Common ArcToolbox Errors

Three errors have come up repeatedly so far when using the CorridorDesigner toolbox:

Habitat Modeling error

PROBLEM: The Habitat Modeling tool crashes, and gives a text string such as this:

CorridorDesigner ----------------
RUNNING: HabitatSuitabilityModel

Step 1/4) Checking sum of factor weights
Step 2/4) Reclassifying habitat factors
- reclassifying Habitat Factor dstroad using the reclass file C:\Documents and Settings\Dan\My Documents\CDToolbox\tutorial\speciesData\blackbear\blackbear_dstroad.txt
- PYTHON ERRORS: ---------------
Traceback Info:
File "", line 59, in reclassFactors

Error Info:
: ERROR 010328: Syntax error at or near symbol SPACE.


SOLUTION:The toolbox gets cranky when there are spaces in data path names. Make sure that there are no spaces in the path names for your data or the tools. Instead of this:

C:\My GIS Project\Corridors\My Species Data\

try something like this:

C:\MyGISProject\Corridors\MySpeciesData\

Habitat Modeling error

PROBLEM: The Habitat Modeling tool crashes, and gives a text string such as this:

- PYTHON ERRORS: ---------------
Traceback Info:
File "H:\Dan\CORRID~1\CORRID~1\CORRID~1\CORRID~1\tools\ARIZON~1\
hab_hsmMain.py", line 63, in ? hab_hsmGeoprocessing.reclassFactors(specDirPathString, specName, workspace, activeFactorDict, gp)

Error Info:
exceptions.RuntimeError:
An error was encountered while executing ReclassByASCIIFile.
("esriGeoAnalyst.GridEngine") Unable to initialize reclass table
Error in executing grid expression
Failed to execute (ReclassByASCIIFile).


SOLUTION: The Habitat Modeling tool crashes when the directory path to the tools begins with the same word in consecutive nested folders. In the case above, we see the string:

File "H:\Dan\CORRID~1\CORRID~1\CORRID~1\CORRID~1\tools\ARIZON~1\
hab_hsmMain.py"

The tools were in a saved in the path H:\Dan\Corridors\CorridorDesign\CorridorDesigner\
CorridorDesigner_v02. To fix this problem, make sure that each of the folders begins with a different word. For example, you might have H:\Dan\tools\CorridorDesigner\. Sometimes when you unzip the tools after downloading them from our website, you get two nested folders with the same name, such as this: C:\CorridorDesigner_Toolbox_v02\CorridorDesigner_Toolbox_v02\... If this happens, simply copy the tools to the uppermost directory, then delete the nested folder.

Patch Modeling error

PROBLEM: The Patch Modeling tool crashes, and gives a text string such as this:

Traceback Info:
File "C:\...\hab_patchConfigGeneral.py",
line 69, in groupPatches
suitPatches = groupIntoPatches(hsmAvg)

Error Info:
exceptions.RuntimeError:
An error was encountered while executing Reclassify.
Failed to execute (Reclassify).


SOLUTION: The Patch Modeling tool crashes in ArcGIS 9.2 when none of the service packs have been installed. To fix this bug (as well as a lot of others), you should downloaded the latest service pack for ArcGIS, service pack 4. This is available on ESRI's site (scroll down 1/3 of the way to download ArcGISDesktop92sp4.msp, the 176 MB file).

To determine if you have installed any of the service packs, open ArcMap, and go to Help > About ArcMap. If the build number is 1324, you haven't installed any service packs yet. See ESRI's site for more information.