Introducing ‘Connectable Datasets’ for Business Analyst in Pro 3.0

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We have good news for those users who install and work with the local US Business Analyst data. As you know, this is a large, 90+ GB dataset, which can take a good bit of time to download, unzip, and then install. Not to mention the fact that it consumes a large amount of disk space. Well, coming in ArcGIS Pro 3.0, for the Esri Business Analyst 2022 US Data Update and beyond, there will be one substantial less step. As well as some added flexibility as to where the data is located. In Pro 3.0, we are introducing the new "Connectable Dataset" functionality. This will allow you to…

Point to a dataset on your local drive (i.e., C:\), a secondary drive (i.e., D:\), or a network drive instead of having to install the dataset!
Allow multiple licensed Business Analyst Pro users to connect to a centralized dataset location instead of all users having to install the data to their machine!

Up until this point you've had to...

Download the dataset from MyEsri (takes up to an hour or more; requires approx. 66 GB disk space)
Unzip the data onto your local machine (takes approx. 10-20 minutes; requires additional approx. 92 GB disk space)
Run the installation from the unzipped data (takes 20+ minutes; requires additional approx. 92 GB disk space)

With Pro 3.0, step 3 is replaced with…

In ArcGIS Pro, open Settings and click Options. The Options window opens.
Scroll down, click Business Analyst, and click Add Dataset…
Browse to where you unzipped the Business Analyst dataset and select the dataset_description.xml file…
Click OK and the dataset should be added to the list and be ready to use! So instead of 20+ minutes to install the data, it now takes 20+ seconds to connect the data!

NOTES:

As before, you still need to activate the data license prior to using the data.

Read more about how to activate your Business Analyst data license.
Please refer to your software and data license agreements to ensure you have proper licensing for all users.

Now just think of all the fun things you can do with those 20+ minutes of extra time!

Enjoy!
Chris

ArcGIS Business Analyst Pro Team