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I have a folder with a dozen Arcmap compositions (.mxd files) I need to print. They're all ready to go, I don't need to do any editing. Do I really have to open up each one, wait to refresh, and press print?

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4 Answers

up vote 4 down vote

I have found the following utility to be quite helpful.

THE LOST CARTOGRAPHER

It was written by Ben Slater. In this blog post, he has given the code as well as the executable for Batch Printing ArcMap MXD Documents

Edit: Added more information about the Utility, as per Matt Wilkie's suggestion

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please consider adding a little more description to your answer. For example you give the title of the blog but not the name of the utility or the title of the post introducing it. Links change and move over time and details can help track down the new home. – matt wilkie♦ Aug 3 '10 at 17:21
up vote 1 down vote accepted

We solved it, with caveats, by a batch file. It is a bit quirky and doesn't always work. The most annoying things are a) it ignores the .mxd page size setting and always uses the printers' default page, and b) Addons like MapBook need to be uninstalled or else there will be an error dialog after each .mxd (the map still prints though). 

@echo off
:: print-all-maps.bat
echo. 
echo. Printing all maps in current directory to default printer 
echo. 
echo  Press [ctrl-break] to abort. 
echo. 
for %%a in (*.mxd) do ( 
  echo.  Processing %%a 
  start /wait C:\path\to\ArcGIS\Bin\ArcMap.exe /p "%%a" 
  )

Not verified yet, but apparently as of Arcgis 9.4 (aka v10) you can:

"C:\Path\To\Common Files\ArcGIS\bin\ArcGISFileHandler.exe" /p "Foobar Map.mxd"

(answer cribbed from http://yukongis.ca/How_To/BatchPrintMaps)

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Ugly but effective - like so much gis stuff :) – fmark Aug 3 '10 at 2:21
Well the ArcGISFileHandler.exe method for v10 doesn't work for me. I keep getting errors about either there being no available ArcInfo licenses available or that Single Use is not authorized. This occurs even when ArcView is the selected level in ArGIS Administrator and Arcmap opens fine via Start Menu etc. – matt wilkie♦ Jun 28 '12 at 21:35
up vote 1 down vote

I'd start with the Print Active View sample, but change it so that it uses IMapDocument to retrieve the pagelayout for each mxd.

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up vote 1 down vote

You could look into using COM automation to open the MXD, call the print, and then close the document. http://forums.esri.com/Thread.asp?c=93&f=1170&t=197049

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This answer would be more useful with a small example or an extract of the most important text. The linked resource may not stay in place, especially now that esri is launched a new forums site. – matt wilkie♦ Jul 23 '10 at 18:03

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