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ArcPro Project Templates-whats the deal?

JDSF_PeterRowland

It's my understanding that a project template is different from a project package in that it doesn't store data but stores pathways and connections and toolboxes etc.

However, my .aptx file is 1.8gigs -- which seems large -- and if I try to include any rasters the tool runs for quite a while and inflates the size dramatically. When I open the project template its pointed to our enterprise data as it should... but it seems dubious that there is THAT MUCH data in the template.

Is my understanding of a project template flawed? I was expecting its size to be comparable to an MXD in desktop.

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Accepted answers

GeorgeBrown1

I am on AGP 3.1.2 and we needed to update our basemap template to just display our new police boundaries. Added World Street map, a local folder, a server folder, our Enterprise SDE data for a database connection and two layouts. So far, the Create Project Template tool has been running for 2.5 hours and is still Compressing the package.... Did anyone have any updates on this by chance? Thanks.

Jeremy_Z

I wish I could mark what the solution was for me, since I started this thread, but converting the paths to UNC paths for my lettered drives fixed this for my old office. I'm not there anymore, but this is what we went with when I left.

1. Open desired project in ArcGIS Pro
2. Open the Catalog WINDOW (not pane)
3. Use the Change Sources tool to change each letter drive layer to the UNC path equivalent
(Note I had to do each of over 160 layers in our base project one at a time, it was the ONLY way it would work. I tried several work arounds and batch methods, none worked)
4. Save project when finished.

5. Create Template.

6. ???

7. Profit!

All comments

DanPatterson

a template can provide either complete datasets or schema-only data definition

are you making the template for

yourself

a specific machine

or to share?

Create a project template—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

ClayDonaldsonSWCA

Optionally, check the Include History Items option to include all geoprocessing history items and the data required to reexecute the history item.
If this option is not checked, none of the project's geoprocessing history items are included. If history items are included, ensure that all data required to reexecute the tool still exists and is accessible. If it's not, packaging will not be successful.

you likely need to uncheck include history. that is likely including data you are not intending.

JDSF_PeterRowland

Sharing it to the server so our editors can make standardized maps. Schema only sounds like what I want but when I was sniffing around I didn't see that option but I'm a bit of a stooge so I may have missed it.

I did not save history items or any of that.

JDSF_PeterRowland

That box was unchecked.

curtvprice

You may get a clue of what's going on by renaming your aptx to aptx.zip and vewing it with a zip viewer to see what's inside.

Hemlock_Grove

Other posts / content on this subject have suggested that project templates indeed create a COPY of all the data. Though you mention enterprise, which was one thing that supposedly changed that, along with UNC path. But the standard seems to be that all data is copied (much to the chagrin of many).

I don't really get templates. If you just want to maintain data LINKS and not COPIES, is there functionally any reason not to just have a standard project that gets used as a template (new iterations get 'saved as')?

JDSF_PeterRowland

Yeah I don't get it... There are already project packages. And "Save As" creates a bunch of projects pointed to the same default .gdb and stuff like that. Maybe layout files are a better option than project templates? it just seems odd to me that when you create a new project from the template its pointing to the correct data, while a project package is pointing to copy of data. Seems like something inadvertent is happening behind the scenes, why create copies that aren't referenced?

DanPatterson

@KoryKramer

Can you FYI someone that can follow up on this Project Template vs Project Package issue... it has come up a couple of times

Jeremy_Z

I'm trying to help figure out a way to get around this for end users in one of our offices, and a solution that will work for other offices that do a similar workflow.

In ArcMap, most of our offices have a series of MXD files, 1 to 10 of them in most cases, that have all of our regularly used layers in them, with official layouts, dynamic text, dynamic legends, all preset. The user opens the map, zooms to the area of interest, changes a few layers if needed, changes the title, and prints the map. These MXD's are read only, which forces the end users to save it as a new MXD file if they want to keep it for the future and keeps them from changing the clean slate for the next user.

It makes it very easy for most of our users to get a map product out for the record or public use, without having to build something every time.

So, in ArcGIS Pro we want to remake this and I've tried the following...

1. Map File. Doesn't contain layout information, only the map tab, requiring everything else to be done again or a Layout Template to be imported. This is an extra step that is too much for many users.
2. Project Template. This SHOULD be the answer but it completely copies everything into the template file for some unexplainable reason. The result is a corrupt template file that never finishes creating, or a template file hundreds of gigabytes to terrabytes large as it pulls in imagery and everything else.
3. Save As new project file, Read Only.

The best thing I've found so far is #3, but even when you "Save As" to a new folder, as soon as it is opened the first time you get a folder created called "Index" which has two subfolders and is completely empty. This isn't really acceptable due to the location of these files, but I found I can make it a hidden folder and that somewhat works. Being that I've only tested this myself, I have no idea what issues this could bring in the long run with the default GDB's and other project related files from the original project import of the .MXD's, especially when many users start using these.

#2 above should be the correct answer, but considering the data duplication, it's completely unacceptable. Why? We use standardized datasets, some in File Geodatabases, much in SDE, and copying all of hundreds of layers worth of data then makes these orphaned snapshots of the original live datasets. More so, if this wasn't a problem, all of the unneeded data duplication balloons our backups very quickly. Our SDE data is almost completely statewide datasets.

