Skip to main content

Green icon with outlined shape. Buffer Tool

One Tool Example

Buffer has a One Tool Example. Visit Sample Workflows to learn how to access this and many other examples directly in Alteryx Designer.

Use Buffer to take any polygon or polyline spatial object and expand or contract its extent by a user-specified value.

Image displaying how Buffer tool works

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

Configure the Tool

  1. Specify the SpatialField that contains the spatial object to be buffered.

  2. IncludeinOutput: The 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.

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

  4. Set the BufferSize parameters.

    • SpecificValue: Input a numerical value and all records are buffered to this size

    • FromField: Select a numerical field in the connection stream and each record is buffered by the value of that field.

    • Units: Choose to buffer the object in units of Miles or Kilometers.

In this section: