SDE Feature Class envelope (max x / y) too large

Question

ArcGIS Desktop 10.1 (sp2)
ArcSDE 10.1 (sp2) on Oracle 11.2.0.3
SUSE LINUX
ST_Geometry storage type

Editors working in protected versions that they own, SDE.Default is protected.
Data is all stored in GCS NAD 1983

Occasionally our editors report that they are no longer able to display certain feature classes in ArcMap.  Typically it is because the spatial envelope of the feature class has been expanded to unrealistic values in the max-x and max-y for geographic...

Typical extents in our data:
Layer Envelope .......:
  minx:      -125.00000,        miny:        41.00000
  maxx:      -116.00000,        maxy:        50.00000

But sometimes we get max-x and max-y values of 500,000 or even over 1,000,000... certainly not likely values for degrees of latitude/longitude.

Resetting these values we know how do... I'd be curious if anyone knows what causes these envelopes to change to such values?

The editors are using standard ArcMap tools for entering geometry.  Sometimes they edit in the projection of the SDE data, sometime they switch the data frame to UTM.  Data loaded from other sources is typically via the copy/paste tools.  I've run several tests with source data in the 3 most common projections our user's would obtain data in, and matched those with common data frame projections they might edit in, but haven't been able to reproduce the change to the envelope values.  If anyone has seen this issue and found a possible cause we'd like to know...  I think we reset an envelope every couple of weeks on at least on of our 40+ editable feature classes.

SteveSalas · Answer

Follow-up:  I did have a user report that they did attempt to insert data into a SDE Feature class from a shapefile that did not have a defined projection...  and then the extents changed radically.  That makes sense... well, the reason the extents changed... not as to why we have people still trying to use shapefiles with no projection definition - oh, the humanity!

Easy enough fix for the feature classes using the Property sheet in ArcCatalog or sdelayer -o alter -E for the topology layers (if affected)...  but does anyone with 10.3 know how to fix the topology layers extents without sdelayer?

WilliamCraft · Answer

Data loaded from other sources is typically via the copy/paste tools.

The statement above makes me wonder if there are occasions where data is loaded from other sources without using a copy/paste operation.  In other words, I am wondering if there are rare occasions where data is atypically loaded.  If there are any other ways in which you load data besides copy/paste, please elaborate on what those are.  We have seen similar behavior in the past, and we narrowed it down to a CAD converter tool that we use to load data into our edit versions.  To date, we have not truly resolved the issue although it does not happen often.