Automatically generate useful scales for data driven pages in ArcGIS desktop and store it in attribute table of shapefile

Question

I have followed the advice on the post How to automatically generate useful scales for data driven pages in ArcGIS desktop. I followed the advice, but when the process executes it was only the last value that is stored in all the fields in my column "scale". However, I want each value saved in the ID of the appropriate polygon.

Here is the Code:

import arcpy
mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument(r"C:\workspace\MyMXD.mxd")
df = arcpy.mapping.ListDataFrames(mxd)[0]
for i in range(0, mxd.dataDrivenPages.pageCount + 1):
mxd.dataDrivenPages.currentPageID = i
   if df.scale < 50:
     df.scale = 50
   elif df.scale < 100:
     df.scale = 100
   elif df.scale < 200:
     df.scale = 200
   elif df.scale < 500:
     df.scale = 500
   elif df.scale < 1000:
     df.scale = 1000
   elif df.scale < 2000:
     df.scale = 2000
   elif df.scale < 5000:
     df.scale = 5000
   elif df.scale < 10000:
     df.scale = 10000

  InTable = "C:\workspace\MyShapeFile.shp" 
  with arcpy.da.UpdateCursor(InTable,["scale"]) as UpCur:
  for row in UpCur:
     row[0] = df.scale
   UpCur.updateRow(row)

Answer 1

You have to remember (store in list) df.scale at each iteration. See if this will work

import arcpy
mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument(r'd:\scratch\_wbench.mxd')
df = arcpy.mapping.ListDataFrames(mxd)[0]
listOfScales=[]
goodScales=[50,100,200,500,1000,2000,5000,10000,500000]
for i in range(1, mxd.dataDrivenPages.pageCount + 1):
   mxd.dataDrivenPages.currentPageID = i
   curScale=df.scale
   for sc in goodScales:
      if sc>curScale: break
   listOfScales.append(sc)

InTable = r'd:\scratch\tlas.shp' 
with arcpy.da.UpdateCursor(InTable,["scale"]) as UpCur:
   for row in UpCur:
      row[0] = listOfScales.pop(0)
      UpCur.updateRow(row)

Note my answer assumes that page order equal order of shapes in output file. Also note that pageid starts with 1, not zero