Creating polygon buffer from line

Question

I have connected a series of points into a line in ArcMap 10 with the Points to Line tool in the ArcToolbox.

The line is, of course, in its own layer, and I added a 5-meter buffer around the line. It appears that this buffer is in the layer/feature class as the original line.

Is there a way for me to turn this buffer into an independent polygon, in its own layer?

Once I achieve that, I would like to be able to slice the polygon (buffer) into pieces.

Answer 1

You have to create a polygon feature class and add it to the map. Start Editing and set the polygon layer as the target layer (9.3) (or select it the polygon feature template in version 10). Select the line you wish to create the buffer from and run the buffer tool. You can then cut the polygon with the Editor tools. Is this what you are trying to do?

Answer 2

Using Buffer_analysis in ArcGIS 10, allows you to define the output featureclass of the buffer objects, so in the Python window, simply use code like this:

arcpy.Buffer_analysis("LineFtrs", "buffer_output", "5 meters", "FULL", "ROUND")

Where LineFtrs is the obj to buffer.

This can also be done to a selection.

Answer 3

Slightly derpy approach using python:

import geopandas as gpd
import shapely


def func_get_buffer_from_LineString(lines_list,m_list,crs_from,crs_to):
"""
takes LineString and returns a dataframe with buffers around LineString
---
lines_list -> list of lines where each list-item is a shapely.geometry.linestring.LineString 
m_list -> list of buffer radii
crs_from -> this will almost always be 4326
crs_to -> CRS value for projecting to meters, value is 3857 for Gujranwala
"""
    lines_df = pd.DataFrame(lines_list).reset_index()
    lines_df = lines_df.rename(columns={
    0:'geometry'
    })
    lines_gpd = gpd.GeoDataFrame(lines_df,geometry='geometry')
    lines_gpd.crs = crs_from
    for m in m_list:
        buffered= lines_gpd.to_crs(epsg=crs_to).buffer(m).to_crs(epsg=crs_from)
        col_name = 'buffered_{m}'.format(m=m)
        lines_gpd[col_name] = buffered


    return lines_gpd