topic Re: Successive ModelBuilder tool dialogs open outside display area (large monitor) in ArcGIS Pro Questions

Successive ModelBuilder tool dialogs open outside display area (large monitor)

LetaFranklin — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 23:18:15 GMT

I am fairly certain this falls under the category of bugs, but posting here for feedback before submitting as such.

Successive ModelBuilder tool dialogs open outside display area on large monitor

Date: 13 June 2025
ArcGIS Pro 3.5.1
Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120
Asus VP28U Display (3840 x 2160 pixels) with GeForce GTX 1060 3GB (NVIDIA software up to date)
Scale: 200% (150% is recommended) [The opinion of two twentysomethings I had look at my screen is that 200% is ideal for them, too.]

General Issue:

In certain monitor configurations, when editing a model, the open dialog boxes for some tools open outside of the monitor's pixel area range. The anchor point appears to be miscalculated. The configuration, in my case, is a 3840 x 2160 monitor set to 200% scale.

I first encountered this in the provided model in the ESRI web course "Building Geoprocessing Models Using ArcGIS Pro" in the exercise "Explore an existing model." When I open the 50 Ft. Gas Line Buffer tool, the dialog window loads outside the screen area. The first tool loaded into the model opens at the bottom of the window. Its output dialog opens a bit to the right. Second and subsequent tool and their output dialogs open march further to the right until they are opening outside the monitor screen. I was unable to move these dialogs with alt-spacebar-m.

Screenshot attached.

I also tested this behavior opening ModelBuilder in an empty map and dragging the buffer tool four times into the model. The same behavior was observed. At different monitor scales, windows sometimes opened above and to the left of the monitor active area, occasionally with a small portion on the screen that could not be dragged. The workaround is to open ArcGIS and edit the model at 100% monitor scale using Windows magnifier (Windows Key and "+").

I think there should be a check on ModelBuilder dialog anchor locations and size when they are opened to make sure they will be useable on the user's screen.

I consider this an accessibility issue.

Re: Successive ModelBuilder tool dialogs open outside display area (large monitor)

Robert_LeClair — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 17:08:40 GMT

Interesting. Whenever I see strange behaviors like this, I recomment an ArcGIS Pro soft reset. Instructions on how to accomplish this are here - How To: Perform an ArcGIS pro Soft Reset

Re: Successive ModelBuilder tool dialogs open outside display area (large monitor)

LetaFranklin — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 19:58:20 GMT

I marked as solved, but I guess I was premature. I followed the instructions in performing a soft reset, but then had "Error: A core license could not be found. Select another licensing option or contact your administrator to update your licenses."

I then followed the instructions here: A core license could not be found

And now have this "Error: The account cannot be used to authorize ArcGIS Pro as it has already been configured to use in offline mode on some other device."

My "organization" account shows my licensing information as "disconnected" now. I have a student/at home license. Going through MyEsri (the account I used to buy the software) and my user account (that I log in to do work and use ArcGIS online), I can only find things to authorize Desktop software. I'm thinking I should undo this last step in "A Core License Could Not Be Found" but wanted to get your advice first.

Re: Successive ModelBuilder tool dialogs open outside display area (large monitor)

Robert_LeClair — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 20:05:33 GMT

When it comes to licensing issues, I recommend you reach out to Esri Support Services so they can help you out.

Re: Successive ModelBuilder tool dialogs open outside display area (large monitor)

LetaFranklin — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 23:33:59 GMT

Pretty much dead in the water with ArcGIS since failed soft reset. (I was just working on studying for associate exam, and have other things I can do.) At present, where things stand with tech support:

We will continue with the license recovery process and I will notify you once there is an update.
I will further investigate the ModelBuilder dialog issue to confirm if it is possible to register this as a bug, and will share any findings when I follow up regarding your license.

Re: Successive ModelBuilder tool dialogs open outside display area (large monitor)

LetaFranklin — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 18:12:48 GMT

Yesterday afternoon my license issues were resolved. The reset did not fix the original problem with the dialogs opening off-screen, but in the future, I will use the work-around of setting my display to 100% scale and using Windows magnifier to read the tiny text. I am wary of the soft reset process. I do not have a concurrent license, but should one do something else to protect one's license when doing a soft reset, I wonder.

Re: Successive ModelBuilder tool dialogs open outside display area (large monitor)

Robert_LeClair — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 20:53:28 GMT

The soft reset will not affect one's licenses so you're finding using that workflow if need be.

Re: Successive ModelBuilder tool dialogs open outside display area (large monitor)

LetaFranklin — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 22:44:06 GMT

But it did affect the license. After following the soft reset instructions to the letter, I received this error: A core license could not be found. Select another licensing option or contact your administrator to update your licenses.

I then followed the instructions here: A core license could not be found

And then I had the error "The account cannot be used to authorize ArcGIS Pro as it has already been configured to use in offline mode on some other device."

