Importing XYZ to ArcMap?

Question

My colleague has several hundred xyz files (*.xyz) and wants to make a DEM to use it in ArcMap. Files have three columns witohut first lane (variable names).

I suggested her:

1. to add first line with x, y and z column names (i know just manual way)
2. to convert xyz to dbf or similar
3. to add it in arcmap (as add x y data)
4. finally to use point to raster tool

I would probably know how to make a script for step 3 and 4, but i don't have any ideas how to solve step 1 and 2.

Or maybe there is an easier way (a tool,script) for direct conversion from xyz to dem?

Answer 1

This was my final solution. There are basicaly two tools that are needed to convert *.xyz to arcmap friendly raster format. You can use this script when adding a script tool to arcmap toolbox. Some parameters are set for my example (e.g. resolution is 5 m).

import arcpy
arcpy.CheckOutExtension("3D")

workspace=arcpy.GetParameterAsText(0)
arcpy.env.workspace = workspace

projection=arcpy.GetParameterAsText(1)

suffix = arcpy.GetParameterAsText(2)

xyz_list=arcpy.ListFiles()

for xyz in xyz_list:
    shape_name = str(xyz[:-4])+".shp"
    raster_name = str(xyz[:-4])+"."+str(suffix)
    arcpy.ASCII3DToFeatureClass_3d(xyz, "XYZ", shape_name, "POINT", "1", projection, "5", "","DECIMAL_POINT")
    arcpy.PointToRaster_conversion(shape_name, "Shape.Z", raster_name, "MEAN", "NONE", "5")

Answer 2

• concatenate all your xyz files together
• use a csv2dbf converter, because your xyz file is a form of csv file. There are tons of those available by googling. I found python source code at https://github.com/fitnr/census2dbf/blob/master/census2dbf.py , which seems to be a generic csv2dbf python module, despite the name.
• import this big dbf into arcgis

or

• concatenate all your xyz files together
• import directly to arcGIS using import xy data

edit: I assume by ".xyz file" you mean a simple ascii file of the following format (for x y and z values):

x1 y1 z1
x2 y2 z2
x3 y3 z3
x4 y4 z4