Using ModelBuilder to calculate multiple polygon areas into one table?

Question

I am attempting to calculate the areas of a large number of shapefiles (all polygons) in ArcGIS 10.2.

All of the separate shapefiles are stored in the same group layer, and each contains one polygon that needs to have its area calculated. The actual .shp/.dbf, etc. files are all stored in the same folder. It would be best if the areas could be tabulated into one .csv after being calculated. I have considered using the "Calculate Area" tool in the Spatial Statistics toolbox along with an iterator, although I am not proficient enough with model builder and iterators to get it to work. I can go through and do each shapefile's polygon individually, but there has to be a faster way.

Any hints?

Answer 1

You need to iterate over feature classes in your input folder.

To merge, you'll need to collect all the feature classes with collect values.

You then pass the feature classes as the input for the merge tool. This merges all your feature classes into one.

Next the area is calculated, then the table is exported to csv. I selected all the fields for the export, but you can select only the ones you want to include. You need to specify the separator as 'COMMA' and you output as outputname.csv - change outputname to the name you want to use for the output table.

Here is the model:

Add Geometry Attributes settings:

Export Feature Attribute to ASCII settings:

Note: if you don't want to save the merged feature class, specify the output path as in_memory\mergedfeatureclass, which will write the output into memory and delete it when the model is finished running.