Natural Neighbor (3D Analyst)
Release 9.2 Last modified October 5, 2010	Print all topics in : "Tools"

Interpolates a surface from points using a natural neighbor technique.

Learn more about Natural Neighbor interpolation

Usage tips

Command line and Scripting

• The Natural Neighbor tool can efficiently handle large numbers of input points. Other interpolators may have difficulty with large point datasets.

• Some input datasets may have several points with the same X,Y coordinates. If the values of the points at the common location are the same, they are considered duplicates and have no affect on the output. If the values are different, they are considered 'coincident' points. Interpolation functions (other than IDW) may handle this data condition differently, in some cases using the first coincident point encountered for the calculation, or sometimes the last. This may cause some locations in the output raster to have different values than what you might expect. The solution is to prepare your data by removing these coincident points.

• If the cell center of the perimeter cells of the output raster fall outside the convex hull (defined by the input points), then those cells will be assigned NoData values. If an input point falls within one of these perimeter cells and the cell center falls outside the convex hull, the cell will still be assigned a value of NoData.

• An alternative approach is to use TIN to Raster. First, create a TIN with the TIN Creation tools. Convert the TIN to a raster with TIN to Raster using the Natural Neighbors option. This is particularly useful if you have breaklines or an irregularly shaped data area.

• The following environment settings affect this tool:

  • General: Current Workspace, Scratch Workspace, Output Coordinate system, Output Extent (and Snap Raster).
  • Raster Analysis: Cell size.
  • Raster Storage: See the Raster Storage settings for the particular output raster format selected.

Command line syntax
An overview of the Command Line window
NaturalNeighbor_3d <in_point_features> <z_field> <out_raster> {cell_size}

Parameter	Explanation	Data Type
<in_point_features>	Input point features.	Composite Geodataset
<z_field>	Field that holds a height or magnitude value for each point. This can be a numeric field or the Shape field if the in_point_features contains z-values.	Field
<out_raster>	Output raster dataset.	Raster Dataset
{cell_size}	The cell size at which the output raster will be created. This will be the value in the Environment if it is explicitly set. Otherwise, it is the shorter of the width or the height of the extent of in_point_features, in the input spatial reference, divided by 250.	Analysis cell size

Data types for geoprocessing tool parameters

Command line example

NaturalNeighbor_3d  C:/data/pts.shp spot C:/data/final_1 1

Scripting syntax
About getting started with writing geoprocessing scripts
NaturalNeighbor_3d (in_point_features, z_field, out_raster, cell_size)

Parameter	Explanation	Data Type
in_point_features (Required)	Input point features.	Composite Geodataset
z_field (Required)	Field that holds a height or magnitude value for each point. This can be a numeric field or the Shape field if the in_point_features contains z-values.	Field
out_raster (Required)	Output raster dataset.	Raster Dataset
cell_size (Optional)	The cell size at which the output raster will be created. This will be the value in the Environment if it is explicitly set. Otherwise, it is the shorter of the width or the height of the extent of in_point_features, in the input spatial reference, divided by 250.	Analysis cell size

Data types for geoprocessing tool parameters

Script example

# NaturalNeighbor_sample.py
# Description:
#   Interpolate a series of point features onto a rectangular 
#   raster using Natural Neighbor interpolation.
# Requirements: None
# Author: ESRI
# Date: Sept 6, 2005
# Import system modules
import arcgisscripting

# Create the Geoprocessor object
gp = arcgisscripting.create()

try:
    # Set the output workspace name
    gp.Workspace = "C:/data"

    # Set the input feature dataset
    inputFeatureDataset = "C:/data/pts.shp"

    # Set the output raster name
    outputRaster = "final_1" 

    # Set the output extent
    gp.Extent = "0 0 6 6"

    # Set the cellsize
    cellSize = 1

    # Set the attribute field
    attributeName = "spot"

    # Check out ArcGIS 3D Analyst extension license
    gp.CheckOutExtension("3d")

    # Process: Natural Neighbor...
    gp.NaturalNeighbor_3d(inputFeatureDataset, attributeName, outputRaster, cellSize)

 except:
    # If an error occurred while running a tool, then print the messages
    print gp.GetMessages()

Map Algebra syntax
Not available in 3D Analyst.

ArcObjects syntax
Not available

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