Map names can be reused within a pro project - bug??

Question

It has recently come to my attention that ArcGIS Pro will allow you to name a map the same thing as another map already within your project. This is generally avoided, if you import a layout, it adds a "1" at the end, but if you miss a step, or accidentally rename a map, it will not give you an error, but will ALLOW you to name maps with duplicate names.

This should be fixed ASAP as it causes huge errors, especially within pro projects with multiple maps and layouts.

Robert LeClair · Answer

Hi Sarah - thank you for your response.  I will pass this on to the ArcGIS Pro Dev Team today.

SarahMorrison · Answer

Hi Robert,  I also received a similar message back, but I believe it's now been logged as an item we are hoping they may change. The issues I've encountered mainly happen in Layouts - If i have a project that has multiple layouts, the layouts often get confused if there are two maps with the same name. Things like the legend items, scale, and just generally what Pro thinks its looking at may change or get mixed up. I've encountered issues where when Pro is closed, and re-opened, it's repathed to another map and my layout is completed bugged out. I think Pro in general has a hard time with things sharing names (which makes sense) if you have two layers in a map and one is symbolized a specific way (say by type for example) and another is just single symbol - Pro seems to be hit or miss on if it can import the symbology from the other layer. I usually end up giving the feature layer in the map an identifier like "_Symbolized" and then it can recognize them as two separate items.

I'd like to mention i think it's ALWAYS best practice to have your maps/items/layouts be named uniquely and am always doing this as my main workflow, however somethings things get missed, or we have a new person working on a project who may not yet but used to a workflow, and all their work is lost. Definitely best practices can prevent this, but I think having Pro tell me "You cant use that name", similar to how it doesn't let you use special characters when renaming a map, would save a lot of headache.

Robert LeClair · Answer

@SarahMorrison - so I received comments back from the Dev Team.  In a nutshell they said this is not a bug and has always been allowed in ArcGIS Pro.  Behind the scene, there are internal identifiers (CIM path) that keep things unique but there's no architectural reason not to prevent two maps from having the same name.  Can you provide the huge issues you're seeing?  This will help out the Dev Team better understand this item.  Thank you!