Module 5: GeoProcessing

This week the focus was geoprocessing.  Geoprocessing in its most basic form is a series of actions performed on geographic data.  There are many geo processes, including reprojections, clipping and buffering.   Central to the concept is that there is input data (one-or-more), the process/task itself and then the output data.

There are two categories of tools:  1)System: These include the built-in types of tools or of any type that are created by Esri. These tools themselves are not run in sequence, but can
be run in batch mode and 2)Custom: Tools of any type that can be built by a user or obtained from
third-party developers. And these are the type that we are learning to begin building in this class.

There are also types of tools:  1)Built-in: The tools that come w/ the Esri installation as part of ArcGIS are known of as the built-in tools. These tools are created with programming languages such as c++ and the .net languages,  2)Model: built using ModelBuilder, and 3)Script: Tools that run a script through a tool interface

The four elements of models are 1)project data (input) 2)tool (process) 3)derived data (output) 4)connectors (arrows to show the direction of data flow).

We also set our current workspace, in environments, to your specific module results folder and set the scratch workspace, where temporary files and folders are housed. 

ArcGIS tools have python script behind the scenes and as such can be exported from a model to a python script.  However the script that is exported is typically not a stand alone script.  To become a stand alone script, the exported script could need additional information, like lines of code and/or full drive addresses for data locations.

In this week's lab we practiced several types of geoprocessing, including batch processing (running a tool or series of tools on multiple inputs, set the parameters once and list inputs, processing time is the same but the set up time is saved) , making new tools with ModelBuilder, and converting models into scripts and script tools. We created our own model and script tools that perform two simple geoprocessing tasks (clip, select and erase). The results are the picture above.  Finally, we shared our toolbox with the dropbox submission.