{"id":122831,"date":"2012-08-13T13:35:43","date_gmt":"2012-08-13T13:35:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/uncategorized\/how-large-a-dem-can-the-topotoraster-tool-create\/"},"modified":"2012-08-13T13:35:43","modified_gmt":"2012-08-13T13:35:43","slug":"how-large-a-dem-can-the-topotoraster-tool-create","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/analytics\/how-large-a-dem-can-the-topotoraster-tool-create","title":{"rendered":"How large a DEM can the TopoToRaster tool create?"},"author":5201,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":""},"categories":[23341],"tags":[38501,24131,34131,39421],"industry":[],"product":[],"class_list":["post-122831","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-analytics","tag-contour","tag-dem","tag-interpolation","tag-spatial-analyst"],"acf":{"short_description":"The TopoToRaster tool is primarily used to create hydrologically correct digital elevation models (DEMs) from contour data. Additional in...","flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2012\/08\/thumbnail.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-18864\" src=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2012\/08\/thumbnail-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Thumbnail for the TopoToRaster output size blog\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>The <em><a href=\"http:\/\/resources.arcgis.com\/en\/help\/main\/10.1\/#\/Topo_to_Raster\/009z0000006s000000\/\">TopoToRaster<\/a><\/em> tool is primarily used to create hydrologically correct digital elevation models (DEMs) from contour data. Additional input information such as spot heights, known locations of sinks, streams and the outline of lakes can also be used to further improve the quality of the output DEM.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/fennerschool.anu.edu.au\/research\/software-datasets\/anudem\">ANUDEM<\/a> is developed and maintained by the Fenner School of Environment &amp; Society at the Australian National University. It calculates DEMs with sensible shape and drainage structure from a series of topographic data sets . <em>TopoToRaster<\/em> internally calls ANUDEM, which imposes some size constraints on the size of the output raster.<\/p>\n<p>When <em>TopoToRaster<\/em> is run as a geoprocessing tool within ArcMap (pre ArcGIS 10.1), the output raster was limited to a size of roughly 5,500 columns by 5,500 rows, i.e. the output raster cannot have more than about 30 million cells. Increasing the amount of computer memory has no effect on the size of the output raster when using this version.<\/p>\n<p>In ArcGIS 10.1 we\u2019ve incorporated ANUDEM 5.3 in <em>TopoToRaster.<\/em> When running on Windows XP we are now able to generate an output raster of approximately 8,500 columns by 8,500 rows. If you have a machine running Windows 7 with more than 3GB of RAM you will be able to generate an output DEM of roughly 15,000 columns by 15,000 rows.<\/p>\n<p>If <em>TopoToRaster<\/em> is run in ArcGIS 10.1 for Server on a machine with Windows 7 (64 bit) with 6GB of RAM you\u2019ll be able to produce an output DEM of approximately 25,000 columns by 25,000 rows. Using ArcGIS for Desktop \u2013 Background processing (64 bit) at 10.1 SP1 you\u2019ll be able to produce an output raster of similar dimensions.<\/p>\n<p>The volume of input data, however, can also cause <em>TopoToRaster<\/em> to run out of memory. If your input features have many millions of input vertices it is advisable to split the area up into smaller regions.<\/p>\n<p>Equally, if you require a larger output raster than is currently possible, splitting the area up into manageable chunks and running <em>TopoToRaster<\/em> using the <em>MARGIN<\/em> parameter is an effective solution. The output rasters can then be combined into a single raster via a Mosaic dataset or by using the <em>CellStatistics<\/em>, <em>Mosaic<\/em> or <em>MosaicToNewRaster<\/em> geoprocessing tools.<\/p>\n"}],"authors":[{"ID":5201,"user_firstname":"Steve","user_lastname":"Lynch","nickname":"Steve Lynch","user_nicename":"stevelynch","display_name":"Steve Lynch","user_email":"slynch@esri.com","user_url":"","user_registered":"2018-03-02 00:16:52","user_description":"Steve Lynch is a Senior Product Engineer on the Spatial Analyst Team and has been with Esri since 2003. Previously he was a Senior Research Fellow at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. His primary focus was research into long term rainfall variability and the mapping thereof.","user_avatar":"<img data-del=\"avatar\" src='https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/05\/sdl_2024_600x600_300dpi-213x200.jpg' class='avatar pp-user-avatar avatar-96 photo ' height='96' width='96'\/>"}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How large a DEM can the TopoToRaster tool create?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/analytics\/how-large-a-dem-can-the-topotoraster-tool-create\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How large a DEM can the TopoToRaster tool create?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/analytics\/how-large-a-dem-can-the-topotoraster-tool-create\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ArcGIS Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/esrigis\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ESRI\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":[\"Article\",\"BlogPosting\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/analytics\/how-large-a-dem-can-the-topotoraster-tool-create#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/analytics\/how-large-a-dem-can-the-topotoraster-tool-create\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Steve Lynch\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5264c0d64edeb4faa336cae40319b604\"},\"headline\":\"How large a DEM can the TopoToRaster tool create?\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-08-13T13:35:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/analytics\/how-large-a-dem-can-the-topotoraster-tool-create\"},\"wordCount\":9,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"contour\",\"digital elevation model (DEM)\",\"interpolation\",\"Spatial Analyst\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Analytics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/analytics\/how-large-a-dem-can-the-topotoraster-tool-create#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/analytics\/how-large-a-dem-can-the-topotoraster-tool-create\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/analytics\/how-large-a-dem-can-the-topotoraster-tool-create\",\"name\":\"How large a DEM can the TopoToRaster tool create?