Analysis toolbox history—Help

About the toolbox history tables

The tables below catalog changes made to every tool in the Analysis toolbox. There is one table per tool and you can click the tool name to navigate to the tool reference page. For more information on interpreting the contents of these history tables, see the section at the end of this topic.

Buffer


Version	Description
10.3	Ported to ArcGIS Pro 1.0 New parameter added: method
10.1	Geodesic buffers can now be generated for all feature types (points, lines, and polygons). Prior to this release, geodesic buffers could only be created for point features.
10.0	Tool now supports line features with vertical line segments. For more information, see Geoprocessing considerations for vertical line segments
9.3	Parameter line_side had new option added: OUTSIDE_ONLY
9.0	New at this version

Clip


Version	Description
10.3	Ported to ArcGIS Pro 1.0
10.0	Tool now supports point on point, and line on line clipping. Tool now supports line features with vertical line segments. For more information, see Geoprocessing considerations for vertical line segments
9.0	New at this version

Create Thiessen Polygons


Version	Description
10.5.1	The algorithm used to generate Thiessen polygons was rewritten. The new algorithm delivers significant improvement in performance while requiring less memory.
10.3	Ported to ArcGIS Pro 1.0
9.2	New at this version

Erase


Version	Description
10.3	Ported to ArcGIS Pro 1.0
10.0	Tool now supports line features with vertical line segments. For more information, see Geoprocessing considerations for vertical line segments
9.0	New at this version

Frequency


Version	Description
10.3	Ported to ArcGIS Pro 1.0
9.0	New at this version

Generate Near Table


Version	Description
10.3	Ported to ArcGIS Pro 1.0
10.2.1	New parameter added: method Tool has been completely rewritten to be dramatically faster and now has an optional method parameter that determines how distances are computed. When method is set to GEODESIC, distances are calculated across the earth's surface. This is most accurate when the distance between features is large and you want to minimize the distortion Inherent in all projected coordinate systems, particularly in projections like Web Mercator. When PLANAR, Euclidean distances are calculated using the coordinates of the features and is appropriate for projections that minimize distance distortion or when the distance between features is small.
9.3	New at this version

Graphic Buffer


Version	Description
10.5	New at this version

Identity


Version	Description
10.3	Ported to ArcGIS Pro 1.0
10.0	Tool now supports point on point, and line on line overlay. Tool now supports line features with vertical line segments. For more information, see Geoprocessing considerations for vertical line segments
9.0	New at this version

Intersect


Version	Description
10.3	Ported to ArcGIS Pro 1.0
9.0	New at this version

Multiple Ring Buffer


Version	Description
10.3	Ported to ArcGIS Pro 1.0
10.2	Parameter Buffer_Unit had new option added: Decimeters
9.3	New parameter added: Outside_Polygons_Only
9.0	New at this version

Near


Version	Description
10.3	Ported to ArcGIS Pro 1.0
10.2.1	New parameter added: method Tool has been completely rewritten to be dramatically faster and now has an optional method parameter that determines how distances are computed. When method is set to GEODESIC, distances are calculated across the earth's surface. This is most accurate when the distance between features is large and you want to minimize the distortion Inherent in all projected coordinate systems, particularly in projections like Web Mercator. When PLANAR, Euclidean distances are calculated using the coordinates of the features and is appropriate for projections that minimize distance distortion or when the distance between features is small.
9.0	New at this version

Point Distance


Version	Description
10.3	Ported over to ArcGIS Pro 1.0 and was deprecated in ArcGIS Pro 1.0
9.0	New at this version

Polygon Neighbors


Version	Description
10.3	Ported to ArcGIS Pro 1.0
10.1	New at this version

Select


Version	Description
10.3	Ported to ArcGIS Pro 1.0
9.0	New at this version

Spatial Join


Version	Description
10.3	Ported to ArcGIS Pro 1.0 Parameter match_option has 2 new options: CLOSEST_GEODESIC WITHIN_A_DISTANCE_GEODESIC
10.1	Parameter match_option has 12 new options: WITHIN_A_DISTANCE WITHIN_A_DISTANCE_3D INTERSECT_3D CROSSED_BY_THE_OUTLINE_OF COMPLETELY_CONTAINS SHARE_A_LINE_SEGMENT_WITH ARE_IDENTICAL_TO COMPLETELY_WITHIN BOUNDARY_TOUCHES HAVE_THEIR_CENTER_IN WITHIN_CLEMENTINI CONTAINS_CLEMENTINI
10.0	The tool is able to process much larger datasets and most operations will complete in shorter amount of time. Parameter match_option has 2 new options: WITHIN INTERSECT Parameter match_option had 2 options removed: IS_WITHIN INTERSECTS
9.3	New parameter added: distance_field_name Parameter match_option had new option added: CLOSEST
9.2	New at this version

Split


Version	Description
10.3	Ported to ArcGIS Pro 1.0
9.0	New at this version

Split By Attributes


Version	Description
10.5	New at this version

Summary Statistics


Version	Description
10.3	Ported to ArcGIS Pro 1.0
9.0	New at this version

Symmetrical Difference


Version	Description
10.3	Ported to ArcGIS Pro 1.0
9.0	New at this version

Table Select


Version	Description
10.3	Ported to ArcGIS Pro 1.0
9.0	New at this version

Tabulate Intersection


Version	Description
10.3	Ported to ArcGIS Pro 1.0
10.1	New at this version

Union


Version	Description
10.3	Ported to ArcGIS Pro 1.0
9.0	New at this version

Update


Version	Description
10.3	Ported to ArcGIS Pro 1.0
9.0	New at this version

About the toolbox history tables

At every release, Esri makes changes to existing tools and introduces new tools. These changes provide solutions to problems that were difficult to solve in previous releases and make tools more powerful and easier to use.

