topic arcpy.mapping.AddLayer (SDE Feature Class) in Python Questions

arcpy.mapping.AddLayer (SDE Feature Class)

JamesCrandall — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 18:31:48 GMT

When adding an ArcSDE Feature Class to an .mxd, it only shows the first 3 letters of the name in the TOC.

     arcpy.env.workspace = "C:\\Users\\me\\AppData\\Roaming\ESRI\\Desktop10.1\\ArcCatalog\\mysdeserver.sde"     sdelist = arcpy.ListFeatureClasses()     for sdeFC in sdelist:         ## locate the desired fc and add it to the TOC         if sdeFC == 'GIS.THE_FEATURE_CLASS_NAME':             sdeLyr = arcpy.mapping.Layer(sdeFC)             arcpy.mapping.AddLayer(df, sdeLyr, "BOTTOM")             arcpy.mapping.AddLayer             arcpy.RefreshTOC()

The above code adds the feature class but it adds it with the name "GIS". Am I completely using the wrong method (I don't see any other way). Solution? Comments?

Thanks!

Re: arcpy.mapping.AddLayer (SDE Feature Class)

MathewCoyle — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 21:05:22 GMT

I think you want to use MakeFeatureLayer and add that as a layer object to your map.

http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.1/index.html#//00170000006p000000

Re: arcpy.mapping.AddLayer (SDE Feature Class)

JamesCrandall — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 20:18:02 GMT

I think you want to use MakeFeatureLayer and add that as a layer object to your map.

http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.1/index.html#//00170000006p000000

Ah. Okay that works (sort of). I get an error if I attempt to set the same fully qualified Feature Class name as it is in SDE. This fails:

if sdeFC == 'GIS.THE_FEATURE_CLASS_NAME':
   sdeLyr = arcpy.mapping.Layer(sdeFC)
   arcpy.MakeFeatureLayer_management(sdeFC, "GIS.THE_FEATURE_CLASS_NAME")

why would I want to add something to the map display that is NOT named what it is stored as?

Also: Why is it "MakeFeatureLayer"? This is not very descriptive of "Adding a Feature Class to the TOC"! Lol...

Re: arcpy.mapping.AddLayer (SDE Feature Class)

MathewCoyle — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 14:14:20 GMT

I'm not sure why you would have an issue with using the qualified name. I don't get any error when using the same layer name as the feature class name. How are you creating your mxd and df objects?

Re: arcpy.mapping.AddLayer (SDE Feature Class)

JamesCrandall — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 20:18:05 GMT

I'm not sure why you would have an issue with using the qualified name. I don't get any error when using the same layer name as the feature class name. How are you creating your mxd and df objects?

def onRectangle(self, rectangle_geometry):
  mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument("CURRENT")
  df = arcpy.mapping.ListDataFrames(mxd)[0]

Re: arcpy.mapping.AddLayer (SDE Feature Class)

MathewCoyle — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 15:25:02 GMT

That all seems fine, what is the error message you get?

Re: arcpy.mapping.AddLayer (SDE Feature Class)

JamesCrandall — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 18:41:12 GMT

That all seems fine, what is the error message you get?

Didn't notice this until now, but arcgisscripting???? What? That is very odd.

arcgisscripting.ExecuteError: Failed to execute. Parameters are not valid.
ERROR 000733: Output Layer: Same as input C:\\Users\\me\\AppData\\Roaming\ESRI\\Desktop10.1\\ArcCatalog\\mysdeserver.sde\GIS.THE_FEATURE_CLASS_NAME
Failed to execute (MakeFeatureLayer)

From ArcGIS 10.1 Help:

"000733 : <value>: Same as input <value>.
Description
The input and output have been given the same name.

Solution
To prevent overwriting your input during the operation, change the output name to be unique from the input."

Re: arcpy.mapping.AddLayer (SDE Feature Class)

JamesCrandall — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 20:18:07 GMT

** Changes applied and resolved **

Thanks again for your suggestions. I wasn't completely sold on the idea of using the MakeFeatureLayer_management function to load the SDE Feature Class and I revisted my initial approach. So, this actually did work at first ("sort of"):

arcpy.mapping.AddLayer(df, theFC, "BOTTOM")

The problem is that when it loaded into the TOC, it was named only with the first couple of characters of the full FC datasource. After thinking about it, I figured that maybe I could just simply rename it to the full name after it loads. And that seems to work for my needs -- just reseting the .name property is fine:


arcpy.env.workspace = "C:\\Users\\me\\AppData\\Roaming\ESRI\\Desktop10.1\\ArcCatalog\\mysdeserver.sde"
    sdelist = arcpy.ListFeatureClasses()
    for sdeFC in sdelist:
        ## locate the desired fc and add it to the TOC
        if sdeFC == 'GIS.THE_FEATURE_CLASS_NAME':
            sdeLyr = arcpy.mapping.Layer(sdeFC)
            arcpy.mapping.AddLayer(df, sdeLyr, "BOTTOM")
            arcpy.mapping.AddLayer
            ## reset the fc's name after it is added to the TOC
            arcpy.mapping.ListLayers(mxd)[0].name = "GIS.THE_FEATURE_CLASS_NAME"
            arcpy.RefreshTOC()