topic Re: ArcMAP 10.5 Slow Performance in ArcGIS Pro Questions

ArcMAP 10.5 Slow Performance

TerryAdams — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 05:27:08 GMT

Hello All,

We have just updated from ArcGIS 10.3 to ArcGIS 10.5.

Suffering from very slow performance in ArcMAP now with certain things. I've completely re-made MXD's from scratch under 10.5 that I had under 10.3 to remove possible changeover issues.

When I simply tick on/off layers it takes a long time (1 minute or more) to update the display or give me control of ArcMap back.

When I save edits - long time to do that (2 minutes or more)

When I change a layer from editable to not editable - long time (1 minute) to do that.

I'd have maybe 10 layers in the MXD with JPEG 2000 aerial photo loaded in - but not displayed.

Arc Catalog displays layers quickly - as you'd expect. Loading one or 2 layers into ArcMAP also seems ok. But more than that *really* seems to slow it down. I never had extremely slow responses like this under 10.3.

We're putting in a support call but just wondering if anyone else has noticed this - and might know what the cause is. Data sits in SQL 2012 with ARCSDE.

Re: ArcMAP 10.5 Slow Performance

JayantaPoddar — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 06:37:03 GMT

Did you try Resetting your ArcGIS application profile‌?

Has the enterprise geodatabase been upgraded? Also check if service pack 3 is installed for SQL Server 2012.

Upgrade an enterprise geodatabase in SQL Server

Microsoft SQL Server database requirements for ArcGIS 10.5

Re: ArcMAP 10.5 Slow Performance

TerryAdams — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 07:44:12 GMT

Thanks for the reply Jayanta.
Yes I've tried renaming the ArcMap normal.mxt and creating a new template - no change.

I tried doing a complete application profile reset as per your link - no change.

I can confirm we have installed service pack 3 for SQL Server 2012, and have indeed upgraded our enterprise geodatabase. We have also re-done all the indexes.

What we've also discovered is that if we load 1 - 2 feature classes into ArcMap - it's ok. If we load more than that, we start seeing the slowdowns I mentioned above.

Also, we've found that when we sort large-ish datasets in Arc Catalog (16,000 records for example) by ObjectID - or anything - it takes a long time. Far longer than it did under 10.3.

At this point - it seems to be something to do with larger amounts of data. Either ArcMap projects loaded with several layers or operations on large-ish datasets. Just viewing a single large dataset in ArcCatalog - no problem.

Re: ArcMAP 10.5 Slow Performance

JayantaPoddar — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 09:15:09 GMT

Thank you for the clarification. In that case, it would be wise to let the Esri support team to work closely with you.

Share the solution, once the issue is resolved, so that other members in the community can benefit from it.

Re: ArcMAP 10.5 Slow Performance

TerryAdams — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 08:03:23 GMT

ESRI Support have told us that other people are also suffering performance degradation in ArcMap after upgrading to 10.5. It's *really* affecting the amount of work we can get through daily.

Just wondering if others with this issue can voice it here to build a case for some action on it. Also to judge how widespread this issue might be.

Re: ArcMAP 10.5 Slow Performance

JayantaPoddar — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 09:08:05 GMT

You might like to share your opinion on ArcGIS Ideas‌, and others can vote-up.

Hopefully, Esri will come up with a Performance Improvement patch.

Re: ArcMAP 10.5 Slow Performance

RachanaKothari2 — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 21:31:03 GMT

I have also been experiencing similar issues after upgrading to 10.5. My team is unable to open map documents that were made using 10.3. I am currently trying to open one of the business analyst templates that automatically get downloaded to my desktop to run a demo report and it has been loading for 10 minutes now. Please let me know if you find any solution. I am in the queue with Esri but an analyst hasn't' contacted me yet. Thank you.

Re: ArcMAP 10.5 Slow Performance

TerryAdams — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 00:41:45 GMT

Yes I have several ArcMAP mxd's made under 10.3 (or earlier) that are taking a very long time to load now under 10.5. 10 minutes plus for me as well.

