Buffer Tool

The Buffer tool takes any polygon or polyline spatial object and expands or contracts its extents by a user specified value.

This image shows a positive buffer of 1 mile and a negative buffer of -1 mile.

Configure the tool

Specify the Spatial Field that contains the spatial object to be buffered.

Include in Output: User can choose whether or not to include the original spatial object in the output stream. The default is unchecked so the object is not included.

Generalize to 1% of Buffer size: Selected by default. This optimizes speed by cutting down the number of nodes in the buffered object.

Set the BufferSize parameters.

• Specific Value: User can input a numerical value and all records will be buffered to this size
• From Field: User can select a numerical field in the connection stream and each record is buffered by the value of that field.
• Units: User can choose to buffer the object in units of Miles or Kilometers