My organization account showed my licensing information as "disconnected."

Technical support fixed it, but the original problem still exists. There are workarounds I found, but it would be a real pain to do any significant editing of models (which I don't need to do at present, but might in the future).

Re: Successive ModelBuilder tool dialogs open outside display area (large monitor)

LetaRogers — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 19:24:43 GMT

Re: Dialog windows in ModelBuilder open off-screen in ArcGIS Pro when using a 4K monitor (3840 x 2160) at 200% scaling.

After some testing, I found three work-arounds:

The best one is reducing the monitor resolution to 1920×1080 at 100% scaling, which will restore proper behavior. This is not a long-term solution. It's just a form of compatibility mode that doesn't utilize my monitor's high-fidelity vector graphics, fonts, markers, icons, etc. I’d rather not pretend my monitor is from 2012 just to keep dialogs from disappearing.
Alternatively, I can use this monitor at 100% scaling and use the windows magnifier to read the tiny text
Last, use a different monitor

Tweaking the High DPI Settings in Properties -> Compatibility in Windows did not fix the problem.

I've done some programming, it seems that ArcGIS Pro isn’t dynamically calculating dialog placement based on current screen bounds. As a result, dialogs of tools added appear to be anchored using out-of-bounds x-coordinates outside the visible workspace.

Doing a soft-reset only messed up my license, which had to be restored by tech support.

How to Reproduce (for me, at least):

Use 4k monitor at 200% scaling
Open ArcGIS Pro to blank map
Add a ModelBuilder to the toolbox and edit maximized
Drag 8 buffer tools into the model and auto-layout
Open each one for editing in order added and note where dialog opens
At some point they should be off-screen. Mostly at an out-of-bounds x-value, occasionally at a negative X,Y location that cannot be dragged onto the screen (I found this at 150% monitor scale, IIRC)
Delete the ones that actually opened onscreen and do auto-layout
The remaining ones still open off-screen

Can someone give me a kudo, pretty please? If nothing else for my persistence? Is anyone reading this other than Robert?

Re: Successive ModelBuilder tool dialogs open outside display area (large monitor)

ADSTrainingProjects — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 14:14:32 GMT

I'm experiencing the same behaviour you are. I find it baffling that a modern software has issues like this with high resolution screens and that the only official response is to do a soft reset of the software...

Here I am working a 10920x1080 in a 4K screens to avoid Arcgis Pro from not working.

Re: Successive ModelBuilder tool dialogs open outside display area (large monitor)

NateArnold — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 14:07:17 GMT

Interesting. I'm running Pro via Citrix remote desktop on a 5k screen and experience this behavior. I select Open on any tool in ModelBuilder and the tool window doesn't appear. I then resize my remote session to something much smaller, and the tool window appears. Nutty!

Re: Successive ModelBuilder tool dialogs open outside display area (large monitor)

CharlottePeters95540 — Fri, 03 Oct 2025 17:41:58 GMT

I've had this issue recently as well. Until the issue is fixed, I found a shortcut in another post to access off screen pop-ups. Double click the element>>press ALT + spacebar>>press "X" and the pop-up will show up maximized on the screen. However, you have to do this every time.

I can be switching between three different dual monitor set-ups, so I don't want to mess with display settings. However, I discovered moving the element or model can help.

The following is based on my home office set-up with dual monitors. I've noticed that the pop-ups appear a certain distance from the selected element.

Moving the element to the left side of the screen also moves the pop-up. It doesn't work if you move the element AFTER you've already tried to open the pop-up, so you'll need to close and reopen the model. The element needs to be moved BEFORE you double click the element for the pop-up.

Personally, I like my models to be arranged horizontally, but you have a better chance of the pop-ups appearing on-screen if the model is arranged vertically (ModelBuilder's Diagram tab>>Sub-Graph>>select one of the "vertical" options).

Pan or move the entire model towards the left side of the screen before opening any pop-ups and you should get better consistency with pop-ups appearing on-screen.

Re: Successive ModelBuilder tool dialogs open outside display area (large monitor)

CharlottePeters95540 — Fri, 03 Oct 2025 17:51:44 GMT

Another follow-up, this time from my work office with dual monitors, in case it helps with understanding this issue. The pop-ups appear on top of the selected element. My monitors are set at 1920x1080 resolution, but pop-ups still appeared on top when I changed display resolution to 800x600.

Re: Successive ModelBuilder tool dialogs open outside display area (large monitor)

JamesShively — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 14:43:46 GMT

I am working on a dual-monitor system and have run into this exact problem. It appears that the Model Builder opens editing menus to the right of the active ArcGIS Pro project. The solution to this problem has been to open the Model Builder window on the left-screen. Simple solution, but definitely a 'glitch' in the matrix.