topic Re: Build Pyramids environmental setting in ArcGIS Pro Questions

Build Pyramids environmental setting

FakeName — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 14:18:29 GMT

I've been using ESRI products since the late 80's so I've been exposed to everything from Arc/Info, ArcView, ArcGIS Desktop and now ArcGIS Pro. One can have strong opinions for and against certain things in the software...but for the life of me, I cannot comprehend the environmental settings available for the tool Build Pyramids.

You see, there are but two environmental settings available. The first is a very logical option to set the Parallel Processing Factor (a thing, along with Raster Functions, that makes AGPro so much better than Desktop). But the second setting is to toggle on or off the option to Build Pyramids.

To summarize: there is an environmental setting in the Build Pyramids tool in which one can opt to not build pyramids.

So I'm wracking my head trying to conceive of an instance in which one would run the Build Pyramids tool and choose to not actually build pyramids. Or am I missing something important?

Re: Build Pyramids environmental setting

Robert_LeClair — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 15:34:29 GMT

Great to hear from a long time Esri user! I too started my career a long time ago - 1992 with Arc/Info 5.0, saw the transition to PC Arc/Info, ArcView GIS, ArcMap and ArcGIS Pro with a few years of Atlas GIS too!

From scouring the help documentation, I found 4 instances where buildling pyramids are not beneficial.

1. Storage Space: Pyramids require additional storage space. If disk space is limited, you might opt not to create pyramids to conserve space.

2. Processing Time: Creating pyramids can be time-consuming, especially for very large datasets. If you need to quickly access or process the data without delay, you might skip building pyramids initially.

3. Data Sensitivity: In some cases, the additional files created by pyramids might not be desirable, especially if the data is sensitive or needs to be kept in its original form for compliance reasons.

4. Temporary Use: If the raster data is only needed for a short-term project or a quick analysis, building pyramids might not be necessary.

Re: Build Pyramids environmental setting

BillFox — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 16:18:45 GMT

or maybe you just received some new imagery and are experimenting with the various resampling and compression methods and don't want the software to be in auto mode

Re: Build Pyramids environmental setting

FakeName — Thu, 21 May 2026 11:51:31 GMT

Perhaps I didn't explain myself clearly...

In the tool Build Pyramids, there is the option to NOT BUILD PYRAMIDS 🤔

Re: Build Pyramids environmental setting

Robert_LeClair — Thu, 21 May 2026 14:37:43 GMT

That checkbox is part of the Pyramid geoprocessing environment, which is a global raster-storage setting used by many geoprocessing tools that create/modify raster outputs. It lets you centrally control whether outputs should have pyramids built automatically (and with what levels/resampling/compression), so the same model/script can be run with pyramids on or off without editing each tool.

In the specific Build Pyramids GP tool, the environment checkbox is essentially redundant—because that tool’s job is to build pyramids—but it still appears because environments are applied consistently across tools in the geoprocessing framework.