GIS Programming Week 4

    This week I learned how to create a model for geoprocessing function in ArcGIS using ModelBuilder. Creating a model using ModelBuilder within ArcGIS Pro was a great visual tool that helped me understand geoprocessing tools and visualize the workflow. It is very useful when creating tasks that need to be repeated. Below is the model I created to show the process of clipping a feature, and then erasing a selection within the feature, as well as the output. In this case, removing any polygons representing "Not prime farmland" within a map of soil clipped from a basin.



After running model
Before running model



    The next part of my assignment was to write my own script in ArcGIS Notebook that could run add XY coordinates, buffer, and dissolve tools. I exported the model I created to a Python script and inspected it, which further reinforced my understanding of how the geoprocessing tools function. This, along with the readings and practice assignment gave me a good base of knowledge to build a script from scratch that would execute geoprocessing tools within ArcGIS Pro. I had trouble with files not being overwritten and causing the script to fail, despite overwriting being enabled. I then realized that only one workspace may be active at a time, and I was trying to save data to two different folders. To solve this, I ran the line establishing my workspace again to update the folder I was working in, and successfully overwrote the data. Below is the final output of the script I wrote when ran in ArcGIS Notebook, showing the hospitals plotted on their XY coordinates and the dissolved buffer surrounding them, as well as a flowchart depicting the process.






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