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Pre-determined/rounded scale bar intervals when using "adjust division values"

LindsayRaabe_FPCWA

In ArcGIS Pro, when setting up scale bars, you have the following options available:

Fitting strategy Description

Adjust division value	Preserves the number of divisions and tries to preserve the scale bar width by adjusting the division value. Manual resizing of the scale bar is allowed.
Adjust number of divisions	Preserves the division value and tries to preserve the scale bar width by adjusting the number of divisions. Manual resizing of the scale bar is allowed.
Adjust divisions and division value	Preserves the number of subdivisions and tries to preserve the scale bar width by adjusting the number of divisions first then the division values. Manual resizing of the scale bar is allowed.
Adjust width	Preserves the division value and number of divisions, and adjusts the scale bar width if the map scale changes. Manual resizing of the scale bar is not allowed.
Fixed bar width	Allows you to set the width of the bar in page units using the Scale Bar Width box. This width does not include other parts of the scale bar such as numbers and unit labels. The scale bar width is preserved and the numeric values update to reflect the scale. Manual resizing of the scale bar is not allowed.

The problem I find is that many of our maps have such variable scales, that no single existing setting gives a nice outcome all the time (typically when using a Map Series). Some examples below show how the scale bar responds at different scales based on the Fitting Strategy selected.

Adjust divisions and division values

Adjust number of divisions (my preferred option for a nice looking scale bar)

IDEA: When using "Adjust division values" or "Adjust divisions and division values", allow the option to round intervals to a user specified value (e.g. nearest 10, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000, 5000, etc) AND/OR allow the user to create specific interval values (in a list) for the scale bar to use at different scales (in a similar way to the way the map scales can be customised as per the below screenshot)

Having this level of control would mean that regardless of my map scale (1:5,000 or 1:40,000), my scale bar will present nicely configured division intervals and will still fit within the specified space on the layout (fixed width).

With this sort of function, I could generate maps that look like the below instead of the above.

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Status: Open

Comments

Jesse Wickizer

You can create multiple scale bars with slightly different settings such as division value and overlay them on top of one-another. Then adjust their Visibility range scales so only 1 scale bar is visible at a time. When the map uses a smaller scale, the scale bar with a larger division value can be shown, then hidden when the map changes to a larger scale.

LindsayRaabe_FPCWA

That looks like a handy feature. The 2nd on 2 days that I've come across that we're missing out on because of our organisations delayed update process. Hopefully we'll be on 3.4 within the next month though so I'll give it a try when we are!

LindsayRaabe_FPCWA

@JesseWickizer we've just upgraded to 3.3 and I've already given the visible scale bar settings a whirl. They work a treat (once I get my head around the Max/Min scale values for like the 1 millionth time in my career...).

LindsayRaabe_FPCWA

Hi @JesseWickizer. Yesterday I ran into a small "bug" with the new scale bar visibility features. I'd spent some time creating a set of 3 scale bars with different Visibility ranges (<1:10000 / 1:10k - 1:30k / >1:30000). For the middle interval, I had the scales set to 1:10001 - 1:29999 with the upper and lower bars set to the round 1:10000 (Min) & 1:30000 (Max) values.

However, the problem was that the scale bars weren't showing up when I zoomed to a "Max" scale value.

TODAY however, I went back in to get more screenshots for this post, and now they work as expected.

So, instead of asking for guidance around whether this should be logged as a bug or is expected behaviour, I'm instead going to suggest that you use thresholds that are unlikely to never be used, instead of clean breaks like I have, JUST IN CASE!

Jesse Wickizer

There's a Map property on the General tab called "Draw up to and including the maximum scale in scale ranges" that you can use to control how layout elements (or layers or label classes, etc) draw when the map scale matches one of the visibility range values.

By default in Pro, new projects have this property unchecked and it's recommended to set the Minimum scale property of the smaller scale layer and Maximum scale property of the larger scale layer to the same scale. Imported MXDs have this property checked on as it was more common in ArcMap to set the scales offset by one like in your example.

In your case since you're setting the neighboring scale values to be offset by one, check on this property and the scale bars will draw correctly when the map scale matches one of the visibility range values.

Read more about it in the Display layers at certain scales documentation page.

LindsayRaabe_FPCWA

Hi @JesseWickizer Thanks for the pointer. I wasn't aware of that setting. I'm going to go on a bit of hunt and figure out what maps have what applied and try to get some consistency!

EliWeaverdyckWCAA

Thanks @JesseWickizer for the tip about scale bar visibility ranges! I'm making a layout with an empty map frame to use as a template in the Print widget in Experience builder, and I'm having trouble implementing visibility ranges on my scale bars. When I enter a value into the Maximum or Minimum Scale fields, it reverts back to <None>. I assume this is because the map frame itself has no scale or even coordinate system information. Clicking "Customize..." in the drop-down menu does nothing.

Is there a workaround that would allow me to set the visibility ranges on scale bars that reference an empty map frame?

AubriOtis

Interesting that you can't set the scale without a map in the map frame. That sounds like a bug we can investigate. In the meantime, when setting up a layout for experience builder I like to use a "placeholder" map when building my template. Then before I export it I set the map frame to none. This helps me see things and troubleshoot a little more easily.