How to create dynamic annotations in ArcGIS Pro?

[EricEagle]

I have a set of labels in an ArcGIS Pro map.  I remember in ArcMap you could create the annotations in the MXD and set the reference scale to 0, which would give you dynamic labels at any map scale.

I'm struggling to figure out how to obtain the same result in Pro.  I've got the Convert Labels to Annotation tool which doesn't seem to do dynamic layers, only offering me a pulldown menu of fixed conversion scales.

Can someone tell me how to create annotations, which I can publish via service, that display at a constant page/screen dimension?

[David]

Are they dynamic because the content of the label changes or dynamic because they turn on and off at different scales?

A couple of ideas:

Is it a map reference scale you are looking for? That's where the software fixes the size of symbols and text to the desired height and width at that scale.

"annotations via a service" - You can only share annotation features as a service if you have ArcGIS Enterprise 10.6 or higher. That is new functionality. Are you currently using that version?

You can also create label classes that turn on and off at different scales, then publish that feature service.

If you create a feature-linked annotation then when an attribute of your original data is changed, the linked annotation gets updated too. Is that what you are looking for? When the tool you mentioned above opens, make sure you check the box at the bottom for Create feature-linked annotation.

You might start looking at using Arcade to create some dynamic expressions across the platform.

If any of these ideas are close, let me know and I can elaborate and help you out.

[EricEagle]

Hi David,

Simply want annotations that are a fixed dimension regardless of map scale.  I do have Enterprise 10.6.1.  I created a service with labels enabled, and it's for a fairly large layer, so the performance was not very good.  Without spending half a day creating/appending multiple annotation classes at different levels, is there a more direct way for me to ensure font sizes in an annotation class always display relative to the screen/page, rather than the map scale?  Thanks!

[Koeller_Christine_A_-_DOT]

Were you able to find a solution? 

[Koeller_Christine_A_-_DOT]

I have a similar question and I'll explain why I would want annotation that is dynamic. I have a map series that I'm working on which is over 130 pages. Each page in the map series uses a different map scale. The auto-generated labels cannot be placed perfectly, so I need to move my labels around. Therefore, I would want the labels to be the same size on each page of my map series. With annotation, I only get to pick one scale for the conversion, so the labels are different sizes from page to page and it doesn't look good. I'm not publishing labels online, this is for a print/PDF product. 

The work-around I'm considering would be to create a copy of my points feature class and move the features around until the labels are in their ideal position, but that seems awkward. I also tried converting labels to graphics, but that didn't work either. Hope this helps you provide a possible solution or timeline of when this might be available in Pro.

[Koeller_Christine_A_-_DOT]

I just wanted to give an update that I converted my labels to annotation, but now I'm going through the painstaking process of resizing each label for my different pages and map scales. It's imperfect because I'm eyeballing the font size. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[Koeller_Christine_A_-_DOT]

@David Did you read my comments or have any thoughts?