Think about it this way: In the following example, both the management and analysis module are being imported as *. Other objects, variables, modules, and so forth, with the same name will be overwritten, not to mention that with large modules, your namespace can become particularly crowded and busy. # Import management from arcpy as * # from arcpy.management import * However, there are some risks associated with this approach. Like the previous example, the below example also imports the env class but assigns it the name ENV. In any of these cases, you can use the form from-import-as. Workspace = 'c:/data' Following the same thought process, sometimes you might want to draw attention to what a module or part of a module is identified as to make your script more readable, or perhaps the default name is just too long for your preferences. # Import env from arcpy and set the workspace environment # from arcpy import env env. It is interpreted and dynamically typed, which provides you with the ability to quickly prototype and test scripts in an interactive environment while still being powerful enough to support the writing of large applications. The additional power of using ArcPy within Python is the fact that Python is a general-purpose programming language that is easy to learn and use. ArcPy provides a rich and dynamic environment for developing Python scripts while offering code completion and integrated documentation for each function, module, and class.ĪrcGIS applications and scripts written using ArcPy benefit from being able to access and work with the numerous Python modules developed by GIS professionals and programmers from many different disciplines. I am interested in importing the ArcGIS 10.3 arcpy module in Spyder.ĪrcGIS 10 introduced ArcPy, a Python site package that encompasses and further enhances the arcgisscripting module introduced at ArcGIS 9.2. I recently installed Anaconda's Python distribution, which includes Spyder IDE.

Arcgisscripting python module