About geoprocessing
Familiarize yourself with geoprocessing as it is used in ArcGIS for Desktop, then spend time getting to know the tools. For a starting point in the ArcGIS Desktop Help system, see the following topics:
- A quick tour of geoprocessing
- Geoprocessing tools
- Commonly used tools
- Finding tools
- Essential geoprocessing vocabulary
- A quick tour of geoprocessing tool references
- Data types for geoprocessing tool parameters
Once you are familiar with geoprocessing, learn how to call a system tool from your application code. See the following topics in the ArcObjects software development kit (SDK) Help system:
- Interpreting a tool reference page
- Geoprocessing assembly overview
- Geoprocessor managed assembly
- Executing tools
- How to run a geoprocessing tool
- How to work with geoprocessing services
- Running a geoprocessing tool using background geoprocessing
There are a variety of techniques for dealing with features and attributes not found in datasets on disk. Use these techniques when your functions have ArcObjects as parameters or you want to circumvent pathnames. See the following topics in the ArcObjects SDK Help system:
- Using ArcObjects as tool input
- How to access the features in an in-memory output layer using IFeatureCursor
There are useful non-tool methods on the geoprocessor object that you need to know about. These methods are as useful as executing tools and help to implement your overall workflow. They are grouped by functionality in the subsequent sections of the ArcObjects SDK Help system's table of contents (TOC):
You can embed any of these functionalities and tool execution code in an add-in so that a user can use them in an interactive development program.
Finally, you can create a function tool by implementing the IGPFunction2 and IGPFunctionFactory interfaces. For more information, see Using geoprocessing to develop applications and Custom geoprocessing function tools. A simpler approach is to create a .exe file in Visual Studio. For more information, see How to create a script tool that runs an EXE.
See Also:
Geoprocessing overviewUsing geoprocessing to develop applications
Interpreting a tool reference page
Leveraging ArcPy in a .NET application
Geoprocessing assembly overview
Geoprocessor managed assembly
Executing tools
Working with results and messages
Accessing a dataset
Working with multiple datasets
Walkthrough: Consuming a geoprocessing model tool in .NET
Sample: Create a geoprocessing tool to buffer a layer and retrieve messages
Sample: Geoprocessing events listener
How to create a script tool that runs an EXE
Errors and exception handling in geoprocessing