How to use ET Surface in ArcGIS

A. As Add-In for ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Pro

  1. Register the corresponding Add-In - see this topic for details.
  2. Clicking on the ET button will introduce the ET Surface main dialog
  3. Select the appropriate group of functions in the navigation panel on the left.
  4. Select the function required.
  5. The appropriate topic of the User Guide will be displayed in the Help Window
  6. To run the selected function click the GO button or the Run icon next the the function name. You can also double click the function name.

Note:

The dialog for each function has a Help Tab that contains the full help topic for the current function.


B. In ArcToolbox - ArcGIS Desktop:

  1. Right-click the ArcToolbox folder inside the ArcToolbox window and click Add Toolbox.
  2. Navigate to the folder where ET Surface is installed and select ETSurface70.pyt.
  3. Click Open.
  4. The ET Surface toolbox will be loaded in ArcToolbox
  5. Use the tools as any standard ArcToolbox tool.

C. In ArcToolbox - ArcGIS Pro:

  1. Click INSERT ==> Toolbox ==> Add Toolbox.
  2. Navigate to the folder where ET Surface is installed and select ETSurface70.pyt.
  3. Click Open.
  4. Open the Geoprocessing dialog - ANALYSIS ==> Tools
  5. In the Geoprocessing window click on Toolboxes
  6. Use the tools as any standard ArcToolbox tool.
  7. Note that ArcGIS Pro might not allow you to drag a Tool to a Model. Just right click on the tool ==> Add to Model

D. In ArcPy scripts

The easiest way to get the syntax for an ArcPy script is to create a model in ArcGIS Desktop using the ET Surface tools. Then export the model as a Python script. Unfortunately in ArcGIS Pro you cannot export your model as Python script. Below is a sample model using the ET Surface tools and the corresponding python script.

# Import arcpy module
import arcpy

# Load ET Surface Toolbox
arcpy.ImportToolbox("C:/testToolBox/ETSurface70.pyt")

# Local variables:
input = "C:\\TestData\\Points.shp"
elevationfield = "Elevation"
triangulation = "Point"
result1 = "C:\\TestData\\PointTin"
result2 = "C:\\TestData\\TinEdges.shp"

# Process: CreateTin
arcpy.CreateTin_ETSurface(input, result1, elevationfield, triangulation)

# Process: Extract TIN edges
arcpy.ExtractTinEdges_ETSurface(result1, result2, "true")

Notes: