[GIS] save an ArcGIS geospatial PDF with layers turned off, which can then be turned on individually in a pdf viewer

arcgis-desktopgeospatial-pdflayers

I am working on an mxd that has many individual point layers (displaying species locations). To make life easy for my stakeholders, I'd like to export to a geospatial pdf so that all of these point layers are turned off when they open the pdf. They can then select which species they wish to view rather than having to turn off ALL species layers to start with.

Currently I am only able to save to geospatial pdf with all layers turned on. When I turn off all layers in my toc in arc, then save to geospatial pdf, those layers aren't saved to the pdf.

Any ideas?

Best Answer

You able to save the default layer states using Adobe Acrobat Pro. You are unable to do this in Acrobat Reader or even Standard, however.

Instructions from Adobe Help are included below, with the default state being the flag to change.

PDF Layer Properties

Edit layer properties (Acrobat Pro)

You can combine the default state setting, the visibility setting, and the print setting to control when a layer is visible and when it prints. If a layer contains a watermark, for example, you may want the layer to not show on-screen but always to print and always to export to other applications. In this case you can set the default state to on, the initial visibility to never visible (the image doesn’t show on-screen), and the initial print and initial export states to always print and always export. The layer need not be listed in the Layers panel, since all the state changes are handled automatically.

Note: The settings in the Layer Properties dialog box take effect only if Allow Layer State To Be Set By User Information is selected in the Documents preferences. If it is not selected, Layer Properties dialog box settings, other than Layer Name and Default State, are ignored.

Click the Layers button in the navigation pane. Select a layer, and choose Layer Properties from the options menu . In the Layer Properties dialog box, edit the layer name or any of the following properties, and then click OK:

Intent

Select View to allow the layer to be turned on or off, or select Reference to keep the layer on at all times and permit editing of the properties. When the Reference Intent option is selected, the layer appears in italics.

Default State

Defines the initial visibility state of the layer when a document is first opened or when the initial visibility is reset. The eye icons for layers are initially shown or hidden based on this value. For example, if this value is set to off, the eye icon for a layer is hidden when the document is first opened or when Reset To Initial Visibility is chosen from the options menu.

Visibility

Defines the on-screen visibility of the PDF layer. You can show a layer when the document is opened, you can hide a layer when the document is opened, or you can let the default state determine whether a layer is shown or hidden when the document is opened.

Print

Determines whether a layer will print.

Export

Determines whether the layer appears in the resulting document when the PDF file is exported to an application or file format that supports layers.

Any additional properties that the creator of the layered PDF has associated with a specific layer are shown in the box at the bottom of the Layer Properties dialog box.

Related Solutions

ArcPy – Turning Off All Layers in MXD

The reason why this code is failing is down to you missing () off the save method on your MXD, so you were not saving your changes. This code worked for me

import arcpy
print "This script turns off the following layers:"
mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument(r"C:\Scratch\newcode.mxd")
for lyr in arcpy.mapping.ListLayers(mxd):
    print lyr.name
    lyr.visible = False

mxd.save()
del mxd

QGIS Geopackage – Can QGIS Geopackage Files with Multiple Layers Exist as a Single .gpkg File?

Geopackage is in fact a container format (like zip files). It as based on SQLite, thus it has database functionality. See more about Geopackage here: https://www.geopackage.org/

You can save several layers (vector and raster) as well as styles, QGIS projects etc. to the same Geopackage file.

To make an example (download the file):

I loaded the pre-installed vector base-map (type world in the coordinates field at the very bottom of your QGIS window), than applied a style to it. With geomtry by expression, I created the centroid of the countries (point layer) and the boundary (line layer), applying different styles for each.
Than I saved the first layer: right click layer / Export / Save Features As... and created a new Geopackage.
Now, I saved the two other layers to the same Geopackage: right click layer / Export / Save Features As... an select the same Geopackage, but be sure to define another Layername in the dialog window so that the already existing layer will not be overwritten.
Now, save the project to the same Geopackage: Menu Project / Save as [second entry] / Geopackage (see screenshot). In the dialog that opens, for connection select the same Geopackage file, give a name to the project and click OK.
Click the following link to download the Geopackage created this way. To open it, in your QGIS main window go to the Browser panel and navigate to the folder where you stored the Geopackage. You can expand the Geopackage entry to see what it contains - compare the screenshot: you see the different layers as well as the QGIS project (red arrow). Double click the project to open the whole project or one of the layers to open just this one. When opened, it should look like this (if you just open the Geopackage, e.g. by drag and drop, only the layers contained will be loaded, but not the project - thus settings in the project like styles will not be loaded):

In this way, you can add additional layers etc. to the Geopackage. Click the curved double arrow icon at the top of the Browser panel to refresh the display of the Geopackage's content.

In this way, you can share whole projects, including the data by sending just a single file. However, be aware that many settings (project!) are QGIS-specific and may also vary from version to version of QGIS. So for long-term archiving, I would not recommend to save everything in one large Geopackage - it's also difficult to keep an overview of what you have and as a complex binary format, you need special software (like QGIS) to access Geopackages.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

ArcPy – Turning Off All Layers in MXD

QGIS Geopackage – Can QGIS Geopackage Files with Multiple Layers Exist as a Single .gpkg File?

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