Latest Contributions by RobertMuller

I looked and didn't find any updated information for running ArcMap on a Mac. ArcGIS Pro runs well but I am now noticing delays in rendering aerial images, both NAIP .sid images and georeferenced .jpg images.  With ArcMap Pro version 2.5.0 is anyone else seeing this?  Any comments on updated configure options for running ArcGIS Pro in a Parallels 15.1.3 VM? System:  iMac Pro 10-core 3GHz Xeon W, 32GB RAM, 16GB VRAM, 1 TB SSD running Parallels (now 15) with Windows 10 Pro and using ArcGIS Pro exclusively. My VM configuration has stayed the same: 10 processors & 16 GB RAM assigned to the VM, Graphics set to Auto.  I have the Parallels Pro subscription and the/all updates are included. Thanks Robert ... View more

Rachael, I'm running ArcGIS Pro 2.4.1. Parallels was able to support DirectX 11 by moving from OpenGL to Metal which allows direct access to the GPU.  Metal only became available with MacOS 13 last year but it didn't take much time for Parallels to adopt it which is good on them.    You needed the new machine anyway with a Metal capable GPU and VRAM...  all you needed was a good excuse, really, I promise. Robert ... View more

New Update August 14, 2019... System:  iMac Pro 10-core 3GHz Xeon W, 32GB RAM, 16GB VRAM, 1 TB SSD running Parallels (now 15) with Windows 10 Pro and using ArcGIS Pro exclusively. Parallels now supports DirectX 11 (Ver 15 released yesterday) and from my initial testing ArcGIS Pro is running smoothly again in the VM.  Prior to 15, ArcGIS Pro had slowed to a crawl in the VM, forcing me to boot into Bootcamp for almost everything.  Under 15, ArcGIS Pro loads and runs well, re-draws of aerials are quick, and my somewhat detailed labels pop up fast.   My VM configuration has stayed the same: 10 processors & 16 GB RAM assigned to the VM, Graphics set to Auto.  I have the Parallels Pro subscription and the/all updates are included. Robert ... View more

An update a year on on my iMac Pro 10-core 3GHz Xeon W, 32GB RAM, 16GB VRAM, 1 TB SSD running Parallels with Windows 10 Pro and using ArcGIS Pro exclusively. It took me a little while to notice that MacOS recognizes 20 CPU's on my 10 core machine and when I assigned 10 CPU's the VM, there was a major performance boost over the 5 I had originally assigned. I assigned 16GB of RAM to the VM but the VRAM has been more involved.  I had always assigned 1/2 my VRAM, 8GB in this case to the VM.  However Parallels 14 came out with a new VRAM/Graphics Auto Memory Management scheme  KB Parallels: Use automatic graphics memory in Parallels Desktop 14 for Mac that is noticeably faster but I don't fully understand what's going on.   Of greater concern is that ArcGIS Pro 2.3 is apparently not compatible in a VM environment.  Run ArcGIS Pro on a Mac—ArcGIS Pro | ArcGIS Desktop.  In practice I have not encountered any problems running ArcGIS Pro 2.3 on my Parallels 14 VM but I am half expecting that at some point it won't work.  I have greatly simplified my VM on the iMac PRO, as it had been on an external Thunderbolt drive on my previous iMac.   I did a totally clean install iMac PRO when I got it and I installed Windows in a Boot Camp partition so I can fall back to booting into that if necessary.  As for my projects folder I learned ArcMAP with zero previous experience with GIS so I followed the folder scheme recommended at the time when I first installed ArcMAP (9.2),  starting with a C:\geodata folder and then I create new project folders in it when needed. ... View more

