Extent Indicators from other layouts possible?

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2 weeks ago
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davedoesgis
Occasional Contributor III

I know how to add multiple map frames to a single layout and create Extent Indicators, leader lines, etc. That works great, but I'm wondering if it's possible to display Extent Indicators for map frames in other layouts? The "Insert" ribbon only shows me the other map frames in my current layout. 

I have a bunch of layouts in my project. The first layout shows the overall area I'm working in and the rest are zoomed into specific sites. I'd like to add extent indicators in the first layout for the various map frames in the other layouts. I don't think that Pro does this, but maybe?

Unless Pro actually does this, I had two ideas on how to solve this. Either should be pretty easy to automate in ArcPy and I'm hoping someone has some ideas.

  1. Create a feature class from the map extents of the map frames in an APRX. Draw that feature class as a map layer in the main map. 
  2. In my first layout, insert a new map frame corresponding to each extent indicator from the other layouts.  Add extent indicators for each of them. Drag all those map frames outside the layout. ArcPy code could sync the extents from the map frames in the other layouts to the off-screen map frames. 

Whenever I change the map extent in a map frame, I could re-run this code to synch up my extent indicators on the first layout. 

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davedoesgis
Occasional Contributor III

No replies so far. I'm guessing it just isn't possible. 

I went with idea #1 from my original post. I manually created a feature class with the extents of my various layouts. I have a name field for the name of the map frame and a label field to draw on the map. I can add these extents to my maps just like any layer, taking advantage of symbology, labeling, definition queries, and legend functionality. This seems a bit more flexible than using off-screen map frames and extent indicators from idea #2. 

I don't think it would be too hard to automate creating or updating this feature class, but I was on a deadline and it just took a few minutes to manually edit. 

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