Indexing Capability for ArcGIS 10 Mapbooks (data driven pages)

RegisDognin

I am hoping to be able to use Data Driven Pages in ArcGIS 10 to create mapbooks. I have used (30-day trial) software from MapLogic called "Layout Manager" (one time intial cost $1200 - my City cannot pay). It is the industry leader for the moment. One strong capability of that software is indexing. Lets say you create a "Fire District Map" showing the city's roads, streets, hydrant locations, and more. THERE MUST BE AN INDEX FOR EVERY MAPBOOK (if desired). The index software figures out for every segment of road or streets which pages of the mapbook contain these streets. Long Hill Ave may appear on 6 different pages. It must list those pages. Constitution Boulevard will also appear an many pages. The index will tell you which pages to look for that Boulevard. Huntington Circle will be on one page only. The index confirms which page. The index is usually located as a separate section at the end of the mapbook. The user should have options as to how the index is formated (font, font size, comma delimited page numbers, 1-2-3 column formating, in alphabetical order with option for a break and large capital letter between each alphabet group, page numbering, and so forth.

A fireman going to a fire needs to quickly see which page(s) of the mapbook he needs to turn to to get to the fire and find the hydrant location. It may be a matter of life or death. An INDEXING CAPABILITY is VERY IMPORTANT!

[To my knowledge, ArcGIS 10 does not have this capability yet.] I have been asking ESRI about this.

ToddMayer · ‎06-23-2010

Also it would be great to be able to add a table to each map page that is a report configured by the Author of , for example, all the hydrants within the specific map page

JohnStreeb · ‎06-24-2010

This could also be accomplished with just a little bit of extra work on the part of the end user if they would add some functionality to the Spatial Join GP tool. Currently if there are multiple polygons, for example, that a line segment crosses and you are joining the two spatially, the only option you have is for numeric fields to be summarized. I, personally would like to see an option on the spatial join tool enabled that would allow a text field or a short integer field, such as a Voting Precinct number or a Mapbook Index Page ID (ex: A2) to be summarized in a new text field as a list. For example: If you have polygons built that represent each page of the map-book with a page ID of A1, A2,... D18, D19..., and you have a road segment that diagnally crosses 3 pages, you could do a spatial join that would result in a field containing the value: "A3, A4, B4". This should be able to be done by adding a set of options that allow the user to specify:

"Create Text Summarized List Field?" (checkbox)
"Field Name to be created:"
"Maximum allowed field length:"
"Value to input in cells where the list exceeds the allowed field length:"
"Separator:" (eg: ", " or " & ")
"Source Field:"

JakeKrall · ‎07-27-2010

@jstreeb, Good idea for the Spatial Join tool, too. @esri, But, the priority on this "idea" should be directed to fixing Map Book (where the heck did Data Driven Pages come from anyway?) This was available in the older "unsupported" DS Mapbook producing a text file and was ok functionality. 10 should improve on it with dognin's suggestions!!!!! So, many bugs in 10, hope a service pack is coming soon, too!

ChrisMoshier1 · ‎07-28-2010

It would be extremely beneficial to our organization if the Data Driven Pages tool could dynamically update definition queries for layers in the table of contents.

I have customized the DS Map Book developer sample to do so. When using this version of the DS Map Book developer sample, definition queries are dynamically applied and updated to any layer in the table of contents that is tagged with a designated prefix.

Any layer with a prefix of "ClipDefQry" will be applied a definition query of "x = y" where "X" equals the field in the index layer used to designate the page and "Y" equals the current page.

Any layer with a prefix of "ExcludeDefQry" will be applied a definition query of "x <> y" where "X" equals the field in the index layer used to designate the page and "Y" equals the current page.

Finally, an intuitive method for tagging text to be dynamically updated based on the current page would also be extremely useful.

ChrisMoshier1 · ‎07-28-2010

It would be extremely beneficial to our organization if the Data Driven Pages tool could dynamically update definition queries for layers in the table of contents. This allows for the highest level of cartographic control for areas inside and outside of the extent of the feature defining the current page.

I have customized the DS Map Book developer sample to do so. When using this version of the DS Map Book developer sample, definition queries are dynamically applied and updated to any layer in the table of contents that is tagged with a designated prefix.

Any layer with a prefix of "ClipDefQry" will be applied a definition query of "x = y" where "X" equals the field in the index layer used to designate the page and "Y" equals the current page.

Any layer with a prefix of "ExcludeDefQry" will be applied a definition query of "x <> y" where "X" equals the field in the index layer used to designate the page and "Y" equals the current page.

Finally, an intuitive method for tagging text to be dynamically updated based on the current page would also be extremely useful.

Anonymous User · ‎07-28-2010

whoa, does Map book not work with Arc 10? If it doesn't and this new "data driven pages" thing doesn't let you do an index, then I really don't want to upgrade to Arc 10. Yikes. And I agree "data driven pages"? who came up with that? Just call a duck a duck. so call it a map book. anyway...

ChrisKahn · ‎08-09-2010

I was told by ESRI staff that the old MPS Atlas tools would be included for free in 10. That means that if you don't want to use "data driven pages" you can enable the old MPS tools (you used to have to buy PLTS with Foundation to get them). They should be buried in the customize toolbox i'm told. I am not sure yet how to add the PLTS Toolbox (or if you can). But within that tool box is "Surround Elements" toolbox, and within that is the "Create Index Tool"

As a PS, DS mapbook used to 'interfere' with the MPS Atlas tools. This bug was never resolved as of 9.3.1 service pack 2. So I assume it is still there in 10. If MPS Atlas tools are, in fact, included in 10, I wouldn't be surprised to see weird behavior if you have DS mapbook installed and you try to use MPS Atlas tools.

DavidWatkins · ‎08-09-2010

Just a response for the request for dynamically updating definition queries. Check out the Page Definition Queries that were included in 10. They work in conjunction with data driven pages and the definition queries. I think will do what you are asking for. They give you the abilitiy to either "match" or "not match" a value in a field to the name used for for your data driven pages. Here is a link to the help: http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//00sr00000004000000.htm

JacobTerstriep · ‎08-18-2010

I could not agree with this idea more. I understand that there may be other lengthy ways of reaching this goal, or separate tools that if configured correctly will generate and index list, but a quick idex button\tab as a part of the DDP toolbar is a must.

Aaron_Seifert_GISP · ‎08-25-2010

Great to have almost all the functionality of DS Mapbook in v10 with Data Driven Pages. However the one tool I rely on the most that isn't present is the "Create Series Index" where one can provide a text list of street names (or other features) that fall within the index grid shapes. For this reason I will keep using v9.31 on another computer until I find a solution.

Ablility to see a list of all the pages, not just scroll through would be great as well.

Overall (with little us in testing) I would like to commend ESRI for finally including Mapbook functionality and supporting it!!! THIS IS HUGE and now it is just tweaking ths functionality that is offered.