How to display the centroid of a circle

[MikeMellin]

My company just switched us from MapInfo to Arcmap.

Is there a way to easily display the centroid of a circle in ArcMap? Or do I have to somehow calculate the centroid using some tool or function?

In MapInfo, we just checked "show centroids" in the layer control box.

[TimWitt]

Mike,

You can use this tool to create a centroid layer.

Tim

[MikeMellin]

Mike,

You can use this tool to create a centroid layer.

Tim

Thanks, I'm sure that would work, however, I get a "tool not licensed" dialog box. I guess I could try licensing the tool...
Any other ideas?

[Zeke]

It's not the tool that's licensed, precisely, it's the version of ArcMap you're using. The tool Tim mentions requires an ArcInfo license, the most advanced of the three.

You might try the free version of ET GeoWizards (or buy the full product). The free version has tools that allow you to calculate the x & y of centroids.

[RichardFairhurst · Accepted solution]

You can add two double fields for the X and Y coordinate to the polygons and use the geometry calculator to calculate the centroid coordinate values into them.  You could alternatively calculate the coordinates with the Field Calculator and the Python expression: !Shape.Centroid.X! and !Shape.Centroid.Y!.  Then export from the table view to create a table that contains the coordinate.  Then use the Make XY Event Layer to make a layer showing the points based on the coordinate fields you calculated.

[Zeke]

Better idea than mine, Richard, I forgot you could do that in Arc, don't need ET to calculate that.

[MikeMellin]

You can add two double fields for the X and Y coordinate to the polygons and use the geometry calculator to calculate the centroid coordinate values into them.  You could alternatively calculate the coordinates with the Field Calculator and the Python expression: !Shape.Centroid.X! and !Shape.Centroid.Y!.  Then export from the table view to create a table that contains the coordinate.  Then use the Make XY Event Layer to make a layer showing the points based on the coordinate fields you calculated.

Thanks! That works great! I also found an article outlining what you just said about the geometry calculator here.

[MikeMellin]

It's not the tool that's licensed, precisely, it's the version of ArcMap you're using. The tool Tim mentions requires an ArcInfo license, the most advanced of the three.

You might try the free version of ET GeoWizards (or buy the full product). The free version has tools that allow you to calculate the x & y of centroids.

I also tried this and got it to work. Under the "Convert" tab, I used the "polyline to point" tool.

Thanks!