topic Re: AcrPro Random Color Symbology in ArcGIS Pro Questions

AcrPro Random Color Symbology

pctuserpittsfield — Fri, 31 Aug 2018 13:27:01 GMT

I am trying to replicate the automated random color symbology in ArcMap for tax neighborhoods but ArcPro tends to group unique values together (or use only about 6 different colors) defeating the point of unique value symbolization... is there a work around? See screen shots for exact example

ArcMap:

ArcPro

Re: AcrPro Random Color Symbology

DanPatterson_Retired — Fri, 31 Aug 2018 14:47:48 GMT

in both scenarios, you can "show name" on the dropdown (or rightclick ??) on the color ramp.

Go to both and get the color ramp name. Your Pro color map seems to be something other than the random one

Re: AcrPro Random Color Symbology

Robert_LeClair — Fri, 31 Aug 2018 14:49:06 GMT

One thing I've tried to better randomize the colors is the following workflow:

In the Symbology Pane, click the Color Scheme dropdown.
Change the Color Scheme to Random Color Scheme.
Click Format Color Scheme... to open the Color Scheme Editor.
Click Regenerate or change the Minimum Color and Maximum Color to change the random colors.
Click Regenerate and then OK.

Does the randomness along polygon borders improve?

Re: AcrPro Random Color Symbology

pctuserpittsfield — Fri, 31 Aug 2018 15:02:39 GMT

Thanks,

Dan - it's definitely the random one which is why it is strange that I'm having trouble getting a diverse variety of colors.

Robert - I have tried that as well and can't seem to get anything better. It seems as if in ArcMap there was a better color-method that followed a 4 or 5 color theorem.
I am surprised that i wasn't able to find anyone else with a similar problem.

Does "Basic Random" do a better job for anyone else? in my case there are 83 unique values(neighborhoods).

Regenerated "Basic Random" Scheme in ArcPro

Re: AcrPro Random Color Symbology

DanPatterson_Retired — Fri, 31 Aug 2018 15:09:11 GMT

min max color

it might be assigning alphabetically along the colors. Is there a way to set the min/max to None or something (don't have Pro open now)

Re: AcrPro Random Color Symbology

Robert_LeClair — Fri, 31 Aug 2018 15:14:28 GMT

Found something interesting! It has to do with the circular color ramp on the Color Scheme Editor. One can grab a dot and vary the angle to expose more "random" colors. See my screen grab below.

Re: AcrPro Random Color Symbology

pctuserpittsfield — Fri, 31 Aug 2018 15:35:08 GMT

Thanks again,

you might on to something Dan with the colors being alphabetically assigned.

I've tried the to replicate the exact setting you have Robert but am not getting the mix your getting : (.

even in your example while the colors are spread out better, there isn't that much variety, some next to each other look very similar (lowland broad-leaf).

Re: AcrPro Random Color Symbology

Robert_LeClair — Fri, 31 Aug 2018 16:00:18 GMT

Hmmm...this is odd for sure. Here's one possible workaround until I can figure what's going on. In ArcMap, add your feature class, assign the random color ramp that you prefer to see, save it out as a *.lyr file and add the *.lyr file in an AGP map. Not ideal granted but preserves the randomness you prefer to see. I'll keep digging!

Re: AcrPro Random Color Symbology

pctuserpittsfield — Fri, 31 Aug 2018 16:09:34 GMT

Thanks!
This is actually is a workable solution that I was working towards.
After some trial and error, it seems only this layer has the issues mentioned but others that I use the random color scheme for turn out fine, however doesn't explain why it looks good in ArcMap and not ArcPro.

Re: AcrPro Random Color Symbology

Robert_LeClair — Fri, 31 Aug 2018 16:12:08 GMT

True. Try this - export the feature class out to a new feature class and/or geodatabase. Does the error persist on the copy?

Re: AcrPro Random Color Symbology

DanPatterson_Retired — Fri, 31 Aug 2018 16:48:27 GMT

Why don't you add a second field to the symbology classification. You could probably use an existing field, just make sure it isn't one that has the same pattern as your main field... that might mess with the apparent sequential pattern

Re: AcrPro Random Color Symbology

pctuserpittsfield — Fri, 31 Aug 2018 17:12:39 GMT

Unfortunately that did not provide different outcome, but I am satisfied with the Layer file export from ArcMap for now.

Re: AcrPro Random Color Symbology

SeanSummers_CC — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 13:50:54 GMT

I am still having this issue as well. The "Random" symbology is not very random. Most of the time I get groups of varying shades of the same colors. I feel like the random symbology in Desktop gave a much better color spread. I have been using the work around of importing symbology from a layer created in Desktop, but what happens when Desktop goes away? I would really like to just pick "Random" and get a random symbology instead of tinkering around with all of the settings. I'm hoping it is something ESRI is looking into.

Re: AcrPro Random Color Symbology

ThomasIsraelsen — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 16:32:15 GMT

I am having this problem as well. None of the workarounds introduced here work for me and I cannot in good conscience recommend Pro over ArcMap to customers with this (pretty basic) need.

Sure, exporting a lyr file from ArcMap gives a better color scheme in Pro, but only until we get new values in the feature class to classify by, which is a common and frequent workflow for us.

It seem like Pro really goes out of its way to make sure that features that are geographically close together get the same or almost the same colors. I even tried generating random values for the field that I am classifying by to see if that helps. Does not help.

It is really stupid.

I have contacted support and they referred me to this thread. Wonderful...

Re: AcrPro Random Color Symbology

Robert_LeClair — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 18:36:53 GMT

Thomas - from what I'm reading of "What's New in 2.3 ArcGIS Pro", there will be 24 new random color schemes from ArcMap added to ArcGIS Colors to improve upon the random symbology issues. I believe AGP 2.3 is listed for a Q1 2019 release time frame.

Re: AcrPro Random Color Symbology

ThomasIsraelsen — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 19:21:54 GMT

Robert - Where can I find the What's new article for Pro 2.3? I actually have beta 2, but cannot find what's new.

I do see a lot of new color schemes, but they do not seem very useful. Most are tones of the same basic color and so not very useful for showing a lot of different colors.

I tried displaying the same data I have been having trouble with in beta 2 with the regular "Basic Random". No improvements...

Thomas

Re: AcrPro Random Color Symbology

Robert_LeClair — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 19:31:03 GMT

The current "What's New at 2.3 ArcGIS Pro" is currently INTERNAL only and will be made public upon the release of AGP 2.3. I have not worked with AGP 2.3 BETA and will download the new app upon release.

Re: AcrPro Random Color Symbology

pctuserpittsfield — Fri, 08 Feb 2019 17:49:08 GMT

I am hopeful. I am still having this issue also. Happens roughly two times a year when classifying unique values (neighborhood tax rolls) with random color scheme... there is no variation, always comes up with mono chromatic scales.

Re: AcrPro Random Color Symbology

Robert_LeClair — Fri, 08 Feb 2019 23:21:26 GMT

Have you upgraded to ArcGIS Pro 2.3 yet? The new update has more color schemes to choose from. I read somewhere that AGP 2.3 now displays data similar to ArcMap in with default symbologies and default colors. Haven't checked the Random Color Scheme yet.

Re: AcrPro Random Color Symbology

SeanSummers_CC — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 16:03:41 GMT

I have upgraded to 2.3 and after using for a few days, I am much happier with the random color patterns. It appears to be working as expected now. Thank you ESRI for looking into this and fixing it.