desktop10.1\arcpy\arcpy\toolbox_code.py", line 441, in import_toolbox

mymodule = generate_toolbox_module(toolbox, None, False, False, False, module_name, use_alt_alias)

File "C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS\Desktop10.1\arcpy\arcpy\toolbox_code.py", line 399, in generate_toolbox_module

use_alt_alias))

File "C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS\Desktop10.1\arcpy\arcpy\toolbox_code.py", line 391, in <genexpr>

code = u"\n".join(line if isinstance(line, unicode)

File "C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS\Desktop10.1\arcpy\arcpy\toolbox_code.py", line 311, in code_for_toolbox

yield "__all__ = %r" % ([str(tool.name) for tool in toolbox.tools],)

UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode character u'\xe8' in position 3: ordinal not in range(128)

Freddie and Dan, the name of the tool is: RebuildAddressLocator, Label is: Recréer le localisateur d'adresses (as I live in the french part of Switrzerland).

So, in any case, I don't find any "è"...

Is it possible that there's a problem with roots files as x86)\ArcGIS\Desktop10.1\arcpy\arcpy\toolbox_code.py or x86)\ArcGIS\Desktop10.1\arcpy\arcpy\__init__.py ? (as they are mentionned in the error messages)

Also, I've tried to run the code with only:

# Import arcpy module
import arcpy

# Load required toolboxes
arcpy.ImportToolbox(r"C:\Users\w2sohi\Desktop\test\box.tbx","box")

And also got the same error message. The problem seems to come from here...

Re: Run model from model builder in python

DanPatterson_Retired — Thu, 23 Jun 2016 08:24:19 GMT

you should post it, since there is no line 13 in the code you posted and the encoding error is u'\xe8' . Also, do you have

# coding: utf-8

as the first line of your scripts?

Re: Run model from model builder in python

GuillaumeGolay1 — Thu, 23 Jun 2016 08:34:31 GMT

Dear Dan,

I modified my script like this:

# Import arcpy module
import arcpy

# Local variables:
INTER = "C:\\Users\\w2sohi\\Desktop\\test\\INTER"

# Process: Recréer le localisateur d’adresses
arcpy.RebuildAddressLocator_geocoding(INTER)

And now it works! The problem came from arcpy.ImportToolbox but I don't know exactly what was happenning.

Thank you very much for your help

Guillaume

Re: Run model from model builder in python

DanielThomas1 — Thu, 23 Jun 2016 20:33:35 GMT

The syntax was wrong importing the toolbox:

import arcpy # Import custom toolbox arcpy.ImportToolbox("c:/tools/My_Analysis_Tools.tbx") try: # Run tool in the custom toolbox. The tool is identified by # the tool name and the toolbox alias. arcpy.GetPoints_myanalysis("c:/data/forest.shp") except arcpy.ExecuteError: print(arcpy.GetMessages(2)) from: ArcGIS Help (10.2, 10.2.1, and 10.2.2)

Re: Run model from model builder in python

DarrenWiens2 — Thu, 23 Jun 2016 20:36:12 GMT

Can you explain what was wrong with the syntax?

Re: Run model from model builder in python

DanielThomas1 — Thu, 23 Jun 2016 20:40:46 GMT

Easier to call the toolbox and then run the tool (that is in the imported toolbox) by name as shown

Re: Run model from model builder in python

DarrenWiens2 — Thu, 23 Jun 2016 20:51:25 GMT

Well, the help seems to indicate that you can do it either way, but perhaps it's wrong.

Syntax

ImportToolbox (input_file, {module_name})

Parameter

Explanation

Data Type

input_file

The geoprocessing toolbox added to the ArcPy site package.

String

module_name

If the toolbox does not have an alias, the module_name is required.

When a tool is accessed through the ArcPy site package, the toolbox alias where the tool is contained is a required suffix (arcpy.<toolname>_<alias>). Since ArcPy depends on toolbox aliases to access and execute the correct tool, aliases are extremely important when importing custom toolboxes. A good practice is to always define a custom toolbox's alias; however, if the toolbox alias is not defined, a temporary alias can be set as the second parameter.

String

Re: Run model from model builder in python

FreddieGibson — Thu, 23 Jun 2016 21:36:59 GMT

Could you upload your toolbox so I can take a look at it?

Re: Run model from model builder in python

GuillaumeGolay1 — Fri, 24 Jun 2016 07:21:54 GMT

Hi,

Dropbox - locator_python

Here's a copy of the folder.

Thanks for helping me! (Just have to say to you that i solved my problem but i'm interesting about understanding why).

My solution was:

# Import arcpy module
import arcpy

# Local variables:
INTER = "C:\\Users\\w2sohi\\Desktop\\test\\INTER"

# Process: Recréer le localisateur d’adresses
arcpy.RebuildAddressLocator_geocoding(INTER)

So not calling the toolbox, and replace RebuildAddressLocator_box(INTER) with RebuildAddressLocator_geocoding(INTER)

Re: Run model from model builder in python

FreddieGibson — Fri, 24 Jun 2016 14:01:08 GMT

So it looks like you have a system tool and a model in your toolbox. The problem is that the model within your toolbox is named "Modèle". When you call ImportToolbox this will cause a conflict because identifiers in python 2.X don't support using he character è. If you remove the è the toolbox imports just fine.

Re: Run model from model builder in python

FreddieGibson — Fri, 24 Jun 2016 14:18:06 GMT

Hi Darren,

The documentation in this case would be correct. When you build a custom toolbox you are required to call ImportToolbox to load the toolbox. Think of this like when you create a custom class in python. You are require to call import to load the module into your project. When you import the toolbox you have two choices.

Import the toolbox with just the file path. In this case the alias for the toolbox will be the alias assigned in the toolbox's properties.
Import the toolbox along and specify an alias name. This would allow you to specify a unique alias for your toolbox on the fly.

A lot of people forget to specify the alias within the toolbox properties. As such, they leverage the second option to ensure that the name of their toolbox is unique. For example, let's say that you called your tool Clip. There are currently two clip tools included with the base install of ArcGIS (i.e. Clip_analysis and Clip_management). Without specifying an alias the system wouldn't necessarily know which version of the clip function you're wanting. As such, you could specify an alias in the import of the tool, such as box, so that the system can easily identify that you can to use the Clip_box tool as opposed to other tools with the same name.

The reason why Guillame was able to get their code change to work is because they changed their code to leverage the system tool that is automatically loaded by arcpy. If they were to dig further into the system they would see that this particular toolbox uses "geocoding" as the alias and doesn't contain any invalid tool/model/script tool names.