Calculate Adjacent Fields

Question

Hello,

I am trying to create Neighbourhood labels using the Calculate Adjacent Fields.  When I run the tool it tells me my grid is not rectangular.  What tool should I be using for an irregular grid?

Thank you!

JoelCalhoun · Answer

Esri does provide a tool.  It is called "Calculate Adjacent Fields" and it can be found in the Cartography Tools \ Data Driven Pages toolbox.

Yes, it does generate 8 additional fields for your Index Layer but via Dynamic Text, you have absolute control over the placement of the text.

Jeff

Jeff,

Thanks for the reply.  What I meant is that the "Calculate Adjacent Fields" tool does not work on an irregular grid.  And yes you have absolute placement of labels but that doesn't help necessarily with an irregular grid because sometimes you have only one adjacent map tile and sometimes you have many more.  Using staticly placed dynamic labels doesn't allow for enough flexibility to account for every placement possibility of an adjacent tile.  Using the maplex labeling engine's "boundary placement" to generate labels gives me the flexibility I need by labeling each and every adjacent tile regardless of it's position.  There are obviously some drawbacks but I think for most people that aren't creating professional quality atlases, the boundary labeling is sufficient and requires very little effort.

Joel

jbarrette · Answer

Esri does provide a tool.  It is called "Calculate Adjacent Fields" and it can be found in the Cartography Tools \ Data Driven Pages toolbox.

Yes, it does generate 8 additional fields for your Index Layer but via Dynamic Text, you have absolute control over the placement of the text.

Jeff

JoelCalhoun · Answer

Alison,

If you are looking to use Data Driven Pages.
As far as I know, ESRI doesn't provide a tool to do this.

The Calculate Adjacent Fields tool requires somthing like 8 additional fields in your index grid.

To avoid having to add additional fields to your index grid at all, I suggest a different approach.
You can use the Boundary Labeling with Maplex to achieve a decent result.  I have a few other tricks I've figured out to provide an even better result.

I have attached a Microsoft Word Document that explains how to set up your labels once you have your atlas created.

Post back here if you have any questions.

Joel

ADJACENT MAP LABELS.docx