Map Book Generation

The purpose of the Map Book Developer’s Sample is to allow for the creation and output of map books.  Map books are multi page documents based on a dataset and an index grid representing the pages.  The Index grid for a map book represents how the dataset set should be divided up for plotting at a more workable scale.  For instance, if a road atlas is being created, the index grid would represent the individual pages or the atlas.  For a Land Records office, the index grid would represent the distribution of 1:400, 1:100, and 1:50 scale maps for the county.

To use these tools, the following pieces are needed:
• A dataset to output
• An index grid to divide up the dataset into pages (the grid may already exist as a feature class in your database, or the grid generation tool in the Map Book toolset can be used)
• A single layout to use with each page

Generally speaking, Map Books can contain multiple Map Series (set of pages based on a specific layer), title pages, and other pages with miscellaneous content.  The set of tools describe in this document allow for the creation and persistence of a single Map Series within a Map Book.  Additional Map Series, title pages, etc. would need to be created and stored in separate map documents.  The objects used in generating the tools allow for storing these other components within a Map Book, so if you ambitious you may wish to expand the user interface and add these capabilities.  Throughout the remainder of this document we will discuss how to use the tools to generate and use a Map Series within a Map Book.

Here are a few terms that will be used in this document:
• Index grid – refers to the feature class that will be used to divide your data up into pages.  This feature class should contain polygon features with at least a string field representing the name to be used for each page.  Additional fields may be added to represent the scale and data frame rotation to be used for the page represented by the feature.  In other words, there is a one to one correspondence between the features in the Index grid feature class and the pages in your Map Series.
• Page – when you use these tools a “page” is generated for each feature in your Index grid.  These pages become individual plots when you print your Map Series, or individual files when you export.
• Tile – refers to the individual features of your Index grid.  More or less synonymous with a Page.
• Map Series – a collection of pages based on the same layout.  This is what the set of tools being discussed in this document allow you to create.
• Map Book – a collection of Map Series and other miscellaneous pages.

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