Latest Contributions by RobertStevens

I have two polygon datasets which I join spatially 1:1 keeping all target features (the centroid of the one lying with the polygon of another). Both datasets are layers in a map, and the target dataset has aliases. The resulting dataset loses all the alias information from the target (and possibly also the joined dataset, but I am not sure about that -- my joined polygon dataset did not have aliases before the join). I daresay I would see the same thing were I to join points to polygons, but, again, I have not explicitly tested this. Why is this? If I have gone to the trouble of creating aliases for fields, is it probable that I would wish to have those discarded? (Arcmap desktop basic 10.7.1 on windows 10. All patches apply to both) ... View more

I am using the ESRI "World Street Map" as a basemap. Using Arcmap 10.7.1 on Windows 10. All patches applied to both. At high magnification  (as far as I can tell a scale less than 1:850) the map does not redraw. More precisely, the basemap redraws but none of the other layers (which are of course above it in the drawing hierarchy) are not displaying at all. When I select a scale >= 1:850 then everything works ok. (The map extents are those of Portland OR). I don't know whether I would have the same problem at the same magnification were I to choose a  different map with different layers, but the same basemap. Why is this? While I am on the subject, when I zoom to a feature what determines the scale of the result? I frequently find it zooms to something like 1:400, but selecting a feature on a different layer can lead to wildly different zoom levels (eg 1:20000 or so). ... View more

I hardly know where to begin, or end, but I'll try. I want to create a python utility to do one very small, but repetitive, task: make a (known) subset of fields invisible in a map layer without having to fire up Arcmap.To my amazement, there is no way to do this.  I thought I was onto something when I find that one one can use arcpy.Describe() to get properties of a layer, one such property being a FieldInfo class. That class has a method called setVisible(). But no, there is apparently no way to get Describe() to access a layer in a map file unless one is already  running arcmap using the interactive Python window. From a command line one can only access a standalone, .lyr, layer file. And, to my amazement, the setVisibility() api does not work even then. Nothing changes. My overwhelming impression of arcpy is that it is a poorly conceived, half baked, quite incomplete API with confusing terminology,  and sketchy documentation. For instance: a layer file is treated quite differently to a layer. Apparently to get Describe() to get the properties of the layer (the kernel of the layer file tucked neatly inside) you have first to get the properties of a layer file. When you have done that the class instance returned has a property called -- trumpet roll -- "layer" which is: NO! not an instance of a layer class at all but another instance of Describe which then has layer properties one of which being an instance of FieldInfo. It is clear from the documentation that this cumbersome construct was some kind of afterthought. (The objects returned by describe do not even have a well defined class name: there is no "describe" class) The documentation also blithely states that there are many properties of layers which the API does not support. Even the modification of quite simple layer properties are unsupported.. The suggested solution seems to be to construct out of band from the ground up an entire new layer and replace the offending layer with it. Why, oh why, is this API so clunky? Sure, I can understand that certain operations are sufficiently complex that a simple Python API cannot really handle them. But to make certain fields in a layer hidden? Really? This API is now several years old, and it still seems really poor. Is there any chance that it is going to improve? ... View more

There are better and better unix tools around these days for handling .csv files. Our company does much non-interactive processing using such. We have a small problem using this tool in the the standard ESRI supplied toolbox:     Conversion Tools => To Geodatabase => Table to Table This tool admits (among other things) using an input feature class to create a .csv in a specified location. The problem with it is that the .csv created sometimes does not have a terminator on the last line. All the other lines in the file are terminated with a line feed (hex 0a), but that is missing on the last line. I consider this to be a bug. I don't know why the last newline is missing sometimes and not other times. Yes, it is a small point. But it causes us, at minimum, confusion. For example the unix wc utility (at least the cygwin version) reports that the output .csv has one fewer line (and hence record count) than it really does. Things like that. BTW: I was surprised that the tool creates lines separated by line-feeds -- being windows I expected carriage-return, line-feed (hex 0d 0a) or even just carriage return. I am happy about that, but was not expecting it. ... View more

I use this service as, I hope, the most up-to-date way of geocoding street names and addresses. It could use some improvement. 1. Documentation     The only documentation I can find that describes all the fields returned by this service is at: Service output—ArcGIS REST API: World Geocoding Service | ArcGIS for Developers       This description does not correspond perfectly to the fields I see returned; i see some that are not documented (eg arc_*; I see some documented that I don't see returned eg resultid. Oh, and BTW, the documentation has a comment to the effect that the user cannot rely on the number and names. Really? You have a service and you are just going to change it at will and allow me, the user, to figure it out when my programs stop working? 2. Why in are there so many fields? Here is the list (names have been truncated to 10 characters as I used the table to table tool to download the data as a .csv so I could extract the field names, and that tool only allows 10 characters for a field name): 1: oid 2: loc_name 3: status 4: score 5: match_type 6: match_addr 7: longlabel 8: shortlabel 9: addr_type 10: type 11: placename 12: place_addr 13: phone 14: url 15: rank 16: addbldg 17: addnum 18: addnumfrom 19: addnumto 20: addrange 21: side 22: stpredir 23: stpretype 24: stname 25: sttype 26: stdir 27: bldgtype 28: bldgname 29: leveltype 30: levelname 31: unittype 32: unitname 33: subaddr 34: staddr 35: block 36: sector 37: nbrhd 38: district 39: city 40: metroarea 41: subregion 42: region 43: regionabbr 44: territory 45: zone 46: postal 47: postalext 48: country 49: langcode 50: distance 51: x 52: y 53: displayx 54: displayy 55: xmin 56: xmax 57: ymin 58: ymax 59: exinfo 60: arc_addres 61: arc_addr_1 62: arc_addr_2 63: arc_neighb 64: arc_city 65: arc_subreg 66: arc_region 67: arc_postal 68: arc_post_1 69: arc_countr Yes, 69 fields! Most are empty in any data I receive and some seem to be duplicates of others. For instance what is the difference between arc_city and city? 3. Many of the fields have a width which seems almost to be a random number. And they are loooooong. Eg match_addr has a width of 500! The consequence of this is that I have to spend endless amounts of time scrolling to the right to see my own data which are the last handful appended to the list above.  4. The input I submit has, not surprisingly, a field named city. When I get the results the *#!@! service has renamed my field to be city_1. Why? Don't rename my fields. Rename yours. 5. If you use a feature class created by the WGS in joins you will get errors to the effect that a field name is a reserved word. So ESRI have selected a field name which is one of their own reserved words (I have made a post on this previously) So: why is the documentation not correct? Why do you rename my fields? Why are there so many? Why can I not select only those fields I wish to see and save just those? Why are the field lengths so long? ... View more

The subject says most of it. Years have gone by, and it is still not possible in using the Python Arcpy classes and functions to determine whether a map layer (or layer file) has any joins, still less what datasets are joined. Nor is there such a method in the ArcPro equivalent to Arcpy. ... View more

Does anyone else find this as hard to work with as I? It is slow. It redraws the entire screen so that one loses context from the sidebar. There is no back button (using back on the browser does not have required effect) Good Documentation systems allow the sidebar to show the subtopics without redrawing the entire screen. The whole system is just horrible. It was far better, far, in 9.x  And why is there no mechanism (or at least none of which I am aware) of taking a section of the documentation and converting it to a PDF? Then I wouldn't have to use this ghastly system. ... View more