topic Re: Is it possible to create a new group layer with arcpy? in ArcGIS Pro Questions

Is it possible to create a new group layer with arcpy?

JesseTemplin2 — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 20:31:45 GMT

Hello,

I am trying to add group layers to a map with ArcPy. I have seen old answers saying this is not possible, and suggesting instead to create a layer file with the groups already created. This will not work for me because the number of groups is not known in advance.

Is it possible to add group layers to a map in ArcPy?

Thanks

Re: Is it possible to create a new group layer with arcpy?

JohannesLindner — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 07:33:32 GMT

For ArcGIS Pro:

Create an empty group layer and save it, then run this:

empty_group_layer_file = arcpy.mp.LayerFile(r"H:\New Group Layer.lyrx") active_map = arcpy.mp.ArcGISProject("current").activeMap # In this example, I'll use a dict of {group_layer_name: [layers]} as input. Adjust according to your existing code. group_layers = { "Group Layer 1": [layer_1, layer_2], "Group Layer 2": [layer_3, layer_4], } for group_name, layers in group_layers.items(): group = active_map.addLayer(empty_group_layer_file)[0] group.name = group_name for lyr in layers: active_map.addLayerToGroup(group, lyr)

Re: Is it possible to create a new group layer with arcpy?

JesseTemplin2 — Wed, 16 Jun 2021 15:27:26 GMT

Thanks Johannes! After fixing a couple typos (AddLayer -> addLayer) I was able to use this to create new group layers.

Re: Is it possible to create a new group layer with arcpy?

mTylerH — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 21:31:32 GMT

this works in ArcMap too if you do the same but with an empty group .lyr file and make the appropriate changes to work in arcpy.mapping instead of arcpy.mp

Re: Is it possible to create a new group layer with arcpy?

Brian_Wilson — Wed, 12 Jun 2024 23:56:33 GMT

After I got past the mental block of using Pro to create an empty LYRX file, this works. I was expecting line one to create the file for me. Thanks!

Re: Is it possible to create a new group layer with arcpy?

GISDataTasPorts — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 22:51:42 GMT

This is much simpler for recent versions of ArcGIS Pro (as it always should have been). You can now create a new empty group layer with a single arcpy line like this:

new_group_layer = mp.createGroupLayer("New Group Layer")

For more details, see the 'Map' class documentation at: Map—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation
(search on the page for 'creategrouplayer')

Re: Is it possible to create a new group layer with arcpy?

mTylerH — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 17:02:22 GMT

lovely