Selecting files from multiple folders

Question

I haven't played in Python for almost two years so I'm very rusty. I'm definitely not saying I was all that good at it then. I could use some help with this.
I have a folder, that contains many folders, and each of those folders have a file I need to grab and put it into my map. I'm going to have to do this 1000's of times so I thought a script would be nice to run. Here's what I have so far (and I got help with this too):

# Import arcpy module
import arcpy
import string
import os

# Local variables:
#Set workspace
arcpy.env.workspace = "C:\DWG\FOLDER\FOLDER*"
Polyline = "\Polyline"
LineShp = "C:\DWG\FOLDER\Shape\"

# Process: Select
for i in arcpy.ListFiles ("*.dwg"):
    x = i.strip('.dwgDWG')
    fileout = LineShp + x + ".shp"
    print "Processing:" + arcpy.env.workspace + "\" + Polyline + "To:" + fileout

It looks like its running but when I go to the folder where the .shp should be, it's empty. My print statement doesn't print anything. I'm not sure I can use a wildcard for my workspace either. Thanks for your help!

denisedavis · Answer

Thanks Jake! It's a great start and a whole lot of help! It's crashing after 4 iterations so I have to look at the dwg files. For some reason, I'm getting an error (no arcpy module found) when I try to run it in IDLE.

jskinner · Answer

Hi Denise,

Here is some sample code that should get you started.  What you will need to do is use the 'os.walk' command to iterate through all sub-directories.  The below code starts at the directory specified with 'env.workspace' and iterates through all of its sub-directories.  It will add the polyline file of any DWG it finds.import arcpy, os
from arcpy import env

env.workspace = r"C:	emp\python"

for (path, dirs, files) in os.walk(env.workspace):
    for file in files:
        # find all DWG files in folder and all subfolders
        if ".dwg" in file.lower()[-4:]:
            dwg_path = os.path.join(path, file) + "\Polyline"
            # set the MXD
            mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument("CURRENT")
            # set the Dataframe
            df = arcpy.mapping.ListDataFrames(mxd,"*")[0]
            # create a new layer
            newlayer = arcpy.mapping.Layer(dwg_path)
            # add the layer to the map
            arcpy.mapping.AddLayer(df, newlayer,"AUTO_ARRANGE")

del mxd

denisedavis · Answer

By no means is this answer going to be complete, but when specifying a file location (as in C:\DWG.....) you only need to use the double backslash after the C:\ - so it would look like "C:\DWG\...." or you can use single forward (/) slashes instead, which admittedly is annoying if you are doing a copy/paste of an address.  another way to reference file paths is to put an r in front of it, so like: r"C:\DWG\... ["/QUOTE]
Thanks for reminding me of this. I had forgotten.RPI_Bryan;199036 wrote:
There is a free online course you can take for python in the training section.

I did this about 2 years ago but I should probably run through it again.