How to convert Geostatistical analyst (GA) file to Raster FAST?

Question

I have been trying to convert a number of Geostatistical analyst files that i were created using Geostatistical wizard in ArcGIS 10. I want to save these files as Raster and use the File

Am i missing something, is there a way to do it faster ?

Answer 1

The Geostatistical Wizard outputs geostatistical layers. These are what you see displayed in ArcMap. They are really just functions that take an (x,y) location and return a value. A geostatistical layer doesn't "know" its own values until you ask it to calculate them. The contours you see in ArcMap use a quick contouring algorithm; it calls the function the fewest number of times in order to draw roughly accurate contours.

When you use "GA Layer to Grid" to convert to a raster, the software has to call the function at the center of every raster cell. That is why it often takes so long to convert: it has to call a geostatistical function at every single raster cell. When your cell size is small, this can often be time consuming.