Latest Contributions by DarrenWiens2

The conversion from feet to miles is to divide the number of feet by 5280 (there are 5280 feet in a mile). ... View more

1.) Project your lat/long data 2.) Spatial join. The distance field should be in the coordinate system distance units ... View more

I can't write the actual script right now, but here's the method I would follow, in python: read your lines into a search cursor for each line in the cursor:     get the first and last point coordinates     calculate the change in x # first minus last, negative = W->E     calculate the change in y # first minus last, negative = S->N     if the absolute change in x is greater than the absolute change in y: # the line is in horizontal orientation         if the change in x is positive: # line is E->W             send line to new feature class to be flipped             delete line from current feature class     else: #the line is vertical         if the change in y is positive: # the line is N->S             send line to new feature class to be flipped             delete line from current feature class flip lines in new feature class merge flipped lines back into original feature class ... View more

I'll expand on what I did, since Jim is being so darn cryptic 😛 1.) Display imagery with transparent background (the default) 2.) Draw an ellipse in layout that is larger than the imagery 3.) In the ellipse properties -> Choose Symbol... -> Edit Symbol... -> Type = Gradient Fill Symbol 4.) Choose a color ramp that fades to black. 'OK' your way back to the layout 5.) Send the ellipse back so you can see it and the imagery 6.) Draw a big black rectangle and send it to the back 100% ArcMap ... View more

You should check out Page Definition Queries. They are meant to restrict features based on the data driven page displayed. ... View more

You should look at the Feature to Line tool. It's very useful for this type of thing. Also, if you are only interested in seeing the intersection points, you can use the intersect tool with roads as the only input (point as output type). ... View more

I'm not sure which tools you've used in each step, but be aware that the Define Projection and Project tools are quite different. Define Projections is used to assign the correct projection to your data. Project changes the projection (of a dataset that already has a spatial reference defined) to one of your choosing. 1.) Define the projection of your original data to what it should have started with (apparently GCS North American 1983) 2.) Use the Project tool to change the projection to the one you want (Canada Albers Equal Area Conic) 3.) Calculate geometry ... View more

I tried today to use the XSLTransform_conversion tool to just extract out everything (avoiding a transform) but I am getting an error message that appears to be a bug in tool validation (which I sent to ESRI support). I believe this was fixed in SP1. I can't remember the exact error I was getting, but it's gone now. ... View more

So you figured out how to do arrows in ArcGIS, but they don't come through in Explorer, is that correct? ... View more

Rather than call one feature class (fcpath), you'll call each feature class, one by one, from the fcList. This is totally untested, so you might run into errors (tricky areas might include overwriting the xml file, or reusing the ElementTree). You could also dynamically name the xml (e.g. with a similar name to the feature class name) inside the loop if you wanted separate xml files, rather than just one overwritten each time. import arcpy, sys from xml.etree.ElementTree import ElementTree from arcpy import env env.overwriteOutput = True env.workspace = r"D:\GIS\GDB\Lakeland\Lakeland.gdb\AddPoints" # set the workspace for use in  ListFeatureClasses fcList = arcpy.ListFeatureClasses() # lists all feature classes from inside env.workspace translatorpath = r"C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS\Desktop10.0\Metadata\Translator\ARCGIS2FGDC.xml" # the translator file to use xmlfile = r"D:\GIS\metadata\test.xml" # the output xml file for fc in fcList:     arcpy.ExportMetadata_conversion(fc, translatorpath, xmlfile) # export the current fc's metadata to xml     tree = ElementTree() # make an ElementTree object     tree.parse(xmlfile) # read the xml into the ElementTree     spot = tree.find("idinfo/descript/abstract") # find whatever tag you want     print spot.text # print the text between the tags ... View more

You can't expect too much from ArcExplorer (a free GIS viewer, not a proper GIS). Don't waste your energy getting frustrated - unfortunately, you are getting what you are paying for. And tell your client that. I'm not saying you need to go with ESRI, but if you're going to do much of anything (without serious techie know-how) you won't find it for free. ... View more

You can apply a search distance in "Select By Location" to include points within a certain distance to your lines. ... View more

Oh, I can never remember which is which. It works fine as is, I suppose because there were no characters to be escaped...? In any case, you should probably fill in your own paths, as I doubt you have access to my X:/. ... View more

I don't know how to get at metadata directly, but you can export the metadata to xml (I believe this tool only works FROM INSIDE PYTHON in SP1 and beyond) and then read through the xml with an ElementTree. I can't remember if the translator doesn't export all FGDC tags or doesn't import all FGDC tags correctly, but it's one of the two, so beware. import arcpy, sys from xml.etree.ElementTree import ElementTree from xml.etree.ElementTree import Element, SubElement from arcpy import env env.overwriteOutput = True fcpath = r"X:\working\metadata\BlankGDB.gdb\FullMetaFC" # the input feature class translatorpath = r"D:\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS\Desktop10.0\Metadata\Translator\ARCGIS2FGDC.xml" # the translator file to use - it should be in an installed folder like this xmlfile = r"X:\working\metadata\FullMetaFC.xml" # the output xml file arcpy.ExportMetadata_conversion(fcpath, translatorpath, xmlfile) # export the metadata to xml tree = ElementTree() # make an ElementTree object tree.parse(xmlfile) # read the xml into the ElementTree spot = tree.find("idinfo/citation/citeinfo/title") # find whatever tag you want print spot.text # print the text between the tags edit: updated paths as Curtis advises below. ... View more

There's probably a way to get Arc to do this more automatically, but here's how I did it: 1.) Union your polygons with the polygons as the only input - there will be multiple copies of each overlapping polygon 2.) Run Find Identical tool on unioned feature class to assign a unique number to each set of identical polygons - this is found in a new field called FEAT_SEQ 3.) Join this table back to the unioned table based on ObjectID from unioned feature class and IN_FID from find identical table 4.) Run Frequency tool on the find identical table to count the rows with the same FEAT_SEQ value 5.) Join the frequency table to the unioned table based on FEAT_SEQ ... View more