My new book, ArcGIS Blueprints, is scheduled for publication in November or early December. Today we’re releasing a sample chapter from the upcoming book. Chapter 3, Automating the Production of Map Books with Data Driven Pages and ArcPy, can be downloaded here.
Many organizations have a need to create map books containing a series of individual maps that cover a larger geographic area. These map books contain a series of maps and some optional additional pages including title pages, an overview map, and some other ancillary information including reports and tables. For example, a utility company might want to generate a map book detailing their assets across a service area. A map book for this utility company could include a series of maps, each at a large scale, along with a title page, and an overview map. These resources would then be joined together into a single document that could be printed or distributed as a pdf file. In this chapter you will learn how to automate the production of map books using a combination of Data Driven Pages and Python with the ArcPy Mapping module.