Thanks all for the advice.  I've been out with the flu a few days so just getting back to work. My job requires me to see what's on the ground in historical aerial photos going back to the 1940's so I don't even bother much with ones with a scale greater than 1:36,000 and using 1:14,500 scale aerials, my land areas require quite a few frames to provide coverage.  I find even building pyramids compromises the quality as I zoom in and out and I also regularly manipulate the stretch, contrast etc. to tease out what I can see.  Tripp you had several suggestions on using some compression methods which I will give a try although I'm not optimistic. I decided to buy an iMac Pro 10-core, 32GB RAM, 16GB VRAM, 1 TB SSD. One big criticism of the iMac Pro is the upgrade issue.  Since it seems the processor and video "card" cannot be upgraded I chose to bump the cores from 8-10 and VRAM from 8-16GB from the base config which hopefully will give me plenty of life. Apple RAM is very expensive and it is upgradable so I stayed with the base.  Upgrading the SSD is also very expensive from Apple but when I need more space a Thunderbolt 3 external drive should be plenty fast enough to offload lesser used files onto.  I'm doing a clean install of all software, (getting rid of more than 10 years of bloat)  so I will definitely put my windows machine on a boot camp partition this time. Good to open up this discussion again for the few MacOS outliers in the wilderness like me, Thanks again! Robert ... View more

Thanks Eric: It might, I thought about doing just that, but my system is still a good bit below the minimum ArcGIS Pro requirements. Moving to a BootCamp Partition would be the same amount of trouble (but not cost of course) and if it was still slow I would need to do it again for a new system.  In addition my workflow is such that I am regularly moving things between ArcGIS and various applications in MacOS so using BootCamp would be a big pain  ... View more

This post is a bit old but maybe someone will see my comment.  With ArcGIS Pro 2.1, my 2011 iMac i7-4 core 16 gb RAM, 2 GB VRAM running 10.13.3, Windows 10-64 and Parallels 13 is finally not going to cut it even with the SSD & RAM I installed that gave me extra 2 years of life.  With the unknown timeframe for the i7-6 core "regular" iMac and ArcGIS PRO 2.1 optimal config now up to 10 cores I am going to buy an iMac Pro. My use is 2D maps for printing with minimal geoprocessing except for geo-referencing very large (20 gb, 8 bit) rasters, maps with many large rasters and complex symbology and labels with halos and callouts (which seem to particularly slow things down to the point I changed them) and while my ArcGIS PRO RAM usage is typically <6gb, I regularly hit 100% CPU Usage in Windows with 2 cores assigned to the VM (MacOS shows 200% thus the 2 cores maxed).   The base configuration iMac PRO with 8 Core Xeon, 32 gb RAM, 8 gb VRAM is way above the optimal hardware (except for the cores) even with splitting the resources between the MacOS and Win10. I would LIKE to get 6 years out of my new machine too (with hardware upgrades bring difficult or impossible and no crystal balls) but I am wondering if I need to add to the base configuration.  I got bounced around and talked with 5 techs at ESRI regarding the options best suiting my needs, but I could get no answer other than use the online hardware requirements. So would increasing to 10 or 12 cores, 64 gb ram or 16 gb VRAM (or any combination of these) potentially give me better long term performance. I know I could get a Windows box much cheaper, but GIS is only one of my many jobs and the other are tied to MacOS.  ... View more

This blog post is a bit old but maybe someone will see my comment.  With ArcGIS Pro 2.1, my 2011 iMac running 10.13.3, Windows 10-64 and Parallels 13 is finally not going to cut it even with the SSD & RAM I installed that gave me extra 2 years of life.  With the unknown timeframe for the i7-6 core "regular" iMac and ArcGIS PRO 2.1 optimal config now up to 10 cores I am going to buy an iMac Pro. My use is 2D maps for printing with minimal geoprocessing except for geo-referencing very large (20 gb, 8 bit) rasters, maps with many large rasters and complex symbology and labels with halos and callouts (which seem to particularly slow things down to the point I changed them) and my ArcGIS PRO RAM usage is typically <6gb.  The base configuration iMac PRO with 8 Core Xeon, 32 gb RAM, 8 gb VRAM is way above the optimal hardware (except for the cores) even with splitting the resources between the MacOS and Win10. I would LIKE to get 6 years out of my new machine too (with hardware upgrades bring difficult or impossible and no crystal balls) but I am wondering if I need to add to the base configuration.  I got bounced around and talked with 5 techs at ESRI regarding the options best suiting my needs, but I could get no answer other than use the online hardware requirements. So would increasing to 10 or 12 cores, 64 gb ram or 16 gb VRAM (or any combination of these) potentially give me better long term performance. ... View more