Python for ArcGIS

This recipe shows how to find the point on a specified line nearest the input point and the distance between those points. Finding only the distance can be done using the geometry’s distanceTo() method. If you need to find the distance and the closest point on the line, use the Generate Near Table tool. As […]

Are you sure Intersect is the right tool for the job? I often talk with people using ArcGIS Geoprocessing who find themselves surprised about the amount of time the Intersect tool takes to run, or confused about the output results.  … Continue reading →

Recently I got an email where a colleague was trying to determine the distance a point on a line was from the beginning.  They were spinning their wheels looking at geometry operators and not seeing a solution. First and foremost arcpy offers a broad broad collection of geoprocessing tools. What is perhaps less obvious is […]

Two approaches to help increase performance when adding numerous fields to a table or feature class. 1. Always load or create the table or feature class in-memory:   2. Use the data access and NumPy modules. The data access module function named ExtendTable() joins the contents of a NumPy structured array to a table based on a common attribute field. This […]