topic Re: find Workspace based on MXD in Python Questions

find Workspace based on MXD

AnthonyTimpson2 — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 13:15:48 GMT

Hello

I am trying to make a script a bit more friendly by removing the need for a user to manually alter the directory location of a workspace.

Is it possible to read something in arcpy.mapping.MapDocument("CURRENT") so that all a person has to do is open the MXD of the project and run the script and the software will find the relevant directories within the appropriate MBD

Re: find Workspace based on MXD

JimCousins — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 13:36:36 GMT

you should include a "findAndReplaceWorkspacePaths" method on the "CURRENT" map document. If you acquire the path to the .mxd, you could use that within the Replace portion of the findAndReplaceWorkspacePaths, and set the workspace to the same relative path as the map.
Regards,
Jim

Re: find Workspace based on MXD

AnthonyTimpson2 — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 13:53:14 GMT

you should include a "findAndReplaceWorkspacePaths" method on the "CURRENT" map document. If you acquire the path to the .mxd, you could use that within the Replace portion of the findAndReplaceWorkspacePaths, and set the workspace to the same relative path as the map.
Regards,
Jim

This sounds like a fantastic idea, being of limited skills, where would I begin? could you help with some pseudocode? I'd love the challenge of sorting out the actual code, but some hints on directions i should start plodding would be super 🙂

thanks for your help

Re: find Workspace based on MXD

MathewCoyle — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 15:04:52 GMT

To get the mxd path.

mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument("current") mxd_path = mxd.filePath

Re: find Workspace based on MXD

curtvprice — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 16:17:54 GMT

I am trying to make a script a bit more friendly by removing the need for a user to manually alter the directory location of a workspace.

Here's a shortcut to Jim's approach: if you provide layers from the mxd as arguments to your tool instead of dataset paths, and set up the mxd to use relative paths, you don't have to worry about paths at all. Once you have the layer inside the script, you can use arcpy.Describe(lyr).catalogPath to get its full path if you need to locate the workspace.

If you would rather use full dataset paths instead of layers as script parameters, here's the rest of Mathew's method to the next step of finding the folder where the current map document lives:

import os
mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument("current")
mxd_path = mxd.filePath
mxd_dir = os.path.dirname(mxd_path)

It may be easier to help you if you provided some information about what the script does, for example, what you are doing with the workspace path once you get it.

Re: find Workspace based on MXD

FabianBlau — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 08:37:34 GMT

You can run a script from outside ArcGIS. ArcGIS has to be installed of course.
This makes it maybe even easier/faster for the user.