ClosestFeatureDistanceWizard

Closest Feature Distance

Calculates the distance for each feature of a dataset to the closest feature from the same dataset (Point, Polyline or Polygon). The function is slow and can hang on large datasets. If the input dataset is a Point one, we recommend using the Find Closest Point function added in version 11.1

Inputs:

A feature layer
Search tolerance - the maximum distance to search for neighboring features.

Outputs:

A new layer. The attribute table of the resulting layer will have three new fields
- [ET_ID] - the ID of the feature
- [ET_Dist] - the distance from the feature to the closest feature.
- [ET_Closest] - the ID of the closest feature.

Notes:

If the distance from a feature to the closest feature is larger than the Search Tolerance then the [ET_Dist] and [ET_ Closest] will have a value of -1
If the layer is of polygon type all the polygons that are within another polygon will have a distance of 0. If the distance to the polygons boundaries has to be calculated, convert first the polygon layer to a polyline one using Polygon To Polyline Wizard.
The larger the search tolerance is, the slower the process will be
The distance is calculated in the Spatial Reference of the input dataset.
If there are more than one feature with the same distance to a feature (for example intersecting polylines) only one of the ID's will be recorded in the [ET_ Closest] field.

Running Programmatically

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Parameters

Expression	Explanation
Function Name	ClosestFeatureDistance
<input dataset>	A String representing the input layer.
<output dataset>	A String - the full name of the output layer
<Search Tolerance>	A Double representing the Search Tolerance (in the units of the spatial reference of the input layer)

Running the function

ETGWPath used in the table below is the full path to ETGWRun.exe (E.G. "C:\Program Files\ETSpatial Techniques\ETGeo Wizards\ETGWRun.exe")

Language	Syntax
Python	subprocess.call([ETGWPath, "ClosestFeatureDistance", "input dataset", "output dataset", "Search Tolerance"])
.NET using ETGWRun.exe	StartInfo.FileName = ETGWPath StartInfo.Arguments = "ClosestFeatureDistance" "input dataset" "output dataset" "Search Tolerance"
.NET using ETGWOutX.dll	ClosestFeatureDistance(input dataset, output dataset, Search Tolerance)
ArcPy	arcpy.ClosestFeatureDistance(input dataset, output dataset, "Search Tolerance")

Notes:

<> - required parameter
{} - optional parameter
See examples for Python , .NET or ArcPy
The argument separator for StartInfo.Arguments is space. If a string might contain a space, you need to double quote it.

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