Accessing ArcObjects through Python

Question

Anyone know if there's an efficient way to use ArcObjects in a Python script?

If not, does anyone know if there's a way to convert a VBA macro to a tool/script? I need to use ArcObjects to perform some calculations, but doing this through a macro saved in an mxd (like I do now) is definitely not the most efficient method...I guess I could take the time to learn C# but if there's a simpler way, that would be ideal. Anyone got suggestions?

FrankPerks · Answer

Read this thread from Frank Perks (another genius) for a different example: http://forums.esri.com/Thread.asp?c=93&f=993&t=289397#927436
[

😮 I feel special now.It's very, very slow compared to ArcObjects in VBA, but it works. (Hopefully the arcpy module when alleviate this need at some point.)

Last set of benchmarks i saw, basically put comtypes 3x times faster then arcpy :confused:

But overall its actually extremely useful IMO. Its a really really easy way to basically or throw something togther extremely quickly just to see if it works. As for comtypes pretty much everything from ESRI's API you can access there is a handful of things that comtypes does not like, simply because of how they are implemented. Hopefully after exams, i can actually finish making my more friendly arcgis comtypes library. (theres bugs, esri does not follow standards for iterable interfaces, comtypes does not handle esri hresult markup, etc.

BradPosthumus · Answer

It is a new feature of arcpy to get access to mxds and its contents with ArcGIS 10, isn't it?

Have a look at the new "mapping" module: http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//00s300000032000000.htm

True enough, but for those of us who have at least another year to wait  before having to ArcGIS 10 -in our case due to a general corporate roll-out lag, or for others who won't be upgrading any time soon- it's nice to have this option now rather than later.

StefanOffermann · Answer

For anyone who has ever asked if MXD's can be created or altered through Python, there's a good chance the answer is "yes" if you use comtypes.

It is a new feature of arcpy to get access to mxds and its contents with ArcGIS 10, isn't it?

Have a look at the new "mapping" module: http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//00s300000032000000.htm

Best regards, Stefan