Re-making the mxd's under 10.5 does help. It at least allows the projects to load in a decent timeframe - but they still suffer very sluggish performance when doing simple tasks.

If I find any information that helps, I will certainly post it here.

Re: ArcMAP 10.5 Slow Performance

DanPatterson_Retired — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 02:04:01 GMT

I have heard this issue from time-to-time. All I can report is... new machine, new install, current operating system, no network, no problems. This will be an issue in our teaching labs where this will not be the case. I just wonder how much of a difference each of those sub-components make to the cumulative problem. I would forget about installing PRO if you are having problems with ArcMap

Re: ArcMAP 10.5 Slow Performance

TerryAdams — Tue, 28 Feb 2017 03:15:19 GMT

Some findings. This is at the limit of my knowledge so I will describe it as best I can.

ESRI Australia have identified what looks like a bug with ArcGIS 10.5 and SQL 2012.

The issue is around the indexing of nvarchar (max) fields in SQL. So - fields that are set with nvarchar (max) in SQL are causing problems in ArcGIS - because ArcGIS can't index them properly...... resulting in very poor performance.

If in SQL you change the nvarchar(max) definition to nvarchar(254) - the issues disappear.

The way we tested things was choosing a feature class with say 10,000 records in Arc Catalog and try and sort on any of the fields. If you have nvarchar(max) set in SQL - this took a *very* long time. Set to nvarchar(254) and the sorting was back to around 10-15 seconds as usual.

After we have made the changes in SQL to all our datasets (a days work) - I will report back if the poor performance issues have indeed disappeared. Initial testing though seems promising.

Hope that makes sense. The nitty gritty of databases isn't my forte.

Re: ArcMAP 10.5 Slow Performance

DanPatterson_Retired — Tue, 28 Feb 2017 03:18:49 GMT

Terry, if it works out, could you edit your original discussion title to indicate it is with SQL. It would make it easier to identify the source route of the problem for people searching on a similar issue.

Re: ArcMAP 10.5 Slow Performance

TerryAdams — Tue, 28 Feb 2017 03:23:36 GMT

Yes ok Dan I will do that once we have properly verified the outcome.

Re: ArcMAP 10.5 Slow Performance

KoryKramer — Thu, 16 Mar 2017 20:24:13 GMT

Terry,

Wondering if you made any progress on this...?

Re: ArcMAP 10.5 Slow Performance

TerryAdams — Fri, 17 Mar 2017 09:07:41 GMT

The issues are still *not* fully resolved unfortunately no.

The issues I spoke about with SQL above *were* having an impact in certain situations - and with certain operations - but it does not appear to be the full picture. Fixing the nvarchar(max) instances in SQL - as well as completely reworking all the indexes - has *not* fully solved the sluggish ArcMAP performance. We ended up getting a SQL tech in to go through our SQL setup with a fine tooth comb. He found a few minor things - but nothing that has made the ArcMAP issue go away. We've seen a minor improvement it must be said. So... although all of that has helped - the sluggish ArcMAP issue remains.

We really see it when switching layers on and off, zooming in and out, and when we put scale dependencies on labels etc etc. Also when saving edits, this really takes a long time now.

We then hit upon building feature caches in ArcMap to aid with zooming in and out - which also *does* help with reducing draw times when working in ArcMAP. So that helps. But switching the layers on & off still takes ages.

We really see a difference now with scale dependencies - where features or labels switch off at certain scales etc. This seems to make things very slow. Much more so than previously.

We did also hit upon a suspicion that datasets switched over to high precision under 10.3 weren't so happy in 10.5. No real concrete evidence for this but nevertheless we re-did this under 10.5 to tick that box.

We also made sure our SQL box wasn't maxing memory and killing the machine's performance or anything like that.

So - we feel we've chipped away at the problem as much as we can - and improved things a small amount - but we feel now the remaining issue is a bug with ArcMAP. Arc Catalog seems completely fine and responsive like you'd expect.

