Latest Contributions by KimOllivier

Meanwhile, someone could help us here. The ESRI help has example scripts in C# and Vb.NET that could be converted to Python using the comtypes module as demonstrated by Mark Cederholm. http://help.arcgis.com/en/sdk/10.0/arcobjects_net/conceptualhelp/index.html#//0001000002w1000000 This could be made into a simple script or module that would do the zooming for us until 10.1 arrives. An excellent little example of extending ArcPy using ArcObjects. ... View more

I ended up using the tool in catalog to set it all up. I just went back and did a find-replace to change the file paths. Much quicker than typing all of it. I have a spatial join in one script that is 20685 characters long, most all of it is field mapping. I wrote papers shorter than that in college. That is how I create field maps too, but you can set the workspace to shorten the paths to fit the fieldmap string into one line. ... View more

An interesting problem that is glossed over in the help. I solved this by creating a table with a date field, populating it and then reading them with a SearchCursor. When Python reads/writes a date field using a cursor it expects a date object using the datetime module. So I found that you have to create and manipulate dates as datetime objects. The datetime module is actually very convenient and cursors work for everything except NULL values. # datetest import arcpy,datetime ws = "c:/home/python/datetest.gdb" arcpy.env.workspace = ws rows = arcpy.UpdateCursor("fcdate") for row in rows :     print row.timestamp,type(row.timestamp)     if row.timestamp == None:         row.timestamp = datetime.datetime.now()     else :         row.timestamp = row.timestamp + datetime.timedelta(hours=10,minutes=30,seconds=15)     rows.updateRow(row)     del row,rows    Here is an example featureclass with an existing date field. It had a few dates and a null record. Note that you can read the dates and print them because a date object has a default 'representation'. It is not a string, you can just print the object as a string without casting. Note how you increment a date, using a timedelta object. You also have to trap null dates. I have used a file geodatabase (not a shapefile) because I expected it to handle a full datetime not just a date as in dBase or INFO. More help in the pythonwin help for python for the datetime module. ... View more

Regrettably there are some differences in running scripts in IDLE, Pythonwin, ArcCatalog and ArcMap that cause some things to just not run. I just open up my scripts in Pythonwin and run them from there, since that is where they were debugged. It may be worth changing to 9.3 format if you have later versions. It may be related to the gp processor not releasing locks, especially the AddField tool. There used to be a gp.RefreshCatalog(database) command that might help, this has mysteriously disappeared in documentation in later version because its 'not needed', but you might try that before you open the ODBC cursor. There are bugs in Python modules too, so upgrading to the latest version of ArcGIS forces an upgrade of Python as well. ... View more

Thanks Kimo. So, I can assume that all outer rings will be clockwise? I don't care how they are built, by connecting points or converting a dxf, ArcGIS will always have outer rings in a clockwise fashion? Thanks Here is the shapefile specification http://www.esri.com/library/whitepapers/pdfs/shapefile.pdf This explains the rules for shapes, and even more stringent rules apply to OGC polygons. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Features ... View more

You can see the counts of each featureclass in ArcCatalog without any Python scripting. Add features count as a column in the options for display and then touch each featureclass to update the metadata. then when you select the geodatabase or folder the counts will display in the listing. ... View more

I understood that a polygon must be defined in a Counter-clockwise direction to be valid. (I got this reversed in my original answer) A clockwise ring will define a hole in a polygon. But it must be enclosed by the first ring. So the outside ring must start counter-clockwise with alternate clock/counter-wise nested rings if you had the (real) case of say a lake on an island in a lake. The check/repair geometry tool will soon take note if you actually manage to build an invalid topology at  a low level. Somet loaders check on loading and reject invalid topology. But if you copy a featureclass using featureclassTofeatureclass you will copy the invalid geometry, storing up problems for any later analysis and drawing. OGC well known text does not define the direction except to note that the righthand rule will imply the polygon 'faces up". If you hod up your right hand with thumb, first and second fingers stretched, first finger along the line, then the second finger points to the inside and the thumb points up. KML definitely gets it 'wrong' from an Esri point of view, so always repair geometry when loading KML polygons or they won't draw properly and you will have trouble editing them. I am having trouble with loading data via spatialite too. The WKT loader seems to bypass any geometry validation and even just gets it wrong. ... View more

Create an array object to receive the geometry from the row. Then you can use that temporary feature as a mask polygon. ... View more

import sys, os, string, csv, re, arcgisscripting gp = arcgisscripting.create() gp.OverWriteOutput = True # Set local variables out_path = "d:/work" out_name = "points.shp" geometry_type = "POINT" template = "DISABLED" has_m = "DISABLED" has_z = "DISABLED" # Set workspace after variables gp.workspace = out_path #Creating a spatial reference object spatial_reference = gp.CreateSpatialReference('Coordinate Systems/Geographic Coordinate Systems/World/WGS 1984.prj') # use relative path for this path is an undocumented trick #Execute CreateFeatureclass if gp.Exists(out_name) : gp.Delete(out_name) gp.CreateFeatureclass_management(out_path, out_name, geometry_type, '#', has_m, has_z, spatial_reference) gp.AddField_management(out_name, "maxSize", "DOUBLE", 11, 4) f = open("D:/work/x30minpts.txt") # never start file or folder names with a digit, even if Windows allows it cur = gp.InsertCursor(out_name) # open outside loop once only pnt = gp.CreateObject('POINT') # only need one instance outside loop csvReader = csv.reader(f) # defaults ok for example for row in csvReader:     xCoord = row[0] # reads as strings, not numbers     yCoord = row[1]     size = row[2]     # print(xCoord,yCoord,size),type(xCoord),type(yCoord),type(size)     row = cur.NewRow()     pnt.x = float(xCoord)     pnt.y = float(yCoord)     row.maxSize = float(size) # attributes are property of the row, not the pmt     row.shape = pnt     cur.InsertRow(row) del cur,row,pnt f.close() ... View more

