Latest Contributions by DaleHoneycutt

If you're using 10.1, you can use the ScratchFolder environment value ... View more

A "clean geodatabase" tool is a cool idea -- leave the schema intact, just remove all the records.  (BTW: You can probably use a combination of Export XML Workspace Document and Import XML Workspace Document to do this.) Anyway, for ideas like this, be sure to visit the Ideas site and log a suggestion. ... View more

You should have access to ModelBuilder -- it's available at every license level ... View more

There's a sample tool in the Analysis and Geoprocessing Gallery that may do what you need: http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=9398bd2232cb4c8490b0b05015364d28. ... View more

Take a look at the Split tool -- it might be just what you need. In addition, there's a sample tool in the Analysis and Geoprocessing Gallery on arcgis.com: http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=db1e328dce6948d08ee42a2b52a17daa ... View more

This is timely -- I was developing a model with iterators yesterday and discovered what you did: only the last feature class produced as part of the iterator is deleted (if marked intermediate).  I actually didn't want anything to be deleted--I had accidentally marked the variable as intermediate.  I only saw this behavior on 10.0, not 10.1.  Anyway, this isn't your issue--you want everything produced by the iterator to be deleted if the variable is intermediate.  We'll look to see if it's possible to implement this... I suspect it's very tricky.  In the meantime, I'd go with deleting the entire scratch geodatabase.  In a model, you could use the Create File Geodatabase tool to create a new one after deleting the old one. ... View more

Have a look at this help topic on variable substitution... http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.1/index.html#/Examples_of_inline_model_variable_substitution/002w0000005w000000/  See example #6 at the bottom. ... View more

Here's a presentation from the 2010 User Conference "Fundamentals of GIS Analysis: Overlay" ... It could probably be updated, but the content applies to all versions. http://resources.arcgis.com/gallery/file/geoprocessing/details?entryID=6D00A1DF-1422-2418-7FB1-4720F8155690 ... View more

This is a perfect application of "spaghetti and meatballs".  1. Use the Feature To Polygon tool, using your polygon feature class as input.  This will create a new feature class of polygons, but with no overlaps.  Hint:  For the label features parameter (the last parameter), input an empty point feature class with no attributes.  You can use the Create Feature Class tool for this -- just create a new, empty point feature class w/o any attributes, and use it as the label features input.  This prevents the output polygon feature class from having bogus attributes.  This is the "spaghetti" part -- you're creating single non-overlapping polygons from 'cartographic spaghetti' (any collection of lines and polygons). 2. Using the output of the Feature To Polygon tool as the input to the Feature To Point tool.  For the Inside parameter (point_location), set it to true (checked on) ("INSIDE" in python).  This will create a centroid point for each polygon in the input features.  This is the "meatballs".  Note that the output point feature class has the object ID of the input polygon it was generated from. 3. Overlay (using Intersect or Identity) the point feature class (meatballs) with your original feature class containing the overlapping polygons.  You'll get another point feature class. This new point feature class will have one point feature for each overlapping polygon.  So, if the meatball is overlain by 5 polygons, you'll get 5 points out.  If your original overlapping feature class was BURNAREAS with a single attribute named YEAR, and the point centroids was named MEATBALLS, the result of Intersect or Identity will be: FID_BURNAREAS : the feature id of the overlapping polygon feature class YEAR: the burn year FID_MEATBALLS : the ID of the centroid ORIG_FID: the ID of the non-overlapping polygon (the output of Feature To Polygon) Note that FID_MEATBALLS and ORIG_FID are equal. There will be multiple entries for the same FID_MEATBALLS where ever there are overlapping polygons.  So, you could end up with something like this (excuse the formatting-I need a table here)): FID_BURNAREAS | YEAR |  FID_MEATBALLS | ORIG_FID 1         |                2001   |   15           |           15 2         |                2005   |   15           |           15 200     |                2012    |  15           |            15 198      |               2001   |    88           |           88 198       |              2001   |   72            |          72 So, polygon 15 -- the polygon in the output of Feature To Polygon -- has been burned 3 times: 2001, 2005, and 2012. Now that you have the info you need, there are a number of approaches you can take.  For example, you could use the Summary Statistics tool to return the number of times a polygon has been burned.  (Use FID_MEATBALLS as the Case Item).  The Pivot Table tool is a favorite of mine in this case -- use YEAR as the Pivot Field.  I always have a hard time with the Pivot Table tool and end up experimenting with a small representative subset of the input table until I get it right.  The one problem with this approach is if a polygon gets burned twice in a single year.  But you can catch that with Summary Statistics.  I hope this helps -- I can send an example model and data if you need. BTW: Spaghetti and Meatballs is a technique that's been around since the earliest days of GIS.  It's the most elemental way to discover relationships in overlapping data.  It's only necessary for cases like this.  It's not a technique for the faint-hearted since one has to really paw through and understand the results. ... View more

Try the Integrate tool -- it will create a vertex where lines intersect. ... View more

There is a bug in 10.0 that prevents Help from showing the information in the Item Description.  This has been fixed in 10.1; in 10.1, you enter documentation using Item Description.  When you click Help, the contents of the Item Description is used to display help unless you have referenced a topic in a .chm file. For creating chm files, I really like HelpNDoc, a free product.  We use it here to prototype new help content.  It's real easy to use and outputs to different formats.  See http://www.helpndoc.com/ for more info. ... View more

Is the output variable a model parameter?  It sounds like your model creates a layer.  This output layer has to be a model parameter in order for it to be automatically added to ArcMap display when the model is run as a tool.  See these help topics for more info: A quick tour of creating tools with ModelBuilder Creating model parameters ... View more

As suggested, use a Record Set  to capture xy coordinates as strings.  Use Make XY Event Layer to turn the table row (the Record Set) into a feature layer.  Use the Copy Features tool to copy this layer to a feature class.  The Copy Features tool honors the output coordinate system environment, so you can change the coordinate system here if need be.  You can write the output feature class to memory using the in_memory workspace.  You can buffer this point using the buffer tool, but again, write the output to the in_memory workspace. ... View more

If you are adventurous and want to abandon VB for Python, here's a blog article on how to concatenate fields using Python in the Calculate Value tool. It shows how to use If statements and the like. ... View more