With the Command Line • Freedom to work with the data as you want • Better understanding of the commands • Combined with scripting you have a recipe for future work. AKA documentation!
The “New” Way • Start up ArcCatalog (wait 2-4 min while it loads) • Browse for toolbox (clicking through the endless tree) • Open tool dialog • Browse for input dataset • Browse for any optional data for analysis • Browse for an output location • Fill out options • Click OK and pray it doesn’t crash
Where is Python Used? • GIS Applications (ArcGIS, QGIS, Safe FME, Autodesk) • Web Frameworks (WeoGeo.com, Google) • Anywhere (Corel, Civilization, Gmail) • Become the de-facto scripting language
ArcPy, the New Command Line • Much like the Arc prompt and AML, ArcPy and Python give us a powerful analysis and scripting method. • ArcPy builds on the commands we learned 15 years ago. • ArcPy is integrated in ArcMap • Python can be extended to other GIS platforms such as QGIS.