You can't delete rows with a SearchCursor, it is read-only. Try an UpdateCursor You might still encounter problems, Image catalogs seem to be special tables. ... View more

The proper answer is YES, at 10.0 there is a new set of tools called "Data Driven Pages" that have the equivalent utilities that were available in DS MapBook menu: I mis-understood that you wanted a text based index. Someone will have to write that in Python as a new resource. Can't be too hard with data driven pages. Might give it a go myself when I have time. I remember an AML tool that did this. ... View more

Hi, Sorry, I should be more explicit.  I am using 9.3.1.  In my geodatabase, I have a table (concentration) that I want to join a feature class (source) to. The "NUMR_ECHN" is the link for the table and NUMR_ECHN_LOCL" is  the link for the feature class.  I have about a hundred geodatabase located in about 20 different folders. the name of the geodatabase are 31M01_GR.mdb, 31M01_GS.mdb, 31M0-2_GR.mdb, 31M02_GS.mdb..etc. When I run the script with the loop, I don't receive any error message but, I don't have any output either. When I run the command lines, I have this error message: Executing: Append D:\CAREX_3\Test\Abitibi_Pontiac_A\31m\Géochimie D:\CAREX_3\Test\Abitibi_Pontiac_A\31m\Géochimie\31M01_GR.mdb\ECHANTILLON_LOCALISE_PT D:\CAREX_3\Test\Abitibi_Pontiac_A\31m\Géochimie\31M01_GR.mdb\RESULTAT_ANALYSE Start Time: Tue Jun 08 11:45:31 2010 Running script Append... <class 'arcgisscripting.ExecuteError'>: Failed to execute. Parameters are not valid. ERROR 000840: The value is not a Feature Layer. ERROR 000840: The value is not a Raster Catalog Layer. Failed to execute (CopyFeatures). The key is just get CopyFeatures to work standalone. Even in the interactive window in pythonwin. I think the problem is your files beginning with a numeric digit. As a conservative strategy never name folders, files or featureclasses starting with a digit. You are not allowed to start field names with a digit in most databases. Also, to make life easy avoid spaces in folders and file names as well. This avoids having to quote everything and use r"path to a strange world" for everything. Although windows and Unix allows spaces, it causes endless problems in ArcGIS and other packages if you have names, variables and anything that is not meant to be a number starting with a number or including spaces. ... View more

Hi, Sorry, I should be more explicit.  I am using 9.3.1.  In my geodatabase, I have a table (concentration) that I want to join a feature class (source) to. The "NUMR_ECHN" is the link for the table and NUMR_ECHN_LOCL" is  the link for the feature class.  I have about a hundred geodatabase located in about 20 different folders. the name of the geodatabase are 31M01_GR.mdb, 31M01_GS.mdb, 31M0-2_GR.mdb, 31M02_GS.mdb..etc. When I run the script with the loop, I don't receive any error message but, I don't have any output either. When I run the command lines, I have this error message: Executing: Append D:\CAREX_3\Test\Abitibi_Pontiac_A\31m\Géochimie D:\CAREX_3\Test\Abitibi_Pontiac_A\31m\Géochimie\31M01_GR.mdb\ECHANTILLON_LOCALISE_PT D:\CAREX_3\Test\Abitibi_Pontiac_A\31m\Géochimie\31M01_GR.mdb\RESULTAT_ANALYSE Start Time: Tue Jun 08 11:45:31 2010 Running script Append... <class 'arcgisscripting.ExecuteError'>: Failed to execute. Parameters are not valid. ERROR 000840: The value is not a Feature Layer. ERROR 000840: The value is not a Raster Catalog Layer. Failed to execute (CopyFeatures). The key is just get CopyFeatures to work standalone. Even in the interactive window in pythonwin. I think the problem is your files beginning with a numeric digit. As a conservative strategy never name folders, files or featureclasses starting with a digit. You are not allowed to start field names with a digit in most databases. Also, to make life easy avoid spaces in folders and file names as well. This avoids having to quote everything and use r"path to a strange world" for everything. Although windows and Unix allows spaces, it causes endless problems in ArcGIS and other packages if you have names, variables and anything that is not meant to be a number starting with a number. ... View more

After a bit of practice I have now completely replicated a DSMapBook application, plus a lot more. So rest easy all you DSMapBook enthusiasts. Some of the functions are still being worked on and renamed after the Pre-release, so there is a bit more to come. The basic idea is that the "mapbook" is the output document, not the project MXD. So you can load a PDF title page first, then export a series of PDF maps, each with its own MXD with different styles and page layouts, and then the trailing pages. Finally close the output document. Being able to assemble the pages from PDF individual pages avoids having to post process individual maps. There are additional tools to create strip map and grid indexes, and calculate adjacent sheet names, convergence and other settings needed for a series. Programming using the high level functions is a much easier than hacking the VB6 code for me because I have avoided using VB. At the same time the available tools are much more powerful that DSMapBook ever was. Especially the dynamic text to allow custom dynamic labels, images apart from being able to switch different layers on for each map. Not the same options form, you have to write a Python script for some things but in the end much more powerful and extendable. ... View more

The proper answer is YES, at 10.0 there is a new set of tools called "Data Driven Pages" that have the equivalent utilities that were available in DS MapBook menu: Strip Map Index Features makes a strip map Grid Map Index Features makes a grid of sheets Calculate Adjacent Fields (containing adjacent sheet names ) ... and three more relating to UTM zones, convergence and central meridians ... View more