How do I automate custom edge labels for township range in ArcGIS 10?

Question

I need to label township ranges along the side and top of my map, respectively. I know the grid in the frame properties is a way to label the edges with lat/lon. I Think there is a way to do the same type of thing with dynamic text objects.

Anyone have experience with this?

Answer 1

You can do this with dynamic text of Data Driven Pages in ArcGIS 10.

EDIT: On first read I though you were trying to label neighbors but re-reading after Jakub's comment, it sounds like you want a custom reference grid. You need to create a custom overlay grid from your reference data. Check this relevant thread on the ESRI forums.

Answer 2

Take a look at What are grids and graticules? in the help. Not a programmatic solution but may be all you need.

Answer 3

via arcpy

    import arcpy
mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument(r"C:\Project\ParcelAtlas.mxd")
pageNameList = ["MPB", "PJB", "AFB", "ABB"]
for pageName in pageNameList:
    pageID = mxd.dataDrivenPages.getPageIDFromName(pageName)
    mxd.dataDrivenPages.currentPageID = pageID
    fieldValue = mxd.dataDrivenPages.pageRow.TSR  #example values from a field called TSR are "080102", "031400"
    TRSTitle = arcpy.mapping.ListLayoutElements(MXD, "TEXT_ELEMENT", "TRSTitle")[0]
    township, range, section = fieldValue[:2].strip("0"), fieldValue[2:-2].strip("0"), fieldValue[-2:].strip("0")
    if section != "": 
        TRSTitle.text = "Section {0} T.{1}N. R.{2}W. W.M.".format(section, township, range)
    else:
        TRSTitle.text = "T.{0}N. R.{1}W. W.M.".format(township, range)
    mxd.dataDrivenPages.printPages(r"\\olyfile\SUITE_303", "CURRENT")
del mxd

bottom of page DataDrivenPages (example 2) http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//00s300000030000000.htm

Answer 4

Just realized this is an ANCIENT thread...whoops. Leaving the answer for any who might stumble upon it.

We have a feature class named Townships, that we use as our grid for mapbooks. In the attribute table, for each row we have a "Township", "Range", and a "MapName" column. Then we simply add two dynamic text objects like so:

The MapName column is simply the Township and Range together, separated by a hyphen. Overly redundant, but it has its purpose.

So, if you have the township and range in your attribute table, just add the labels above, substituting your column names. If you don't have the township and range, add the columns to your table.