ArcGIS: Setting Data Sources for ArcMap Project Files- to be removed
INTRODUCTION
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When you open an ArcMap, it looks for the data referenced by each of the layers in the map. If ArcMap can't find the data source for a particular layer, that layer won't be drawn. You can immediately tell whether a layer on your map has a broken data link because it will have a red exclamation point next to its name in the table of contents, and the check box next to the layer will be unavailable. Setting or changing data sources is a common practice to repair broken data links and updating pathnames of data sources referenced by layers in ArcMap documents. Esri has a special tool to just do that - Set Data Source tool.
SET DATA SOURCE TOOL
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The Set Data Source(s) tool is a tool used to edit some or all of the pathnames in the file-based data sources referenced by the layers in an ArcMap document (MXD file). The changes are only applied to the layer's data source, other layer properties like joins and relates or query definitions are not updated. For map documents, other customizations (VBA code, UI controls, and custom toolbars), graphs, and table window appearance properties are removed from .mxd files when you update their data source using the Set Data Source(s) tool. If you want to preserve these, update the data sources in ArcMap instead.
The Set Data Source(s) tool is available when you right-click a map document (.mxd) in ArcCatalog or the Catalog window.
Here is a step by step procedure on how to change a data source for a single and multiple layers:
SINGLE LAYER
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If you want to change the data source used by a specific layer in an ArcMap document, you can use the Set Data Source button on the Source tab of the Layer Properties dialog box.
- Open the ArcMap document
- Right-click the layer you want to change the data source for. And click on Properties
- Click on the Source tab
- Notice the path for the data source: \\nch-gispub\GeoData\Publish\GeoDB\GeoDPW.gdb
- Click on the Set Data Source button to browse to the desired new data source.
- Once you select the new data source Click Add
- Now the path for the data source has been changed to: \\geo-data\GeoDB\GeoDPW.gdb
This method will set/change the data source for the current layer only, the data source for other layers stays the same.
MULTIPLE LAYERS
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If you want to change the data sources used by multiple layers in an ArcMap document at once, use the Set Data Source command in ArcCatalog.
- Open ArcCatalog
- Browse the folder containing the .mxd file
- Right-click the .mxd file and choose Set Data Source(s)
- Select the layers that you want to replace the data sources for. You can use Select All button to select all the layers in the ArcMap document.
- Click the Replace All button to replace the data source for all the layers.
- In the Replace with text box, type the path to the new data source to replace in the current data source.
- Click Replace All to replace all the data sources with the new path.
- Click OK to save.
Note:- The Set Data Source tool will not override the .mxd file. Instead, a copy of the original file is created by default.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
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Prepared by Yonas Birhanemeskel - CSJ Spatial Team, Jan 2019.
Reference - Esri's ArcGIS for Desktop Help Document.