Latest Contributions by DaleHoneycutt

Whenever I've got a 1:M, M:1, or M:M join situation, I end up using the Make Query Table tool. It creates a new table (or feature class, if you include the shape field in your output).  It's a very powerful tool, but overwhelming at first, so experiment on a small subset of your records and paw through the output to make sure you're getting exactly what you want (I almost always do this, and I'm supposed to know this stuff.) ... View more

I'd go the most direct route using the Intersect tool followed by the Summary Statistics tool to calculate area -- the Statistics field would be SUM of shape_area and your Case fields would be both slope category and erosion zone.  No need to convert to raster. Since you've got a large number of polygons, before running Intersect, turn off background processing and exit any other applications that chew up memory (like Firefox). ... View more

It could be that you're exceeding the number of attributes (fields) allowed in a shapefile after union of 65 shapefiles.  Or you're exceeding the hard limit for number of bytes in a dbf row.  See Geoprocessing considerations for shapefile output for more info about how horrible shapefiles can be for real-world processing. I'd suggest converting your shapefiles to a file geodatabase, then try union again. (File geodatabase doesn't have a number of fields limitation). Another idea: merge your shapefiles together (into a file geodatabase), then run union against this merged dataset... yes, you can union a feature class with itself.  Try this on a subset of your data and see what you get. ... View more

Are you making a script tool via the script tool wizard, or running it from the operating system prompt? Please post the script tool code... ... View more

You may be setting the wrong parameter with SetParameterAsText.  You have 8 input parameters.  Your derived output should ALWAYS be the last parameter.  Therefor, you should be doing SetParameterAsText(8, ptFile).  Also make sure that ptFile has a valid value (i.e., add a message to check its value). ... View more

If you're on 10.0, right-click your tool in the catalog window and click "Item Description".  Then hit the Edit button to edit the description. See A quick tour of documenting tools for more info For 9.3, see An overview of documenting tools and toolboxes ... View more

You definitely want to use the Intersect tool for this rather than Spatial Join.  There's no need to split your habitat shapefile into 18 pieces.  Just input the (unsplit) habitat shapefile and your  assessment polygons into Intersect. As for getting your statistics, Dissolve will work as outlined in the previous post.  But you can also use the Summary Statistics tool to create a table of habitat by assessment units. For more ideas (and a model that does exactly what you want), have a look at this presentation "Fundamentals of GIS -- Overlay" ... View more

Have a look at this blog "Accessing Feature Shape in Calculate Field" -- it shows how to use the Calculate Field tool too do what you need. ... View more

This is a classic overlay problem.  Use the Identity tool.  You need an ArcGIS license for this.  If you only have an ArcView license, use the Spatial Join tool. ... View more

Good one, Bruce.  >>> address = "380 New York St Redlands Ca 92373  " >>> zip = address.split()[-1] >>> zip '92373' >>> address[:address.rfind(zip)] '380 New York St Redlands Ca ' ... View more

And use arcgis.com as your data store. ... View more

First, read this blog post about concatenating fields using the Calculate Field tool.  It explains how to create a Python routine for Calculate Field to run to fetch a new field value. Assuming you're dealing with 5-digit zip U.S. zip codes, and that the zip code falls at the end of the address, here's a snippet that shows one way you can parse it. >>> address = "380 New York St Redlands Ca 92373  "  # Note: trailing blanks >>> address = address.strip()  # get rid of leading/trailing blanks >>> print address 380 New York St Redlands Ca 92373 >>> length_of_address = len(address)  # number of characters >>> print length_of_address 33 >>> zip = address[length_of_address - 5: length_of_address]  # Get last 5 digits >>> print zip 92373 >>> stripped_address = address[0:length_of_address - 5]  # everything up to zip code >>> print stripped_address 380 New York St Redlands Ca ... View more

Well, you could publish a simple geoprocessing service that uses the Minimum Bounding Geometry tool with either CONVEX_HULL or RECTANGLE_BY_AREA option.  Set the Output Coordinate System geoprocessing environment variable to web mercator.  This will force the output of the Minimum Bounding Geometry tool to be in web mercator.  Your service would return the feature class output by Minimum Bounding Geometry tool. As far as projecting on the client side, I can't help you.  I'm thinking you'll need a service. ... View more

See also this blog post about using Calculate Field.  It contains examples of capitalizing values. ... View more

Use the Table To Geodatabase tool Other tools that'll do the same job: Table To Table, Copy Rows ... View more