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-08-13T13:35:43+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/analytics\/how-large-a-dem-can-the-topotoraster-tool-create#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/analytics\/how-large-a-dem-can-the-topotoraster-tool-create\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/analytics\/how-large-a-dem-can-the-topotoraster-tool-create#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How large a DEM can the TopoToRaster tool create?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/\",\"name\":\"ArcGIS Blog\",\"description\":\"Get insider info from Esri product teams\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Esri\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Esri.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Esri.png\",\"width\":400,\"height\":400,\"caption\":\"Esri\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/esrigis\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/ESRI\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/5311\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5264c0d64edeb4faa336cae40319b604\",\"name\":\"Steve Lynch\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/05\/sdl_2024_600x600_300dpi-213x200.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/05\/sdl_2024_600x600_300dpi-213x200.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Steve Lynch\"},\"description\":\"Steve Lynch is a Senior Product Engineer on the Spatial Analyst Team and has been with Esri since 2003. Previously he was a Senior Research Fellow at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. His primary focus was research into long term rainfall variability and the mapping thereof.\",\"url\":\"\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How large a DEM can the TopoToRaster tool create?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/analytics\/how-large-a-dem-can-the-topotoraster-tool-create","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How large a DEM can the TopoToRaster tool create?","og_url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/analytics\/how-large-a-dem-can-the-topotoraster-tool-create","og_site_name":"ArcGIS Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/esrigis\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@ESRI","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":["Article","BlogPosting"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/analytics\/how-large-a-dem-can-the-topotoraster-tool-create#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/analytics\/how-large-a-dem-can-the-topotoraster-tool-create"},"author":{"name":"Steve Lynch","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5264c0d64edeb4faa336cae40319b604"},"headline":"How large a DEM can the TopoToRaster tool create?","datePublished":"2012-08-13T13:35:43+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/analytics\/how-large-a-dem-can-the-topotoraster-tool-create"},"wordCount":9,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["contour","digital elevation model (DEM)","interpolation","Spatial Analyst"],"articleSection":["Analytics"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/analytics\/how-large-a-dem-can-the-topotoraster-tool-create#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/analytics\/how-large-a-dem-can-the-topotoraster-tool-create","url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/analytics\/how-large-a-dem-can-the-topotoraster-tool-create","name":"How large a DEM can the TopoToRaster tool create?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-08-13T13:35:43+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/analytics\/how-large-a-dem-can-the-topotoraster-tool-create#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/analytics\/how-large-a-dem-can-the-topotoraster-tool-create"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/analytics\/how-large-a-dem-can-the-topotoraster-tool-create#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How large a DEM can the TopoToRaster tool create?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/","name":"ArcGIS Blog","description":"Get insider info from Esri product teams","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#organization","name":"Esri","url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Esri.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Esri.png","width":400,"height":400,"caption":"Esri"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/esrigis\/","https:\/\/x.com\/ESRI","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/5311\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5264c0d64edeb4faa336cae40319b604","name":"Steve Lynch","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/05\/sdl_2024_600x600_300dpi-213x200.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/05\/sdl_2024_600x600_300dpi-213x200.jpg","caption":"Steve Lynch"},"description":"Steve Lynch is a Senior Product Engineer on the Spatial Analyst Team and has been with Esri since 2003. Previously he was a Senior Research Fellow at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. His primary focus was research into long term rainfall variability and the mapping thereof.","url":""}]}},"text_date":"August 13, 2012","author_name":"Steve Lynch","author_page":false,"custom_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Newsroom-Keyart-Wide-1920-x-1080.jpg","primary_product":false,"tag_data":[{"term_id":38501,"name":"contour","slug":"contour","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":38501,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":5,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":24131,"name":"digital elevation model (DEM)","slug":"dem","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":24131,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":32,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":34131,"name":"interpolation","slug":"interpolation","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":34131,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":5,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":39421,"name":"Spatial Analyst","slug":"spatial-analyst","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":39421,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":49,"filter":"raw"}],"category_data":[{"term_id":23341,"name":"Analytics","slug":"analytics","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":23341,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":1330,"filter":"raw"}],"product_data":[],"primary_product_link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog\/122831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/blog"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5201"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog\/122831\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122831"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=122831"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=122831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}