topic Re: is it possible to delete a "PICTURE_ELEMENT" from a map document? in Python Questions

is it possible to delete a "PICTURE_ELEMENT" from a map document?

petegillard — Thu, 07 Mar 2019 18:43:05 GMT

is it possible to delete a "PICTURE_ELEMENT" from a map document?

Have a map in 10.6 trying to delete a jpeg that's in the map.

Thanks#

Re: is it possible to delete a "PICTURE_ELEMENT" from a map document?

RandyBurton — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 22:06:12 GMT

I've deleted text elements with arcpy, so it should be possible with something like (untested):

import arcpy
mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument(r"C:\Project\Project.mxd")

for elm in arcpy.mapping.ListLayoutElements(mxd, "PICTURE_ELEMENT"):
    elm.delete() # delete all picture elements
    # or if using name or sourceImage properties
    # if elm.name == "Photo":
    # if elm.sourceImage == r"C:\Project\Data\NewPhoto.bmp":
    #    elm.delete()

mxd.save()
del mxd‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

See PictureElement for some information., but it doesn't really discuss .delete().

Hope this helps.

Re: is it possible to delete a "PICTURE_ELEMENT" from a map document?

RandyBurton — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 22:06:14 GMT

I've had some time to do some tests. While there is a delete() option for Text Elements, there is no such option for Picture Elements. However, you can make the image disappear if you set either the width or height to 0. Once it has been set to zero, it does not appear that you can bring the image back by adjusting the height/width. The name, elementPositionX, elementPositionY and imageSource parameters still contain their original values. So this does not appear to be a clean deletion. (If you are working inside ArcMap, you may need to refresh the view to see the changes.)

for elm in arcpy.mapping.ListLayoutElements(mxd, "PICTURE_ELEMENT"):
    elm.elementHeight = 0.0  # setting this to 0 will also set elementWidth to 0‍‍‍‍

Re: is it possible to delete a "PICTURE_ELEMENT" from a map document?

petegillard — Mon, 11 Mar 2019 12:49:03 GMT

thanks, i had tried the '.delete' without much luck. your other suggestion may work. We're re-doing some mxds made by a contractor and need to remove their logo from the maps (can always do it manually, but there are over 400 mxds !)

Thanks again,

Pete

Re: is it possible to delete a "PICTURE_ELEMENT" from a map document?

Dan_Joyce_OE — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 01:42:00 GMT

Just encountered this same issue in ArcMap 10.7. An alternative to deleting the Picture Element would be to use the elementPositionX, elementPositionY attributes mentioned by @RandyBurton and set them to values that move the element off the layout page, e.g. set elementPositionX = -10.0, elementPositionY = -10.0. I'm sure the OP already implemented something similar rather than manually editing 400+ MXDs!