topic Re: Exporting Multiple Data Driven MXDs to PDFs using Python in Python Questions

Exporting Multiple Data Driven MXDs to PDFs using Python

anayoung — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 16:48:58 GMT

Hello,

I have several hundred "City Map" data driven MXDs that I would like to export to PDFs using Python. Right now we have to go into each MXD and export the PDFs; this takes time away from other stuff we could be doing. Is there some readily available code out there somewhere that would allow this function? I have been unable to find such a thing on the internet so far. I am new to coding so I am unable to do this by myself at this point. Your help would be much appreciated. Thanks, Ana

Re: Exporting Multiple Data Driven MXDs to PDFs using Python

FreddieGibson — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 17:14:56 GMT

Have you tried calling the ExportToPdf function of the DataDrivenPages class?

DataDrivenPages

http://desktop.arcgis.com/en/desktop/latest/analyze/arcpy-mapping/datadrivenpages-class.htm

You could use python's os.walk method to locate your map documents and call the ExportToPdf method to create a pdf for each of the found map documents.

Python OS.Walk Method

http://www.tutorialspoint.com/python/os_walk.htm

Re: Exporting Multiple Data Driven MXDs to PDFs using Python

anayoung — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 18:32:18 GMT

I have code does that but when I choose an MXD that has data driven pages I only get the first PDF in the series.

Re: Exporting Multiple Data Driven MXDs to PDFs using Python

anayoung — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 18:45:23 GMT

I found this line of code (i.e. ddp = mxd.dataDrivenPages) that could be the key but I am unsure of how to fit it into the following script:

arcpy, os, sys

... arcpy.env.workspace = ws = sys.argv[1]

... pdfws = sys.argv[2]

... mxd_list = arcpy.ListFiles("*.mxd")

... # Creating MXD List

... for mxd in mxd_list:

... current_mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument(os.path.join(ws,mxd))

... pdf_name = os.path.join(pdfws,mxd[:-4])+ ".pdf"

... # Exporting PDF

... print ' Exporting from ', str(current_mxd)

... arcpy.mapping.ExportToPDF(current_mxd,pdf_name)

...

... print 'Export Process Completed'

... del mxd_list

Re: Exporting Multiple Data Driven MXDs to PDFs using Python

WesMiller — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 19:53:40 GMT

Are all the mxds going to be data driven pages? Here is the data driven pages examples

http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.2/index.html#//00s300000030000000

Re: Exporting Multiple Data Driven MXDs to PDFs using Python

anayoung — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 20:15:01 GMT

Hi Wes,

Yes, all of these MXDs have data driven pages. One data driven MXD is a 56 page series of maps of New Orleans. I've looked at the examples at the link you sent me many times but can find no code that I can identify which exports multiple data driven MXDs to PDFs. As I mentioned earlier, I can apply the above code (which you helped me with) to the data driven MXDs but only get the first page of the series exported. In the case of New Orleans, I need all 56 pages of the map series - not just the first page. How can the above code be adjusted to export from data driven MXDs?

Re: Exporting Multiple Data Driven MXDs to PDFs using Python

IanMurray — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 20:04:35 GMT

There are some problems with hyperlinks on Geonet that still are not fixed yet.

Just google search DataDrivenPages (arcpy.mapping) and it should pull it up in ESRI help.

Here is an example for you

import arcpy
mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument(r"C:\Project\ParcelAtlas.mxd")
for pageNum in range(1, mxd.dataDrivenPages.pageCount + 1):
  mxd.dataDrivenPages.currentPageID = pageNum
  print "Exporting page {0} of {1}".format(str(mxd.dataDrivenPages.currentPageID), str(mxd.dataDrivenPages.pageCount))
  arcpy.mapping.ExportToPDF(mxd, r"C:\Project\OutPut\ParcelAtlas_Page" + str(pageNum) + ".png")
del mxd

Re: Exporting Multiple Data Driven MXDs to PDFs using Python

anayoung — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 21:08:00 GMT

Hi Ian,

The above code exports each page of a Data Driven Pages series into an individual PNG file. I need to export multiple data driven page series at one time to a particular folder. I have over 300 data driven MXDs; each with many pages in the map series. So, rather than opening each MXD and exporting, I would like to have a script that opens the data driven MXDs and exports the series to a folder. I found no code on that page that does this. Does this make sense?

