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I have a rectangular raster image in ArcGIS. My question is: how can I produce a polygon which is just the extent of the raster image? That is, I want to have a polygon layer with a single quadrilateral which is the edge of the image.

I've tried simply doing a Raster->Polygon conversion, but this tries to use the data in the image to generate the outline - all I want is the outline of the edge of the image.

Any ideas?

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gis.stackexchange.com/a/26944/65 - this method will get you the boundary, but will also include nodata and zero cells as well, not sure if that's a deal breaker or not. – Chad Cooper Jul 27 '12 at 14:29
Spatial domain method is not strict passing the outline of a raster. – xzx Mar 11 at 22:48
This does not provide an answer to the question. To critique or request clarification from an author, leave a comment below their post - you can always comment on your own posts, and once you have sufficient reputation you will be able to comment on any post. – Fezter Mar 12 at 0:24

5 Answers

up vote 5 down vote

If you have Spatial Analyst then you can:

  1. multiply the raster by 0 to create a constant value raster using Raster Calculator.
  2. convert result of step 1 to polygon using the Raster to Polygon tool.

Another solution:

If your have 3D Analyst license then you can use the Raster Domain tool under 3D Analyst>Conversion>from raster (however it does not have the smooth function)

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up vote 3 down vote

You can use the Build Footprint tool in the Data management Toolbox. You have to create a Mosaic Dataset out of your raster.

Create a new Mosaic in a File Geodatabase , add your raster.

Open your Mosaic in ArcMap and Extract the Footprint.

That's what I would do.

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up vote 2 down vote

You can use the Raster Domain tool from 3D Analyst to create a polygon with the same extent as your raster data

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Welcome to GIS SE! Could you please add references to your answer? That way it would be more solid. – R.K. Nov 22 '12 at 14:22
up vote 1 down vote

What about simply digitizing it? Click-click-click-click done.

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Not really sure why this option has been down voted. You can find the coordinates of the extent corners and create vertices at those coordinates. It can even be used for analysis. If it's only for display, click-click-click-click works great. – Baltok Mar 20 '12 at 19:26
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I'd say because the raster could be an irregular shape and, depending on the complexity, could result in a pretty tiresome digitising job – Phil Mar 20 '12 at 21:57
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But the OP said it was rectangular. Seems like a pretty simple job to me. By zooming in and being accurate, the difference between the actual raster outline and the digitized outline would be negligible for any real world application. – Matt Mar 21 '12 at 13:09
up vote -1 down vote

Use the "Raster to Polygon" tool in the conversion tools toolbox. Make sure to uncheck the simplify polygons box. This will create exactly what you want.

Hope This Helps,

Tyler

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3  
Are you sure this doesn't just create a huge mess of polygons, one for each contiguous set of equal-value pixels in the original image? – whuber♦ Mar 21 '12 at 16:33

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