idea Allow changes to default decimal places in ArcGIS Pro Ideas

Allow changes to default decimal places

AvaFarouche — Fri, 03 May 2024 22:52:09 GMT

Hi! In Pro, default decimal displays for all labels and legends are anywhere between 6 and 15 decimal places, and the only way to change these is to manually change each individual attribute for each layer. I recently had a map project that required me to change the display of decimal places 900 times. NINE HUNDRED!!!

What made this especially frustrating is that the underlying data tables only had two decimal places. So Pro added either 4 decimal places for all legends, or between 10 and 13 decimal places for labels. It just fabricated those numbers, and I had to manually change all of them back to something manageable.

I figured out that the best way to do this is to go into the attribute table and edit each attribute to a Double Numeric designation and specify 1 or 2 decimal places. If I don't, when I publish it to Web map, all of the decimal places will display as 6 places AGAIN. But even when I do that, I still have to do it AGAIN for legends in desktop, because those still default to 6 decimal places. I can't wrap my head around why the default would be for so many decimal places to display, or why I would have to change each attribute in each layer, instead of being able to change a default setting somewhere. It seems like that many decimal places would make just about any project messy, cluttered and confusing. Space is usually very tight in my maps. There can be loads of labels, and it's challenging to fit them all in anyway. I can't allow any unnecessary content in either my labels or legends so I can't just leave them.

Thank you very much!!!

Re: Allow changes to default decimal places

JoyDRoberts — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 21:26:17 GMT

Agreed that having a 6-decimal place default for all numeric fields is not logical and is counter-productive for users.
We're not measuring things to millionths of a unit. IF the numeric field happens to contain coordinates, then the (excessive) "accuracy" is only applicable to latitude/longitude pairs. It's surely not best practice for the measurements in the projected coordinate systems.
PLEASE FIX THIS, Esri team.
Thank you for listening to us.

Re: Allow changes to default decimal places

DavidOutrata — Tue, 13 Feb 2024 15:27:50 GMT

It is hidden under Advanced symbology options:

Re: Allow changes to default decimal places

JoyDRoberts — Tue, 13 Feb 2024 17:02:33 GMT

@DavidOutrata - That might fix the issue for some users, but doesn't resolve the underlying data issue as posted by Ava and myself.
Thanks for posting it.

Re: Allow changes to default decimal places

AvaFarouche — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 17:06:37 GMT

Yes, @DavidOutrata , as I indicated in my original post, I found the way to fix it in the Advanced Symbology. However, the problem remains: I have to fix it there for every attribute, for every layer, which means, as I indicated in my original post, I had to change it NINE HUNDRED TIMES. This does not address the problem. Thanks.

Re: Allow changes to default decimal places

LisaPierce1 — Mon, 17 Jun 2024 17:31:38 GMT

Decimal default settings needs to be an option to change for your entire Project settings, not just for a layer. The comments above describe the issues and seems rather strange that ESRI felt the 6 decimal places was logical?
What is the best way agencies can set default settings for many options that can be defined across your organization for ArcPro deployment?
I believe that may be expressed in templates in Pro. More documentation on this topic would be helpful.

Re: Allow changes to default decimal places

ZachEdwards_WDSGIS — Sun, 07 Jul 2024 21:00:07 GMT

Agreed. There needs to be a place where we can set the default Numeric (number of decimal places in the precision) just like you can set your default display location units precision for lat/long/elevation!

Re: Allow changes to default decimal places

JamesPoeschel — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 14:54:26 GMT

I agree there needs to be a way to change the default number of decimals when dealing with symbology.

Or at the very least, change the default to something more logical like 2 instead of 6.