Extracting new data with ArcGIS Pro ModelBuilder?

Question

I'm very, very new to ModelBuilder.

I have a database that's being continuously updated with new addresses. I'm trying to set up ModelBuilder such that, each time I log in to my computer, ArcGIS geocodes any new addresses that have appeared since I last logged in. So I suppose that, with each log in, I'd have the computer scan over the previous log-in's list and geocode any thing that's new.

I've already figured out how to schedule running the model with each new log in, but how would I command ArcGIS to do this comparison?

Answer 1

Your workflow sounds like it might be a bit more suited towards Python and scripting than ModelBuilder -- however you might be able to make ModelBuilder work. (My personal opinion; spend the time learning and doing this in Python instead of getting 75% of the way there with MB and becoming possibly stuck).

If you want to do it in ModelBuilder you're going to need to find a tool that can help identify duplicate records. There is Find Identical and Delete Identical. Find Identical will only output which records are duplicates, you want the opposite of this; new records. You'd need to take your previous results, merge them with the existing list. You could then run Delete Identical on this new list. This new list would be your candidate to geocode and then ultimately join or merge them back into your master geocoded feature class.

With Python you have more options to do the compare: SearchCursors, writing a text file to disk indicating last record was line ### and start parsing from this line number next execution, etc.