Generate Depth Area (Nautical)

Summary

Prepares depth area data for Electronic Navigational Charts (ENC) and Additional Military Layers (AMLs). It updates depth areas that exist, creates depth areas as needed, and deletes depth areas that are no longer relevant. The depth areas depict the depth ranges between contours. This tool is designed to help in the creation and updates of data in a desktop production environment; it can be used in limited cases for an enterprise production environment.

Usage

• This tool requires an edit session in ArcMap. You can only use this tool in ArcMap.

• You must set a nautical product library in Customize > Production > Product Library.

• You must set the Compilation Scale Value and Show Compilation Scale Message Box nautical properties before running this tool. Learn more about Nautical Properties

• The tool requires a nautical dataset.

• The tool opens with most of the parameters preconfigured. If you have not loaded a nautical dataset, started an edit session, or set nautical properties, the tool will not preconfigure parameters. Most or all parameters will be blank. The Area of Interest list will be empty.

• The DepthsA feature class contains depth areas in the DEPARE_DepthArea subtype.

• If you define a query for the depth contour feature class in Depth Contour Where Clause, you can include FCSubtype = 5 to filter out any linear depth areas.

• If you define a query for the cell coverage area feature class (MetaDataA) in Cell coverage area Where Clause, you can include FCSubtype = 15 AND CATCOV = 1 to filter out any areas with no available coverage.

• The Natural Features Where Clause defines where land areas exist and where depth areas should not be created. The default is FCSubtype = 5.

• The Negative H-Value parameter indicates intertidal or drying depth areas. You can set this value as a negative constant when a depth area lies between a coastline and a contour that has a depth of zero. The Negative H-Value represents soundings that are above water.

• The tool populates the Depth Bands list with values from the Value of depth contour field of the DepthsL feature class. The units of these values are set in the Nautical Unit Selection toolbar before data creation. Learn more about specifying units in the Nautical Unit Selection toolbar

Syntax

GenerateDepthArea_nautical (in_depth_area_feature_class, in_depth_area_subtype, in_depth_contour_feature_class, {in_depth_contour_where_clause}, {in_soundings_feature_class}, {in_soundings_where_clause}, in_metadata_feature_class, {in_metadata_where_clause}, {in_natural_features_feature_class}, {in_natural_features_where_clause}, {in_ports_and_services_feature_class}, {in_ports_and_services_where_clause}, {in_closing_lines}, in_negative_h, in_area_of_interest, {in_depth_band}, {in_use_soundings})

Parameter	Explanation	Data Type
in_depth_area_feature_class	The depth areas you want to update.	Feature Layer
in_depth_area_subtype	The subtype of the depth area feature class that will store the generated depth areas.	String
in_depth_contour_feature_class	The depth contour feature class.	Feature Layer
in_depth_contour_where_clause (Optional)	A Structured Query Language (SQL) WHERE clause that defines which depth contours should be used to update the depth areas. With S-57 data, this query should include FCSubtype = 5 in the expression to filter out any linear depth areas.	SQL Expression
in_soundings_feature_class (Optional)	The features that contain the soundings.	Feature Layer
in_soundings_where_clause (Optional)	An SQL WHERE clause that defines which soundings should be used to update the depth areas.	SQL Expression
in_metadata_feature_class	The coverage area cell features. The default feature class in a desktop production environment is MetaDataA. You must specify the feature class in an enterprise production environment.	Feature Layer
in_metadata_where_clause (Optional)	An SQL WHERE clause that defines which cells should have their depth areas updated. With S-57 data, this query should include FCSubtype = 15 AND CATCOV = 1 in the expression to filter out any areas with no data. If you are in an enterprise production environment, choose the subtype where data exists.	SQL Expression
in_natural_features_feature_class (Optional)	The feature class that contains the LNDARE skin of the earth features. This tool will not create DEPARE geometry that overlaps any features identified in this parameter. NaturalFeaturesA is the default feature class.	Feature Layer
in_natural_features_where_clause (Optional)	An SQL WHERE clause that specifies a subset of natural features.	SQL Expression
in_ports_and_services_feature_class (Optional)	The feature class that contains the FLODOC, HULKES, and PONTON skin of the earth features. This tool will not create DEPARE geometry that overlaps any feature class identified in this parameter. PortsAndServicesA is the default feature class.	Feature Layer
in_ports_and_services_where_clause (Optional)	An SQL WHERE clause that defines where FLODOC, HULKES, and PONTON features exist, and where depth areas should not be created.	SQL Expression
in_closing_lines [in_closing_lines,...] (Optional)	The feature class that contains the closing lines.	Feature Layer
in_negative_h	Indicates intertidal or drying depth areas. You can set this value to a negative constant when a depth area lies between a coastline and a contour that has a depth of zero. This value represents soundings that are above water.	Double
in_area_of_interest	Defines the geographical extent of processing. Current Extent —Uses the current extent as the geographical limit of processing. Entire Geodatabase —Processes the extent of the cell defined in the MetaDataA feature class. Not enabled for NIS databases. This is the default in desktop production environments. Selected Features —Uses the extent of the selected features as the geographical limit of processing.	String
in_depth_band [in_depth_band,...] (Optional)	The values that can be used to populate the depth range values for the depth areas. These values are stored in the Value of depth contour field in the depth contour feature class.	Double
in_use_soundings (Optional)	Indicates whether or not the high and low values for the depth area are determined using the soundings that overlap the depth areas. false —Determines the high and low values for the depth area from the shoaler or deeper depth contour interval. This is the default. true —If the sounding is the best available way of determining whether a depth area is a shoal or a deeper, the sounding depth is used to determine the high and low values for the depth area.	Boolean

Code Sample

GenerateDepthArea example (Python window)

In this example, the tool creates several new depth areas using the soundings to determine the high and low values.

# You must start an edit session first
# import the toolbox - you may have to alter this path
arcpy.ImportToolbox("C:/Program Files/ArcGIS/Desktop10.0/ArcToolbox/Toolboxes/Nautical Tools.tbx")

# These refer to feature layers in ArcMap's TOC
DepthsA = "DepthsA"
DepthsL = "DepthsL"
SoundingsP = "SoundingsP"
MetaDataA = "MetaDataA"
NaturalFeaturesA = "NaturalFeaturesA"
PortsAndServicesA = "PortsAndServicesA"

# Exec Generate Depth Area 
arcpy.GenerateDepthArea_nautical(DepthsA, "1 - DEPARE_DepthArea", DepthsL, "FCSubtype = 5", SoundingsP, "FCSubtype = 1", MetaDataA, "FCSubtype = 15 AND CATCOV = 1", NaturalFeaturesA, "FCSubtype = 5", PortsAndServicesA, "FCSubtype = 40 OR FCSubtype = 60 OR FCSubtype = 80", "", "-1.5", "Entire Geodatabase", "0;5;8;10;20;30", "true")

Environments

This tool does not use any geoprocessing environments

Licensing Information

ArcView: No

ArcEditor: No

ArcInfo: Requires Nautical Solution