Arcpy Toolbox Conversion – How to Convert a Toolbox (.TBX) to a Python Script (.PY)

arcpypython-script-tool

I have a .tbx tool box, which runs a script that is incredibly slow.
So what I want to do is to open the python script that is running below the .tbx and make some changes or perhaps write something similar and faster. Is there someway to convert a .tbx ( and not just the form ) into a .py so I can inspect the code that it runs?
to clarify,

it is a third party tool created as a .tbx, and specifically here:
http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=c1c649ad439442189547c12685fcc9c3

it is slow in running in arcmap, but that is not the central idea, here. I want to open the python underneath the .tbx. As suggested by others i have tried
to right click and export (grayed out) and
also i have tried using a .tbx to .pyt converter (only returns the input form) and one more thing
i has also right clicked and opened in wordpad, but it was nearly illegible.

Best Answer

For third party toolboxes, there will either be an associated python script or the script will be embedded. Check the properties of the tool to see if there is a source script file. If embedded, right-click to export script. There may be password protections.

If it is not a tool, and it seems in this case a model tool, the model can be viewed and modified in ModelBuilder. Simply right-click and edit. From ModelBuilder, you can also export the script to modify or use in a python script tool.

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ArcGIS Desktop – Comparing Processing Time Using ArcGIS Hydrology Toolbox Tools

So through discussions on another forum I was able to figure out why the standalone script was running so terribly slow. This is because I did not have the gp.ScratchWorkspace property set. Once I set that to mirror my ArcToolBox General Environment setting using the same directory, I was able to run the Python script from the command line in approx. 6 minutes 49 seconds, about 40 seconds quicker than the run I did using the script set up in ArcCatalog (using all the same input/output files and formats as I had been).

Someone had also suggested the gp.LoadSettings method to pull in the Environmental settings from an XML file, which I tried doing by saving out the Environment from ArcCatalog to XML and then pointing to that XML file with the latter gp method. It kept returning an error and saying the object could not be found, and I think this is a known bug as I found this separate discussion forum which alludes to this problem in the context of ArcObjects (but seems the same thing was happening with Python): http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/7204-igeoprocessor.savesettings-and-igeoprocessor.loadsettings-not-persisting-settings

So, this gp.ScratchWorkspace was exactly the "type" of setting I was hoping for that would solve the problem (a 2 second fix that gives you a "d'oh!" moment but let's you quickly forge ahead), something that on the surface seems not a big deal but in the end it more than tripled the total run time for the script when executed from the command line outside of ArcGIS.

[GIS] Debugging Python script tools of ArcPy

To debug Python toolboxes I usually have a separate "debug.py" file in my project where I test just certain modules or code snippets. The script is very simple, set up like this:

import os
import arcpy

def main():
    # code to test here, set break point and step thru

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

When a Python toolbox throws an error, I inspect the line number and copy the function or method that contains the line in question into debug.py. I hard code the various input parameter values that the tool would normally have, and step thru my code and find exactly what the error is. Finally, I apply the changes to the Python toolbox .pyt file. I am currently using Visual Studio code to run my Python scripts.

edit:

I want to add this link as well: How to Debug Python Toolboxes in 3 Easy Steps. This article shows another easy method of debugging a python toolbox simply by adding a main() method:

class MyToolbox(object):
    def __init__(self):

class MyTool(object):
    def __init__(self):
        self.label = 'Tool 1'

def getParameterInfo(self):
    # parameters..
    return params

def execute(self, parameters, messages):
    # do stuff..
    return

def main():
    # set break point here, step thru
    tbx = MyToolbox()
    tool = MyTool()
    tool.execute(tool.getParameterInfo(), None)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Best Answer

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ArcGIS Desktop – Comparing Processing Time Using ArcGIS Hydrology Toolbox Tools

[GIS] Debugging Python script tools of ArcPy

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