idea Offer a standalone ArcCatalog replacement for ArcGIS Pro in ArcGIS Pro Ideas

Offer a standalone ArcCatalog replacement for ArcGIS Pro

wayfaringrob — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 14:03:18 GMT

In ye olden days, I enjoyed being able to use ArcCatalog as a GIS-savvy file explorer. I could open it and quickly zip around my files to get a quick glance. I usually keep Catalog open on my computer for these reasons. Sometimes a glance is all I need, and I can close the catalog and be done with it. If I wanted to do something with what I found, I could quickly open up a map document and drag the data that I had already navigated to over to the document.

Now, the process is much more cumbersome - the word "quickly" no longer applies. I still use ArcCatalog for those exploring and previewing and purposes since there is no true Pro equivalent. The catalog view doesn't quite meet my needs - you have to add it as a tab, and it doesn't remember folder connections (or at least the ones it remembers are specific to the project you happen to have open). Further, if you drag it out into its own window, it's useless, as the contents/catalog tree doesn't come with it. It's also impossible to drag into your map's TOC if you drag it out into its own window, as the TOC changes to reflect Catalog View. But I have to use both ArcCatalog and Catalog View, since I cannot drag and drop feature classes or shapefiles from ArcCatalog into an ArcGIS Pro project.

I believe a beefed up Catalog View, offered as a standalone application, would resolve many of these issues.

Re: Offer a standalone ArcCatalog replacement for ArcGIS Pro

BruceHarold — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 13:58:39 GMT

I totally agree

Re: Offer a standalone ArcCatalog replacement for ArcGIS Pro

David_Brooks — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 14:01:59 GMT

@wayfaringrob PREACH! ✌

Re: Offer a standalone ArcCatalog replacement for ArcGIS Pro

jcarlson — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 14:16:15 GMT

Catalog can remember your folder connections. Just check out the "Favorites" section.

One of the project templates in Pro is a "Catalog" style. Would it be too cumbersome to simply have a "Catalog" project that is dedicated to your files, folders, and database connections?

That said, if someone were to utilize the Pro SDK and develop a more narrowly-focused "flavor" of Pro to accomplish this, I would probably use it.

Re: Offer a standalone ArcCatalog replacement for ArcGIS Pro

wayfaringrob — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 14:44:09 GMT

@jcarlsonfavorites does look promising, thank you.

I have a few irritations with having a "file" rather than a standalone .exe:

All the panes that you use for editing maps and layouts would be irritatingly present as ArcGIS Pro remembers these based on your last session, not the project file
A standalone file can't be pinned to the taskbar and so on, requiring a couple clicks to get to (and would have the same icon as every other file)
You'd be running multiple instances of ArcGIS Pro, which is irritating from a "I want to click the taskbar icon once without hovering and squinting to open something" standpoint
It comes with all the gunk - toolbox, gdb, import log, etc. as every other file; therefore, wherever you put it, it would have to live inside a folder with those other things.
You'd be constantly bugged to "save changes" when no changes are actually made.

Re: Offer a standalone ArcCatalog replacement for ArcGIS Pro

jcarlson — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 14:42:01 GMT

@wayfaringrob

I can never quite figure out the "remembered" layout. Sometimes it seems that it does remember in a "project-agnostic" way, but I have other projects that reliably open with a set arrangement of panes.

Have you played around with ArcGIS Pro for Intelligence? It's clearly just Pro, but with an alternate configuration that is use-specific. Gets its own icon, too! When I imagine a potential "Pro Catalog" program, that's sort of what I'm thinking of. I have 0 experience w/ the Pro SDK, though, otherwise I'd take a stab at it myself.

For the "extra gunk", you can change the project's settings to get rid of those. But then, the real solution here is development of the tool, not user workarounds.

Re: Offer a standalone ArcCatalog replacement for ArcGIS Pro

wayfaringrob — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 14:51:46 GMT

@jcarlson I haven't looked into that, no. I don't think I'd be able to get my hands on it, and like you said, annoying to use a complicated (and pricey?) workaround with other apps that aren't really made for the use case (which is...a file viewer).

Re: Offer a standalone ArcCatalog replacement for ArcGIS Pro

TomMagdaleno — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 14:52:30 GMT

Yes. So many times when I could use pro to do something I just use ArcCatalog because it is simpler.

Re: Offer a standalone ArcCatalog replacement for ArcGIS Pro

KoryKramer — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 16:45:03 GMT

For the part about persisting connections, see https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-pro/data-management/migrate-folder-database-and-server-connections-from-arcgis-desktop-to-arcgis-pro/

While this won't address the comment about having a different icon that can be added to the taskbar, if Pro were able to be opened and remember the pane configuration at the project level vs. the application level that might help using a second instance solely as a Catalog view. That functionality is requested as Save open panes in ArcGIS Pro at the project level... - Esri Community

That is also related to Custom Pane Settings in "Reset Panes" Menu - Esri Community which would allow a user to toggle to a "catalog" or data management configuration.

Please add your support to those ideas and optionally add comments that your use case is to achieve more streamlined data management workflows.

Items can then be drag/dropped from the Pro "data management" instance into other open projects.

