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Contour with Barriers

Available with 3D Analyst license.

Summary

Creates contours from a raster surface. The inclusion of barrier features allows you to independently generate contours on either side of a barrier.

Usage

  • The current version of Contour with Barriers only supports polyline output. If the polygon output option is used it will be ignored and polyline output will be created.

  • If you have the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension available, smoother but less accurate contours can be obtained by preprocessing the input raster with a Focal Statistics operation with the MEAN option or the Filter tool with the LOW option.

  • Contours will extend into the raster's NoData cell by a distance of half the raster's cell size. This will mean that the contours will be generated over single NoData cells. However, a 3-cell-by-3-cell area of NoData will only have the contours extending into this area by half the cell size distance.

  • The Type field in the output contour feature class can have values such as:

        1 for contours
    2 for indexed contours
    3 for explicit contours

  • An indexed contour interval can be used to generate additional contours and their Type value will be coded as 2 in the output feature class.

  • A base contour is used, for example, when you want to create contours every 15 meters, starting at 10 meters. Here, 10 would be used for the base contour, and 15 would be the contour interval. The values to be contoured would be 10, 25, 40, 55, and so on.

  • Specifying a base contour does not prevent contours from being created above or below that value.

  • A text file containing contour value specifications can include the following:

    • Any line that starts with a non-numeric value will be ignored and treated as a comment line.
    • A line with a single value will be treated as an explicit contour value.
    • A line with three values will be treated as base, contour interval, and indexed contour.
    • A line with four values will treated as from, to, by, and indexed contours.

    For example, if a raster has a minimum value of 102 and a maximum of 500, then a text file with:

        # contour values and ranges
    122.75
    485 500 5 12
    4 100 99

    will produce contours at:

        122.75
    104, 204, 304, 404
    103, 202, 301, 400, 499
    485, 490, 495, 500
    497

  • If there are cell values of the raster within a barrier polygon feature the contour lines will be split at the barrier. If the cell values within the polygon feature are to be ignored, change those cell values to NoData.

  • If the input raster surface is very large or many output features are requested, a large number of temporary files will be created in the operating system's temporary file location. If any problems are encountered as a result of this do one of the following:

    • Increase the available disk space for temporary files.
    • Reduce the number of contours specified, or split the contour range up and process each group separately, and combine the results from each range into a final result.
    • Process the input data in sections (tiles), and merge the individual results into one dataset.

  • The output contour features can be labeled by using the Contour Annotation tool.

Syntax

ContourWithBarriers_3d (in_raster, out_contour_feature_class, {in_barrier_features}, {in_contour_type}, {in_contour_values_file}, {explicit_only}, {in_base_contour}, {in_contour_interval}, {in_indexed_contour_interval}, {in_contour_list}, {in_z_factor})
ParameterExplanationData Type
in_raster

The input surface raster.

Raster Layer
out_contour_feature_class

The output contour features.

Feature Class
in_barrier_features
(Optional)

The input barrier features.

The features can be polyline or polygon type.

Feature Layer
in_contour_type
(Optional)

The type of contour to create.

  • POLYLINES — The contour or isoline representation of the input raster.
  • POLYGONS — Closed polygons representing the contours.
String
in_contour_values_file
(Optional)

The base contour, contour interval, indexed contour interval, and explicit contour values can also be specified via a text file.

File
explicit_only
(Optional)

Only explicit contour values are used. Base contour, contour interval, and indexed contour intervals are not specified.

  • NO_EXPLICIT_VALUES_ONLY — The default, contour interval must be specified.
  • EXPLICIT_VALUES_ONLY — Only explicit contour values are specified.
Boolean
in_base_contour
(Optional)

The base contour value.

Contours are generated above and below this value as needed to cover the entire value range of the input raster. The default is zero.

Double
in_contour_interval
(Optional)

The interval, or distance, between contour lines.

This can be any positive number.

Double
in_indexed_contour_interval
(Optional)

Contours will also be generated for this interval and will be flagged accordingly in the output feature class.

Double
in_contour_list
[in_explicit_contour,...]
(Optional)

Explicit values at which to create contours.

Double
in_z_factor
(Optional)

The unit conversion factor used when generating contours. The default value is 1.

The contour lines are generated based on the z-values in the input raster, which are often measured in units of meters or feet. With the default value of 1, the contours will be in the same units as the z-values of the input raster. To create contours in a different unit than that of the z-values, set an appropriate value for the z-factor. Note that it is not necessary to have the ground x,y and surface z-units be consistent for this tool.

For example, if the elevation values in your input raster are in feet, but you want the contours to be generated based on units of meters, set the z-factor to 0.3048 (since 1 ft = 0.3048 m).

Double

Code Sample

ContourWithBarriers example 1 (Python window)

This example creates contours from an Esri Grid raster with an input barrier feature as well as base and interval parameters specified. The output contours area as polylines in a shapefile.

import arcpy
from arcpy import env  
env.workspace = "C:/data"
arcpy.ContourWithBarriers_3d("elevation", "C:/output/outcwb.shp", 
                    "elevation_barrier.shp", "POLYLINES", "", "", 0, 300)
ContourWithBarriers example 2 (stand-alone script)

This example creates contours from an Esri Grid raster with an input barrier feature as well as base and interval parameters specified. The output contours area as polylines in a shapefile.

# Name: ContourWithBarriers_3d_Ex_02.py
# Description: Creates contours from a raster surface.  The inclusion of 
#     barrier features will allow one to independently generate contours on
#     either side of a barrier.
# Requirements: 3D Analyst Extension

# Import system modules
import arcpy
from arcpy import env

# Set environment settings
env.workspace = "C:/data"

# Set local variables
inRaster = "elevation"
inBarrier = "elevation_barrier.shp"
inTextFile = ""
explicitValues = "NO_EXPLICIT_VALUES_ONLY"
contourInterval = 200
contourList = "600; 935; 1237.4"
baseContour = 0
outContours = "C:/output/outcwb.shp"

# Check out the ArcGIS 3D Analyst extension license
arcpy.CheckOutExtension("3D")

# Execute Contour
arcpy.ContourWithBarriers_3d(inRaster, outContours, inBarrier, "POLYLINES", 
                             inTextFile, explicitValues, baseContour, 
                             contourInterval, "", contourList, "")

Environments

Licensing Information

  • ArcGIS for Desktop Basic: Requires 3D Analyst or Spatial Analyst
  • ArcGIS for Desktop Standard: Requires 3D Analyst or Spatial Analyst
  • ArcGIS for Desktop Advanced: Requires 3D Analyst or Spatial Analyst

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