topic Re: Where is the Maplex style label placement option? in ArcGIS Pro Questions

Where is the Maplex style label placement option?

ThomasColson — Mon, 03 Oct 2016 16:41:15 GMT

I have a number of mxd-projects where I have put a significant amount of time into label placement using the Maplex engine. Tried importing these into Pro, with horrible results, as Pro includes only the basic label placement options. When will this feature be available in Pro?

Re: Where is the Maplex style label placement option?

AdrianWelsh — Mon, 03 Oct 2016 16:55:47 GMT

Hi Thomas,

It looks like ArcGIS Pro has Maplex in it, according to this document:

Label with the Maplex Label Engine—ArcGIS Pro | ArcGIS for Desktop

Though, it does not indicate where to actually 'activate' the label engine...

It looks like you need to open up the feature layer ribbon and under it, click on the Labelling ribbon. On the right side, there is a More button and from there you can check on Maplex

Re: Where is the Maplex style label placement option?

ThomasColson — Mon, 03 Oct 2016 17:08:48 GMT

Yeah, took me a while to find that as well. Looks like on import of a MXD with existing Maplex labeling, it converts it to standard labeling. I manually updated on of my layers to revert back to the Maplex style I originally had, and WOW, was it slow! I'm used to a performance hit for using Maplex, but the performance hit in Pro is basically "so much it's unusable".

Re: Where is the Maplex style label placement option?

AdrianWelsh — Mon, 03 Oct 2016 17:24:18 GMT

That is unfortunate that #maplex has slowed Pro down so much. I am not sure what else to do at this point. Do you have tons of labels? Or are they pretty customized?

Re: Where is the Maplex style label placement option?

ThomasColson — Mon, 03 Oct 2016 17:30:17 GMT

Both. Was kinda hopin' to use Pro and publish this as a vector tile layer. Customization is scale-specific, many scales, with different placement options at each scale, as well as vector/bitmap font substitutions for some layers.

Re: Where is the Maplex style label placement option?

WendyHarrison — Mon, 03 Oct 2016 20:22:09 GMT

Hi Thomas,

Maplex has been included in Pro since 1.0 and is the default label engine for new maps. When you import an mxd into Pro the appropriate label engine will be used - standard or maplex depending on how your mxd is set.

Let's look at this issue first - are you still experiencing it? Can you share an mxd that exhibits this issue?

thanks

Wendy

Re: Where is the Maplex style label placement option?

DevonBise — Mon, 03 Oct 2016 21:05:02 GMT

I also wanted to note (hoping I didn't miss this in the replies) that editing annotation is not yet supported in Pro. Esri indicated they are working to bring this functionality, so even using annotations wouldn't be a solution here. In large maps with a lot of labels, Maplex can slow the application to the point of being borderline unusable.

Re: Where is the Maplex style label placement option?

ThomasColson — Tue, 04 Oct 2016 12:26:24 GMT

"Can you share an mxd that exhibits this issue?"

Yes...and no....I'd have to put some time into reconstructing something that I can share publicly...or with a TS analyst. I'm noticing that this only happens on layers where the symbology fails to import correctly: if the symbology (non-complex) imports, than the correct label engine is applied......

Re: Where is the Maplex style label placement option?

WendyHarrison — Tue, 04 Oct 2016 15:14:17 GMT

We can easily do this through support. Once they've reproduced the issue just have them give me a call and I'll take it from there.

I don't need a full map, just one layer with one feature will do it.

thanks

Wendy

Re: Where is the Maplex style label placement option?

WendyHarrison — Tue, 04 Oct 2016 20:06:20 GMT

Hi Devon

We're still working on editing annotation. It will be available post Pro 1.4.

With regards to Pro slowing down when using Maplex - that shouldn't happen. Labeling happens in a different thread so you can continue working as the labels draw. What are you seeing happen?

Wendy

Re: Where is the Maplex style label placement option?

DevonBise — Wed, 05 Oct 2016 16:01:22 GMT

Wendy,

Perhaps a different culprit is to blame. I know that a big draw for Pro was multi-threaded processing and that's still a favorite part of the software. When I was using a labeling scheme for a large number of features (17k+) with Maplex enabled by default, I saw my performance take a big hit. Pro begins to lag to the point where if I click anywhere I sit and need to sit and wait for the response to my click (selecting a feature, pan, etc.). But, because labeling does take a place on a separate thread, it's possible there is another culprit. I will dig into this further on my end. I do really like Pro. I think with some time and development it can be the hallmark of Esri's products - which I imagine is the plan anyway.

Re: Where is the Maplex style label placement option?

WendyHarrison — Wed, 05 Oct 2016 16:15:23 GMT

Hi Devon,

We can figure out what that other culprit is. Please contact Technical Support. Once they reproduce the issue it comes to development and if there's an issue we can fix it.

thanks

Wendy