Ability to save .mxd and .lyr files into a geodatabase

Idea created by tony.farndon on Apr 23, 2010

Comment • 17

Not in Current Product Plan

Score4120

+429 more

Would like to see the ability to save .mxd's and .lyr files into a geodatabase (sde/pgdb/fgdb), flat file structures seems so out of place in this cloud world in which we will be living.

17 Comments

mowpower Apr 23, 2010 4:09 AM
Inside geodatabases you can use representations to save the symbology within the gdb. Not extremely intuitive, but very helpful once you get the hang of them. http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisdesktop/9.3/index.cfm?TopicName=An_overview_of_representations
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pbarkergol Apr 23, 2010 7:00 AM
Representations are not a solution to the average user. They require an editor level license to change and update, you cant "push" them back to common symbology as required. They have great value for formal cartographic work but it is not a solution for every day GIS symbology.
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BruceLang Apr 23, 2010 10:55 AM
That would be nice. Any file type should be allowed - as long as it's a single disk file. FYI - The following shows what can be stored in a GDB http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/geodatabase/data-storage.html
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vassalli Apr 25, 2010 2:25 AM
very good idea: this is right to avoid sparse files (gdb in a position) and lyr files in another location
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zo_radeva Apr 26, 2010 2:17 AM
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mhadi11 May 1, 2010 1:59 AM
Idea is similar to Geomedia Library featur. I would love to see this features as it make maps and geodatabase deplayoyment way much easier.
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sgrant-esristaff May 6, 2010 6:05 AM
The Product Library, which is part of the PLTS solutions, allows you to store any kind of document inside the gdb.

Here is the help on it:
http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//004400000111000000.htm
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RudinA May 10, 2010 3:45 PM
I agree that cartographic representation is not an easy solution for groups that just want to publish "data" and not just maps. It requires adding extra fields and extra data and extra overhead to SDE. I just want to store what's considred the one most popular or official way to represent a feature class in SDE, so when an average user clicks "Add Data" the system just brings it in already symbolized and labeled, scale dependency, etc.

And it should bring the layer into ArcMap with that user's SDE login credentials.
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aurorageomatics May 31, 2010 1:13 PM
Sounds like asking for a bag of hurt. What do you do when using multiple datasources?

Perhaps this would work if treating a 'Workspace' as a package where datasources can be located and MXD and LYR files can reside in a structured filing system with updated indexing and mapping?

A package would be nice for portability.
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mmarques-esristaff Jun 7, 2010 3:58 PM
You can accomplish this using the "Product Library" which is part of the ArcGIS 10 Production Mapping

Product Library (mxd)
http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#/A_quick_tour_of_the_product_library/004p000000w5000000/

Product Library Views (.lyr files)
http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#/Views/004p0000013z000000/
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Blindside Jul 22, 2010 9:29 AM
I would love to store .lyr files in SDE. .mxds would be useful as well.
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Hornbydd Jun 3, 2011 3:41 AM
You can...

In 9.3 and 10 you can save MXD's straight into the File GeoDatabase by going to Save As...

Interestingly in 9.3 you can see the MXD file as an MXD file in Windows File Explorer but in version 10 it gives it a cryptic name that only means something from with the GIS system.
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RayMontgomery Sep 22, 2011 1:54 PM
We store LYR files that point to SDE Feature Classes that are joined to tables. We want to be able to store these LYR files in the SDE GDB, so that the users don't have to maunally join the tables, and don't have to navigate to LYR files stored outside the GDB.

We have no interest in creating Packages; we don't want to export data. We want users to use data in the SDE. So what we want, I guess, is similar to a Representation, but has more ability, namely to store joins to tables and not force the user to use any particular graphic design.
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ksjosh82 Oct 6, 2011 2:48 PM
@rmontgom I think you missed the point of this idea. If you want everyone to see the joins without having them manually do them, why not just add the join then export to a new feature class and push it out through sde? Of course, if you joined table changes frequently this might be a pain but certainly is possible to do.
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kevinm1 Nov 28, 2011 8:02 AM
I like the idea of .lyr files (or the equivalent information) within SDE.
One advantage I see, is not having to maintain drive letter mappings. With sde, I don't need to worry about staff in differernt departments mapping to the data via a consistent drive letter mapping (which is not the case across departmnents)... but we do need to maintain at least one drive letter, to allow for storage and access of the .lyr files on disk.. It would be very nice to allow access to layer "files" via the server conection string...
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kdunlop Nov 30, 2011 4:23 PM
I would love to save .mxd into SDE. It would be great to be able to version that .mxd too so I can make changes to it without losing the original. Once I am happy with the change, I could reconcile and post the mxd version to the parent. Right now, I have too many .mxd call things like MyProject_16.mxd.
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dgliddon Sep 25, 2012 10:00 PM
Especially if MXD's could be subject to version control and meta-data tags. - ie provide document management functionality.
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Ability to save .mxd and .lyr files into a geodatabase

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