aggregatePolygons

Combines the polygons that are within the user specified distance into new polygons. Can be used also to generalize buildings.

Inputs:

A polygon feature class
Aggregation distance. The polygons that are closer to each other than this distance will be combined
Minimum area of the holes to be preserved - all holes with area less than this tolerance will be removed.

Outputs:

New polygon feature class

Notes:

The new feature class will not have any attributes. The Transfer Attributes function can be used to get summarized attributes from the original polygons.
The Aggregation distance and the Minimum area of holes should be specified in the units of the spatial reference of the input feature class
If no Minimum area of holes is specified only the holes with area smaller than 2 x Aggregation distance x Aggregation distance will be removed
The function is CPU and RAM intensive. Using it on large datasets might need long processing time.

Examples:

General polygons

Input Dataset	Result (No Minimum area of holes specified)	Result (Minimum area of holes specified)

Buildings

Input Dataset	Aggregate distance = 1 meter	Aggregate distance = 5 meters	Aggregate distance = 10 m	Aggregate distance = 20 m

ToolBox implementation
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Command line syntax

ET_GPAggregatePolygons <input_dataset> <out_feature_class> <Aggregate_tolerance> <area_tolerance>

Parameters

Expression	Explanation
<input_dataset>	A Polyline feature class or feature layer
<out_feature_class>	A String - the full name of the output feature class (A feature class with the same full name should not exist)
<Aggregate_tolerance>	A Double representing the aggregation distance. The polygons that are closer to each other than this distance will be combined
<area_tolerance>	A Double representing the minimum area of holes to be preserved. All holes with area less than this tolerance will be removed.

Scripting syntax

ET_GPAggregatePolygons (input_dataset, out_feature_class, Aggregate_tolerance,area_tolerance)

See the explanations above:
<> - required parameter
{} - optional parameter

Example Python script:

import arcpy
arcpy.ImportToolbox("C:/Program Files/ET SpatialTechniques/ET GeoWizards 11.0 for ArcGIS 10.1/ET GeoWizards.tbx")
input_dataset = "C:\\data\\pg1.shp"
result = "C:\\data\\fgdb_test.gdb\\aggregated"
arcpy.gp.toolbox = "C:/Program Files/ET SpatialTechniques/ET GeoWizards 11.0 for ArcGIS 10.1/ET GeoWizards.tbx"
arcpy.ET_GPAggregatePolygons(input_dataset, result, 10.00, 1000.00)