Multi ring buffers that are rings/donuts even when overlapping other buffers

Question

I need to create multi-ring buffers for about 400 points that are quite close to each other. This has required me to set the output buffers to not dissolve in my code as below so that they overlap each other and do not combine with each other.

For each of the buffers, I have an associated set of polygons that fall within the buffers with matching ID's. I need to do a union them and remove the non-overlapping areas of this union.

The current MRB function in arc doesn't allow for the rings to be created if you don't select dissolve and when that happens the overlapping buffers are connected.

This is not ideal for my situation where I am trying to union one buffer to one matching set of polygons of similar ID's.

So, I am wondering if it's possible to create multi-ring buffers with rings even when the buffers overlap each other using arcpy

Answer 1

In an attempt to replicate your problem I ran the multiple ring buffer tool on ~400 points with multiple buffer distances and the Dissolve Option set to 'NONE' and it appears to function as intended. The output is a single shapefile containing all the circular buffer polygons.

In order to get a donut-shaped buffer (not a circle), you will need to erase the center of the circular buffer which I believe is the actual question here as erase or clip will not work on the full batch of polygons. To do this you will need to iterate through each points respective buffers.

This can be done within model builder, with a python script, or painstakingly by hand. Try using search cursor to work through the table and select out the sets of polygons matching each point. erase the center buffer from the outer buffer. The outputs will be donut-shaped, you can merge your outputs back together at the end.