Raster output is not created when output is in GRID format

Description

When executing a geoprocessing tool that creates raster output, the tool frequently fails and returns a variety of errors:

• Error 000878
• Error 010067
• Error 010240
• Error 010296
• Error 010429
• Error 999999
• or other un-numbered errors.

Cause

The geoprocessing tools that create raster output default to the ArcInfo Grid format.

There are two issues that consistently prevent those processes from working.

• An ArcInfo GRID raster cannot be created in a location that has a space or spaces in the path to the data. The GRID format is the raster format devised for use in (retired) ArcInfo Workstation. Since ArcInfo Workstation was originally written for Unix operating systems, and Unix does not allow spaces anywhere in file names or paths, data formats for ArcInfo Workstation are bound by the same constraint. This 'no spaces' mandate is still in place for data in the GRID format, even though the files are created on a Windows operating system.
• An ArcInfo GRID raster cannot have a name with more than 13 characters.

Solution or Workaround

• If the output raster is written to a folder, add a raster extension to the file name, .tif, .jpg, .bmp or other raster format.
• Write the raster output to a file geodatabase raster feature class. This format does not require a file extension.