why does Clip give 999998 error in arcgis 9.3?

[ShiuliPervin]

I have a script Tool developed by one of my previous colleague. It was running in a remote Computer so that everybody can use These Tools whenever needed. I was working well but suddenly it has stopped working and its a Panic. We have to fix the error of script tool immediately as we have only one 3d Analyst license in arcgis 9.3.
our python code is as follows:

   
    try:
        from osgeo import gdal
    except:
        sys.exit("No GDAL library!")
   
    import string
    import sys, os
    import csv
   
    import arcgisscripting
    gp = arcgisscripting.create(9.3)
    #overwriting True
    gp.OverWriteOutput = 1
   
   
   
    #--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    # INPUTS
   
    ## test data
    ##i= "F:/Projekte/A1101003/Grundlagen/DSM/griend_dtm0_GK3.tif"
    ##shp_mask = "F:/Projekte/A1101003/ArcGis/Themen/Polderung_Var02/Block45_Polderung_Var02_DHDN.shp"
    ##rasterpath = "E:/test/pv3"
    ##ordinate = "Ordinate"
    ##fieldName = "Polder"
    ##cellsize= "0,25"
   
    i= gp.GetParameterAsText(0)                 #raster
    shp_mask = gp.GetParameterAsText(1)         #shp with multiple features overlaping raster
    fieldName = gp.GetParameterAsText(2)        #field with name used for cliped rasters
    ordinate = gp.GetParameterAsText(3)         #field with height value as 'Ordinate' to create rasters
    rasterpath = gp.GetParameterAsText(4)       #output folder
    filename=rasterpath+"/_CutFill.csv"
   
   
    cellsize =gp.Describe(i).MeanCellHeight
                         
    if not gp.Describe(i).SpatialReference.Name==gp.Describe(shp_mask).SpatialReference.Name:
       
        gp.AddError("Shapefile coordinate system is different from raster coordinate system!!!\
                    Please reproject the shapefile to raster coordinate system '%s'." %gp.Describe(i).SpatialReference.Name)
                   
        print gp.GetMessages()
        raise Exception()
   
    #--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    # DEFINITIONS of FUNCTIONS
   
    def createDic (shp, field_name, field_ordinate):
        shpdict={}
        rows=gp.SearchCursor(shp)
        row=rows.Next()
        while row:
            #shapefile field name - the ordinate value
            shpdict[str(row.GetValue(field_name))] = "%.2f" %row.GetValue(field_ordinate)
            row=rows.Next()
        del row, rows
        return shpdict
       
   
    def cutfill4clip (raster, shape, field_name, field_ordinate):
        """
        Cut/Fill raster created from clipedDEM (every feat) and raster of Ordinate(every feat)
        """
        gp.CheckOutExtension("3d")
        gp.workspace= rasterpath
        rows=gp.SearchCursor(shape)
        row=rows.Next()
        count = 1
        global increment
        while row:
            #--- setting progressor
            gp.SetProgressorPosition(int(round(count*increment)))
            #--- setting names
            # checking if name has a space, changing to '-'
            row_name = str(row.GetValue(field_name))
            if " " in row_name:
                row_name = row_name.replace(" ",  "-")
               
            #output of cliped raster
            output = "c_"+ row_name[:10]
            #---------------------
            #getting rounded value of Height
            if isinstance(row.GetValue(field_ordinate), float):
                value=row.GetValue(field_ordinate) #float value ex:5.520000000001
                rvalue= "%.2f" %value              #getting string as output
                rvalue= rvalue.replace(".", ",")
            else:
                value=row.GetValue(field_ordinate).replace(".", ",")
                rvalue = value
            #-----------------------
            #output of ordinate raster
            output_ordinate = "ord_"+str(row_name)[:9]
            #output of cut/fill raster
            output_cutfill = "cf_"+str(row_name)[:9]
            #RasterClip_management
            clipgeo=row.Shape
            clipextent=str(row.Shape.Extent)
            try:
                gp.clip_management(raster, clipextent, output, clipgeo ,"0", "ClippingGeometry")
            except:
                msg = gp.GetMessages()
                gp.AddMessage(msg)
                sys.exit()
            gp.AddMessage("Raster clipped")
            #CalculateStatistics_management(in_raster_dataset, x_skip_factor, y_skip_factor, ignore_values)
            gp.CalculateStatistics_management(output, "1", "1", "0")
            #Creating an raster of height from ordinate
            extent= clipextent[:-16]            #no NaN NaN NaN NaN values
            dist = "uniform "+rvalue+" "+rvalue #special format for raster creation
            gp.CreateRandomRaster_management(rasterpath, output_ordinate, dist, extent, cellsize)
            #Creating cutfill raster
            gp.CutFill_3d(output, output_ordinate, output_cutfill, '')
            gp.AddMessage("... cut/fill raster %s" %output)
            row=rows.Next()
            count+= 1
           
        del row, rows
   
    #--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    # MAIN
    #
   
    #--- setting Progressor
    result = gp.GetCount_Management(shp_mask)
    num_of_rows = int(result.GetOutput(0))
    increment = 100.0/num_of_rows
    gp.SetProgressor("step", "Clipping rasters with Shp ...", 0, 100, 1)
   
    gp.AddMessage("Clipping raster with Shapefile and creating Cut/Fill rasters.")
   
    if os.path.exists(shp_mask):
        cutfill4clip (i, shp_mask, fieldName, ordinate) #goes to rasterpath (defined by user)
   
    else:
        print "Shapefile inputs are invalid"
   
