How to select and load multiple rasters from one folder in Arc?
My situation is probably familiar to some of you. I do have 3 folders with houndreds of maps in it. I do have also overview sheet, which helps me generate list of rasters that I need. How do I select them automatically from houndreds of others?
Its an issue which occurs for me from time to time. Manual selection is really inconvenient.
You could consider using an image catalog to reference your images. Using this you would create a dbf file that references your images. You add it to a map and it acts like a layer, only pulling in the image for the area you are looking at. This would save having to actually load the images to the map. In that same vein, you could create a raster catalog in a geodatabase, which would work in the same fashion as the image catalog. You would add the raster catalog to your map, it displays the image you need, while the images stay on the server. Saves having to add the images to the map everytime. May not work for your needs, but something to consider.
If they were identifiably distinct, try using sub select with glob in python.
Otherwise, the only way would be to list all files in the directory and search through them using a loop through your list.
I have created a script for this - it selects all rasters in a given set of folders (and subfolders) by using an polygon AOI. It works fine but seems to have one issue when there are over 150 files in the list. Give it a try. The files are accessible via the following question post in this exchange. I am referring to that as it will have the latest version. Limits to processing files from a list of rasters