The only way to fix this, that I've seen talked about, is to convert all of the layers to use UNC paths. I've seen no good walkthroughs or tools on how to do this. Multiply this by hundreds of layers in these maps, and you have a nightmare waiting to happen.

There's a big push to get 25% of our users into ArcGIS Pro this year so I want to be able to offer a solution that won't create duplicated data or data that is severed from the origin datasets. I can provide more information as required, screenshots/shares, and the like.

curtvprice

I have successfully done this by copying the project folder using Windows (or zipping it and local extract) to a local folder location. This avoids the packaging process attempting to copy data. But do note that paths on the same letter-drive or share as your project will remain relative paths so you may need to get creative as to exactly where you create the "template" project.

I am hoping @KoryKramer can get us some better guidance on this, as the help seems to indicate that project templates seem to be the workflow they suggest, but they sure don't seem to work for us!

Jeremy_Z

That's a good point, and I've done this for some testing as well. In our example, the SDE is standardized of course, and the Projects and all non SDE data are in the same server (same drive letter, V).

The Save As method works pretty well, other than the additional folder that auto creates when you open it, and since you can "Save As" to a different folder it works much like what we are currently using. Create the project in one area, Save As to the usual directory (V:/Projects in our case), make read only. It works, it just seems like there should be a better method.

I'm still unsure if anything else comes out of this though, if I do it this way, everyone's GP processes that they don't point elsewhere will go to the original project directory I think. That's not a problem, but it could get big over time. More testing to do. Thanks Curt.

KevinHanson1

Not sure if this is still an issue but when saving a project template in ArcGIS Pro 2.9.2 (with saved to file option toggled on) I noticed that the GIS data sourced to drive letters will be copied to the project template file whereas GIS data sourced to UNC paths (no drive letter) will not be copied and just referenced.

Jeremy_Z

You are going down the same path I did. In some meetings with ESRI on it they saw the issues, and in our workflows how this would be somewhat of a disaster across our network. All of our offices do the same sort of thing, so having this unusable template wasn't acceptable.

Using the Change Sources tool in the Catalog Window in Pro (thanks Kory Kramer for that tip) I was able to rapidly change the locations to UNC style. It still took some time to do but really only needed done once in my case.

In my conversations with ESRI they said they were going to see about allowing named drives to act the same as the UNC connections in a future version. I'm still on 2.9.5 so it is unknown if it has been done yet, but really everything in Pro should see a lettered drive and treat it like it always has in ArcMap, or at least give you a selectable option to include data or reference it, and not copy ANYTHING if it is set to reference. We have 1200 people with a V drive being the same per office. If they open their own office's template, everything will work if only referenced.

Hopefully this change happens, as the final result we came up with was a template file that is 1.8 MB in size, smaller than its counterpart in ArcMap.

GeorgeBrown1

EricMahaffey1

I'm at v3.1.3 and Project Templates are still useless. From my research it looks like this has been a problem for more than 7 years. This is absolutely unacceptable. We support a high tempo operational map production office, and not being able to standardize our starting templates really hinders our ability to provide efficient support. I put off migrating from ArcGIS Desktop to ArcGIS Pro for years, and when I finally do, we come across major issues such as this. If ArcGIS Pro didn't force us to create a new project directory every time we want to make a map it wouldn't be such a big deal. So either keep things simple like they were in ArcMap, or make sure that all the tools function like they're supposed to in ArcGIS Pro. That way we can at least come up with a workflow that is somewhat close to what a standard enterprise mapping environment should be. GIS data duplication will consume all of an organization's storage in no time.

JDSF_PeterRowland

My workaround is make a layer file that has all our core datasets in a group symbolized how we like, and then use layout templates that are standardized at different orientations/sizes.

So open a new project--> Add layerfile--> import layout and we're off.

Not ideal but relatively pain free. I actually kind of like the new directory with each project. make a good repository for products and scratch/intermediate data sets that fits great in our file structure. I save the templates with no dataframe in them.

EricMahaffey1

Thanks for the recommendations. I'll give that a try. I'm curious as to why you save the layout templates without a map frame? I would think having to add the frame, and adjust it to size would be just another step to slowing down the whole process of getting staged for map production.

JDSF_PeterRowland

You can do it that way. A lot of the times I pull in the layer file to do something but don't need a pdf export necessarily, so that works best for me. The template kind of sneakily adds whatever map it was referencing to your project, so I just drop a new map frame with whatever map I was working on into the layout. but you could mix it up and do:

new project-->import layout--> open map--> make edits.

same end result.

One thing I've forgotten about since I originally made this post: The one way I have gotten project templates to work somewhat usefully is having nothing but preconfigured layouts saved in the project and no data, then add the layerfile and then you're good to go. But even in that case, I've found end users like being able to start a project the old fashioned way and add what they need as they go rather than load everything at the start.

Jeremy_Z

5. Create Template.

6. ???

7. Profit!

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