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Closest Feature Distance

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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  feature class. The attribute table of the resulting feature class 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.

ToolBox implementation
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Command line syntax

ET_GPClosestFeatureDistance<input_dataset> <out_feature_class> <search_distance>

Parameters

Scripting syntax

ET_GPClosestFeatureDistance(input_dataset,out_feature class, search_distance)

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