Latest Contributions by ChrisFox

Below is a help document topic that discusses how to accomplish this workflow: http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//003t00000026000000 ... View more

You don't have the ability to change the symboloy renderer. For example you can't change a layer from graduated color to unique value and you can't control individual symbols. A better workaround to turning on and off layers would be to author your layer files once, save them to disk and use UpdateLayer with the SymbologyOnly paramater set to True to import the symbology for the layer in an automated way. ... View more

This option is available with Maplex and at version 10.1 maplex will be available at all license levels. ... View more

At 10.1 we have made some improvements to the arcpy.mapping module to add some control over symbology to aid in automating thematic mapping. Although you will still not be able to update individual symbols you will have some control over the following: Determine whether the layer is using a unique value, graduated color, graduated symbol, or raster classified renderer Set the class breaks, number of classes and value field used by the graduated color, graduated symbol and raster classified renderer Set the value field and visible values for the unique value renderer Things like the color ramp used, or classification method will need to be authored for the layer in ArcMap before automating through python. Thank you for posting your idea and comments and we will continue to make improvements to arcpy.mapping to support the automation of map production. ... View more

At 10.1 with the new function ExportReport you will be able to create a dynamic map series with an accompaning report. By using the dataset option "Extent" you can automate the process of for each map extent creating a report specific to the features within the extent. This will get you part of the way, but I definetly see the value in having dynamic graphing capabilities as well. ... View more

Data Driven Pages has the ability to set unique scale for each page with the use of Data Driven Scale. All you need is a numeric field in your index layer that contains the scale you wish to use for that page. For example if the first row in your index layer has a value of 1,000 the page will center the extent of the page on the center of the extent of the first row's feature and set the scale to 1:1,000. If the second row is 100,000 it wil center the extent again for that feature and set the scale to 1:100,000. To enable Data Driven Scale from the Setup Data Driven Pages dialog under the Extent tab select the radio button next to Data Driven Scale and select the appropriate field that will contain the extent values. ... View more

Unfortunately you will not be able to edit, create, import or export bookmarks with arcpy at 10.1. There is a new function, ListBookmarks that will return a list of tuples that contain the bookmark name and associated extent object for workflows where you may want to create a map series based on the extents defined by the bookmarks in the map document. ... View more

It would be pretty straight-forward to do this through Python with Field Mapping, but the issue would be Field Aliases don't have the same restrictions as field names do such as names with spaces, contain invalid charaters not to mention you can have multiple fields with the same alias name. ... View more

At 10.1 you will be able to do this through python as you can utilize the new ListBookmarks function to return a list of extents of your bookmarks and in a loop adjust the extent of your data frame based on the extent of each bookmark. ... View more

Thank you for posting this idea. There is a georocessing tool, "Export Metadata Multiple" that allows you to input multiple ArcGIS items and export all the Metadata to a single folder. ... View more

Thank you for posting your idea, you can set this from Editor > Options > Units. The default direction type is Polar, but you could set it to North or South Azimuth based on your needs. More information on this is available in the help topics below: http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#/About_direction_measuring_systems_and_units/001t00000009000000/ http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#/Setting_the_direction_type_and_units_used_when_editing/001t0000000m000000/ ... View more

Thank you for posting your idea. Although this is not possible through the user interface this is possible through Python. Below is a sample script that demonstrates how you can accomplish this: import arcpy, os #Create a reference to your map document and the Graphic Element in the map document #"GraphicElementName" refers to the name of the element in the map document mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument(r'C:\Temp\Untitled.mxd') graphic = arcpy.mapping.ListLayoutElements(mxd, "GRAPHIC_ELEMENT", "GraphicElementName")[0] #Create a list of the page numbers to include the graphic on includePicPageList = [2,4] #Set a location for a temporary pdf used to create the mapbook tempPDF = r'C:\Temp\Temp.pdf' #Determine if the Final PDF exists on disk, if it does delete it and then create the PDF finalPDFPath = r'C:\Temp\Final.pdf' if os.path.exists(finalPDFPath):     os.remove(finalPDFPath) finalPDF = arcpy.mapping.PDFDocumentCreate(finalPDFPath) for pageNum in range (1, 5):     #Set graphic's postion off the page     graphic.elementPositionX = -5     graphic.elementPositionY = -5         #Move to the approiate page in Data Driven Pages     mxd.dataDrivenPages.currentPageID = pageNum     #Determine if the current page is in the list of valid pages to include the graphic      for includePicPage in includePicPageList:         if includePicPage == pageNum:             #If the page is in the page list, set the postion of the graphic to be on the page             graphic.elementPositionX = 1             graphic.elementPositionY = 1     #Export the page to the temporary PDF                arcpy.mapping.ExportToPDF(mxd, tempPDF)     #Append it to the Final PDF and delete the temporary page        finalPDF.appendPages(tempPDF)     os.remove(tempPDF) #Save the pdf and delete the reference to the PDF and Map Document variables finalPDF.saveAndClose() del finalPDF, mxd ... View more

Thank you for posting your idea and lending your support to this enhancement.  I uploaded a sample tool that demonstrates this functionality for the Cut Polygon tool.  What the tool does is if you attempt to cut a polygon and it fails for whatever reason you recieve the error message and the option to continue your sketch. Currently it only works with one selected polygon and I don't have anything for Reshape Feature, but the source code is out there and I would encourage anyone else out there who is interested to take a stab at enhancing it for these functions to take a stab at it. Cut Polygon and Save Sketch Tool ... View more

Thank you for posting your idea. I am not sure I completely understand the request. Would you be able to provide additional details regarding your workflow and what is currently lacking in the software? ... View more

Another tool I use frequently is all the time is jing, http://www.techsmith.com/jing/. It automatically recognizes the individual windows in ArcMap including the data frame and allows quick capture and sharing of the contents in the window. ... View more