Can you export IDW layers as Vector?

[CliveCartwright]

Can you export IDW (Inverse Distance Weighted) layers into vector format?

I've struggled to find a way to do it.

I want to create a mask layer based on a threshold value and can only make a grid layer from it.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

[DanPatterson_Retired]

You can query the IDW layer for your threshold using the raster calculator.  This will produce an indicator grid (ie, a grid of 0's and 1's) indicating where the threshold is met.  You can then use this as a mask.

For more information, begin with documentation on the raster calculator   ArcGIS Help (10.2, 10.2.1, and 10.2.2)

PS please add some tags to your post so that other people can find this thread in the future‌

[CliveCartwright]

Yes, I can make grids; reclassify does similar, but I really need a vector of the layer, not a grid.

It's starting to look like we can't make polygon layers from IDW results.

[DanPatterson_Retired]

You can make a vector layer from an integer grid...ie the indicator grid that I described above.

Explore the help files a bit more ie  ArcGIS Help (10.2, 10.2.1, and 10.2.2)‌

where it indicates that an integer grid is required

[CliveCartwright]

Thanks Dan, but my problem is that it's a large extent area that would require high resolution cells in order to emulates the smoothness of the original IDW... I could chop the data into sections and process it, I guess. I'm probably being to fussy with the convert, to be fair.

But basically, the only way to do this is to export as a grid and then do the raster to polygon with smoothing activated.

It's a shame really, as the IDW visual is vector-like and it's a shame you can't grab that 'visual' and translate it into a real data layer.

[NeilAyres]

Are you talking about creating "filled polygon contours" from the raster surface?

Steve at esri has created some spatial analyst extension tools, one of which does this.

Will try to find the link....