ArcGIS 10.4.0 for Desktop geoprocessing problems

[IainWoxvold]

Hello Community,

I've been having some problems using basic geoprocessing tools in my ArcGIS environment. The problem has been progressing over a few months -- initially basic Analysis Tool functions (e.g. clip, intersect, buffer) took a long time to run or took multiple attempts to produce a result, and now they routinely fail to produce a result at all. This can happen with or without the ArcMap is not responding message, and it occurs even when I create a new map documents with just the layers of interest. I'm self taught with GIS and am often using shapefiles. I'm running v 10.4.0.5524 on a machine with the following specs:

• Windows 10 Home
• 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7-6700HQ processor
• 16 GB RAM
• 64-bit OS, x64-based processor
• The files are held on a 462 GB local disk with 11.4 GB of free space

I've checked the system requirements -- they seem to be OK, and importantly, the problem was not an issue when I first bought the machine. It seems to have become worse with my recent annual renewal, though this could be a coincidence (?).

Any advice would be most appreciated as I'm lost without these basic analysis tools.

Thanks!

[MichaelVolz]

Review ESRI documentation on the requirements for these gp tools.

Try creating a file geodatabase and importing your data into the file geodatabase.  Then process all the gp tools with the file geodatabase instead of shapefiles.

Keep an eye on the size of the file geodatabase over time and compact the file geodatabase periodically.  I would backup the file geodatabase before compacting and then compare the file size before and after compaction.  A file geodatabase is a collection of files so make sure you check on the file geodatabase size as a collection of files and not the individual file geodatabase files as there will be quite a few files.

[IainWoxvold]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the guidance here.

Unfortunately I'm having trouble even creating a file GDB -- there was no

apparent result (nothing showing in the nominated folder), and when I try

to close the document I get a 'Pending Geoprocessing Processes Warning'

stating that 'this map document currently has executing and/or pending

geoprocessing operations.' After waiting half an hour the same message

appears.

In terms of reviewing requirements for the gp tools, I'm reckoning that the

successful use of these tools on this machine in the past is relevant.

Perhaps my machine is overly clogged, ArcMap is the only program in which

these difficulties arise.

Hmm