idea What maps are associated with this shapefile/geodatabase? in ArcGIS Pro Ideas

What maps are associated with this shapefile/geodatabase?

JeremySoules1 — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 14:20:39 GMT

My group has lots of data, and we are reluctant to delete anything for fear that that old shapefile might be attached to someone else's mxd. Why not add a feature in ArcCatalog that would track what maps have been saved that are using a particular file?

Right click>"Associated MXDs"

Re: What maps are associated with this shapefile/geodatabase?

SueCarroll — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 15:51:53 GMT

We had this discussion just the other day in our office. It would be a tremendous help to know which map documents still use a data set before deleting it and causing all kinds of trouble!

Re: What maps are associated with this shapefile/geodatabase?

DavidWheelock — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 14:40:57 GMT

I have the same moral quandary quite often.

It could be a kind of a crawler, or restricted to a certain folder/directory tree. Perhaps it could be added to the ArcCatalog Search function.

It could be used to create a punch-list of maps that need to be fixed if we want to migrate/rename/delete data sources.

Re: What maps are associated with this shapefile/geodatabase?

mattwilkie — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 21:42:45 GMT

...and for bonus points, what maps use data within this area [draw a box, select a polygon, etc.]

Re: What maps are associated with this shapefile/geodatabase?

JeffMoulds — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 18:31:22 GMT

You can do this at ArcGIS DT 10 with Python using the new arcpy.mapping module. The following overview help topic states that one of the scenarios that arcpy.mapping was implemented was to create a list of maps that have layers referencing a certain data source:

http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#/Geoprocessing_scripts_for_map_document_management_and_output/00s300000032000000/

There is a lot info in the help on how to do this. Also, the resource center has a sample toolbox that demo's many arcpy.mapping workflows, one of which is finding a specific data source in a folder of MXDs.

http://resources.arcgis.com/gallery/file/geoprocessing/details?entryID=A910AB18-1422-2418-3418-3885D388EF60

Re: What maps are associated with this shapefile/geodatabase?

MeghanMcGaffin3 — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 18:11:33 GMT

I think the OP solution would be a much more elegant answer to this problem with a Right click>Associated MXD's. I can't get the script to give me any results, every time it says no results found and now it's simply crashing ArcCatalog over and over again. I'd like to promote the idea but demote the implementation because it doesn't work.

Re: What maps are associated with this shapefile/geodatabase?

JHayes — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 19:29:47 GMT

Please do it! This would be awesome x 10.

Re: What maps are associated with this shapefile/geodatabase?

JurajKrumpolec — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 10:24:58 GMT

...and vice-versa: What data are associated with this mxd? Display summary of all data sources and other externally linked map and layout elements with management possibility e.g. Display and manage Map Document contents in ArcCatalog.

Showing which .mxd(s) a shapefile, feature class, table or imagery is used.

AlexBlenkush — Mon, 19 May 2014 14:45:48 GMT

While in ArcCatalog, the user would click on a data file, let's say Rivers.shp. The user could then see the .mxd(s) where Rivers.shp is used. This is basically a backwards functionality of the "set data sources" window for an .mxd.

This would be useful for data cleanup, especially when there are many data files and .mxds spread throughout a network.

Re: Showing which .mxd(s) a shapefile, feature class, table or imagery is used.

MarkVolz — Tue, 20 May 2014 12:56:17 GMT

This would be useful, but I think it might be very hard to impliment. MXD files point to data so it is easy to find what shape files / data sources a single mxd is consuming, but it would be hard to go the other way. For example:

ArcMap could maintain a database to maintain this backward compatibility, but that does not work in a multi-user environment. What would happen if user A saves an mxd on their desktop that points to data on the server. User B would be unaware of it.
ArcMap could maintain a separte file of mxds that link to A shapefile. However how would ArcMap know if the list was deleted.

These ideas are not a perfect solution but might be quite useful:

In ArcCatalog have a tool that lists all the used datasets by searching through a directory and it's subdirectories for any mxds. This tool then could create a report that states data layers are used. Unfortunatly, I dont think it would be easy to inspect mxds on other users personal computers, but it is a step in the right direction. I know I would be intrested in this tool.
Have ArcCatalog keep a log of moved and renamed files. If a user opens up an mxd with a broken layer then the repair datasource tool could prompt a user with: "The layer 'my rivers' has been moved from H:\Data\rivers.shp to H:\Data\Hydrology\rivers.shp. Would you like to use this new location as the data source?"

Re: Showing which .mxd(s) a shapefile, feature class, table or imagery is used.

AlexBlenkush — Tue, 20 May 2014 17:10:47 GMT

@lygismav: The concerns you brought up are valid, it would be a tough tool to implement, especially across networks. I like the solutions you mentioned, though not exactly what I had in mind, they seem to be more feasible.

Re: Showing which .mxd(s) a shapefile, feature class, table or imagery is used.

DuncanHornby — Wed, 21 May 2014 09:20:21 GMT

I agree, this would be extremely difficult to implement especially across multiple networks. Whilst your idea is a good one I believe it is not viable.

I had to restructure a clients GIS system a year a go and I looked at the voyager software on this web site as a means of answering that very same question. I played around with the demo version, it appears to offer the solution you require if your are willing to spend the money.

But it was outside the budget of the project and now arcpy offers the ability to extract such information from MXD's and workspaces I wrote a script that trawled their GIS folder creating text files of whats in what and it was a matter of querying this files.

You also get into the nutty situations like users adding the same dataset to a MXD but with different featurelayer names or duplication of a dataset across multiple projects folders, exactly the sort of think you are trying to clean up.

Re: Showing which .mxd(s) a shapefile, feature class, table or imagery is used.

KariBuckvold — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 21:47:56 GMT

While I can see the problems out lined below. It would be really helpful if there was a tool where I could select a data file, a directory/folder and the output would be a lits of mxds where the data file was used. I wouldn't expect the tool to search the whole server, my desktop and everyone else desktop, only the folders/subfolders I am interested in.

Re: What maps are associated with this shapefile/geodatabase? - Status changed to: Under Consideration

NaicongLi — Fri, 29 Oct 2021 15:11:34 GMT