Creating a square buffer around a point feature in ArcMap

Question

I would like to create a square buffer from a point feature. I do not understand the code that gos into it. This similar questions as asked on the forums.esri website but that was over 10 years ago. It did not work when I tried the code. If someone could help I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.

Answer 1

Try these steps with ArcMap 10:

1. Buffer your point feature (ArcToolbox > Analysis Tools > Proximity > Buffer). Make sure to select the correct distance in the Linear unit box.
2. Input your newly created buffers into the Feature Envelope to Polygon tool (Data Management Tools > Features > Feature Envelope to Polygon). Make sure to select the "Create multpart features" box if you have multiple points.

For a Python solution:

Using SearchCursor and InsertCursor to create square buffers

Answer 2

A possible solution would be to create your "normal" round buffers using the standard ESRI buffer tool with whatever radius you would like and then performing a Feature Envelope To Polygon on that resulting feature class of buffers. This creates a square envelope feature around the extent of each feature. Feature Envelope to Polygon is located within Data Management>Features. The model builder model would look similar to:

Answer 3

Assuming you're using ArcObjects (please use the tags to specify the language and API you're using), you could use IEnvelope.Expand to create a square buffer from a point's envelope, as in this example: Get All Features from Point Search in GeoFeatureLayer Snippet

ESRI.ArcGIS.Geometry.IEnvelope envelope = point.Envelope;
envelope.Expand(searchTolerance, searchTolerance, false);