Re: Offer a standalone ArcCatalog replacement for ArcGIS Pro

wayfaringrob — Wed, 15 Sep 2021 19:48:12 GMT

@KoryKramerEven if all of those things were implemented, it's still not worth the hassle when I can open up ArcCatalog and have every function I need minus drag and drop. I'd rather deal with the lack of drag and drop than have a second Pro instance.

Re: Offer a standalone ArcCatalog replacement for ArcGIS Pro

Anonymous User — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 17:50:24 GMT

@wayfaringrob agree with you! 🙂

Re: Offer a standalone ArcCatalog replacement for ArcGIS Pro

DamirCrnila — Thu, 15 Dec 2022 09:52:35 GMT

For me, stand-alone ArcCatalog is must have! Please, give it back.

In ArcGIS for Desktop I use it on daily basis, like File Explorer. I use it for viewing and batch operations in many projects, while simultaneously working on a specific project in ArcMap.

Is there any shortcut to open templateless Project with only Catalog View open?

Re: Offer a standalone ArcCatalog replacement for ArcGIS Pro

wayfaringrob — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 15:02:01 GMT

Another point of frustration with the lack of a standalone catalog -- today, I revisited an old project with lots of gunk & data that needed deleting/reorganizing. While I'm opening maps & flipping through them to see what's what, I'm constantly having to switch back and forth to and from the catalog view often losing my spot and costing me several more clicks than a similar workflow in ArcMap/Catalog. As detailed in the post (and suggested in part here), the fact that the panes & ribbons stay open and change with the active/blue view rather than move with them when torn away or switched is part of this problem. The satellite effect of having a floating window separated from its controls, which also change or become irrelevant depending on other views you may have open, is unintuitive and a drag on efficiency and muscle memory. Save for having different folder connections & having to manually chase down data stores that are saved in my project favorites/connections, it is almost more convenient to open up ArcCatalog or a second Pro project so I can see/work with both my project and the catalog at the same time. If the point of having a catalog view in Pro was to eliminate the need for two separate processes, it's not working out. I don't mind having a second process -- in fact, I want one -- but neither a second instance of Pro nor Catalog work as efficiently as they could for everyday data maintenance and organization tasks. An updated ArcCatalog that "speaks" Pro would resolve these problems.

Re: Offer a standalone ArcCatalog replacement for ArcGIS Pro

GB_-_MariahBlackhorse__READ_ — Fri, 13 Jan 2023 21:48:37 GMT

I am making the transition to Arcgis Pro but I use ArcCatalog standalone very frequently. I really NEED it. I understand that there would be issues, say in previewing a map (since a project may have multiple maps) but there is so much searching and folder creation and manipulation that I do in Catalog.

Some of PRO the speed will come as I figure out workarounds, but right now I am losing a LOT of time trying to accomplish the same things I can with ArcMap today.

One of my pet peeves is how long it takes me to pull up full path names. I can't be sure of the data unless I see the full path (lots of similarly named things) and I record the full path name for what I'm adding to a map, or any other myriad things I'm doing in a project into my open README doc that I create for tracking with every session. In Arcmap catalog I can highlight the paths but in PRO I can only hover and view the popup (which I can't grab an image of). So I have to add the layer and then go to it's properties, view the source and copy it from there to track it.

Re: Offer a standalone ArcCatalog replacement for ArcGIS Pro

Anonymous User — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 17:19:08 GMT

Still would love this.

Bring Back ArcCatalog

DryCreekEng — Sat, 24 Feb 2024 19:37:01 GMT

I miss the good ol' days of having ArcCatalog as a stand-alone product for managing datasets. I find it frustrating having to open a project in Pro just to peruse the Catalog. I also find it weird that if I want to use Catalog, I have to essentially create a project for it when I click on the Catalog icon when opening Pro. My suggestion is to have a similar separate app for ProCatalog where I can search for datasets, view the data spatially (not by loading it into a map), run tools, edit Metadata, and have all the same functionality as ArcCatalog.

Re: Bring Back ArcCatalog

DanPatterson — Sun, 25 Feb 2024 04:46:25 GMT

A long standing request

You might as well post there to revive the thread and give it an upvote if desired.

It is still open

Offer a standalone ArcCatalog replacement for ArcG... - Esri Community

Re: Bring Back ArcCatalog

AroldoRocha — Sun, 25 Feb 2024 13:00:02 GMT

I agree that would be very useful have ArcCatalog again.

Re: Bring Back ArcCatalog

DryCreekEng — Sun, 25 Feb 2024 19:40:58 GMT

Thanks @DanPatterson - I searched for the topic before I posted because I know Im not the only one with this gripe, but the post you linked to didnt come up. I'll repost there as well to get more visibility.

Re: Offer a standalone ArcCatalog replacement for ArcGIS Pro

DryCreekEng — Sun, 25 Feb 2024 19:57:54 GMT

I too have this complaint! I recently posted about it here. ArcPro uses serious computer resources to run, so why have two instances of Pro running with one of them being "ArcCatalog" and take up that much more memory (around 580 MB)? And then the annoyance of starting Pro --> Start without a template --> View tab --> Catalog View --> path to open folders (and then Save changes to Untitled? -->No when closing) instead of just opening an icon like Catalog. I really miss being able to look at either the map view or table view of each item I am perusing to understand/remember what the layer is representing as I search for old layers or newly downloaded ones. Pro just doesnt cut it.