topic Re: ArcGIS Explorer Takes forever to open...please help. in ArcGIS Explorer Desktop Questions

ArcGIS Explorer Takes forever to open...please help.

LindaDeMasi — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 13:36:40 GMT

I have tried the following remedies and nothing seems to help. It takes 8 to 9 minutes to open. I have put together a Desktop Explorer for my division, but it take so long to open on all the computers. There are connections to layer packages, shapefiles, and a couple of online webmap servers.

I have made sure my video card/processor/everything has the ability to run it. When I run the "can you run it" the computers pass with flying colors. I have cleared the cache, but still a no go. Java is up-to-date.

Is there anything I am missing? I understand that it is a free application, but the podcast at http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/explorer/flyers-podcasts.html talks about how they have used it successfully in sort of the same way I want to use it for our division. Surely, it doesn't take them anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes to open it.

Thanks in advance for any help anyone may have!
Linda

Re: ArcGIS Explorer Takes forever to open...please help.

DarrylDempsey — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 14:14:51 GMT

Linda,
May I add my voice to your question (plea)?

Here at the council we don't have delays as long as you, but long enough to be really irritating: AGX never starts up in under a minute. Two minutes or more also occurrs.

At home with only 3 shape files, 3 layers from one File Geodatabase , base map world imagery and a broadband connection, it takes 30 sec or more.

Both my computer at home and the computers at work are new and pass all tests.

Are there more folks with this problem?

If so we might be able to elicit a response from ESRI.
Steve Jobs would you take a look at ESRI and AGX for us?

Re: ArcGIS Explorer Takes forever to open...please help.

LindaDeMasi — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 14:40:34 GMT

It is a plea...I am begging! At first it was only taking 2 or 3 minutes to open. I would love for that to be my problem again! It has also started to take about a minute to close. I hope there is a fix or at least something that will decrease the time.

Re: ArcGIS Explorer Takes forever to open...please help.

AndreiIvanov — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 16:53:24 GMT

Linda, if you create a new map, save it as default, exit the app, how long does it take you to open ArcGIS Explorer? I think in your case connection to service layers takes long time.

Re: ArcGIS Explorer Takes forever to open...please help.

LindaDeMasi — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 18:21:36 GMT

I did as you suggested and it opened right up with no data saved.

However, when I opened up my previous workspace and disconnected the GIS Service layers, saved it out, cleared the cache, and tried to open it without the GIS Service layers. It took 12 minutes to open. Each time I try to open this same Map it takes longer and longer. I have also tried deleting and rebuilding it and the same things are happening.

The only content added includes the following:shapefiles, ArcGIS Layers, and some raster data. This happens on multiple computers.

Re: ArcGIS Explorer Takes forever to open...please help.

AndreiIvanov — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 19:19:54 GMT

Ok. At least with no data saved it opens right away. We are good here. Package layers can reference service layers as well. Go to your package layer properties->Source Data to find out what layers are there. Deleting cache won't speed up things in this case, so it is not necessary.

Re: ArcGIS Explorer Takes forever to open...please help.

LindaDeMasi — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 11:46:40 GMT

Thank you so much for your help. I checked and none of my package layers reference (I have 3) any service layers.

Re: ArcGIS Explorer Takes forever to open...please help.

AndreiIvanov — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 16:05:10 GMT

Linda, if your data is not proprietary, please share it here, and I will be glad to take a look at what's taking that long to load.

Re: ArcGIS Explorer Takes forever to open...please help.

LindaDeMasi — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 16:09:10 GMT

Some of it is proprietary. Should I just upload what I can here as attachments?

Re: ArcGIS Explorer Takes forever to open...please help.

AndreiIvanov — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 16:10:54 GMT

yes. it should be just fine.

Re: ArcGIS Explorer Takes forever to open...please help.

LindaDeMasi — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 17:27:27 GMT

The files are too large to upload here, even zipped. Could I put them on our ftp site, perhaps?

Re: ArcGIS Explorer Takes forever to open...please help.

AndreiIvanov — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 17:50:10 GMT

you can try that. what is the size of these files? How many features are there? That's what could cause slow ArcGIS Explorer start up as well.

Re: ArcGIS Explorer Takes forever to open...please help.

LindaDeMasi — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 18:36:05 GMT

Thanks again!

The size of the files vary...this is the breakdown.
Under 5 mb: 89 shapefiles; 3 layer packages (Most of the files are statewide coverage for Arkansas)
5 to 10 mb: 12 shapefiles (All statewide coverage for Arkansas)
10 to 30 mb: 15 shapefiles (All statewide coverage for Arkansas)
30 to 50 mb: 7 shapefiles; 1 layer package (All statewide coverage for Arkansas)
30 to 100 mb: 4 shapefiles (All statewide coverage for Arkansas)
100 to 150 mb: 3 shapefiles (All statewide coverage for Arkansas)
150 to 200 mb: 1 layer package (All statewide coverage for Arkansas)

I have also attached a picture of my "Contents"

Am I asking too much of the program? Once I get it to open, everything seems to work okay...except every-so-often the program shuts itself down.

Re: ArcGIS Explorer Takes forever to open...please help.

AndreiIvanov — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 19:31:56 GMT

might be. I've added around 50 shapefiles to my AGX map, load time was around minute and a half. Though, I am not sure whether your data locates on network and what's your machine spec. Slow speed might be due to complex map you've created indeed.

Re: ArcGIS Explorer Takes forever to open...please help.

BernSzukalski — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 12:57:09 GMT

I agree with Andrei - it seems you have lots of data and many layers you are trying to load at once - each of which adds a bit of overhead on load and consumes memory in the process. And as Andrei mentions other factors may also be coming into play, like the physical location of where these data are located on your network/drives. I'd suggest taking a "divide and conquer" approach and carving up that one large map into several smaller ones. That may also help to figure out if any of those layers in particular is causing the slow load, plus will provide the added benefit of turning what seems to be an intimidating number of choices for a user in your contents into a more manageable number that might be focused on specific workflows or projects.

It also seems from your list of data that you are using local data sources entirely, some of which are quite large. If you can, some of those layers might be better published as a service to increase performance.

Re: ArcGIS Explorer Takes forever to open...please help.

LindaDeMasi — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 14:34:32 GMT

I would need ArcGIS for server in order to publish them as a service?

Re: ArcGIS Explorer Takes forever to open...please help.

AndreiIvanov — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 17:38:11 GMT

yes, you are correct.