Creating shp from txt files using ArcPy?

Question

I have a txt file like this:

Point
0 347172.2 4269952.7 60.9090909091
1 337172.8 4278952.4 85.7334909091
2 344572.3 4547952.2 123.909673091
3 347532.8 8777952.8 456.467809091
END

The third column are some values i want to have in my points.shp. I wrote this script but it doesn't seem to work, meaning it doesn't pass the specific values of the third column

import arcgisscripting
gp = arcgisscripting.create()
# Set up inputs to tool
inTxt = arcpy.GetParameterAsText(0)
inSep = "."
strms = arcpy.GetParameterAsText(1)
# Run tool
gp.CreateFeaturesFromTextFile(inTxt, inSep, strms, "#")

What should i add also? I am using ArcGIS 10.2

Answer 1

Here is one approach that utilizes an Insert Cursor to directly insert the coords into the SHAPE@XY slot.

import arcpy, os

# Read txt file
tmp = [line.split() for line in open(r'C:\temp\txtfile.txt')]

"""
Clean txt file and prepare for Insert Cursor
Needs to be in the following format for this example:
[('60.9090909091', ('347172.2', '4269952.7')),
 ('85.7334909091', ('337172.8', '4278952.4')),
 ('123.909673091', ('344572.3', '4547952.2')),
 ('456.467809091', ('347532.8', '8777952.8'))]
"""
row_values = []
for t in tmp:
    row_values.append((float(t[3]), (float(t[1]), float(t[2]))))

# Define the shapefile
shp = r'C:\temp\points.shp'

# Define spatial reference and create shapefile.  Factory code for NAD83 UTM 15N is used here
sr = arcpy.SpatialReference(26915)
arcpy.CreateFeatureclass_management (out_path = os.path.dirname(shp), out_name = os.path.basename(shp), geometry_type = "POINT", spatial_reference = sr)
arcpy.AddField_management(shp, "Field1", "DOUBLE")

# Use InsertCursor to update rows
cursor = arcpy.da.InsertCursor(shp, ['Field1','SHAPE@XY'])

for row in row_values:
    cursor.insertRow(row)

# Clean up
del cursor

Answer 2

Rather that getting the user to change the order/style of the points it would be best to change the code to suit the input.. I would imagine when you need to write a script to import points you'd have a lot of them..

I would try to split the lines using string.split and if I tried a few possible delimiters and still ended up with a list of 1 then skip the line:

Point <- skip, only one element
0 347172.2 4269952.7 60.9090909091 <- do this one, 4 elements
1 337172.8 4278952.4 85.7334909091 <- do this one, 4 elements
2 344572.3 4547952.2 123.909673091 <- do this one, 4 elements
3 347532.8 8777952.8 456.467809091 <- do this one, 4 elements
END <- skip, only one element

This is fairly easy to code for:

import os, sys, arcpy

InFile = sys.argv[1]
OutShp = sys.argv[2]
EPSG   = sys.argv[3]

try:
    SR = arcpy.SpatialReference(int(EPSG))# create a spatial reference from EPSG definition
except:
    arcpy.AddWarning(arcpy.GetMessages())
    arcpy.AddError("Unable to create spatial reference with code %s" % EPSG)
    sys.exit(0)

#break up OutShp to folder and name
OutFolder = os.path.dirname(OutShp)
OutName   = os.path.basename(OutShp)

# Create the output feature class
arcpy.CreateFeatureclass_management(OutFolder,OutName,"POINT",has_z="ENABLED",spatial_reference=SR)
# add fields to store the values
arcpy.AddField_management(OutShp,"PntID","INTEGER")
arcpy.AddField_management(OutShp,"Xcoord","DOUBLE")
arcpy.AddField_management(OutShp,"Ycoord","DOUBLE")
arcpy.AddField_management(OutShp,"Zcoord","DOUBLE")

with open(InFile,'r') as srcFile:
    with arcpy.da.InsertCursor(OutShp,["SHAPE@","PntID","Xcoord","Ycoord","Zcoord"]) as InsCur:
        for fileLine in srcFile:
            # split the line up into a list
            # 1 337172.8 4278952.4 85.7334909091 becomes [1,337172.8,4278952.4,85.7334909091]
            # try a few common delimiters: tab, space, comma, pipe..
            lSplit = fileLine.split("\t")
            if len(lSplit) == 1:
                lSplit = fileLine.split(" ")
            if len(lSplit) == 1:
                lSplit = fileLine.split(",")
            if len(lSplit) == 1:
                lSplit = fileLine.split("|")

            if len(lSplit) > 1:
                # more than just one word on the line
                pointsOK = True
                try:
                    ID     = int(lSplit[0])
                    Xcoord = float(lSplit[1])
                    Ycoord = float(lSplit[2])
                    Zcoord = float(lSplit[3])
                except:
                    arcpy.AddWarning("Unable to translate points")
                    pointsOK = False

                if pointsOK:
                    # create a point geometry from the 3 coordinates
                    newGeom  = arcpy.PointGeometry(arcpy.Point(Xcoord,Ycoord,Zcoord))
                    newGeom.spatial_reference = SR # set spatial reference
                    # you could project here using newGeom.projectAs(SpatialRef)
                    # if you needed them in a different spatial reference                        
                    InsCur.insertRow([newGeom,ID,Xcoord,Ycoord,Zcoord])# insert this point into the feature class

Arcpy insert cursor (arcpy.da.InsertCursor) does not allow "SHAPE@XYZ", but you can address this using "SHAPE@" and using a geometry object in arcpy. This is especially handy if you have the coordinates in a different spatial reference and need to project on the way in.