Multiple Ring Buffer won't execute

[JuliaSmith]

I am trying to create a multiple ring buffer for roads over an 18-state region. Every time I attempt to execute this process, it fails and gives the following error message:

Executing: MultipleRingBuffer study_area_roads C:\Users\siu850727638\Documents\GIS_files\tiger_data\study_area_roads\study_area_roadsMRB.shp 0.25;0.5 Kilometers distance ALL FULL
Start Time: Mon Apr 23 01:16:54 2012
Running script MultipleRingBuffer...
ERROR 999999: Error executing function.
Failed to execute (Buffer).

Completed script MultipleRingBuffer...
Failed to execute (MultipleRingBuffer).
Failed at Mon Apr 23 02:03:25 2012 (Elapsed Time: 46 minutes 31 seconds)

I have attached a picture of the error box and area I'm working with too. Any ideas of what's going on? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[DanPatterson_Retired]

I suspect the file is too large to process in one go, select a smaller section and see if it still fails

[KevinBurke]

Hello, there has been issues with the Buffer and Multiple Ring Buffer tools failing if they had the 'Dissolve All' option specified. Those issues were reported as bugs and the workaround consists of using those tools without the 'Dissolve All' option set > and then using the Dissolve tool separately from ArcToolbox.

Is this issue that you are running into with the 'Dissolve All' option set?

Thank you.

[JuliaSmith]

Thanks so much for your response. Yes, I tried running Multiple Ring Buffer again without the 'Dissolve All' option checked and the process did execute, but there is still a problem. Although the output layer shows two buffer distances (.25 and .5), in the attribute table there is only one distance listed (.5). So I don't think I can use the 'Dissolve' tool to fix my problem because I do not have a field to base the process on. I have attached a photo of the attribute table and screen... any ideas of what to do?

[MarkBoucher]

I recall having to use ArcInfo for the multi-ring buffer tool... maybe?

[JuliaSmith]

I just attempted to create two individual buffers and the use the Union tool to put them together. I was able to create the two buffers without a problem but then Union failed.


Executing: Union "study_area_roads_buff1 #;study_area_roads_buff2 #" C:\Users\siu850727638\Documents\GIS_files\tiger_data\study_area_roads\study_area_roads_finalbuff.shp ALL # GAPS
Start Time: Mon Apr 23 15:15:47 2012
Reading Features...
Processing Tiles...
ERROR 999999: Error executing function.
Failed to execute (Union).
Failed at Mon Apr 23 16:24:48 2012 (Elapsed Time: 1 hours 9 minutes 1 seconds)

[DanLee]

Could you share a smaple data that can reproduce the errors? Thanks.