USDA Soil Data Viewer won't function in ArcGIS 10.2.2

Question

I often have use for the USDA Soil Data Viewer 6.1, but, since I upgraded to ArcGIS 10.2.2 it will install the add-in, and turn on the toolbar, but will not open the viewer.  It gives me the message "Error: Unable to cast object of type 'System._ComObject' to type 'ESRI.ArcGIS.Framework.AppROTClass'."  Other people in my company don't seem to have this problem, but they are running a concurrent use license, while mine is a single user. Has anyone else run into this problem? I have uninstalled and reinstalled both the viewer and ArcGIS itself, to no avail.

AndrewWilson99 · Answer

The version today (March 2015) of the installation notes states that SDV 6.1 IS "certified":

Although the Soil Data Viewer 6.1 installer no longer checks for a specific operating system or a specific version of ArcGIS, Soil Data Viewer 6.1 is currently certified only for Windows 7 Professional x64 and ArcGIS 10.0 thru 10.2, or Windows XP Professional and ArcGIS 10.0 thru 10.2, or Windows 8.x and ArcGIS 10.0 thru 10.2.

Are you running XTools?   We have run into issues with SDV and XTools 11.1 on WS 2008R2 and concurrent licenses (this is Citrix, we don't have a lot of people use SDV in W7 on local desktops).  The specific error seems to be that ArcMap crashes when the "Customize" menu is opened.  According to the same NRCS notes:

Soil Data Viewer and XTools do not work together. To keep Soil Data Viewer from crashing ArcMap, uncheck the extension for XTools.

We bailed on XTools 11.1 and went back to a 10. version and it works with less problems.

As a refining point, I do encourage you to contact the NRCS developers of SDV (SoilDataViewer@nrcs.usda.gov).

ShaunWalbridge · Answer

It doesn't appear that the Soil Data Viewer has been updated to work with ArcGIS 10.2, based on the installation notes on their website. I'd contact the USDA developers and see if they have plans to update compatibility for 10.2, perhaps in the next release.

Cheers,
Shaun