Automate Parameter Loading (for Labeling)

Question

I'm doing sidewalk inventory collection for multiple cities throughout the state at times - and the collection process is basically broken down into different criteria when inspecting the walk - so I usually end up with 10 or more different shapefiles (e.g. Poor Condition, Structure, Slopes) per city. With the information gathered, I produce PDFs using Data Driven Pages.

I use Labeling Manager and do Copy Parameters/Paste Parameters from previously loaded shapefiles to populate the expression and symbolize my newly imported shapefiles.

Since the process of moving the files into ArcMap and populating the label expression is always the same, I'm wondering if there is a scripting solution to automate this process?

Initially I thought of ModelBuilder but I can't find any tool that deals with modifying label expression of a feature class - and I'm lacking in the programming department. What I'm envisioning is a menu that open up and allow batch input of feature classes and churns them out with the correct label expressions and symbology loaded.

• PolyGeo: For help with any coding solutions the starting point should always be the inclusion of a code snippet that illustrates what you have tried and where you are stuck.

Answer 1

If you already have a layer with the labelling parameters set identical to what you need in a new layer you could copy/paste that layer onto the data frame where you want it to appear, and then use the Source tab of the Layer Properties of the new layer to change its data source to be the new shapefile.