Programming ArcGIS 10.1 with Python Cookbook

Chapter 5. Automating Map Production and Printing

In this chapter, we will cover the following recipes:

• Creating a list of layout elements
• Assigning a unique name to layout elements
• Restricting the layout elements returned by ListLayoutElements()
• Updating layout element properties
• Getting a list of available printers
• Printing maps with PrintMap()
• Exporting a map to a PDF file
• Exporting a map to an image file
• Creating a map book with PDFDocumentCreate() and PDFDocumentOpen()

Introduction

The arcpy.mapping module, released with ArcGIS 10, provides a number of capabilities related to the automation of map production. arcpy.mapping can be used to automate map production, build map books, export to image or PDF files, and create and manage PDF files. In this ...