Emulating design sheets w rectangle polygon?

[MikeBosko]

I have a large map depicting the design of a river restoration project.  I have a layout showing all the design elements along this 1 mile reach of stream. I'd like to break this down to detail different sheets comprised of smaller reaches of the full project extent. I've seen this displayed on CAD (probably) drawings from engineers.  The main layout will show all the rectangular boxes (numbered design sheets) along the reach that depict the different detailed layouts.  Then, each detailed layouts would show the map detailed to within each box.

I attached an example of what I've done - but it was super hard and tedious to put together.

The first layout shows the full project extent, divided up with rectangle polygons named SHEET 1, SHEET 2, etc.  Then I tediously created different layouts that encompass the Sheet extents shown by the rectangular polygons.

To do this, I created polygons on the map, adjusted them to fit into my desired layout view (hard to do), then it was simply duplicating the layout and moving the map into place with the rectangle polygon as my guide.

There must be a better way???  (see attached pdf)

[Eugene_Adkins]

You could create a map series (Map series—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation). Most likely, the easiest way to do this (if you don't use the data you already created) would be to create a single polygon with the desired dimensions, and then you could copy and paste the original polygon and add the necessary information in the attribute table for each copied polygon. Once you have this set of polygons created, you can base your maps series on it.

If you have a CAD file of the polygons you could create your data off it.

Hope that helps.

[MikeBosko]

Thanks, I've never used map series before - just looked, very intriguing - especially as I add to this project, building in new design sheets.  Cool.

The difficult part, though, was simply creating the polygons of the perfect dimensions and rotation to fit the view (layout map).  It took meticulous back and forth and way too much time to setup.  Hoping there's a better way.

[Eugene_Adkins]

Biggest time saver on that would be if you get access to the actual CAD data then you could import it and then either convert it to a polygon or create your own polygon over the top of the CAD data.

[MikeBosko]

Ok, thanks.  There is no CAD data.  I'm creating these maps and the data using only ArcPro.  Sounds like there's no easy way, I'll continue on my path.  It works.  I suspect I'm going about it the hard way somehow - but maybe not.  I'll keep trying different ideas.  Thx

[JesseWickizer · Accepted solution]

I use map graphics to organize a new multi-page map series such as yours. 

Once your page layout is defined with the desired map projection and map frame size, draw a map graphics rectangle that fits 1 page of the map series. At this point it doesn't really matter if it matches a map frame - just that the proportion is correct. This can be done a couple different ways:

Method 1 - Draw a rectangle graphics directly on map

This is less precise, but may be acceptable for your situation.

a) Activate the map frame and from the Map ribbon Add Map Graphics to add a new graphics layer.

b) Switch to the Graphics ribbon and from the Insert group, select Rectangle and draw a rectangle just inside the edges of your map.

Method 2 - Use the Grid Index Features geoprocessing tool to create a polygon feature that exactly matches the map frame.

a) If your detail maps will be rotated, start with 0 rotation on the map frame.

b) While in map view or with the map frame active in the layout, open the Grid Index Features tool and apply the following settings:

• User Page Unit and Scale: Checked on
• Map Scale: approximate scale of map (doesn't need to be precise)
• Polygon Width: Map frame width on your layout
• Polygon Height: Map frame height on your layout
• Polygon Grid Origin Coordinates: some coordinates in your layout in the units of your map projection
• Number of Rows & Columns: 1

This creates 1 polygon that's proportional to your map frame. If the map will eventually have rotation, rotate the feature the exact amount of the map rotation. 

c) Convert the polygon to a map graphic using the Features To Graphics tool. 

Now you have 1 map graphic that is proportional to your map frame. If you want rotation in the detail maps, rotate the map frame now. Continue to design the layout for each of the detailed pages.

1. Make copies of the graphic for as many pages you want in your layout and position them into place. You may find they're all a little too big or too small - in that case group them all together and scale them up and down as a unit, keeping them proportional. Ungroup and re-arrange as necessary and repeat process until you have the rectangle graphics where you like them.
2. Convert the map graphics to polygon features using the Graphics To Features geoprocessing tool. 
3. Go back to the layout and/or deactivate the active map in the layout.
4. Assign each polygon a unique name in the attribute table. 
5. Insert a new Spatial Map Series and set the parameters to use your new polygon layer. 
6. Now that your map has a map series, you can also leverage helpful features such as page queries and dynamic layout text.  

[MikeBosko]

THANK YOU!!!