# Failure to create oceanfile **URL:** \ **Category:** Spatial Allocator\ **Created:** [April 24, 2019, 3:52pm UTC](https://forum.cmascenter.org/t/failure-to-create-oceanfile/628 "2019-04-24T15:52:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![xiaofen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/e79b87/32.png) [@xiaofen](https://forum.cmascenter.org/u/xiaofen)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2019, 3:52pm UTC](https://forum.cmascenter.org/t/failure-to-create-oceanfile/628/1 "2019-04-24T15:52:05Z")
Hi~ I am using spatial allocator to create ocean file for CMAQ. The domain is out of North America, so I made the shape files myself and import them to Spatial Allocator. However Spatial Allocator stopped without any error information. Here is my log file WARNING: Environment variable: MAX\_INPUT\_FILE\_SHAPES, not set WARNING: Environment variable: OVERLAY\_TYPE, not set WARNING: Environment variable: MAX\_LINE\_SEG, not set WARNING: Environment variable: MAX\_LINE\_SEG, not set WARNING: polyIsect: There is no intersection between the sets of polygons WARNING: Possible empty intersection in data polygons Spatial Allocator Version 3.6, 03/10/2009 EV: MIMS\_PROCESSING=ALLOCATE EV: ALLOCATE\_ATTRS=TYPE EV: OUTPUT\_FILE\_NAME=/home/xiao/Build\_WRF/Spatial-Allocator/output/ocean\_file\_Grid-days20.ncf Using ALLOCATE mode EV: OUTPUT\_FILE\_TYPE=IoapiFile EV: OUTPUT\_FILE\_TYPE=IoapiFile EV: OUTPUT\_FILE\_TYPE=IoapiFile Reading Regular Grid EV: OUTPUT\_GRID\_NAME=Grid-days20 MAX\_LINE\_SEG not set, discretization intervals disabled griddesc file name = /home/xiao/Build\_WRF/Spatial-Allocator/data/GRIDDESC Ellipsoid var = OUTPUT\_FILE\_ELLIPSOID EV: OUTPUT\_FILE\_ELLIPSOID=+a=6370997.0,+b=6370997.0 Ellipsoid=+a=6370997.0,+b=6370997.0 EV: OUTPUT\_GRID\_NAME=Grid-days20 Not using BB optimization Finished reading the output file… EV: INPUT\_FILE\_TYPE=ShapeFile EV: INPUT\_FILE\_ELLIPSOID=+a=6370997.0,+b=6370997.0 Ellipsoid=+a=6370997.0,+b=6370997.0 EV: INPUT\_FILE\_MAP\_PRJN=+proj=lcc,+lat\_1=30,+lat\_2=60,+lat\_0=40,+lon\_0=112 EV: INPUT\_FILE\_TYPE=ShapeFile EV: INPUT\_FILE\_NAME=/home/xiao/Build\_WRF/Spatial-Allocator/data/surfzone/ChinaMapCoast MAX\_LINE\_SEG not set, discretization intervals disabled max\_line\_seg= Reading Shapefile /home/xiao/Build\_WRF/Spatial-Allocator/data/surfzone/ChinaMapCoast Shapefile Type: 5 Polygon # of Shapes: 44 Input projection: args[1]=+a=6370997.0 args[2]=+b=6370997.0 param 0 = +proj=lcc, param 3 = +lat\_1=30, param 4 = +lat\_2=60, param 5 = +lat\_0=40, param 6 = +lon\_0=112, PROJ args=+proj=lcc+a=6370997.0+b=6370997.0+lat\_1=30+lat\_2=60+lat\_0=40+lon\_0=112 Output projection: args[1]=+a=6370997.0 args[2]=+b=6370997.0 setting Lambert Conic Conformal – 2SP parameters PROJ args=+proj=lcc+a=6370997.0+b=6370997.0+lat\_1=30.000000+lat\_2=60.000000+lon\_0=112.000000+lat\_0=40.000000+units=m Total area = 9.9707e+12 Skipped 0 polygons and 0 vertices File bounding box: xmin = 16204787.444 xmax = 21277082.714 ymin = 2009033.435 ymax = 6010188.757 Finished reading the input shape file… EV: ALLOCATE\_ATTRS=TYPE EV: ALLOCATE\_ATTRS=TYPE Not using function for weights Using attribute TYPE Finished reading the input attribute file… xmin = 16204787.444 xmax = 21277082.714 ymin = 2009033.435 ymax = 6010188.757 xmin = -789000.000 xmax = 1367000.000 ymin = -2165500.000 ymax = -9500.000 0.0u 0.0s 0:00.15 46.6% 0+0k 0+8io 0pf+0w Does anyone know the reason? Thank you in advance! ---
