Clear Memory Cache - ArcPy

Question

Some of the Python scripts I run can take 24 - 78 hours to complete. During the beginning stages, these scripts consume a reasonable amount of Memory (about 16% - 20%). But the longer they run the more Memory they consume, until Task Manager says that 99% of the Memory is being used. (Just to clarify, this is Memory not CPU). I recently learned about garbage collection in Python, but that has not seemed to fix the problem. I have also tried arcpy.Delete_management‍‍ but that has not solved the problem either. Does anyone know how to keep the Memory from continuously building up? Here is an example of some code where I incorporated garbage collection and arcpy.Delete_management: import arcpy import time import datetime from datetime import timedelta import gc #Document Start Time in-order to calculate Run Time time1 = time.clock() #project location p = arcpy.mp.ArcGISProject(r'C:\arcGIS_Shared\Python\CenterHeatMaps4.aprx') #Name of layout that the PDFs will be based on lyt = p.listLayouts("Layout_King")[0] #second object is the name of the mapframe in the project mf = lyt.listElements("MAPFRAME_ELEMENT", "Map*")[0] bkmks = mf.map.listBookmarks() m = p.listMaps()[0] #layers to be used in the PDFs OnLyrList = m.listLayers('Topographic') OnNxtList = m.listLayers('OpenCenters') OnList = m.listLayers('SumWithin1000*') ####Loop through all bookmarks until finding a match for the active center for bkmk in bkmks: #Turn off all layers lyrList = m.listLayers() for lyr in lyrList: lyr.visible = False #Turn on desired layers for lyr in OnLyrList: lyr.visible = True for lyr in OnNxtList: lyr.visible = True for lyr in OnList: lyr.visible = True #Zoom to active bookmark mf.zoomToBookmark(bkmk) ### Zoom in or out further from bookmark mf.camera.scale = mf.camera.scale * 1.50 #Change Layout Title for elm in lyt.listElements("TEXT_ELEMENT"): elm.text = "Zip Code Out 50 Percent - " + bkmk.name #[22:] #Export to PDF lyt.exportToPDF(r"C:\arcGIS_Shared\Python\Export\Geographic_Boundaries" + "\Zip Code Out 50 Percent " + bkmk.name + ".pdf") #+ "\NY" print(bkmk.name) ### Clear Memory arcpy.Delete_management(r"C:\arcGIS_Shared\Python\Export\CensusTracts") del lyrList, OnList, OnLyrList, OnNxtList gc.collect() #Document End Time time2 = time.clock() #Run Time in seconds runtime = (time2-time1) #Print total run time for the job print (str(timedelta(seconds=runtime))) ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

DanPatterson_Retired · Answer

Not sure what you are actually deleting using Delete_management (hard to follow from the code.

This .... lyt ... appears outside the loop, and it is used to produce the pdf files, so it doesn't ever get deleted nor I suspect things that reference it.  Garbage collection, I am sure that you discovered, is absolutely no guarantee that anything gets deleted until it is permitted.  If something is being referenced and not deleted, the trash accumulates.

Business_IntelligenceSoftware · Answer

Hi Jake,

Thanks for responding. I have posted a script I use for creating and exporting PDFs. Towards the bottom of the script I try and use the arcpy.Delete_management and the garbage collector.

jskinner · Answer

Can you post the code you are executing?  Here is a helpful link on posting code in GeoNET:

https://community.esri.com/docs/DOC-8691-posting-code-with-syntax-highlighting-on-geonet?sr=search&searchId=a94a6fe4-8c1d-4c4e-9cae-b2f8dca166e6&searchIndex=0