ArcGIS for Desktop

  • Documentation
  • Pricing
  • Support

  • My Profile
  • Help
  • Sign Out
ArcGIS for Desktop

ArcGIS Online

The mapping platform for your organization

ArcGIS for Desktop

A complete professional GIS

ArcGIS for Server

GIS in your enterprise

ArcGIS for Developers

Tools to build location-aware apps

ArcGIS Solutions

Free template maps and apps for your industry

ArcGIS Marketplace

Get apps and data for your organization

  • Documentation
  • Pricing
  • Support
Esri
  • Sign In
user
  • My Profile
  • Sign Out

Help

  • Home
  • Get Started
  • Map
  • Analyze
  • Manage Data
  • Tools
  • More...

A quick tour of geoprocessing environments

  • Getting help on a tool's environments
  • Environment levels and hierarchy
  • Specifying environment settings
  • Saving environment settings
  • Environments in tool parameters

Getting help on a tool's environments

A geoprocessing tool can use any number of environment settings. It is up to the developer of the tool to decide which environment settings will be used by the tool. For system tools developed by ESRI, the tool help will specify which environment settings apply to the tool. To view this information, do the following:

  1. Click the Show Help >> button to display the tool's help panel.
  2. In the tool's help panel, click the Tool Help button. This opens the tool's reference page.

The last section of the tool reference page describes which environment settings the tool will use. Each environment setting is a link to the reference help page for the environment.

Environment levels and hierarchy

There are four levels of environment settings:

  • Application level settings are the default settings that will be applied to any tool when it is executed.
  • Tool level settings are applied to a single run of a tool and override the application level settings.
  • Model level settings are specified and saved with a mode and override tool level and application level settings.
  • Model process level settings are specified at the model process level, are saved with the model, and override model level settings.

Learn more about environment levels and hierarchy

Specifying environment settings

The way you specify environment settings differs for the four levels.

  • Learn more about specifying application environment settings
  • Learn more about specifying tool environment settings
  • Learn more about specifying model environment settings
  • Learn more about specifying model process environment settings

Saving environment settings

Application level settings are saved with your document. You can also save your application level settings to a file for later recall or save them as default settings that will be used for all new documents. You do this through the ArcToolbox window.

Learn more about saving and loading settings

Environments in tool parameters

Some tools have parameters that take their default value from the environment. For example, the Clip tool has an optional XY Tolerance parameter whose default value is retrieved from the XY Tolerance environment setting.

Feedback on this topic?

ArcGIS for Desktop

  • Home
  • Documentation
  • Pricing
  • Support

ArcGIS Platform

  • ArcGIS Online
  • ArcGIS for Desktop
  • ArcGIS for Server
  • ArcGIS for Developers
  • ArcGIS Solutions
  • ArcGIS Marketplace

About Esri

  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Insiders Blog
  • User Conference
  • Developer Summit
Esri
© Copyright 2016 Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. | Privacy | Legal