Latest Contributions by GraemeBrowning

I use in_memory workspaces to speed up some Python script tools that get published as Geoprocessing Services significantly. The tools open MXDs and perform, among other things, an ExportToPDF. In the MXD there is a layer that references a dataset stored on disk. At runtime a new dataset gets created with the same schema as that above, so that it can replace it as the data source but, given a choice, I would like that new dataset to ONLY be written to the in_memory workspace. My testing suggests that using in_memory workspaces like this is not supported by either Layer.replaceDataSource or Layer.findAndReplaceWorkspacePath. There appears to be no ArcPy way to replace the data source of a layer with a feature class stored in the in_memory workspace so that it can be displayed in a map that gets exported to PDF before the in_memory workspace is deleted. It looks like this would possible using ArcObjects and an InMemoryWorkspaceFactory but I need an ArcPy solution. If there is no way to do this using ArcPy at ArcGIS 10.0 (and nothing coming at 10.1) then what I will do is to propose as an ArcGIS Idea that Layer.replaceDataSource be enhanced to support a workspace_type=INMEMORY_WORKSPACE option. I have also posted this to the ArcGIS Discussion Forums and at Stack Exchange GIS but have had no replies there so far. ... View more

If you use the Rectangle Text tool from the Draw toolbar to insert a text element then the text element created will support text wrapping. However, if you use Insert | Text to insert a text element then the text element created will NOT support text wrapping. Neither type of inserted text element has a property to toggle text wrapping on or off. I've created quite a few text elements using the Insert | Text method because that is the method closer at hand when authoring maps and inserting all the other map surround elements.  However, I've always been disappointed that these test elements did not support text wrapping.  Now that I've become aware that the Rectangle Text tool supports this, I have the onerous task of creating new text elements and copying text into them.  It would be much easier to just hit a checkbox and have text wrapping turned on. ... View more

When a layer in a PDF has its visibility toggled off, it would be great if the legend item associated with it could also be turned off. The use case for this is that if a Layered PDF is provided to show property owners whether their land parcel is affected by one of several pieces of legislation, and they turn off a legislative layer to get a better look at what is there, then they could print from the PDF a map showing the legislative layer in the legend and no features from it affecting their property.  I would hope such a map would not find its way into court.   I think that if a layer is turned off in a PDF then all legend items linked to it in the map from which it is exported should also be turned off. ... View more

I keep thinking that I must be missing something, but there does not seem to be a tool in ArcGIS 10 to select features (in particular polygons) from a layer at a point (X,Y) location via ArcPy. The parameters for such a tool would just be a layer name and an XY location. At the moment I workaround this by creating a point featureclass containing the point and performing a SelectLayerByLocation on it. However, when the polygon feature class is in Oracle (accessed via ArcSDE 9.x) and contains 3.5 million polygons the time taken to make the selection can be more than 5 mins when I think a second or two (with less code) would be more appropriate. The feature class has a spatial index and I've tried using arcpy.env.extent (which SelectLayerByLocation appears to ignore) to restrict the geographic area accessed but the results always seem to be the same. Is there a quicker way to do this using ArcGIS Desktop 10 and ArcPy? PS I've made related posts to this on Stack Exchange and ArcGIS Ideas with no quick solutions so am beginning to think that I'm not actually missing anything. ... View more