Background

Introduction to Topic

From ESRI's Help:

"Geoprocessing is for everyone that uses ArcGIS. Whether you're a beginning user or a pro, geoprocessing will become an essential part of your day-to-day work with ArcGIS.

The fundamental purposes of geoprocessing are to allow you to automate your GIS tasks and perform spatial analysis and modeling. Almost all uses of GIS involve the repetition of work, and this creates the need for methods to automate, document, and share multiple-step procedures known as workflows. Geoprocessing supports the automation of workflows by providing a rich set of tools and a mechanism to combine a series of tools in a sequence of operations using models and scripts...." - ...READ MORE.

Why we're Covering it

Geoprocessing is what helps make you efficient in your spatial analyses. Whether its combining multiple tools into one using model builder, batch processing a large quantity of data, writing some simple Python scripts, or leveraging the functionality of the Results window, geoprocessing is what can help you move from a novice GIS user, to a highly proficient power user.

Learning Outcomes

This topic supports primary learning outcomes 1, 2, 3 and 4 for the course.

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Lecture Materials

Geoprocessing & Scripting

•  2011 Thursday Lecture - 2 Slides per page
•  2011 Thursday Lecture - 6 Slides per page

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Additional Resources

Geoprocessing in ArcGIS

• Geoprocessing ArcGIS Resource Center - This is the main hub of information on Geoprocessing and getting yourself up to speed.
  
• The Geoprocessing Forum - Trying to do something with Geoprocessing and having trouble? Try posting a thread or searching this forum.
• Geoprocessing Help - An overview of Geoprocessing in ArcGIS
• Using the Results Window - An essential new feature of Geoprocessing in ArcGIS
  

Batch Processing

• A quick Tour of Batch-Processing - ArcGIS 10 Help topic

Finding Existing Tools and Scripts

• Geoprocessing Model and Script Tool Gallery - A hub of tools you can download and install in ArcGIS that other users have made. Very useful!
  
• See also this week's lab Tutorial Topic 1

Geoprocessing with Model Builder

• Designing and Building Geoprocessing Tools - This video walks you through the basics of building Geoprocessing Tools using Model Builder in ArcGIS 10.
• A quick tour of creating tools with ModelBuilder  - ArcGIS 10 Help
• Tutorial for Building Tools with Model Builder - ArcGIS 10 Help Tutorial

Add-Ins

• Add-Ins for ArcGIS 10 - Add-Ins are a new feature in ArcGIS. This video describes them.
• Add-Ins Blog -
  

Plug-Ins

Plug-Ins are typically tool-bars that are installed externally and produced by someone other than ESRI, to work within ArcGIS.

Python Programming

• Scripting with Python in ArcGIS - ArcGIS 10 Help Topics
  
• Getting Started with Python in ArcGIS - This ESRI video takes you from the basics of Python and running geoprocessing tools and functionality to creating your own tools using Python.

• Python Scripting for Map Automation in ArcGIS 10 - Do you have to make a lot of the same maps with just slightly different layers? This video goes through how you can use Python to automate that process.
• Using Python in ArcGIS 10 - A free 3 hour Web-Based course offered from ESRI