Displaying raster attributes on data driven pages

Question

I have a feature class of 50 properties that are ranked. I have a photo for each property stored in a raster attribute column (in the feature class) called "Picture". I am trying to create a Dynamic text attribute for the picture column to use with my Data Driven Pages. I have struck out so far on getting the images to appear in the layout. Any ideas? Help would be greatly appreciated.

-Adam

Answer 1

I don't believe it is possible to change the paths of picture elements in map documents with Data Driven Pages (there may be a way with Production Mapping, but I don't have access to that extension so I couldn't tell you). However, it is possible to do this in Python using the Mapping module of ArcPy. You would add a placeholder picture in your map document template, add an Element Name in the "Size and Position" tab of the picture element, then edit the sourceImage property of that PictureElement for each map you are creating. Overall, I've found arcpy.mapping to be much more flexible and powerful than data driven pages, and definitely worth learning.