**Author:** ![lizadams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@lizadams](https://forum.cmascenter.org/u/lizadams)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2019, 4:16pm UTC](https://forum.cmascenter.org/t/failure-to-create-oceanfile/628/2 "2019-04-24T16:16:21Z")
If the spatial allocator script is set up to write the OUTPUT to a directory, and that directory doesn’t exist, then the spatial allocator will fail to create the output file. Please add a check to the script that if the directory doesn’t exist to make it prior to the run. setenv OUTDIR $cwd/output if ( ! -d “$OUTDIR” ) mkdir -p $OUTDIR ---
**Author:** ![xiaofen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/e79b87/32.png) [@xiaofen](https://forum.cmascenter.org/u/xiaofen)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 7:36am UTC](https://forum.cmascenter.org/t/failure-to-create-oceanfile/628/3 "2019-04-25T07:36:28Z")
Hi Liz, Thanks for your reply! I wrote the code to the script. However the log file does not change. Here is my ‘alloc\_surf\_zone\_to\_oceanfile\_China.csh’ script cd /home/xiao/Build\_WRF/Spatial-Allocator/bin source sa\_setup.csh cd …/scripts setenv DEBUG\_OUTPUT Y # Set executable setenv EXE “$SA\_HOME/bin/64bits/allocator.exe” # Set Input Directory setenv DATADIR $SA\_HOME/data setenv OUTPUT $SA\_HOME/output if ( ! -d “$OUTPUT” ) mkdir -p $OUTPUT # Select method of spatial analysis setenv MIMS\_PROCESSING ALLOCATE setenv TIME time #set “data” shapefile parameters setenv GRIDDESC $DATADIR/GRIDDESC #set parameters for file being allocated setenv INPUT\_FILE\_NAME $DATADIR/surfzone/ChinaMapCoast setenv INPUT\_FILE\_TYPE ShapeFile setenv INPUT\_FILE\_MAP\_PRJN “+proj=lcc,+lat\_1=30,+lat\_2=60,+lat\_0=40,+lon\_0=112” setenv INPUT\_FILE\_ELLIPSOID “+a=6370997.0,+b=6370997.0” setenv ALLOCATE\_ATTRS TYPE setenv ALLOC\_MODE\_FILE ALL\_AREAPERCENT #Set this to SURF\_ZONE to create the variables needed for CMAQ OCEANfile setenv ALLOC\_ATTR\_TYPE SURF\_ZONE # Set name and path of resulting shapefile setenv OUTPUT\_FILE\_TYPE IoapiFile setenv OUTPUT\_GRID\_NAME Grid-days20 setenv OUTPUT\_FILE\_MAP\_PRJN “+proj=lcc,+lat\_1=30,+lat\_2=60,+lat\_0=40,+lon\_0=112” setenv OUTPUT\_FILE\_ELLIPSOID “+a=6370997.0,+b=6370997.0” setenv OUTPUT\_FILE\_NAME $OUTPUT/ocean\_file.ncf #echo “Allocating surf zone data to CMAQ OCEANfile” $TIME $EXE I guess I have the output directory. Could you please take a look at it? Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![dyang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dyang](https://forum.cmascenter.org/u/dyang)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 1:23pm UTC](https://forum.cmascenter.org/t/failure-to-create-oceanfile/628/4 "2019-04-25T13:23:08Z")
> [@xiaofen](#): > > WARNING: polyIsect: There is no intersection between the sets of polygons > WARNING: Possible empty intersection in data polygons From the warning message, it means that your ocean surfzone shape file doesn’t intersect with your grid domain. Please double check if the projection your shape file used is same as what you specified in script. Also check your GRIDDESC on the projection used for Grid-days20. If possible, your can do some QA using ArcGIS. ---
**Author:** ![xiaofen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/e79b87/32.png) [@xiaofen](https://forum.cmascenter.org/u/xiaofen)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 3:15pm UTC](https://forum.cmascenter.org/t/failure-to-create-oceanfile/628/5 "2019-04-25T15:15:57Z")
Hi Yang, Thanks! And you are right. The projections of the shapefile and GRIDDESC are not aligned. I correct the projection of the shapefile with QGIS. Now everything goes well.