As an example of how you might use these history tables, suppose you are helping a colleague who is using version 10.2 while you're using version 10.3. You might suggest to your colleague that they use the Add Geometry Attributes tool to find point centroids of polygon features. The Add Geometry Attributes tool is found in the Data Management toolbox, and checking the Data Management toolbox history topic, you find that Add Geometry Attributes was not introduced until the 10.2.1 release. You can then suggest a 10.2 workflow of using the Feature To Point tool to find polygon centroids.

When changes are made to existing tools, every effort is made to maintain backward compatibility, meaning that the use of a tool in the previous release continues to work in the new release. That is, suppose you have a model or script written in version 10.2 that uses the Buffer tool. At version 10.3, the Buffer tool has a new optional parameter, method, with the default value of PLANAR. Your 10.2 script or model will work in 10.3 because the new method parameter is optional and its default value causes Buffer to work exactly the same way it did in 10.2.

Esri strives to maintain backward compatibility. However, it's not always possible due to the new functionality being introduced. Here are the cases where backward compatibility may break:

If a parameter was removed, old workflows that used the parameter will no longer work.
If a parameter option was removed, old workflows that used the option may no longer work. In many cases, the option that was removed is replaced by another option and the tool knows what to do if the previous option was specified.
If a parameter had a data type removed and your old workflow used inputs of that data type, the old workflow will not work in the new version.
A license change may affect your workflow. Most license changes are downward (from Desktop Advanced to Desktop Standard, for example) which would not affect backward compatibility.
An extension change may affect your workflow. Extension changes that affect existing workflows are rare.
If a parameter's default value changed, it may affect your workflow. You'll need to examine your existing workflows to determine the effect of the default value change.
If the order of parameters changed, scripts that use positional arguments may break.

Below is more information about changes cataloged in the history tables.

New at this version

The last row of each table always contains the release version at which the tool was introduced to the toolbox.

Ported / Not ported to ArcGIS Pro

If you're transitioning from ArcMap to ArcGIS Pro, you may need to know whether a tool in ArcMap is also available in ArcGIS Pro. The majority of tools found in version 10.3 were ported over to (that is, replicated and made available in) ArcGIS Pro version 1.0. Information about whether the tool was ported over from ArcMap to the ArcGIS Pro platform is usually contained in the first row of the table. Note that you can use the Analyze Tools For Pro tool to check whether your ArcMap models and scripts will run in ArcGIS Pro.

Parameter options

A parameter option (also referred to as an enumerator) is a string that affects tool execution. For example, the join_attributes parameter of the Intersect tool has three options: ALL, NO_FID, and FID_ONLY. New options appear occasionally from release to release, and options may be removed. An option introduced in a later version (such as 10.4) cannot be used in an earlier version (such as 10.3).

Sometimes you'll see an option removed and replaced with a very similar option, such as Euclidean distance replaced with EUCLIDEAN_DISTANCE. In cases like this, the tool is programmed to accept either option and backward compatibility is not broken.

New and removed parameters

New parameters are almost always added as the last parameter so backward compatibility is maintained in scripts. However, sometimes the new parameter must be inserted between existing parameters and compatibility in scripts may be broken—you may have to edit your script to run in the later version. If a new parameter is inserted between existing parameters, it will be noted as a change in parameter order.

Removed parameters are rare. Scripts that use the removed parameter will have to be changed, but models should continue to run.

Parameter default value changes

Optional parameters have a default value—the value that will be used unless you change it. If there is a change to a parameter's default value, it may affect your existing models and scripts.

Parameter data type changes

A data type defines the permissible values for a parameter, such as the type of datasets (features, tables, networks, and so on). If a data type is removed at a version, it means that the parameter no longer accepts the dataset as input or output. You may have to change your models and scripts if they use the removed data type.

Parameter order

New parameters are almost always added as the last parameter and don't affect the order of existing parameters. In rare cases, the order of existing parameters may change, and scripts that use positional arguments may break. Instead of using positional arguments, you can use keyword arguments as shown below. Models will still execute as they are not dependent on parameter order.

# Positional arguments - skipping optional arguments using empty strings is dependent on 
#  the order of the optional parameters
#
arcpy.AddField_management("schools", "school_id", "LONG", "", "", "", "", "NON_NULLABLE")

# Keyword arguments - position doesn't matter
#
arcpy.AddField_management("schools", "school_id", "LONG", field_is_nullable="NON_NULLABLE")

Parameter name case

The name of a parameter may change case, for example, from In_Features to in_features. This change only affects scripts that use keyword arguments. In Python, keyword arguments are case sensitive.

Parameter type

A parameter type may change from required to optional or from optional to required. Changing from optional to required may affect existing workflows.

Tool licensing and extension

A licensing or extension change may affect existing workflows.

Deprecated tool

See the topic What is a deprecated tool? for more information.