Generate Depth Areas (Maritime)

Available with Maritime Charting license.

Summary

Creates depth area polygon features using a TIN to query depth information to find whether a closed contour is trending deeper or shallower.

Depth areas are geographic features used to depict depth ranges between contours in Electronic Navigational Charts (ENC). The use of a TIN removes ambiguity from using the contour lines only and simplifies the process of creating and attributing the depth polygons. This tool is designed to be more generic and can be used for generating depth polygons for S-100-based products.

Usage

  • It is recommended that you use the same value for the Input TIN parameter as that used for the Input Contour Features parameter.

  • Contour lines that are not closed are ignored since they cannot be used to generate depth polygons.

    Note:

    If the extent polygon is not within the TIN domain, contours toward the periphery may not be closed.

  • If the Depth Direction parameter value is Positive Down, the input contour, maximum depth, and minimum depth values are expected to be positive with drying heights as negative.

  • If the Depth Direction parameter value is Positive Up, the input contour, maximum depth, and minimum depth values are expected to be negative with drying heights as positive.

  • Regardless of the input depth direction, the tool always writes the output depth fields as positive with drying heights as negative.

  • For the S-57 schema, once the Input Contour Features parameter value is selected, the tool automatically populates the value in the Depth Field parameter to VALDCO.

Parameters

LabelExplanationData Type
Input TIN

The TIN surface from which the nodes will be queried to attribute the depth polygons. It is recommended that you use the same TIN surface that was used to generate the contours.

TIN Layer
Input Contour Features

The depth contours features.

Feature Layer
Depth Field

The field that will store the depth value in the depth contours feature.

Field
Depth Direction

Specifies whether the depth direction is positive upward or positive downward. The direction must be the same as that of the input TIN and contour features for the values of the minimum and maximum depth for the generated depth area polygons to be accurate.

  • Positive UpThe input contour values, maximum depth, and minimum depth must be negative with drying heights as positive. This is the default.
  • Positive DownThe input contour values, maximum depth, and minimum depth must be positive with drying heights as negative.
String
Target Workspace

The geodatabase where the depth polygons will be written. The workspace is expected to be a nautical workspace with either the S-57 or S-101 schemas.

Workspace
Minimum Depth

A value used to populate the minimum depth of polygons shallower than the shallowest contour value.

Double
Maximum Depth

A value used to populate the maximum depth of polygons deeper than the deepest contour value.

Double
Extent Polygon Features

The extent polygons within which the depth area polygons will be generated. If not specified, the TIN domain will be used.

Feature Layer

Derived Output

LabelExplanationData Type
Updated Depth Areas

The updated Depth Areas feature class.

Feature Layer

arcpy.maritime.GenerateDepthAreas(in_tin, in_contours, contour_depth_field, depth_direction, target_workspace, min_depth, max_depth, in_extent_polygon)
NameExplanationData Type
in_tin

The TIN surface from which the nodes will be queried to attribute the depth polygons. It is recommended that you use the same TIN surface that was used to generate the contours.

TIN Layer
in_contours

The depth contours features.

Feature Layer
contour_depth_field

The field that will store the depth value in the depth contours feature.

Field
depth_direction

Specifies whether the depth direction is positive upward or positive downward. The direction must be the same as that of the input TIN and contour features for the values of the minimum and maximum depth for the generated depth area polygons to be accurate.

  • POSITIVE_UPThe input contour values, maximum depth, and minimum depth must be negative with drying heights as positive. This is the default.
  • POSITIVE_DOWNThe input contour values, maximum depth, and minimum depth must be positive with drying heights as negative.
String
target_workspace

The geodatabase where the depth polygons will be written. The workspace is expected to be a nautical workspace with either the S-57 or S-101 schemas.

Workspace
min_depth

A value used to populate the minimum depth of polygons shallower than the shallowest contour value.

Double
max_depth

A value used to populate the maximum depth of polygons deeper than the deepest contour value.

Double
in_extent_polygon

The extent polygons within which the depth area polygons will be generated. If not specified, the TIN domain will be used.

Feature Layer

Derived Output

NameExplanationData Type
updated_depth_areas

The updated Depth Areas feature class.

Feature Layer

Code sample

GenerateDepthAreas example (stand-alone script)

The following stand-alone script demonstrates how to use the GenerateDepthAreas function.

# Import arcpy module
import arcpy
arcpy.CheckOutExtension("3D")
arcpy.CheckOutExtension("nautical")

in_tin = r"C:\Data\GDA\tin1"
in_contours = r"C:\Data\GDA\enc.gdb\DepthsL" 
contour_depth_field = "VALDCO" 
depth_direction = r"POSITIVE_UP"
target_workspace = r"C:\Data\GDA\enc.gdb"
min_depth = -5
max_depth = 50
in_extent_polygon = r"C:\Data\GDA\staging.gdb\Extent"

arcpy.GenerateDepthAreas_maritime(in_tin, in_contours, contour_depth_field, depth_direction, target_workspace, min_depth, max_depth, in_extent_polygon)

Environments

This tool does not use any geoprocessing environments.

Licensing information

  • Basic: No
  • Standard: Requires 3D Analyst and ArcGIS Maritime
  • Advanced: Requires 3D Analyst and ArcGIS Maritime

Related topics