Latest Contributions by DaleHoneycutt

I totally agree that UNC paths would be better.  My takeaway from this, for debugging purposes, is: [INDENT]If you have data access problems, look for suspicious drive letters like Y: instead of the typical C: 😧 and E: .  It usually implies that a network drive has been mapped and the mapping no longer exists, or cannot be found by the scheduled task.  You can either change the script or model being run to use a UNC path instead of a drive letter, or, as an alternative when modifying the model or script is difficult, use the NET USE stuff...[/INDENT] ... View more

Julie: Very nice solution!  I like the way you used DOS commands to echo the existence of the file.  I did not know about the DOS command NET USE.  So I did a little investigation and thought I'd pass on what I found out to other readers of this post. To learn about NET USE, enter this at the DOS command prompt: NET USE /HELP lower case is supported, so you can also type: net use /help So, I figured out that your line: net use Y: \\adminfs\gis Is mapping the Y: drive to \\adminfs\gis As best I can figure out, the first line: net use Y: /d /Y is actually shorthand for: net use Y: /delete /YES which removes the existing connection to the Y: drive (/delete) then instructs DOS to remember any subsequent mapping you make.  Is this correct? By the way, we just wrote a blog post about scheduling tasks so this thread is particularly timely.   If you could confirm that net use Y: /d /Y is doing what I think it does, I'll add some more to the blog post about using the NET USE command. Thanks again, Dale ... View more

This blog about counting overlapping polygons may be just what you need. ... View more

There's a series of blog articles that describe, in detail, how to do if processing in modelbuilder: http://blogs.esri.com/esri/arcgis/2011/06/06/modelbuilderifthenelse1/ Also see this help topic.  I'd probably start with this topic, then look at the blogs above: http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.1/index.html#/Using_If_Then_Else_logic_for_branching/002w00000022000000/ ... View more

I'm using 10.5 sp 5 and I'm finding that Feature Class to Feature Class will not write descriptions. Instead it will add the domain table to the output GDB as to satisfy the domain link in the field. I created a blank PGDB, used FC to FC with a domain linked FC as the input and a new layer as the output in the blank PGDB. After successful completion I see domain tables in my output PGDB and a Select By Attributes in ArcMap reveals that the layer is in fact referencing domain codes. Can ESRI confirm this behavior in 10.0 SP5? As I understand the post above, the environment variable is not available in 10.0 but the functionality was expected to have been built into the FC to FC geoprocessing tool. Is that correct? The environment variable only applies when writing shapefiles.  If you're copying a geodatabase feature class to another geodatabase, the necessary domain tables & values are created or updated in the output gdb.  This is the behavior you're seeing.  It's only when writing to shapefiles that descriptions are written (shapefile workspaces -- that is, system folders -- don't support domains).  So the behavior you're seeing is correct and has always been the behavior when copying from one gdb to another. ... View more

Erase tool? ... View more

I think so.  Take a look at this blog post about 1:M joins and the merge rule "join" in Spatial Join.  Although the blog post is about something different then your scenario, the basics, I think, are the same.  You'll do a ONE_TO_ONE join, but you'll specify a new output field with a merge rule of "Join" as shown in the blog post.  You'll specify a delimiter, such as "&".  You'll end up with one field with the sections delimited by an "&" (i.e., "20 & 21 & 28").  Once you have this information in one field, you can start busting it apart into several fields (such as SECTION_1, SECTION_2, SECTION_3) using Calculate Field and some simple Python list processing.  For examples of list processing, such as counting number of sections, or finding the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd 'thing' in the list, see this blog post on building a street intersection list. This is all pretty high-level, but if you can write a bit of Python for Calculate Field, there's hardly nothing you can't do with processing a delimited list like "20 & 21 & 28" (doesn't matter what the delimiter is as long as you're consistent; you can use '-' or '+', or ',' or 'whatever').  Let me know if you need more help; I'll need some specifics about layer and field names.  But I think this'll get you where you want to be. ... View more

This is a head scratcher.  The only thing I can think of is to examine the geometry via the arcpy Polygon class.  You could read the geometry, make a copy, run repair geometry on the copy, then compare the copy to the original vertex-by-vertex.  When a miscompare is found, record the vertex x,y for further investigation.  Yikes!  That's non-trival and ugly.  But it is, in essence, what the Check Geometry tool does -- repair the geometry then compare it against the original geometry. ... View more

When executing Copy Features/Copy Rows, you're using the layer as input, not the dataset on disk (pathname to the dataset), correct? A quick test here shows that Copy Features is honoring layer selections. ... View more

Hi Dale, Thanks for the link.  I've only got access to Arc10, do you know if a tool like this exists for that version? As far as I know, no... it's 10.1 only.  There's a note from the author (David Wynne): ...the code leans heavily on the new (at 10.1) positionAlongLine geometry method. Off the cuff, I'm not sure about being able support curves with this at 10.0 either. I'll think about it, but no promises. ... View more

There's a tool in the tool gallery: http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=a2a41c8345e24ab6a9dd2ae215710b39 ... View more

I'll need the dataset D:/LECZ/fldgrids/arefld  which you're using as an extent template.  (Sorry, I thought that the Python snippet converted the template extent to raw numbers). I tried this w/o a template extent, entering 20 rows by 20 columns and setting the output spatial reference to WGS84 (since I couldn't provide a template dataset, the output spatial reference is <Unknown>.)  I did get slightly different values in length and area, probably similar to what you're seeing.  Investigating your statement that "If I select one of them there is a structure to the selection such that it results in a checkered type pattern."  I finally understand what you were doing -- you selected all polygons whose length or area were the same.  Doing so creates a selected set that is a checkerboard pattern.  I thought there was an issue with the structure of the polygons -- that you were selecting one random polygon and a checkerboard would appear (which would be terrifying, frankly).   Back to the coordinate values -- in order to investigate further, I need your template dataset ... or I need to know the exact XY Resolution, XY Tolerance, and Extent.  If you could create a file geodatabase that just has your template dataset, then zip the file geodatabase and send it to me (dhoneycutt@esri.com), it would go a long way towards explaining what's going on.  Just to give you an idea, I created a template dataset in WGS84 with the default tolerance (very small), used that in Create Fishnet, and my length/area numbers were all the same.  I'm thinking that the XY Tolerance of your template dataset isn't small enough.  What's its lineage? ... View more

Something is amiss, but I don't know what.  Particularly disturbing is this : "If I select one of them there is a structure to the selection such that it results in a checkered type pattern."  It sounds like the Create Fishnet tool didn't construct the polygons properly. One thing you can try is running the Feature To Polygon tool.  As input to Feature To Polygon, enter the fishnet.  You'll get a new feature class and this feature class should have properly formed polygons (no "checkered type pattern"). If this doesn't solve anything, respond to the thread with the parameter values you used to create the fishnet.  One way to easily get the parameter values is to use the Results window (10.0 and higher).  Right-click the result of your fishnet run and click "Save as Python snippet", then paste that snippet in your response. ... View more

It sounds like you want to use variable substitution.  This is a common case -- have the user enter some data and then build a query based on the data the user enters.  In this case, it's a couple of dates. I'm going to refer you to a couple of help topics. First, look at the Quick Tour about variable substitution. Then there is a topic that shows many examples.  Examples 3 and 4 show building a query based on variable substitution. ... View more