I am looking to calculate the minimum distance from the Center of a polygon (A crescent shaped polygon would have a center inside the polygon) to its edge. I have parcel data and I am trying to calculate in my model I created how tall I can build a cell tower on that parcel. The maximum height that I can build the tower is equal to the minimum distance from the center of the parcel to its edge. Is their a simple way to calculate this? Once I have the minimum distance calculated I can complete my query for my model.
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There's a number of possible definitions of "center" and/or "centroid"; please edit the question to specify which particular "center of parcel" you want -- would the "center" of a crescent-shaped parcel be inside or outside the polygon?– VinceOct 29, 2015 at 23:44
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I think by centroid in the contex of his question he means center of gravity point. He has a parcel, and in the center of gravity of that parcel a cell tower will be raised. It doesn't really mater though the question is valid for any point.– nickvesOct 30, 2015 at 0:07
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Have a look gis.stackexchange.com/questions/166230/…– FelixIPOct 30, 2015 at 6:52
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@nickves You can't erect a tower on a parcel you don't own to service the one you do without special arrangements. There are also potential propagation issues (direct line of sight) which would invalidate a center of mass centroid, even if it is located in a regular polygon (at which point visibility analysis may be necessary)– VinceOct 30, 2015 at 11:13
1 Answer
The following approach requires you to have an Advance license:
- Convert your polygons to lines using the Feature To Line tool
- Identify the distance from your centroid point to the line using the Generate Near Table tool
These two steps can be wrapped up in a model.
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How would you accomplish this outside of Model Building with the Standard License?– GIS PatNov 2, 2015 at 16:38
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1Python and
arcpy
. In 10.3 the Polyline object has a method queryPointAndDistance which can be used to extract the information you require. You could expose it as a Script tool and then embed it in to a large workflow model. So you would need to get your GIS developer to write this for you or employ someone who can.– HornbyddNov 2, 2015 at 17:49