topic Re: Zoom Out Slightly When Using getLayerExtent() To Set Extent of Map Frame in Python Questions

Zoom Out Slightly When Using getLayerExtent() To Set Extent of Map Frame

BrettLessner_Nsight — Wed, 23 Aug 2023 19:09:08 GMT

I have a set of layouts where their extents change based on the county being published. Basically, the script sets the definition query of the County layer and then uses

mf.camera.setExtent(mf.getLayerExtent(lyr, False, True))

to move the layout extent. However, this zooms too far in on the county boundaries. The goal is to zoom to the extent of the county layer - n%.

I've attached current results vs goal

Re: Zoom Out Slightly When Using getLayerExtent() To Set Extent of Map Frame

Shauna-RaeBrown — Wed, 23 Aug 2023 19:37:09 GMT

I've had the same problem. I am forced to set the map's layout scale after my feature is drawn from the x/y coordinates. Here's a snippet of what I do after running a script that collects data from a "utility marking request" that draws the feature from Lat/Long coordinates.

lyt = aprx.listLayouts()[0] mf = lyt.listElements("MAPFRAME_ELEMENT", "MainMapFrame")[0] mf.camera.setExtent(mf.getLayerExtent(lyr, False, True)) mf.camera.scale = 24000.0

After the script runs, I have to zoom to the feature using Pro (version 2.9).

I think Esri needs to make the getLayerExtent() to allow for a percentage, like when you "zoom to selected feature" or for a map book layout where you can set a percentage for the feature extent in Pro. Maybe you could submit it as a Python Idea. Just a thought.

Re: Zoom Out Slightly When Using getLayerExtent() To Set Extent of Map Frame

BrettLessner_Nsight — Wed, 23 Aug 2023 20:11:47 GMT

Thanks for sharing your experience. I'll wait to see if I'm missing an option or setting somewhere, but I think we'll have to.

One alternative we're looking into is finding the extent of the layer, do math on the x/y max/min, and use the updated values to set our extent.

-Brett

Re: Zoom Out Slightly When Using getLayerExtent() To Set Extent of Map Frame

TylerT — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 15:01:43 GMT

I have to perform this operation also. Here's what I do that seems to work fine.

After you camera.setExtent like you did:

Notice you can both get and set the camera scale with mf.camera.scale.

HTH.

Tyler

Re: Zoom Out Slightly When Using getLayerExtent() To Set Extent of Map Frame

edward33 — Mon, 12 Feb 2024 15:54:44 GMT

This worked so well, thanks for the tip!

Re: Zoom Out Slightly When Using getLayerExtent() To Set Extent of Map Frame

CMorneau — Fri, 08 Aug 2025 19:31:23 GMT

Hello to All,

I was looking for a solution to the same issue & found this thread. We can do this in an ArcMap project with way different syntax, but I'm in the process of migrating that project to Pro. So, I got a little stuck.

Agreed - Tyler's solution worked for me as well. Interesting that when typing mf.camera into Pro's built-in Python window, scale isn't exposed when typing a period after camera. It would be nice if Esri added that to the menu. At first, I didn't think it would work, but what-the-heck, why not give it a try. Voila! It worked.

Let's take this a little further. I like to round up the layout scale once I've zoomed out using the 1.1 factor. Adapting from my old ArcMap script, try adding this:

mf.camera.scale -= mf.camera.scale % -100.

I'm not much of a Python programmer, so maybe someone who's more knowledgeable can combine that line of code with Tyler's code to make it cleaner & more concise.

-Chris

Re: Zoom Out Slightly When Using getLayerExtent() To Set Extent of Map Frame

TylerT — Mon, 11 Aug 2025 22:37:38 GMT

Hi @CMorneau,

You can add this line after factoring to round up to nearest 100.

mf.camera.scale = math.ceil(mf.camera.scale / 100) * 100

Note: Add `import math` to your imports.

HTH,

Tyler

Re: Zoom Out Slightly When Using getLayerExtent() To Set Extent of Map Frame

DougBrowning — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 22:53:00 GMT

@TylerT marking as solution as that is super slick! -1 point for having a screen shot vs text so I can't copy/paste lol

thanks!