Copying Network Analysis Layer and Service Area Polygon in ArcPy?

Question

I have built a geoprocessing tool using arcpy modules in python. Screenshot shown below:

In this tool I am creating Service Area Polygons and selecting census boundaries within those Service Area Polygons to extract the demographic data. The part where I am creating the service area polygon and copying them to output is shown below:

#PART 3: CREATING SERVICE AREA POLYGON USING DRIVING DISTANCE AS COST FACTOR AND INTERSECTING WITH CENSUS LAYER AND CREATING OUTPUT

Service_Area = "Service Area"

# Process: Make Service Area Layer
arcpy.na.MakeServiceAreaLayer(road_network, Service_Area, "Length", "", distance)

# Process: Add Facility to the Network
arcpy.na.AddLocations(Service_Area, "Facilities", "facility", "", "")

# Process: Solve the Network
arcpy.na.Solve(Service_Area)

# Copy Polygons to Service Area output
arcpy.CopyFeatures_management(Service_Area, service_area_output)

# Process: Create a new Feature layer - Census layer
arcpy.MakeFeatureLayer_management(cen_blk,"blocks_lyr")

# Process: Create a new Feature layer - Census layer
arcpy.MakeFeatureLayer_management(service_area_output,"service_area_output")

# Process: Select Layer By Location...
arcpy.SelectLayerByLocation_management("blocks_lyr", "HAVE_THEIR_CENTER_IN", "service_area_output")
if census_output=="#" or census_output=="":
    census_output==None

else:
    # Process: Copy the intersected census layer to output FC and add it into current workspace
    arcpy.CopyFeatures_management("blocks_lyr", census_output)

gp.AddMessage (" ")

I cannot seem copy the service area polygon to a feature class. I am getting a following error message.

Is CopyFeature not the right method to copy the service area polygons?

Answer 1

You don't want copy, you want Select. You'll select the layer you want from the Solve and carry on with that. The Solve output is a group of layers. After you select it out, I believe it's still a layer, as such you wont need to MakeFeatureLayer. You should just be able to do your SelectByLocation with it.