Referencing map documents on a disk

In addition to being able to reference the currently active map document file in ArcMap, you can also access map document files stored on a local or remote drive using the MapDocument() method. In this recipe, you'll learn how to access these map documents.

Getting ready

As I mentioned earlier, you can also reference a map document file that resides somewhere on your computer or a shared server. This is done simply by providing a path to the file. This is a more versatile way of obtaining a reference to a map document because it can be run outside the ArcGIS Python window or a custom script tool.

How to do it…

Follow these steps to learn how to access a map document stored on a local or remote drive:

1. Open the IDLE development environment from Start | Programs | ArcGIS | Python 2.7 | IDLE.

2. Create a new IDLE script window by selecting New | New Window from the IDLE shell window.

3. Import arcpy.mapping:

   import arcpy.mapping as mapping

4. Reference the copy of the crime...