Latest Contributions by KimOllivier

My suggestion is to use a cursor to calculate fields if you are in a Python script. Leave CalculateField for the modelbuilders! Since CalculateField just runs a cursor, the speed will be the same. A cursor can be much easier to program, and read. There are no special characters to escape such as bangs! It is much easier to debug. You can trap 'unexpected data' such as nulls or divide by zero without a complete crash which you will get with CalculateField. You can use a selection query in opening the cursor to limit the records more easily than having to use a layer definition. ... View more

I understand that  data driven pages have to be set first in the MXD, there is no function in Arcpy. You will have to think of a workaround. eg Have a template MXD with DDP enabled, presumably with a suitable layer for the pages. Then copy the layers from the "unabled MXD" and you can then plot the pages. or if you have access to an ArcObjects wizard, use the comptypes module to enable DDP with the required ArcObjects calls. ... View more

I have found the Data Management Graph Toolbox that does allow me to script profile. Wonderful! ... View more

The graphs are really cool and very flexible, ie complicated. I would like to see more help and examples of the options. The "Learning By Exploration" required is a bit hit-and-miss. Who knows what the difference is between "properties" and "advanced properties"? I have found belatedly that you can add multiple themes, but to synchronise the scales you have to have generated M and Z values for the lines and point events with spot heights. You can export the data table to Excel and to an image or PDF. What I would like to be able to do is replace the features in the graph document in Python, or some sort of API to script multiple graphs. I realise that it is a third party plugin so options are limited. ... View more

Definitely georeference your images first. Then capture the vectors from the rectified image(s) In doing several data capture projects I found this reduced the work significantly. 1. You do not have to reproject or adjust the vector data 2. There are no edge matching issues because you can just add more images to cross edges, or merge multiple images into a single large image. This was very useful for utilities where you are capturing manholes and joining them with pipes across sheet boundaries with a single feature. 3. All the issues of datums in the image and other distortions can be handled simple with the georeferencing links. 4. For QA work just supply the rectified images that can be displayed under the final work. In one case the controls for registering the images were marks on manholes that had been surveyed in the field. When these were added a check could be made with the RMS errors to ensure that they were consistent and the registration was correct. [In the old days when we captured data using digitiser tables the opposite was true. We had to capture the vectors in "page units" and then transform to "map units" using the corner TICS. Then a painful edge matching process for each sheet and separate capture of the attributes. Finally a projection to the desired projection if different from the source.] ... View more

Have you made sure that you are passing the full path of the layer? Dragging a layer interactively looks like just the group/layer string in the dialog, but behind the scenes, and passed as a parameter is the full path. A few judicious print statements will show that you need a full path, especially if you are not running in interactive mode and have not set the current workspace. ... View more

In Workstation there is a lattice command called HIGHLOW which does what you want in two dimensions. One too many? You might be able to get inspiration from this. They discuss local maxima or minima using filters. There must be a Python script somewhere. ... View more

You will probably have to define a custom printer and set the defaults to the settings required and then print to that. You will need administrator access so it may not be a solution. Otherwise you might be able to do it in Python using the win32print module in PythonWin. Have a look at the help in PythonWin for details. I have not got this working myself. ... View more

Dan Patterson is spot on. Run all geoprocessing analysis on planar projected sources that are in the same projection to get any sense out of the results. You cannot use unprojected sources and expect a useful result. You have ended up with a planar distance calculation using a source layer in distorted spherical coordinates which have no meaning. You cannot just calculate the equivalent kilometres for a degree of latitude because the longitude scale is not constant. You might not notice this near the equator but in the temperate zone the difference in scale is 50%. Does the tolerance use a circle or an ellipse? [The only tools that handle geodetic calculations are Project (of course) and Buffer of points with the geodetic option.] I see the suggestion that you can set the output projection and let ArcGIS do the projection on the fly, but in my experience that is just asking to find subtle bugs and a lot longer processing. Since I live very very near the dateline +/-180 and do work across the boundary, it would be tempting fate for me. ... View more

You don't get the chance to set a [Page Definition] on the DDP index layer. You have to make a copy of the layer and set the second layer to have a dependency on the index layer. The second layer is the one that you change to fill. Note that there is an Extent tab on the DDP menu where you set the zoom percent for the first index layer. I don't know how I managed to get two layers to have dual buttons! I still have it, but cannot reproduce it in a new MXD. ... View more

There is an option on the tool "Keep zero length line events (optional)" which needs to be unchecked. You may not have seen this because the dialog is so large you have to scroll down to see these extra options. I cannot see any application where I would want these kept, perhaps it should have been off by default. ... View more

Do you need Eclipse just to write a geoprocessing script? Pythonwin is probably sufficient. In Pythonwin you just import arcpy in the interactive window. This checks out a licence and enables intellisense for the script window as well as the interactive window. Maybe the same process for Eclipse? ... View more

col1 = "test xx" col2 = "xx" print "<%s>\n" % col1.replace(col2,"").strip() or use regular expressions to be much more precise, with the leading space and the xx at the end of the string. import re col1 = "test xx" col2 = "xx" pattern = re.compile(" ?xx$") repl = "" result = re.sub(pattern,repl,col1) print "<%s> <%s> <%s>\n" % (col1,col2,result) <test xx> <xx> <test> ... View more

But hold your code! ArcGIS 10.1 will have AddIns and support for windows events. As seen in this video http://video.esri.com/watch/234/the-power-of-python ... View more