What Do You Recommend: Populate X w/Spatial Layer Data

BrianO_keefe — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 12:41:27 GMT

I have several layers.
Council District, Parcels, Subdivision, Historical District, etc.
They all contain certain data concerning everything I need to know.
On an hourly basis a large part of my job is to collect this data for a given address, type up an e-mail and send it.

I would like to automate this process.

When I receive an e-mail for the data for a given address, I would like to select a Parcel of land, and populate a Layout window/PDF with the various bits and pieces of data from the layers that that Parcel resides within.

I can VB code something... Build a Model... or setup Data Driven pages...

I've done the second two already in ArcView, but other than Calculate Field/Value I haven't done VB(A) in ArcView at all yet. What is the recommendation?

If I have to build a model, how do I output from a Model into something like a PDF/Layout Window?

If I have to setup Data Drive pages, can I set it up to display the 'Currently Selected' parcel to check against for the Spatial Layers it resides in? Or would I need to do some Spatial Joins to bring all that data together?

If I have to VB code, then where? I would love to start doing VB(A) within ArcView but I haven't had the time to research it yet?!

If you've done anything like this... If you know of some great online tutorials that would point me in the right direction to learn this stuff... I would appreciate anything you have that might get me moving forward on this.

I receive and process roughly 20-50 requests per day on your average day. Each request takes up 5-10 minutes. When it's busy with these requests, I have no time to work on generating any new GIS data which means I get farther and farther behind. Help me Mr. Popeil... I'm in trouble!

Thanks in advance!

Re: What Do You Recommend: Populate X w/Spatial Layer Data

JeffBarrette — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 15:41:37 GMT

Brian,

I think arcpy.mapping would be a very good solution for you. It is a courser grained scripting environment intended for automating your type of workflow. With arcpy.mapping you can export the results of your MXD to PDF with a single line of code.

The real issue is where to begin. I'd suggest the following:

1) A �??Python Scripting for Map Automation in ArcGIS 10�?� video presented at the 2010 Developer�??s Summit is an excellent starting point. This presentation not only introduces arcpy.mapping but also demonstrates many of its use cases.
http://resources.arcgis.com/gallery/video/geoprocessing/details?entryID=B449043B-1422-2418-7F7A-E7EA74EF068E

2) Review the samples in the help system:
http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#/Geoprocessing_scripts_for_map_document_management_and_output/00s300000032000000/

3) review the blogs and forums, here is just one example:
http://blogs.esri.com/Dev/blogs/arcgisdesktop/archive/2010/12/14/Combining-Data-Driven-Pages-with-Python-and-arcpy.mapping.aspx

4) the Resource Center has some arcpy.mapping/data driven pages sample applications. The following is close to your needs but does not include the overlay / gp analysis part.

http://resources.arcgis.com/gallery/file/geoprocessing/details?entryID=8C8E6EB6-1422-2418-A0B8-6AA61BF57894

I also have an arcpy.mapping tutorial that I'm going to make available to the help system. I'd be happy to send you a copy - jbarrette@esri.com

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What Do You Recommend: Populate X w/Spatial Layer Data

Re: What Do You Recommend: Populate X w/Spatial Layer Data