topic Default Toolbox and Geodatabase with Project Templates in ArcGIS Pro Questions

Default Toolbox and Geodatabase with Project Templates

NathanHeickLACSD — Fri, 03 May 2019 21:13:18 GMT

I want to be able to make a Python toolbox the default toolbox in an ArcGIS Pro project. I am making a project template and I am putting all my code into the Python Toolbox. I have no need for the .tbx file that gets created automatically. Is there a way to do this? If not, is there a reason why?

The same thing kind of goes for my default geodatabase. I am bringing in an FGDB with an empty schema from my project template. I don’t need the extra blank file geodatabase that gets created. I can delete it through Python and reset the default GDB to the one I had in the template, but it would be nice if it kept the original default geodatabase from the source project.

Re: Default Toolbox and Geodatabase with Project Templates

ThomasColson — Mon, 06 May 2019 11:55:26 GMT

This topic is quite lively, with the response being a universal dislike of the extra toolboxes and FGDB's being created by Pro, especially with templates:

We've tried to workaround it by this:

Unfortunately you have to do this for each user of each computer, and new users are popping up as fast as "how do I get rid of the extra toolboxes and geodatabases" comments, and I've gotten quite a lot of negative feedback "Arc Map wasn't this complicated to use!". You also can't put the default "junk" on a network share as Pro performance suffers greatly when the default junk is on a network drive, and there's the danger of multiple folks using the same junk.

Re: Default Toolbox and Geodatabase with Project Templates

NathanHeickLACSD — Mon, 06 May 2019 16:36:55 GMT

Well, thanks for clarifying that. I noticed the extra settings, but it wasn't really what I was looking for. The developers will have to address everyone's feedback.

Re: Default Toolbox and Geodatabase with Project Templates

JeremiahP — Sat, 30 Jul 2022 03:48:22 GMT

Agreed - I often find the automatic creation of a default toolbox and geodatabase very annoying. I just want an aprx at least 70% of the time.

ArcMap didn't do this, and I/we always have our own folder structures anyway, with multiple map documents referencing common data folders.

Please allow users the option to create aprx files *without* a default toolbox and gdb. We can always point to them later.

For now, I just have my create project settings pointing to a sandbox toolbox and gdb. And I have it set to not create a project folder.