topic Re: Default.GDB in ArcGIS Pro Questions

Default.GDB

DaveMartin1 — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 16:31:34 GMT

A couple questions:

1. Do people simply leave the Default.gdb that gets created when the project gets created? Or do you rename it to reflect the data that it contains?

2. When I renamed mine, the next time I opened the Project - Pro created a new Default.gdb

What is considered good practice? Thanks, Dave

Re: Default.GDB

Robert_LeClair — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 18:33:56 GMT

For me, if I know I'm creating a project for a specific purpose, I then create a project from a default template such as Map. This gives me the opportunity to create the project and have the geodatabase named after the saved project name. By doing this, I don't have to worrry about renaming the default.gdb and having ArcGIS Pro create a new default.gdb. You can read more about the workflows mentioned here - Create a project | ArcGIS Pro documentation

Re: Default.GDB

EMani — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 15:59:06 GMT

Hi @DaveMartin1

I never use my default gdb. You can set your projects to save in any location you choose in Project/Options.