Problem: ArcGIS Pro 2.1 Basemap poor quality when exporting layout to PDF

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02-22-2018 02:51 AM
GISTeam4
Occasional Contributor

In ArcGIS Pro 2.1.1 the quality of the basemap after exporting the layout to a pdf file is very poor and seems be to converted into tiles (which sometimes are even rendered individually at different quality). Everything but the basemap is in a very fine quality, it's basically just the basemap.

 

When I create a complete new project, with a fresh basemap and a new layout file, the quality of the basemaps (any arcgis online basemap) after exporting is very poor. When I export the image from the map view, however, the quality is fine (just as displayed on the screen). The quality on screen in the layout view is fine, it's the pdf file where the problems occurs.

 

I have tried multiple basemaps and nearly all possible combinations in export settings, but the problem persists. The issue started to happen just a few days ago, before this I've never had this problem before.

 

Has anyone had similar issues and/or could anyone suggest a solution?

14 Replies
GISTeam4
Occasional Contributor

The above suggestion doesn't always work, you could try but as you say, with a fresh installation it seems very unlikely. I still have this problem on and off. It is not about scale, which base map, settings to export to pdf or transparency of layers or anything like that; i have been producing pdf maps for over ten years with esri software and i know about these. I honestly don't know the reason and I suspect nobody at ESRI knows. It is freak happenings like this that frustrate the workflow. You tell ESRI about it but it's hard to pinpoint and repeat the problem so you rarely get an answer. (Works fine with us, can't repeat your problem... Then frustrated you try again, honestly exactly the same way, and this time it works Until the next time it again doesn't work...)

They (ESRI and ICT experts) always say that internet connection/speed is not of any effect but I really do suspect otherwise. I can't think of any other explanation as to why sometimes things work and at other times not with exactly the same settings/workflow and that it happens only with online data. Could be your own internet connection but also the connection with de data centers from which services are hosted. I'm not an ICT expert or anything mind you, but at the same time no one has ever given me a satisfying explanation as to why the data connection cannot be responsible. The saying is always that it 'should' not give any problems.

One hopefully helpful thing I can tell is to clean up your Pro projects. When you are just starting out on Pro trying to migrate and get your workflow sorted again (like us) it's very easy to clog up projects with views, maps, layouts and random tables. I don't think there is a clean up tool in Pro as there was for your geodatabases in ArcMAP, so you'll have to do it yourself as best you can. Pro can easily become sluggish with too many maps and views.

SterlingLoetz2
New Contributor

Thanks. This particular Pro project only has one map, no layouts, and only a few feature classes in the geodatabase, so Pro should be able to handle this.

I feel like maybe there aren't many people experiencing this same problem or I think there would be many more people chiming in with this issue. So maybe it's a hardware/graphics issue with my particular setup but don't really know how to troubleshoot that other than to to compare my setup with the the hardware requirements suggested by ESRI to run ArcGIS Pro. In my case my setup meets or exceeds these requirements so I'm at loss there too.

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DevinRoth
New Contributor III

I see this is marked as "Solved" but the solution is quite convoluted.

I was able to solve this problem without uninstalling, by selecting different settings in the  "Image Qualilty" dropdown menu of the Export Layout screen. The only difference I notice selecting Normal>Better>Best options is the label text  size and resolution of the Esri basemap layer. It does affect file size, but not drastically (at least in my case).

This setting could definitely use a tool tip describing what it does.

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GISTeam4
Occasional Contributor

It is no real solution, you're right. But it appears to be a bug which can not be resolved by changing the settings. I have tried your sollutions, along with any possible combination in settings but it did not resolve the problem.

Furthermore, you appear to be using an old version of ArcGIS Pro. The options and the way you can export has changed quite alot. In the newer versions of ArcGIS Pro the problem did not occur for me.

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George_Thompson
Esri Frequent Contributor
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