Using standard Geoprocessing Tools in python outside of ArcGIS Desktop

[DanielLozier]

I have ArcGIS Deskop 10 installed on my machine and I was wondering if it's possible to create a python script that uses some standard Geoprocessing tools and run it outside of ArcGIS?

Specifically I'm trying to run the script from within my eclipse development enviroment (with Pydev installed).  I have eclipse setup to use the python installed by ArcGIS.  It's path is configured to look in C:\Python26\ArcGIS10.0\lib\site-packages and in there is the Desktop10.pth file with entries for:

C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Desktop10.0\bin
C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Desktop10.0\arcpy
C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Desktop10.0\ArcToolbox\Scripts

If I try to run a script like the following in eclipse:

import arcpy

arcpy.CreateFeatureClass_management("c:/test", "test.shp", "POINT")


I get an error:

AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'CreateFeatureClass_management'

[JasonScheirer · Accepted solution]

Arcpy is case-sensitive, use arcpy.CreateFeatureclass_management

[DanielLozier]

Wow, ESRI needs to update their help documentation then.  The arcpy example under the Geoprocessing->The ArcPy site package->Classes->FeatureSet calls the function 'CreateFeatureClass_management'

Thanks, I would have wasted a lot of time on this.

[TrungTran]

Thanks.
This is really a big help. I have wasted a lot of time on this.

[DanPatterson_Retired]

Which is why it is always a good idea to use the online help, since it is updated
http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//00170000002p000000.htm
when little bugs like this are found