Hi,
Even it's not supposed to do so (according to the help), Make Feature Layer modify original shapefile. I have a simple modelbuilder that add fields after make feature layer, and unfortunately, I noticed that my original shapefile was modified, so it's not possible to run the same model several times unless you do a previous 'copy feature".
As I wanted to use MFL to avoid duplicating files, it loose much of its interest.
Even it's not supposed to do so (according to the help), Make Feature Layer modify original shapefile. I have a simple modelbuilder that add fields after make feature layer, and unfortunately, I noticed that my original shapefile was modified, so it's not possible to run the same model several times unless you do a previous 'copy feature".
As I wanted to use MFL to avoid duplicating files, it loose much of its interest.
"The MFL tool is used to create a feature layer from an input feature class. The layer that is created by the tool is temporary and will not persist after session ends unless session is saved.",
I understand where you are coming from. I was confused about this for a long time. The docs do need to be edited to explain feature layers and table views better.