    #...creating a dictionary for csv   
    rdict = createDic (shp_mask, fieldName, ordinate)
   
    #...writing to CSV
    fCal=open(filename, 'wb')                      #binary opened!!!    
    csv.register_dialect('dotcoma', delimiter=';') #needed to open with Excel
    writer=csv.writer(fCal, dialect='dotcoma')
    #writing first row
    writer.writerow(('CF_raster', ''+fieldName+'' , 'Ordinate', 'Volume_Pos', 'Volume_Neg', 'Area_Pos'))
   
   
    gp.AddMessage("Going through rasters to create a csv table.")
    gp.workspace = rasterpath
    gp.CheckOutExtension ("3D")
   
    #...looping through rasters of ('cf_...') to fill CSV
    for raster in gp.listdatasets("cf_*"):
        rasterName = raster.split("_", 1)[1].encode()
       
        if rasterName not in rdict:
            rasterName = rasterName.capitalize()
   
        if rasterName not in rdict:
            rasterName = rasterName.replace("-", " ")
   
        if rasterName not in rdict:
            gp.AddMessage('Shit!')
       
        gp.SetProgressor("default", "getting data for Polders...")
        gp.AddMessage('... getting data for Polder: %s' %rasterName)
   
       
        rows=gp.SearchCursor(raster)
        row=rows.Next()
        vol_pos, vol_neg = 0, 0
        while row:
            if row.VOLUME < 0:                           # was area- 200 m2
                vol_neg+=row.VOLUME
            if row.VOLUME > 0:
                vol_pos+=row.VOLUME
            row=rows.Next()
           
        #preparing for CSV (. changing to ,)   
        vol_neg, vol_pos = str(vol_neg).replace(".", ","), str(vol_pos).replace(".", ",")
        ord_val = str(rdict[rasterName]).replace(".", ",")
       
        #getting the Area 3D Value above the Ordinate
        gp.toolbox = "3D"
        gp.surfacevolume_3d ("c_"+raster[3:], "#", "ABOVE", ord_val, "#")
        msg=gp.GetMessages() # could write somewhere...
       
        #msg conatains: 2D, 3D, Volume
        #searching for 2d volume
        start = (string.find(msg, "2D Area="))+8
        end = string.find(msg, "3D", start)
        area_pos = msg[start:end].strip()
       
        #writing just for every raster all PositiveVolume and all NegativeVolume   
        writer.writerow((raster, rasterName, ord_val, vol_pos, vol_neg, area_pos))
        del row, rows
       
    fCal.close()
   
   
    #--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    os.startfile (filename)

**The process Shows a Progress of 6% and then stop working and
the error Message printed during the processing is like this:**

Executing: CutFillDEMOrdinate F:\Projekte\A1001025\ArcGis\Themen-Planung\B-Hoehe\hoehe_hn+50 F:\Projekte\A1001025\ArcGis\Themen-Planung\Polderplanung_Var6_Merc.shp FID Ordinate F:\Projekte\A1001025\ArcGis\Themen-Planung\temp
Start Time: Wed Apr 02 09:35:53 2014
Running script CutFillDEMOrdinate...
Clipping raster with Shapefile and creating Cut/Fill rasters.
Executing: Clip F:\Projekte\A1001025\ArcGis\Themen-Planung\B-Hoehe\hoehe_hn+50 "3413253,28963566 5878810,1020835 3413413,96707874 5878983,76715465" F:\Projekte\A1001025\ArcGis\Themen-Planung\temp\c_0 in_memory\fC0D8CD67_0B59_4BBE_ACDD_62DD737B7EDF 0 ClippingGeometry
Start Time: Wed Apr 02 09:35:56 2014
ERROR 999998: Unexpected Error.
Failed to execute (Clip).
End Time: Wed Apr 02 09:35:59 2014 (Elapsed Time: 3,00 seconds)
<type 'exceptions.SystemExit'>:
Failed to execute (CutFillDEMOrdinate).
End Time: Wed Apr 02 09:35:59 2014 (Elapsed Time: 6,00 seconds)

**Last few days we are trying to solve it. I did not use also arcgis 9.3 Long time. If someone could help or recomend a possible solution will be a great help for us**

Thanks a lot
Shiuli

[JeffreySwain]

As a shot in the dark, I would consider removing the '-' and '+' from the names of your output and input files.  The tools at 9.3 did not like special characters. Since your output looks to be an Esri GRID, then that would be where I would start.  If the script used to work, then the code is probably fine, the two flex points would be your inputs including the names and the version of python you may have installed on that machine.  If you have another application that may have updated past what 9.3 is expecting, that may also cause issues.

[ShiuliPervin]

Hi,
Thanks you very much for your Suggestion.
I have changed the Name of files removing "-" and "+" sign but it is still not working. But the old data is still working. I was hanging whole day to work on it and my outcome for new data set is same. may be you have some other clue why the new dataset is not working....I am lost.

Thánks a lot:)

[JeffreySwain]

The error message received is a memory error. Is there any other reason that the system would run out of memory?  Have you tried the tools outside the script to see if you can determine where it may be hanging up?  It seems you moved forward, but if you still want to use the script created some further testing is required.

[ShiuliPervin]

Thanks a lot. I tried to run it also from catalog but it shows the same results.  Somehow, I have to solve the Problem. I am still trying to figure out that Problem. I am lost...:)