Project Raster Tool not honoring Processing Extent

[SteveRobischon]

I'm trying to project a raster DEM using the Project Raster tool and at the same time clip the result using the Processing Extent environment option.  A bullet in the help system description appears to indicate the output extent will be the same as that of the input raster, but at the bottom of the help Extent is included in the environments.

No matter what Processing Extent I set, the output always has the same extent as the input.  Am I missing something in the settings, or does this tool just not allow the use of a processing extent?

[NeilAyres]

Personally I would make this a 2 stage process. Project & clip or clip & project.

When setting the processing extent in the environment, I suppose its talking about the original coord sys.

[DanPatterson_Retired]

When using ANY tool in Arctoolbox, I automatically click on the Environments button along the bottom of the tool dialog and set/check my environments there...wild guess, you set your extents elsewhere and were hoping/expecting them to be carried forward...sadly, this is not the case for all tools.  Make it your practice, it is much quicker than trying to figure out something that went wrong later. (I wish they would move that button up to the top of the dialog...maybe flashing...maybe click this first to 'accept' before you proceed

[SteveRobischon]

Dan,

I can't say I automatically click on the environments button, which in some cases has caused a re-do. But in this case, before i posted, I not only tried setting the environment at the tool level, but (independently and in combination) at the application level as well. Neither worked.

If I can ask, do you experience similar behavior? Can you perform a quick test where you project a raster, using a processing extent environment of say Same as Display, and see whether the result has an extent any different from that of the input raster?

Regards,

Steve R

[DanPatterson_Retired]

Same as display?  I never use same as display since that means the extent of the data frame.  I always have a predefined shapefile outlining my area of interest (AOI) which I can then use for raster operations.  I convert it to raster when needed and set the extent and cell size overtly to that file for all subsequent operations.

[SteveRobischon]

I was just trying to make it easier for you to try Dan. It shouldn't matter which extent you set in the environment, unless there's some sort of bug in the tool that only recognizes a processing extent if you set it to a specific raster.

BTW, if your AOI shapefile only covers your true area of interest, you will likely experience issues with neighborhood (and other) operations at the edges of the raster. I always start with a raster that is larger than the AOI to minimize these issues.

[SepheFox]

Yes, definitely. I will even go a step further and use an AOI vector layer that has an added buffer making it larger than my actual AOI. That way, any rasters clipped from it will be plenty big enough.

[SepheFox]

I'm with Neil. Why try to clip using the environment settings when you can simply extract by mask? I've never thought about trying to clip my raster this way.

[SteveRobischon]

I'm not trying to just clip the raster. I'm trying to avoid processing a large raster dataset when projecting, and only projecting the portion I'm interested in. This stems from using the National Map View to download NED data. The dataset that comes from the server can cover a much larger extent than the one I'm interested in, so I'd like to be able to project it (so I can do analyses), but only that portion I will subject to subsequent operations. It can take a long time to project the entire raster, and then run the clip (or extract) after it's done.

[DavidMartin · Accepted solution]

I've tried using Project Raster with an Output Extent (in 10.3) and it works as expected, clipping the result to the output extent.

Note that the coordinates of the extent must be in the INPUT coordinate system, not that of the output projection. So if, for example, you are using "Same as Display", you'd probably need to ensure that the dataframe's spatial reference was equivalent to that of your input raster.

Could this be the cause of your issue??