Latest Contributions by JonathanCusick

Thank you! The right click thing is in ArcMap. In ArcCatalog, select the script, click the description button and click edit. When editing script tools, it's best to have your Customize/Options/Metadata set to "Item Description" style. ... View more

Hey Curtis, I created a script tool with Python and am trying to add documentation to it. I was able to enter a general description of the tool that appears in the tool help when it is first opened, but when I click on one of the specific input parameters, the description in the tool help is blank and I can't figure out where to edit it. I've also tried right clicking on the script tool itself in ArcCatalog (10.2.1) but do not get an "Item Description" button. Any suggestions? Thanks! Jon [ATTACH=CONFIG]34950[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]34951[/ATTACH] Is this a custom tool (.NET) or a script tool? If it's a script tool, documentation is added by right clicking the tool, selecting Item Description and editing the metadata. For GP tools built using .NET (called a "custom geoprocessing tool" instead of the more common "script tool" built in Python or another scripting language) you do indeed need to create a .chm file and set the tools HelpFile property to point to it. Although the Microsoft Windows HTML Help SDK is still supported (in Windows 7), it's very difficult to use. This is usually handled using third-party help authoring applications (Esri uses one obviously) that create documentation in various formats (including .chm) from a single source. Robohelp is one of the most popular ones out there. ... View more

Thanks Lauren! I'm able to get into Excel and add attribute fields, but now am coming across your same problem from above. I made sure that everything in my new attributes were formatted the same as the existing attributes (ie. they all contain Type, AliasName, DomainName, etc. fields). However, some of the information for my new attributes are unique to themselves so I can't copy and paste those values from the existing attribute records.  Were you able to figure out a further workaround or did your first solution meet your needs? ... View more

How were you able to get to edit the xml in Excel? I tried to use Edit>Datasets from the X-Ray dropdown menu, but the option (along with all the other choices in Edit) are grayed out. I just wanted to add some more attribute fields to the LocalGovernment.gdb files so that I can bring in all of the attributes that my existing data had previously. Thanks ... View more

Thanks for the help. I tried running the script with the updates you made, and while the script runs all the way (doesn't receive any error messages), it doesn't actually apply the definition query. When I look at the newly clipped layer in ArcMap, it is clipped to the entire Ground Zones layer as opposed to just ground zone 1 or 2 for example. Also, what is the function of the [0] at the end of the 6th and 7th lines? ... View more

Ah I didn't realize I had to do so. That's all of the code referring to the query. The rest of it begins to run the clip function along with others down the line. So I have to define the mxd that this is happening in in order to call upon the attributes of the Ground Zones feature class? Is there a way to run this just in Catalog? I tried defining the mxd as shown in the post at the top of the thread, but am still having problems. Whenever I try to set mxd to the full pathname of the map, I get an error saying Invalid MXD Filename. When just using the keyword "CURRENT" to define the mxd, it at least ran, but then I got that same 'str' object has no attribute 'name'. import arcpy from arcpy import env import os mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument("CURRENT") inzones = (.../RevisedGroundZones) for lyr in inzones:      if lyr.name == "RevisedGroundZones":           lyr.definitionQuery = ' "Grounds_GSC_Zones" = \'2\'' ... View more

I've been trying to use a definition query just like rbasaria, and have used the syntax that clm42 suggested, but keep running into trouble. For now, I just want to be able to query out various zones from a larger map, and then run further geoprocessing functions on them. import arcpy from arcpy import env import os inzones = (.../RevisedGroundZones) for lyr in inzones:      if lyr.name == "RevisedGroundZones":           lyr.definitionQuery = ' "Grounds_GSC_Zones" = \'2\'' When running it from the python window in ArcMap, I get an error message that says AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'name' and when I run it as a script tool in ArcCatalog, I get an error saying that there is no definition Query function for 'lyr' Any help would be very appreciated, thanks! ... View more

Turns out it was a simple fix. I added: output_str = str (output) after making my new gdb to convert it to a string. This (I think?) allows it to be read by other commands down the line. ... View more

I feel like I'm missing something obvious, but I'm having trouble with the CopyFeatures_management command as well. My script creates a new file gdb into which I would then like to copy feature classes. The script works fine when I define the name of the new gdb ahead of time within the code, but I'd rather have the name generated using GetParametersAsText to make the script more interactive. I'm very new to python so I don't know if I'm I just formatting my CopyFeatures command wrong? As of now I get TypeError: unsupported operand type (s) for +: 'Result' and 'str' ... View more

Thanks Mark! I was able to use the minimal python knowledge I have to put together a small script in the calculate value tool to test for the presence of an existing file name. I'm stuck now though because I can't get the delete tool to delete the old file that I want to overwrite. It either deleted the new, incoming version of the file (FCtoCheck) or as it is now, is trying to delete the new output GDB (OutputFGDB). Is there a way to use the delete tool to finish up the job or should I try to delete the old files using another python script? Thanks! ... View more

I've had similar troubles with ModelBuilder not overwriting past files. I have the "Overwrite the outputs of geoprocessing operations" box checked, but regardless, it just adds a "_1" to the end of newly created files. Is there another way to prompt ModelBuilder to overwrite outputs? ... View more