The Create Space Time Cube tool included with GeoAnalytics Server summarizes a set of points into a netCDF file structure by aggregating them into space-time bins. In addition to summarizing the number of features, the tool can also calculate summary statistics for the attribute values of points within each space-time bin. The output of the Create Space Time Cube tool, a netCDF (.nc) file, is most commonly used as an input for tools in the Space Time Pattern Mining Tools toolbox, available in ArcGIS Pro and ArcMap 10.3 or later. In many cases you will want to use a summary statistic calculated with the GeoAnalytics tool Create Space Time Cube as an analysis variable or display variable within the Space Time Pattern Mining Tools toolbox.
Unfortunately, a flaw in the Create Space Time Cube tool released with ArcGIS Enterprise 10.5 and 10.5.1 causes summary statistic fields to be incorrectly named in the output netCDF file. If this netCDF file is used as an input for tools in the Space Time Pattern Mining Tools toolbox and a summary statistic is chosen as the analysis variable, the tool will fail.
To correct this, we have provided a Python script (FixSpaceTimeCubeFieldNames.py) that will fix the field names in the netCDF file created by the GeoAnalytics Create Space Time Cube tool so that the file can be used in further analysis without any issues. Simply run the Python script and copy and paste the full path to your .nc file into the Python window when prompted. The script will edit the netCDF file in place and save these changes to disk. If you would like to keep the original version of your .nc file be sure to make a copy before running the script. Please note that this script requires the netCDF4 Python library which is included with ArcGIS Pro as well as ArcMap 10.3 or later.
Alternatively, we have provided a Python toolbox (FixSpaceTimeCubeFieldNames.pyt) that can be used in place of the script described above. This toolbox will also correct the field names of your netCDF file, but can be used like any other geoprocessing tool in ArcGIS Pro or ArcMap. This option may be preferred if you are not familiar with running Python scripts or if you would like to integrate the functionality described above into a ModelBuilder model.
Both the Python script and Python toolbox can be found here.
In summary, you should use this script or toolbox if all the following are true:
- You generated a Space Time Cube (netCDF file) using GeoAnalytics Server versions 10.5 or 10.5.1.
- You calculated summary statistics when generating the Space Time Cube.
- You plan on using the Space Time Cube in the Space Time Pattern Mining Tools toolbox.
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