How to open .pbf files queried on FeatureService?

Question

Hi,

To Query a FeatureService, there are several Format to export the result. I used .PBF as it looks efficient and small but I cannot import the .pbf file into ArcGIS Pro (3.0.2). I guess it must be possible because the .pbf file is exported by ESRI ArcGIS Enterprise... I even tried to import the .pbf file in QGIS and the 'file is not a valid or recognized data source'

Any help appreciated

VincentLaunstorfer · Answer

Thanks. It helped and it is informative. As expected, the ArcGIS Editor for OpenStreetMap in ArcGIS Desktop (ArcMap) could not open ESRI flavored .pbf. In addition, ArcGIS Editor for OpenStreetMap is not available in ArcGIS Pro either. ArcGIS Enterprise can export its own .pdf flavor but it is cumbersome to use... I will not use .pbf again for the time being.

TonyContreras_Frisco_TX · Answer

ArcGIS Pro does not have a way to read pbf files. The Javascript API has that ability. There is an ArcGIS editor for OpenStreetMap, which is pbf format, however the pbf from ArcGIS Feature services is Esri's own version of the pbf spec so I don't know if the OSM editor will work with Esri's flavor. It looks like others are building their own apps to open Esri's pbf files. QGIS natively supports opening OSM pbf files, but same as the ArcGIS one, it might not like Esri's pbf format.

If you are using ArcGIS Pro, why not just connect to the Feature service and let it handle the format?