topic Re: Export layout to PDF time in ArcGIS Pro Questions

Export layout to PDF time

lpainchaud — Tue, 16 May 2023 13:33:42 GMT

Hello

I regularly export georeferenced pdf maps and was able to do so easily with Arcmap (~30 sec). For some reason, ArcGIS Pro takes forever to export even the simplest ones (~15 mins) which greatly impact the efficiency of my work. More exactly, it's the "Preparing export" step that seems to be the problem. Once this step is done, the map is exported in a second. Finally, using basic settings such as these doesn't speed up the export in any way.

Is this a known issue ? What can I do to fix the problem ?

Thank you

Re: Export layout to PDF time

TomBole — Tue, 16 May 2023 15:04:37 GMT

Hi @lpainchaud ,

Currently I'm not aware of any performance issues concerning export to PDF. We have many "simple" and more complex layouts that get exported to PDF in our automated test harness on a daily basis. No performance issues have been identified.

Of course our test projects only cover a portion of all the possible combinations that go into an ArcGIS Pro layout. The problem you are running into may be specific to your data/workflow. In order to troubleshoot your issue we will need to reproduce the problem.

Can you contact Esri Support? They are better equipped to handle troubleshooting steps and gather bug data. They can be contacted at https://support.esri.com/en/contact-tech-support.

Thanks,

Tom

Re: Export layout to PDF time

GIS_Hotz — Mon, 25 Sep 2023 12:05:34 GMT

I'm having the exact same problem. I started an export at 7:00 PM last night, and it's still trying to export that PDF when I logged in the next morning. I can explort directly to a JPG or PNG, but when I convert that back to a PDF it loses all of its georeferencing (which is required for people using the PDF in the field).

Was this issue ever resolved?

Re: Export layout to PDF time

TimothyRudzik — Thu, 27 Jun 2024 21:17:23 GMT

I have the same issue regardless of the size or complexity of the map. The part that takes so long for me is "preparing export". It does eventually export.

Thanks,

Ryan Rudzik

Re: Export layout to PDF time

Wayne_Rennick — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 02:37:17 GMT

I'm here because I too am frustrated by the 20+ minute exports to pdf. It seems like it's gotten worse recently. I wish there was a way to troubleshoot this.
My CPU and GPU are only at 2% and 8% respectively. plenty of RAM available....

It looks like it's using the Intel GPU not my discrete Nvidia GPU. I bet that's part of the issue.

Re: Export layout to PDF time

WestofFour — Wed, 27 Nov 2024 21:09:05 GMT

I'm also here because of this issue. Exporting a PDF takes between 10-15 minutes each export, doesn't matter if I select a network drive or a local drive, export time stays the same. It sits on "preparing to export" for about 10 minutes, then "export in progress" for a few minutes. This greatly bottlenecks my efficiency and is, frankly, unacceptable.

I'm not interested in helping diagnose or find a workaround, as this feature has functioned fine for 15+ years. Just adding to this thread to increase its visibility. Hopefully ESRI can come to a solution here, as those of us with PDF exports as part of our daily workflow cannot be expected to wait 10+ minutes for every export.

Re: Export layout to PDF time

AubriOtis — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 17:15:25 GMT

Hello,

I know the long export times are really frustrating. We added some new optimizations in ArcGIS Pro 3.4 to significantly reduce the "Preparing to Export" time. I recommend updating to Pro 3.4 and seeing if the export times are better.

We will continue to work on ways to decrease export times, and appreciate you all commenting and sharing your experiences. It truly does help us find ways to improve the software.

Re: Export layout to PDF time

JohannesHuebner — Thu, 12 Dec 2024 09:15:23 GMT

Hello!

Exporting layouts also takes a long time for us. It only takes a few minutes, but it's too long for tiny images that only contain an orthophoto. For larger layouts, it only takes a little longer. However, as we sometimes have to export many layouts in a row, this is also annoying.

I then tried using Python Bookmarks to create a batch process for exporting the layouts. This works brilliantly and takes just a few seconds per layout! The result is visually indistinguishable from the manually exported layouts. How is this possible?

I have one more question about batch processing: is it possible to export only certain layouts instead of all layouts of an ArcGIS Pro project?

Thanks,

Johannes

Edit: I have just installed version 3.4. The manual export now also works in a few seconds. It looks like the problem has been solved - thanks!

Re: Export layout to PDF time

AubriOtis — Thu, 12 Dec 2024 18:27:43 GMT

@JohannesHuebner I'm so glad the export times improved for you in 3.4! Hopefully that work improves the export times for the others on this thread as well.

Re: Export layout to PDF time

WilliamRugg1 — Sat, 12 Apr 2025 01:41:02 GMT

I was also experiencing a slowness in exporting to a .PDS similar to lpainchaud today in PRO 3.3. Not sure if our County's shared resources were being allocated elsewhere, then became free again. Or did things improve by toggling off the "Enable color management" via Options >> Color management >> Set options for color management >> ... , hum?

Ironically, toggling off this setting resolves another issue, described as follows:

Exporting a layout to a PDF with the 'Enable color management' toggled on in ArcGIS Pro 3.0 (or later) results in the exported PDF to display yellow when opened in Bluebeam Revu (PDF viewer). This occurs when upgrading from ArcGIS Pro 2.9 to ArcGIS Pro 3.0.

https://support.esri.com/en-us/bug/exporting-a-layout-to-a-pdf-with-the-enable-color-manag-bug-000159261

Patiently awaiting for our organization's next version upgrade to PRO 3.4.

Thanks Esri Community for all your contributions!

Re: Export layout to PDF time

NicholasRolstad2 — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 17:11:43 GMT

Same thing, I'm on 3.5 and basic layouts take 2-5 minutes to export now that were much faster in 3.3 (or prior versions). No settings make a difference.

Re: Export layout to PDF time

AubriOtis — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 17:29:56 GMT

That's really interesting. The changes made should have decreased export times, not increased them. If you can, I recommend reaching out to technical support, they can diagnose the problem and see what variable we missed in the update.

Re: Export layout to PDF time

JacksonRedmond — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 18:33:29 GMT

I recently had my computer reformatted and now simple exports take 10-15 minutes.
I'm very surprised that with all of these people experiencing the same issue for so long that no one has worked to find a resolution.

Tag me when you have a solution, as someone needs to work on one.

I'll give you my workaround in the meantime which has made it somewhat quicker, but still a huge pain.
Seriously, this is a common problem that people are having and it needs to get fixed promptly.

For someone that doesn't have time to wait.

You have to be out of all other instances of GIS projects as this will close all of your instances of GIS
Make sure you save before you export.

Export.
Open Task Manager.
End task of ArcGISPro (This will close all instances of ArcGIS Pro)
Export again and it's usually instant, though you've had to go through the whole process of opening it up again.