We did have an issue sometimes with Arc Catalog where it would go crazy - creating 10 tabs in the windows task bar and flickering our screens like mad. Fixing the nvarchar issue, the indexes, and the high precision issue (only suspected) and making Arc Catalog happy seems to have stopped this from happening. That first appeared under 10.3 and originally didn't seem to have any effect beyond the flickering screen for a few minutes. We suspect now it was probably due to issues we had with our setup at 10.3 - but which really didn't affect things then. At 10.5 those issues *did* come home to roost.

So - no silver bullet I'm afraid. But hopefully that helps somewhat.

Re: ArcMAP 10.5 Slow Performance

KoryKramer — Fri, 17 Mar 2017 13:22:18 GMT

Thank you for following up with all of the details, Terry. That is definitely very helpful. Did you do all of that troubleshooting in conjunction with Technical Support? Was there a Support Case open for this issue? I'm asking because there is a bug that *might* be causing what you're experiencing, but the issue should first be vetted with support: BUG-000097186: Data displays slower in ArcGIS 10.4 for Desktop..

While that bug is still showing as New to the public, I can say that it is actively being worked on and hopefully there will be a fix soon. You might want to subscribe to it to get updates.

Also, have you looked at this thread: Slow - 10.4 Client with Sql Spatial Views

Hope the above is of use.

Re: ArcMAP 10.5 Slow Performance

MichaelVolz — Fri, 17 Mar 2017 13:54:20 GMT

Have you ever tried to copy all the layers in a troublesome mxd that are stored in the SQL 2012 database to a file geodatabase where you completely re-create the mxd sourcing the layers from the file geodatabase and never switching the data source from the original SQL 2012 database connections? I am recommending this course of action so the mxd in 10.5 has no reference whatsoever to the SQL 2012 database. I've had ghost connections to SDE databases in the past that could only be removed by recreating mxds.

Did you ever look at this thread for ideas to solve (minimize) this problem:

https://community.esri.com/thread/175596

Re: ArcMAP 10.5 Slow Performance

MinottKerr — Mon, 27 Mar 2017 23:08:24 GMT

We are seeing as similar slowness issue with migrating from mxd's created in desktop 10.1 to version 10.4/10.4.1/10.5 and connecting to a SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Geodatabase version 10.4.

The result of our tech support case was the creation of the bug report: #BUG-000102726 (ExecuteSpatialQuery performs slower for SQL Server feature classes beginning at ArcGIS 10.4).

The issue isn't solely around a spatial query but as well simply trying to draw a large number of features at small scale which had not been an issue at desktop 10.1 connecting to the 10.4 version Enterprise Geodatabase.

Re: ArcMAP 10.5 Slow Performance

TerryAdams — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 00:42:05 GMT

Apologies for the late reply.

Yes we've done much of the troubleshooting in whilst in contact with technical support, and we most certainly have a case logged with them. They have actually been very good with getting onto the situation, albeit without result.

Kory: Thanks for those links and the heads up. I will keep an eye on those situations as well. It's very possible they could well be linked with what we're experiencing.

For a particular MXD - if we copy all the feature classes it uses from SDE into a locally stored file geodatabase - then yes the slowness *does* go away. So far as we've tested anyhow. But we have a number of officers editing versioned feature classes so that gets a little frustrating / time consuming to manage.

Minott: Our issues do sound very similar to yours. We are also of the opinion now there's a bug / issue somewhere with 10.5 over 10.3 (that we moved up from).

Our support case is still being nutted through - we know of at least one other similar issue in Australia. But nothing new I'm sorry to say.

Re: ArcMAP 10.5 Slow Performance

MichaelVolz — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 14:02:27 GMT

Have you looked into the geometry type storage for your data? Are you by any chance using ST_Geometry? If so, would you be able to test what would happen if you converted some of your data to SDEBinary (long raw)? My organization is having slowness with the parcel fabric using ST_Geometry and other endusers have suggested rolling back to SDEBinary to address this issue.

Re: ArcMAP 10.5 Slow Performance

SarojThapa1 — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 14:09:13 GMT

Hi Terry,

Check out this blog. It could be one or the combination of the following reasons.

Troubleshooting Slow Performance in ArcGIS Desktop | Support Services Blog