ArcGIS: Create polygon using file containing point coordinates

Question

I have a text file containing the projected coordinates of the points that define a single polygon. The X, Y coordinates are separated by Tab

Is there a tool in ArcGIS similar to "Add X,Y Data" in ArcMap, that can be used to automatically create polygons FC, not point FC?

I use ArcGIS 10.1 for Desktop.

Answer 1

There isn't any tool to do this in 1 single step, you should either:

1. convert your text file to points
2. convert points to lines with Points to Line
3. convert lines to polygons with Feature to Polygon (Advanced licnese required)

Or:

Use arcpy :) - no specific license required.

See an example at the bottom of the page Writing geometries. The code converts a list of coordinates (a text file can be regarded as such a list) into polylines, you can easily modify it to create polygons.

Answer 2

On the ArcGIS Idea website, someone suggested this toolbox http://resources.arcgis.com/gallery/file/geoprocessing/details?entryID=F25C5576-1422-2418-A060-04188EBD33A9 that has a tool called "Create features from text File", which can automatically create point, lines and polygons Feature Classes from text files containing coordinates. Worked for me.