Locked Multiple Layouts in ArcGIS Pro

[MikePrice]

In ArcView 3 (AV 3) users often created multiple layouts and disconnected the live link to each one.  The AV 3 help text below briefly explains what we could do in the program.

Add a view

To create a map for output containing geographic data you must first add a view to your layout. When you add the view you can choose to make it live linked. This causes any changes in the view to be reflected in the layout. If you decide not to live link your view, it will not change in the layout even if you make changes to the view.

Layouts were not especially powerful in AV 3, but users could create multiple static objects and print them as displayed. 

In ArcGIS Pro, multiple layouts are available for within a single Pro project and multiple layouts are associated with a specific Pro map within the Project.  In each layout, the user specifies the extent, layers displayed, cartographic elements, and more.  In each individual Pro layout, the user now refines/updates the associated map, before printing or exporting the layout.  If the map is modified later, the layout changes, too.

It would be very helpful to lock individual layouts to preserve user settings and parameters, without modifying the underlying map.

I strongly recommend that this feature should be submitted as a near term enhancement.  I, and others, once used this AV 3 feature often.

[Wayne_Rennick]

I didn't read all this thread so maybe this has already been stated, but I remember in ArcView 3.2 (25-years ago) that you could "freeze" a map frame in the layout. Then you could make changes to the map itself and they would not appear in the layout. Later you could unfreeze the map frame in the layout and it would revert to the current state of the map. 

That was a pretty nice feature. 

[Kylesp]

Give us the ability to have different layouts of the same Map frame, where we can turn layers on and off (from the Layout) and Lock them that way.  This was available in ArcView 3.x

I can't believe this still isn't available in Pro.  

[reggis_1]

@Kylesp  Better yet, give us the ability, in the layer panel in maps, to save "layer visibility bookmarks" (or "themes") of the current layer selection.

This way, in the layout view, you can chose the theme (which layers are selected) of the map directly from a drop down selection menu.

One step further is to enable multiple different symbologies for each layer (this works for raster layers, but as far as I know not really for feature layers). Then have the "themes" or "layer visibility bookmarks" remember which symbology is selected.

Now by selecting a new theme, you can switch back and forth between different views (layer selection and symbology). This would let us create a real atlas where the layout is not stuck with the same same layer selection and symbology. The new "themed atlas" of version 3.2 is kind of halfway there, but it requires to create duplicate layers and the content panel becomes bogged down very fast. Then changing symbology becomes impossible, having to update every duplicate layer. It's still better than having multiple different maps... but then exporting everything to qgis (where all of this has been available for many years) and doing it there remains the only good option for complex map series.