This weeks lab work focused on introducing us to creating toolboxes within ArcGIS that can hold custom created models (built from the ArcGIS model builder) as well as script tools that, in this case, were written in the PythonWin IDLE.
The first step in the lab was to create a model tool using the model builder within ArcGIS. The goal of the model was to take two shapefiles, create a clip of one using the other as a mask, then select certain features within that mask and create another output shapefile of the selected features. The final step of the model was to delete the selected features from the original clipped shapefile. What I ended up with is something like this:
The original clip was solid while the final output above shows all the deleted areas within it that were removed from running the model.
The rest of the lab consisted of taking the model I created, exporting it to a python script, validating that the script worked and overwrote the existing output, and then finally taking the python script and creating a script tool within ArcGIS.
Overall it was really neat to work through the process and see how all these tools can be interconnected and have varying degrees of power and flexibility. While the processes we are working with right now are relatively simple and mundane and one would wonder, why even script to do something so simple? It is plain to see that as you get into more complex and repetitive geoprocessing that scripting and model tools could be a huge help in reducing manhours and tedious manual processing.
The first step in the lab was to create a model tool using the model builder within ArcGIS. The goal of the model was to take two shapefiles, create a clip of one using the other as a mask, then select certain features within that mask and create another output shapefile of the selected features. The final step of the model was to delete the selected features from the original clipped shapefile. What I ended up with is something like this:
The original clip was solid while the final output above shows all the deleted areas within it that were removed from running the model.
The rest of the lab consisted of taking the model I created, exporting it to a python script, validating that the script worked and overwrote the existing output, and then finally taking the python script and creating a script tool within ArcGIS.
Overall it was really neat to work through the process and see how all these tools can be interconnected and have varying degrees of power and flexibility. While the processes we are working with right now are relatively simple and mundane and one would wonder, why even script to do something so simple? It is plain to see that as you get into more complex and repetitive geoprocessing that scripting and model tools could be a huge help in reducing manhours and tedious manual processing.
No comments:
Post a Comment