Latest Contributions by MarkBoucher

Stuart - Thanks for the explanation. If I install Arc Hydro 2.1.0.40, will the Model Builder models I've made using Arc Hydro tolls from the older version still work, or do I need to rebuild them so they call the correct tolls from the new version? ... View more

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but, I believe if you install the latest HEC-GeoHMS version from the HEC website, it will automatically install the ArcHyrdo 2.0 and the APFramework, etc. that you need. I think that was my experience when I upgraded GeoHMS. ... View more

I've had this same problem and am very interested in the solution. ... View more

If I understand what you are wanting to do, all I can think of, off the top of my head, is you'd have to create the fdr using the 8 directions in arc hydro and then use the raster calculator to convert the diagonal grid values to some other horizontal of vertical (H/V) grid value. I don't know how you would make the decision as to which H/V to convert to which diagonal values. I assume you may get some very strange results. ... View more

M.Irfan, It is really simple, actually. This link provides a good overview of the process. It is for an earlier version of ArcHydro and the interface looks a little different, but the concepts are still applicable: http://www.bae.uky.edu/tdowdy/BAE538/Readings/ArcHydroTools_Tutorial.pdf This link has a good image on page 5-3 showing what the buffer is. Though it so for different software for GIS, it is the same concept: http://www.hec.usace.army.mil/software/hec-geodozer/documentation/HEC-GeoDozer_10_Users_Manual.pdf When you run the DEM Reconditioning function and click the "Help" button, it gives you on-screen explanations. Per the Archydro Help (my add comments in bold italics). Stream buffer (cells) �?? this is the number of cells around the linear feature class for which the smoothing will occur. Stream buffer - Default is 5. With a 30m DEM you could change that to 2 or 3. The buffer is used to reduce the chance of getting a parallel stream in the hydrodem if the polyline you use for agreestream does not line up with the stream depression in the DEM (See second link above). So you may need to experiment with this to see how small you can make it. Smooth drop/raise �?? this is the amount (in vertical units) that the river will be dropped (if the number is positive) or the fence extruded (if the number is negative). This value will be used to interpolate DEM into the buffered area (between the boundary of the buffer and the dropped/raised vector feature). Default is 10. This is what I think of as the "first drop". The stream is burned this much and then the area in the buffer is smoothed to come down to this elevation. Sharp drop/raise �?? this is the additional amount (in vertical units) that the river will be dropped (if the number is positive) or the fence extruded (if the number is negative). This has the effect of additional burning/fencing on top of the smooth buffer interpolation. It needs to be performed to ensure preserving the linear features used for burning/fencing. Default is 1000. This is what I think of as the "second drop". After the "first drop" and smoothing within the buffer the stream is burned into the DEM really deep. It should be a big number, though  the default of 1000 could be overkill. The ultimate goal is to create a good flow direction grid (fdr). If the sharp drop is 100 feet deep or 1000 feet deep, that will not change the fdr. I'd just use the default and save time. If you will do any elevation measurements you will use the rawdem anyway. Hope this helps. ... View more

The sequence you listed (1,2,3), it is the necessary sequence. The reconditioning and sink filling steps are necessary to get a good flow direction grid (fdr). The fdr is key for the rest of the steps in the Terrain Processing procedure. If the reconditioning and fill sink steps are done adequately, you will get a flow direction for each grid cell that is correct (in a gross sense). After this step, it can be helpful to use the flow path tracing tool. This tool uses the fdr to plot a graphical path from the point you click to the outlet. ... View more

... use the trace tool to generate infill polygons. ... If you can use the topology rules and tools, you can save yourself a lot of time filling in the gaps. ... View more

If I wanted the profile, I would not use the fil raster; I would use the rawdem raster.  However, if the canyon is getting filled and it shouldn't be, there may be something "blocking the flow" at the end of canyon when you run the fill sinks tool. Do this. In the Layer Properties for the rawdem, under the Symbology tab, make sure the you are using the streched option. Then, scroll down the statistics settings. Change the drop down option to "For Current Display Extent". With this setting, when you zoom in the stretched color ramp uses the current display extent to set the colors for each grid. This gives you more resolution and you can see the nuances in the dem. Change the color ramp to something with several colors to add variability. Now, zoom to the end of the canyon and. You should be able to clearly see what is "blocking" the flow and causing the canyon to fill. To remedy this, you can put a line (agreestream) in at that location and use it to "burn" in the stream just at that crossing using the DEM reconditioning step. When you run the fill sinks tool, the canyon should not fill. The burned in stream, which likely burns the dem below the canyon bottom, should fill in to match the lower end of the agreestream line. Then you can go through and create the drain lines and use those to do your profile in conjunction with the rawdem. ... View more

I recently ran across a label script that wraps text: http://arcscripts.esri.com/details.asp?dbid=12607 It looks like it counts characters and finds spaces so that the wrap starts in a logical place. You can adjust the length of the wrap. If your data have a typical length and are in one field, this might work. If your data have variable lengths, what you have would likely work better. ... View more

I've been getting these types of errors also. Specifically, when I try to create fdr, str, strlnk, etc. When I refresh the Catalog, the rasters are there! When I pull them in to my mxd, they appear to be OK. Maybe the error I'm getting is some after-the-fact function that has nothing to do with creating those rasters. Maybe the routine tries to add them to the mxd and something goes wrong with something related to the filesnames and it can't, and so it reports the error...  This makes the model builder models crash, but I can do it all manually... at least. ... View more

Here are some good practices for use in ArcHydro to reduce unspecified errors...http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/48100-ArcHydro-Problem-Solvers ... View more

I had this problem and researched it. There was no solution other than dispatching with image or colored background behind/around rasters. ... View more

Just to consolidate, Stacie Wolny submitted another one today:  http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/48666-ArcHydro-doesn-t-output-to-shapefile ... View more

One more thing... I've gathered from other posts that when using GeoHMS, things work better if you turn off background processing. Go to Geoprocessing>Geoprocessing Options... and uncheck "Enable"  under "Background Processing". ... View more

One more thing... I've gathered from other posts that when using GeoHMS, things work better if you turn off background processing. Go to Geoprocessing>Geoprocessing Options... and uncheck "Enable"  under "Background Processing". ... View more