arcgis-desktop – Adding Arbitrary Code to ArcGIS ModelBuilder

arcgis-desktopmodelbuilder

Is there any way to add arbitrary code snippets to an ArcGIS model?

I envision something similar to the "show code block" the expression builder in advanced labelling or field calculator.

For example my project of the moment could benefit greatly from fetching the username of the person running the tool. I know in python this is a simple import os; os.environ.get('USERNAME'). I think I could write that snippet to get_username.py, add it to a toolbox in Arccatalog, then add that tool to the model and use it as per-requisite model parameter for my current tool. That's a lot of work for such a small thing, and next time I might want something else, like inline variable substitution or a compound variable.

I think a code snippet tool or similar could be address all of these needs in a generic, broadly helpful manner.

Best Answer

Actually you can do this with the Calculate Value (Data Management) tool.

It's not particularly elegant (the entire source code for the tool is printed in the log every time it runs), and the editor (really just a text box) is abysmal.

I would suggest writing modules that you can then import and call functions from and then you would only need to write very short snippets in the dialog. Otherwise it's just not very clean.

Calculate Value is available at all license levels for Arcgis v10. With v9.x it is available to Arcview only if the Spatial or 3D Analyst extensions installed (ref).

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[GIS] Unique name segment creation in ModelBuilder

I think Parse Path (a Model Builder-only tool) is what you're looking for, using the NAME option. Set it as a precondition for the rest of the Model, and use it to grab the town name from the filename of the input file. You can then use the output value name as an in-line variable in the other tools when naming the feature classes. For example, if you call the Parse Path output Output, your dissolved feature class could be created as townDissolves.gdb\%Output%_dissolve.

The only problem here is that Parse Path can only return a full feature class name (e.g. the previous feature class would be called "TownNameX_slope_dissolve" rather than just "TownNameX_dissolve") -- to do this you would need to write your own short Python script (and add it to a toolbox so that you could use it in your model) that gets the name doing something like this, after being passed the feature class as a parameter:

import arcpy, os
def GetName(input):
    Name = os.path.basename(input).strip("_slope")
    return Name
fc = arcpy.GetParameter(0)
arcpy.SetParameterAsText(1, GetName(fc))

(I haven't tested this, so not sure it works as-is.)

ModelBuilder – Truncating Field Names to 10 Characters in ArcGIS Desktop

You can do this using Calculate Value and a bit of Python:

Expression:
```
make_fieldname(%Points%)
```
(where Points is the value you actually want to use, I just guessed)

Code Block:

def make_fieldname(input):
    return '_'.join(input.split(' ')[1:])[:10]

This will take your input value, split it at the spaces, strip off the first element (the year in your examples), join the rest with underscores, and finally truncate it at 10 characters to be safe.

Test results:

>>> make_fieldname("2001 Upland")
'Upland'
>>> make_fieldname("2001 Harvest")
'Harvest'
>>> make_fieldname("2001 Deciduous")
'Deciduous'
>>> make_fieldname("1999 Party Time")
'Party_Time'
>>> make_fieldname("2013 A Really Long Year")
'A_Really_L'

Best Answer

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[GIS] Unique name segment creation in ModelBuilder

ModelBuilder – Truncating Field Names to 10 Characters in ArcGIS Desktop

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