Create Several Feature Layers and add them to a MXD

Question

Every time I run this script now, I get an error on the line with the MakeFeatureLayer line. Sorry for all the questions! I'm really new to Python.

import arcpy, os

arcpy.env.workspace = r'C:\pathway to gdb'
fcs = arcpy.ListFeatureClasses()

mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument(r'C:\pathway to mxd')
DF = arcpy.mapping.ListDataFrames(mxd,'*')[0]


for feature in fcs:
    inputlayer = 'C:\pathway to gdb' 
    outlayer = os.path.join(fcs, 'feature'+'.lyr')

    arcpy.MakeFeatureLayer_management(inputlayer,outlayer)

    layer = arcpy.mapping.Layer(mxd)
    arcpy.mapping.AddLayer(DF,layer,"AUTO_ARRANGE")

can you run it from the "Python" window in ArcMap. I do that a lot with something like ... execfile(r"C:\myfolder\myfile.py") — jbchurchill, Mar 26 '15 at 18:50
Does this question help? http://gis.stackexchange.com/q/21906/43 — Richard Morgan, Mar 26 '15 at 18:51
The question you posted Richard I had stumbled across before. However, how do you run this process in the foreground rather than the background?
Also, this needs to be run in IDLE. — user48149, Mar 26 '15 at 19:39

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:34

Answer to your original question:

There is no "CURRENT" MXD when running outside of ArcMap. Use mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument(r'C:\full\path\to.mxd') instead.

Answer to your edited question:

You can't create a Layer object from a MapDocument object (i.e. layer = arcpy.mapping.Layer(mxd)). Do something like this instead:

for fc in fcs:
    layer = arcpy.mapping.Layer(fc)
    arcpy.mapping.AddLayer(DF,layer,"AUTO_ARRANGE")

Create Several Feature Layers and add them to a MXD

1 Answers1