Anaconda is making me hate Python a little less… only a little. If I’m going to work with ActivitySim (which I am), it’s necessary.

1 The first hack is setting MKL_NUM_THREADS automatically. According to this page, it should be set to one thread to avoid things going nuts (that’s a technical term). Doing this is pretty easy, since Anaconda is setup to run all the scripts in a folder upon activation (there’s a deactivation folder too). To get to this, open the Anaconda prompt and activate the appropriate workspace. Then type echo %conda_prefix%. Copy (highlight and right-click) the resulting path and paste into a Windows Explorer Window. Navigate to etc – conda – activate.d. Make a file (e.g. asr-activate.bat) – this is a Windows batch file that will run when the workspace is activated.

In this batch file, add MKL_NUM_THREADS=1 (note: NO SPACES AROUND THE EQUALS SIGN!). This will set that when the workspace is activated.

2 Another hack in that same file is sending the command line to your working directory (I have a workspace for each client, since we sometimes have to use different versions of ActivitySim or other packages), so I added (each on their own line) D: and cd D:\Projects\Clients\FavoriteClient\Tasks\asim_setup. Now, when I open the Anaconda Shell and activate that workspace it automatically sends me where I want to be.

In the case that I needed to unset that MKL_NUM_THREADS, navigating ‘up a level’ and to deactivate.d (%conda_prefix%\etc\conda\deactivate.d), you can make a deactivate script (e.g. asr-deactivate.bat) and use MKL_NUM_THREADS= and it will clear the variable when the workspace is deactivated.

Note: There are probably several files already in the activate.d and deactivate.d folders, and you might notice that there’s a bunch of .sh files. These are for Linux (and probably MacOS). They work the same way, but I didn’t mess with them because I’m running on a Windows 10 computer.

I already hate Python, but their “IDE” makes it worse.  Fortunately, Atom.io can fix the IDE problem.

Atom.io is a Github product that whips the IDLE Python’s ass.  It’s not actually an IDE, it’s  a text editor, but it’s a text editor on steroids.

I stumbled upon a plugin for Atom to run various languages right in the window, including Python.  The problem is that it doesn’t work right out of the box in Windows.  Fixing this is easy:

1. Go to File – Settings (you can also press CTRL+,)
2. Select Install
3. In the search box, type “script” and it should come up after a few seconds
4. Click install

Once it is installed (which should take less than a minute on a modern Internet connection), you will need to update the startup script to fix the path.  To do that:

1.  Go to File – Open Your Init Script
2. Add the following line

process.env.path = [“C:\Python27\ArcGIS10.2”,process.env.PATH].join(“;”)

NOTE: I’m using the ArcGIS-bundled Python – you may need to fix that path!

Once the init script is updated, close and re-open Atom, and you should be able to select Packages – Script – Run Script (or press CTRL+SHIFT+B) to run a Python script.

/A

I </3 Python. My expected behavior for 9/5 is 1.8. If it is to be rounded, 2. pic.twitter.com/6BUV9FBcaQ

— Andrew Rohne 💻 (@AndrewTheTM) June 2, 2015

I'm programming on a RPi in Python. Somehow without cussing. cc: @matungawalla

— Andrew Rohne 💻 (@AndrewTheTM) May 24, 2015

All other languages tired of Python's shit. Any comments @okiAndrew ☺ http://t.co/THridzb3DG via @wordpressdotcom

— Krishnan V @matungawalla@transportation.social (@matungawalla) March 20, 2015

(my hate for Python is well-known!)

One of the advantages of the ESRI ArcGIS Framework is that you can write Python scripts that do GIS things and run them from Cube.  Even better, Cube uses the Geodatabase format, so you can store and retrieve things from there.

The first thing that is needed is a python script.  The below is an example that we’re not using at the moment, but it merges multiple transit line files together.

import arcgisscripting, sys, os
gp=arcgisscripting.create()

gp.AddToolbox("C:/Program Files/ArcGIS/ArcToolBox/Toolboxes/Data Management Tools.tbx")

print sys.argv

input1=sys.argv[1]
input2=sys.argv[2]
output=sys.argv[3]

in1=input1+input1[input1.rfind("\\"):]+"_PTLine"
in2=input2+input2[input2.rfind("\\"):]+"_PTLine"

input=in1+';'+in2
input=input.replace("\\","/")
output=output.replace("\\","/")

print input
print output

if gp.Exists(output):
    gp.delete_management(output)

#input=input1+"_PTLine" +';'+input2 +"_PTLine"

gp.Merge_management(input,output)

print gp.GetMessage

del gp

To call this, we add the following in a Pilot script:

*merge.py {CATALOG_DIR}\Inputs\Transit.mdb\Routes1 {CATALOG_DIR}\Inputs\Transit.mdb\Routes2 {CATALOG_DIR}\Inputs\Transit.mdb\RoutesCombined

This makes it easy to create geoprocessing steps in ArcMap, export them to Python, and call them from the model.

While looking into backing up my Google Docs, I realized that GoogleCL is not backing up drawings.

Fixing this requires a few minor modifications to the source in {download}\src\googlecl\docs\base.py (where {download} is where you downloaded the files}.

The first fix is in the try block on line 51.
was:

from gdata.docs.data import DOCUMENT_LABEL, SPREADSHEET_LABEL, \
                              PRESENTATION_LABEL, FOLDER_LABEL, PDF_LABEL

To:

from gdata.docs.data import DOCUMENT_LABEL, SPREADSHEET_LABEL, \
                              PRESENTATION_LABEL, FOLDER_LABEL, PDF_LABEL, DRAWING_LABEL

Then, beginning on 52 (the except ImportError block), it should include DRAWING_LABEL = ‘drawing’ as below:

except ImportError:
  DOCUMENT_LABEL = 'document'
  SPREADSHEET_LABEL = 'spreadsheet'
  PRESENTATION_LABEL = 'presentation'
  DRAWING_LABEL = 'drawing'
  FOLDER_LABEL = 'folder'
  PDF_LABEL = 'pdf'

Then, on line371, the following needs to be added before the ‘else’:
except ImportError:

elif doctype_label == DRAWING_LABEL:
      return googlecl.CONFIG.get(SECTION_HEADER, 'drawing_format')

Finally, in your .googlecl file (mine is under my “profile drive” because of our network settings, your mileage likely will vary, so you’ll have to search for it), open config in any text editor and add the following in the [DOCS] section:

drawing_format = png

Note: while you’re at it, you might want to change document_format = txt to document_format = doc

That’s it. Now if you run ‘google docs get .* ./backup’, you get the drawings as well.