Export a series of maps to PDF using Data Driven Pages

[JiaorongLi]

Errors:

1. "Not enough storage is available to complete this operation". or
2. ArcMap closes itself and not be able to send an error message to ESRI.

[JeffBarrette]

Could you please provide a little more information?  Are you doing this in the UI, are you using arcpy.mapping?

Thanks,
Jeff

[JiaorongLi]

Thanks Jeff.
I use ArcGIS 10 on Windows XP. Please see the attached sample.mxd for more information on the settings of the page. There are 107 pages of maps to be produced in this instance. First time, it worked up to page 28 then the error message occurred. I had to re-boot my computer a few times to continue from page 29, and so on. Up to page 89, I can not go any further, even forward or backward to change a page. ArcMap just simply shuts donw itself.

I have about 700 maps to produce.
Regards,
Jiaorong

[JeffBarrette]

Jiaorong,

Questions:
1) Are you running out of disk space when producing the output?  The first error message suggests that you are.

2) Are you writing to a single PDF file or a PDF file for each map page?

3) When you say it worked up to page 28, does that mean PDF files are being generated?

4) I assume you are doing this from the user interface.  Have you tried exporting to PDF via arcpy.mapping?  If you are having memory issues, then running an arcpy.mapping script outside of ArcMap may help.  If you are running out of disk space, then this won't help at all.


The following script will export all your pages into a single PDF:

mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument(r"C:\temp\sample[1].mxd")
ddp = mxd.dataDrivenPages
ddp.exportToPDF(r"C:\temp\output.pdf")

The following script will export each page to a separate PDF (index # gets appended to the end of each file name:

mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument(r"current")
ddp = mxd.dataDrivenPages
ddp.exportToPDF(r"C:\temp\out.pdf", multiple_files="PDF_MULTIPLE_FILES_PAGE_INDEX")

Jeff

[JiaorongLi]

Questions:
1) Are you running out of disk space when producing the output?  The first error message suggests that you are.

A: No, there is 190GB disk space available.

2) Are you writing to a single PDF file or a PDF file for each map page?

A: a PDF file for each map page.

3) When you say it worked up to page 28, does that mean PDF files are being generated?

A: yes, PDF files are being generated beautifully.

4) Thanks Jeff. I tried arcpy script you suggested and run it outside of ArcGIS. It generated 83 pages of map out of 107; then pop-up a message "not enough memory". However, of these 83 pages of map, I found a new problem, see the attached images. The text (microsoft word documents) for legends and disclaimers (OLE frames) do not come up on the PDF maps.

Regards,
Jiaorong

[JeffBarrette]

Jiaorong,

Two more questions:

1) What DPI are you exporting the pages out to?  If you reduce the DPI, does it get better?

2) As a test, could you try turning off the dem90_shade1 layer and then try?

The best way for us to assess what is going on would be to get a copy of your data.  Would it be possible to get me a map package or zip file.  Please respond directly to jbarrette@esri.com

Thanks,
Jeff

[JiaorongLi]

Hi, Jeff,

At the moment, the main issue is the OLEs not showing up on the maps exported from arcpy. Can you help me with this please?
Thank you.
Jiaorong

[JeffBarrette]

I don't understand.  Now exporting from the UI, the original issue, is no longer the main issue?  Did the problem resolve itself?

I didn't realize that you had OLE objects in your MXD.  OLE objects are only supported with the ArcMap application being open because the OLE information is embedded within the arcmap.exe.  You can run your Python scripts from the Python window using "current" but they can't be run outside of ArcGIS (when OLE objects are involved).

Jeff