I'm using Arcmap 10, I need to create a raster from contour lines. These contour lines were clipped out with a certain shape with the purpose to modify them only within that shape and then create the raster from these modified contour lines. The problem is that when I come to the TopoToRaster step, the resulting raster is rectangular, while I'd need it with the shape I used for the clipping. How can I do this? Should I change some options in the Spatial Analyst? How?
[GIS] How to create a raster (topo to raster) with non-rectangular shape
arcgis-desktopclipcontourrasterspatial-analyst
Related Solutions
I am with @whuber in that you should have a very good reason to do this and not just because you feel like you need an attribute table. Most operations can be accomplished on a floating point raster. Following the advice of a straight conversion to an integer raster, the data is truncated or rounded, and you can introduce serious issues such as contour bias.
That said, you can get to an attribute table and keep precision by multiplying by a constant (eg.. 100) and then coercing to an integer raster.
In ArcGIS 10.2 raster calculator this can be done in one fell swoop.
Int( ("slope" * 100) )
By using a constant, you can coerce back to a floating point raster by reversing the process.
Float( ("slope" / 100) )
I would recommend using Minimum Bounding Geometry (Data Management) followed by Clip (Data Management) with the clipping geometry option or Extract by Mask (Spatial Analyst).
Best Answer
Before performing topo to raster, you need to add a single polygon (input) which will be your desired boundary and change type to boundary (yes there is a dropdown key there).