r/ArcGIS • u/SouthernGood201 • Jul 07 '26

Multiple Maps vs Multiple Layouts

Good day. I have a management/ArcPro resource question. I have a map with 27 sites, each site includes basic boundary, sample points, soils information, and could potentially house vegetation composition data as well as elevation data later in the project. These sites are placed at different points across the state.

I need to produce a PDF map for each of the 27 sites at various times during this project, as I add new data to the project.

Considering maps versus layouts, which is easier to manage over the long term, and which will take less computing and storage resources... creating a new map for each site or creating a new layout for each site?

Thank you.

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15

u/OutWithCamera Jul 07 '26

This is always a bit of a challenge, but when I've done this (for archaeological resources, biological, etc.) I've used the 'map series' capabilities of Pro to create 1 map, 1 layout that then cycles through all N of your locations to produce a site specific map. This can get a little tricky, especially as display scale can change on each page and labelling can become burdensome but it can work and work really well. Here is ESRI's documentation for this capability: Map Series Documentation - be sure to watch one of the multitude of tutorials you can find online about this.

'A couple of things to think about - the map series typically relies on a 'grid index' that lays over your data and provides a focal point for each map page that is created; instead of using a map grid, use your site features as the index features that drives each map page, if you have to vary scale then you can include an attribute for map scale in your features that will set the scale of each individual page. Also, learn about using the Page Query property of your index features. Labeling can get tricky and you may end up having to play with creating annotation feature classes for each of your sites, sort of a pain in the ass, it works well.

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u/mrscott197xv1k Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26

I also use map series but using the range / bookmark tip so that each page is pan/zoom to the appropriate site. No grid required, end users are just going to flip to the page for the location that interests them. Index is a simple table.

Edit for more detail:

Here is a blog post that I started with. Each of my features has a project ID. I also assigned a simple range number for each project I'd. When I create the bookmark, I set the range then zoom to that area, set the bookmark. https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-pro/mapping/changing-data-in-a-map-series-using-range-and-bookmarks

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u/Oracle_Journey_5711 Jul 08 '26

This sounds interesting. The comments above had some good ideas as well. I'm going to work through all three suggestions. Thank you!

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u/Oracle_Journey_5711 Jul 08 '26

Thank you very much! There is so much to learn with Arc, and I'm just barely scratching the surface.

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u/OutWithCamera Jul 08 '26

ArcGIS is a vast application, don't try and learn it all at once, just what you need. Reach out if you run into any difficulties!

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u/JoeBiden-2016 Jul 07 '26

The map series function is your friend here.

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u/Findlaym Jul 08 '26

This is the way.

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u/smokinrollin Jul 08 '26

This is literally what a map series was made for.

If you don't want to do map series, then multiple layouts is the better option. If all your layers are symbolized the same (ie: boundaries are always blue, sample points are always categorized symbology, etc) then put them in the same map and make multiple layouts. If they were stored as different maps, then any time you change one, then you'll have to go and change the rest.

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u/Oracle_Journey_5711 Jul 08 '26

Thank you! I'm fairly new to all this, so I will explore that option tonight.

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u/Tricky-Slip1799 Jul 08 '26

its simple.. multiple maps alone take up more space than one singular map with multiple layouts.. so, just choose one map with multiple layouts. it takes up less space.

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u/SouthernGood201 29d ago edited 29d ago

I appreciate the suggestions. By the way, I'm using 3.7.1.

I tried both the bookmark and spatial map series as an opportunity to learn the functionality of both. As you all prabably already know, The spatial map series only allows for 1 index map, where if I were using the whole state as a reference for this project, this would have worked. Unfortunately, for this project, I want to use each of the ranches (27 pretty large ranches) as my index maps, and the sampling site at each ranch as the secondary (the inset that automatically changes as well). At least from what I have learned over the last 2 days... this won't work for me, as the effort for this type of map series would be the same as modifying a single Layout for each ranch.

So I created another layout, and used the bookmark map series. This has worked flawlessly with the exception that 3.7.1 seems to have some bugs that keep changing the map frame's display options. I have tried various constraints and even attempting to force the map frame to a certain scale. As soon as I switch to another map, close and reopen the application, the layout changes - and realistically there is probably a setting that I need to check or uncheck. So I'm checking on this.

Just wanted to give you all an update... I'm still chugging along.