Re: Exporting Multiple Data Driven MXDs to PDFs using Python

David_JAnderson — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 21:55:13 GMT

Ana,

You need to add some more code

From the ESRI help, example 1:

ArcGIS Help (10.2, 10.2.1, and 10.2.2)

you need to add a page loop and manage the pdfs

for mxd in mxd_list:

current_mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument(os.path.join(ws,mxd))

pdf_name = os.path.join(pdfws,mxd[:-4])+ ".pdf"

pdfDoc = arcpy.mapping.PDFDocumentCreate(pdf_name) # create the PDF document object

for pageNum in range(1, current_mxd.dataDrivenPages.pageCount + 1😞

current_mxd.dataDrivenPages.currentPageID = pageNum

page_pdf = os.path.join(pdfws,mxd[:-4])+ + str(pageNum) + ".pdf"

arcpy.mapping.ExportToPDF(current_mxd, page_pdf)

pdfDoc.appendPages(page_pdf) # add pages to it

os.remove(page_pdf) # delete the file

pdfDoc.saveAndClose() # save the pdf for the mxd

Doing PNG's is different. There is not a built in function to make one PNG from a list of PNG's.

Re: Exporting Multiple Data Driven MXDs to PDFs using Python

anayoung — Fri, 14 Aug 2015 15:30:54 GMT

Excellent! Thank you, David. That works beautifully. However, I did have to delete the extra "+" before str(pageNum) to get it to run properly.Below is the full code I was working with:

import arcpy, os

arcpy.env.workspace = ws = r"C:\citymaps"

pdfws = r"C:\citymappdfs"

mxd_list = arcpy.ListFiles("*.mxd")

for mxd in mxd_list:

current_mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument(os.path.join(ws,mxd))

pdf_name = os.path.join(pdfws,mxd[:-4])+ ".pdf"

pdfDoc = arcpy.mapping.PDFDocumentCreate(pdf_name) # create the PDF document object

for pageNum in range(1, current_mxd.dataDrivenPages.pageCount + 1):

current_mxd.dataDrivenPages.currentPageID = pageNum

page_pdf = os.path.join(pdfws,mxd[:-4]) + str(pageNum) + ".pdf"

arcpy.mapping.ExportToPDF(current_mxd, page_pdf)

pdfDoc.appendPages(page_pdf) # add pages to it

os.remove(page_pdf) # delete the file

pdfDoc.saveAndClose() # save the pdf for the mxd

Re: Exporting Multiple Data Driven MXDs to PDFs using Python

FreddieGibson — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 20:04:38 GMT

Hi Ana,

You'll want to take note that there are two options that allow you to export to pdf. The one suggested by David is the ExportToPdf method of the mapping class. If you decide to use this class then you also have to included logic to advance to each page within the map document. The method I suggested is the exportToPDF method of the dataDrivenPages class. This option would handle all of the iteration logic for you. This method would provide you with parameters to allow you to both specify the pages to print or how many pdfs to create.

Instead of iterating through each page, your logic could be as simple as follows (Note: I wrote this without verifying if it works😞

import arcpy
import os   
    
def ExportToPDF(folder, pages, multiple_files, range_string="#"):
    """Walk specified directory to find files that in in *.mxd and export their
       data driven pages to a pdf."""
    
    # Walk the directory
    for root, dirs, files in os.walk(folder):
        for item in files:
            # Check if file is an mxd
            if not item.endswith(".mxd"):
                continue
            
            # Open mxd and hook into its data driven pages driver
            mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument(path.join(root, item))
            ddp = mxd.dataDrivenPages
            
            # Specify the output path for the pdf
            pdf = os.path.join(root, item.replace(".mxd", ".pdf"))
            
            # desktop.arcgis.com/en/desktop/latest/analyze/arcpy-mapping/datadrivenpages-class.htm
            # Export the specified pages to the output pdf location
            ddp.exportToPDF(pdf, pages, range_string, multiple_files)
            
if __name__ == '__main__':
    ExportToPDF(r'C:\Path\To\Folder', 'ALL', 'PDF_SINGLE_FILE')

Re: Exporting Multiple Data Driven MXDs to PDFs using Python

anayoung — Mon, 17 Aug 2015 13:09:21 GMT

Hi Freddie,

I apologize for the delay in response. I haven't had an opportunity to play with the code you posted for me yet. However, I want to thank you for walking me through it. As mentioned, I am new to scripting so I am not very good at picking out lines of code for use. Your code looks to be flexible and workable though. I will check out its functionality this week and post my findings. Thank you very much for your assistance - this novice appreciates the help. Until next time, Ana