Kim, you can symbolize any distribution of polygons with a four color map such that no two colors touch. below is some code that will create a new attribute called fourcolor. You can symbolized off of the resulting values. You will have the change the path to the inFC dataset to point to your data.
See here for more information....ESRI Mapping Centre - Maps: Los Angeles Ethnicity
Here is an ESRI four-color tool but I do not know if it will work with your version of ArcGIS
Esri Mapping Centre - ArcGIS Resources
Good luck.
try:
print"Minimum Color Map"
print "Copyright 2011, Gerry Gabrisch\n"
import arcpy, os, sys, string, traceback, operator
inFC = r"On-Reservation Clam Harvest Areas"
print "Creating a minimum color map for "+ inFC
print "Adding field 'FourColor...'"
listoffields = []
for field in arcpy.ListFields(inFC):
listoffields.append(field.name)
if 'GerryTemp' not in listoffields:
arcpy.AddField_management(inFC, "GerryTemp", "SHORT")
if 'FourColor' not in listoffields:
arcpy.AddField_management(inFC, "FourColor", "SHORT")
del listoffields
counter = 0
rows = arcpy.UpdateCursor(inFC)
for row in rows:
row.GerryTemp = counter
rows.updateRow(row)
counter +=1
listofconnections = []
g1 = arcpy.Geometry()
geometrylist1 = arcpy.CopyFeatures_management(inFC, g1)
g2 = arcpy.Geometry()
geometrylist2 = arcpy.CopyFeatures_management(inFC, g2)
print "Sorting...Please wait..."
counter1 = 0
for geometry1 in geometrylist1:
connection = []
connection.append(counter1)
counter = 0
for geometry2 in geometrylist2:
#connection.append(counter)
if (geometry1.touches(geometry2) or geometry1.overlaps(geometry2)) and counter != counter1:
connection.append(counter)
counter +=1
counter1 += 1
listofconnections.append(connection)
#sort the list based on the elements (more lists) by length
listofconnections = sorted(listofconnections, key = len, reverse = True)
iscolor1 = [];iscolor2 = [];iscolor3 =[];iscolor4 = []
cantbecolor1 =[];cantbecolor2 =[];cantbecolor3 =[]; cantbecolor4 =[]
counter = 0
for item in listofconnections:
#Set the polygon with the largest number of neighbors to color #1
if counter == 0:
iscolor1.append(item[0])
counter2 = 0
for item2 in item:
if counter2 > 0:
cantbecolor1.append(item2)
counter2 += 1
#For any disconnected polygons, give them a value of 4
elif len(item) == 1:
iscolor4.append(item[0])
counter2 = 0
for item2 in item:
if counter2 > 0:
cantbecolor4.append(item2)
counter2 += 1
#For any remaining polygons, sort out the colors...
else:
if item[0] not in cantbecolor1:
iscolor1.append(item[0])
counter2 = 0
for item2 in item:
if counter2 > 0:
cantbecolor1.append(item2)
counter2 += 1
elif item[0] not in cantbecolor2:
iscolor2.append(item[0])
counter2 = 0
for item2 in item:
if counter2 > 0:
cantbecolor2.append(item2)
counter2 += 1
elif item[0] not in cantbecolor3:
iscolor3.append(item[0])
counter2 = 0
for item2 in item:
if counter2 > 0:
cantbecolor3.append(item2)
counter2 += 1
else:
iscolor4.append(item[0])
counter2 = 0
for item2 in item:
if counter2 > 0:
cantbecolor4.append(item2)
counter2 += 1
counter += 1
print "Writing color codes to the attribute table..."
rows = arcpy.UpdateCursor(inFC)
for row in rows:
if row.GerryTemp in iscolor1:
row.FourColor = 1
if row.GerryTemp in iscolor2:
row.FourColor = 2
if row.GerryTemp in iscolor3:
row.FourColor = 3
if row.GerryTemp in iscolor4:
row.FourColor = 4
rows.updateRow(row)
arcpy.DeleteField_management(inFC, "GerryTemp")
print "All done."
except arcpy.ExecuteError:
msgs = arcpy.GetMessages(2)
arcpy.AddError(msgs)
print msgs
except:
tb = sys.exc_info()[2]
tbinfo = traceback.format_tb(tb)[0]
pymsg = "PYTHON ERRORS:\nTraceback info:\n" + tbinfo + "\nError Info:\n" + str(sys.exc_info()[1])
msgs = "ArcPy ERRORS:\n" + arcpy.GetMessages(2) + "\n"
arcpy.AddError(pymsg)
arcpy.AddError(msgs)
print pymsg + "\n"
print msgs
