Update Attachments in a File Geodatabase dynamically

Question

I am working in ArcGIS 10.5 in a file geodatabase.

I have a polygon feature class that currently has pdf attachments for various features.

Periodically, the folder that contains the pdfs gets updated, some features now have multiple attachments. I am trying to avoid manually adding new attachments using the Attachment Manager because sometimes there are hundreds of updates.

Currently, to batch update all the attachments within the GDB, I need to delete the existing attachments, regenerate a match table, and re-run the Add Attachments tool.

I was considering building a model to take care of this workflow but was wondering if there is more efficient way to handle this without having to run a tool or series of tools every time there are changes to the pdf folder?

Answer 1

No, there is not a way to add attachments to features without using a tool like Add Attachments or Attachment Manager.

You could have a folder for each feature and have that feature hyperlinked to that folder. That way you could add documents to the folder with out having to edit the features and the user would click the hyperlink and view the documents for that feature through their file explore.