topic Re: Can not figure out Maplex in Data Management Questions

Can not figure out Maplex

BradBlanco — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 15:39:49 GMT

Hey guys, I'm probably going to start posting here more often. Anyways, I need to create some labels for a land map.
Our client would like the information for each section of land labeled like this, in the lower left hand corner of the square (section)

Open: 480
HBP: 160
Operators: CHK
C&J Operating
Kirkpatrick
Competition: N/A
# of Lease: N/A

I've gone through hours of trial and error with expressions trying to get this right.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
B

Re: Can not figure out Maplex

BradBlanco — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 18:44:49 GMT

somebody help please!!

Re: Can not figure out Maplex

AnthonyGiles — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 19:02:12 GMT

snowcobra,

First off all you will need to use a label expression (http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//00s800000027000000.htm) to build up your label, along the lines of (where open,HBP,Operators and Competition are fields names):

"Open: " & [Open] & vbNewLine & "HBP: " & [HBP] & vbNewLine & "Operators: " & [Operators] & vbNewLine & "Competition: " &[Competition]

then you need to use maplex to position the label into the bottom left by using internal zones:

http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#/Placing_labels_using_internal_zones/003s0000002n000000/

Regards

Anthony

Re: Can not figure out Maplex

BradBlanco — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 19:23:53 GMT

snowcobra,

First off all you will need to use a label expression (http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//00s800000027000000.htm) to build up your label, along the lines of (where open,HBP,Operators and Competition are fields names):

"Open: " & [Open] & vbNewLine & "HBP: " & [HBP] & vbNewLine & "Operators: " & [Operators] & vbNewLine & "Competition: " &[Competition]

then you need to use maplex to position the label into the bottom left by using internal zones:

http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#/Placing_labels_using_internal_zones/003s0000002n000000/

Regards

Anthony

Thank you for the response, I will give this a try...

Re: Can not figure out Maplex

BradBlanco — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 19:39:40 GMT

When I used this expresion with the vbnnewline I'm getting an error message. The two links you sent, I used them already this morning trying to figure this out.
Please help!

snowcobra,

First off all you will need to use a label expression (http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//00s800000027000000.htm) to build up your label, along the lines of (where open,HBP,Operators and Competition are fields names):

"Open: " & [Open] & vbNewLine & "HBP: " & [HBP] & vbNewLine & "Operators: " & [Operators] & vbNewLine & "Competition: " &[Competition]

then you need to use maplex to position the label into the bottom left by using internal zones:

http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#/Placing_labels_using_internal_zones/003s0000002n000000/

Regards

Anthony

Re: Can not figure out Maplex

AnthonyGiles — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 20:03:09 GMT

snowcobra,

Are you replacing the text inside the square brackets with the correct column names from your attribute table?

You need to provide more detail on what you have tried, so we can work this out

Regards

Anthony

Re: Can not figure out Maplex

BradBlanco — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 20:13:47 GMT

snowcobra,

Are you replacing the text inside the square brackets with the correct column names from your attribute table?

You need to provide more detail on what you have tried, so we can work this out

Regards

Anthony

Here is the current expression I've been using.
"Open: " & ['Cursory Status - Colors 9-11-12$'.F2] & vbCrLf& "HBP: " & ['Cursory Status - Colors 9-11-12$'.F3] & vbCrLf& "Competitors: " & ['Cursory Status - Colors 9-11-12$'.F5] & vbCrLf& "# of Leases: " & ['Cursory Status - Colors 9-11-12$'.F6]

The attributes that I need labeled are from an excel spreadsheet that I joined to the table.
When I do a simpler expression, such as just showing Open and HBP the labels appear correctly, are stacked correctly, and are in the bottom left hand corner. When I add the Competitor column it all goes bad.

Re: Can not figure out Maplex

AnthonyGiles — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 20:37:08 GMT

snowcobra,

Thats seems strange that a couple of columns will work but not when you add them all together. Have you tried giving your excel spreadsheet column names (no spaces within them) so that it is not using F2 etc... Also try changing '# of leases' to 'No of leases' the expression might not like the # symbol.

Regards

Anthony

Re: Can not figure out Maplex

AnthonyGiles — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 18:33:28 GMT

Snowcobra,

Having looked at your original post again the problem may be but the ampersand that appears in the Operators field. Ampersand is a special character that can not be used. Take a look at the help topic on using text formatting tags and about halfway down the page, it has the code that you need to change this.

http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.1/index.html#//00s80000000p000000

Or an easier way will be to do a find and replace in excel (replace & with and)

Regards

Anthony

Re: Can not figure out Maplex

BradBlanco — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 20:38:26 GMT

Ok, so here is the expression I got to sort of work:
"Open: " & ['Quick Leasehold Cursory 9-11-12$'.F2] & vbnewline & ['Quick Leasehold Cursory 9-11-12$'.F4] & vbnewline & "HBP: " & ['Quick Leasehold Cursory 9-11-12$'.F3] & vbnewline & "Competitor: " & ['Quick Leasehold Cursory 9-11-12$'.F5] & vbnewline & "# of Leases:" & ['Quick Leasehold Cursory 9-11-12$'.F6]

I left out labeling the label, as the sections show like this:
Open:
CHK,oil co, oil co
HPB: 640
This seems to work and will be sufficient but there are two issues:
1. The 2nd line where it says CHK etc is operator data, sometimes this string goes on having to list all the operators. Is there a way to stack these to make them appear cleaner on the map?
2. I gone round and round with the scaling but some of the labels wont appear at the scale i need to print the map. If I zoom into one that is not labeled, the label will appear with the correct expression.
Help!

Re: Can not figure out Maplex

AnthonyGiles — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 21:07:46 GMT

snowcobra,

To seperate your CHK field you will need to use a split function to create an array of values then use a for loop on these values to build up the label, have a look at this post for the usage of the split function:

http://forums.esri.com/Thread.asp?c=93&f=993&t=258334

Regarding your labels not showing at certain scales have a look at this post, it may solve your problem:

http://forums.esri.com/Thread.asp?c=93&f=1730&t=239430

Regards

Anthony

Re: Can not figure out Maplex

BradBlanco — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 12:21:25 GMT

I applied the repair geometry feature to each shape file to no avail.
Any other ideas?
B

Re: Can not figure out Maplex

AnthonyGiles — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 18:08:43 GMT

Brad,

It looks like other Maplex users are having similar problems, see:

http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/64550-Maplex-not-labeling-polygons-at-small-scale

Maybe its a bug in Maplex,

Regards

Anthony