What's the maximum number of "Rings" one can do with a ring buffer tool?

[Elijah]

I tried doing a ring buffer in Arcmap 10.5.01 for 21 rings but it kept processing and never produced any feature. Tried this 3 times, same thing. I was wondering if there is a limit?

[DanPatterson_Retired]

What is the size of the raster and the buffer ring?  You may be just running into memory and processing issues.  Have your tried a smaller buffer ring size around a small feature?

[Elijah]

Thanks Dan,

The buffers are around a point feature, and the rings are simply 5km apart.

A total of about 21 ring are expected. I had thought it should be just easy.

[DanPatterson_Retired]

I can provide the code if you want to try the python/numpy route.

But do consider the size of a 5000 m ring size. 

What is the cell size you are using?  You can see how things get quickly out of hand .  Here are two buffer sizes with a 1 and 10 m cell size for a 5km and 20km diameter (2.5, 10. radii)

cell size   radius    buffer cells

1              2500 m  19,634,954 ish  

10                            196,349

1               10,000 m   314,159,265

10                                  3,141,593

Now you say the rings are 5000m apart

1m cell size radius (2500*20), cells  => 78,539,816,339,745

10 cell size                                          => 785,398,163,397

Maybe switch your cell size to 100m or more

[Anonymous User]

Check out this thread in Geonet if could be what you are looking for especially if you are using Python. I do not believe there is a limit to how many rings your buffer tool can create. 

https://community.esri.com/thread/188054-arcmap-104-multiple-ring-buffer-05-m-arcpy