ArcMap 10.2, Windows 8.1, High-Res display issuees

[CWalz]

I'm having some issues with my dual displays using this configuration. ArcMap never remembers which monitor it was opened on - it has to be moved every time. Fonts and icons are incredibly tiny. I changed the icons in options, but they don't stick - I have to set them every time.  When I open an attribute table and try to drag it the display, I have to dock it for it it stay on a display. And then undock it on the display where I want it. None of these are deal breakers, but they are incredibly annoying. I have not been able to pin this issue down - is it the 4K laptop display (although my external monitor is not 4K - it is 1920x1080). Is is Windows 8.1? Is it ArcMap?  If I set font sizes for various menus, palettes, etc those changes effect ALL of my programs, most of which seem to behave fairly well.

If anybody is using a similar setup and has experimented with fixes or work-arounds, I'd love to hear about them.

Thanks,

[MichaelAugust]

Maybe try to delete your normal.mxt template first:

ArcGIS Desktop

Look at the last couple paragraphs here.  I haven't experimented much with 8.1 and dual monitors, but if ArcMap is not sticking to one monitor or the other each time you open and you haven't changed anything I would suspect ArcMap rather than monitor settings.  Check in there anyway and make sure nothing funky is checked, just extend desktop to 2nd monitor and make sure 1 and 2 are where you want them...I found this quote and maybe it's related:

I had a similar issue and was able to resolve it by turning on the:

"Let me choose one scaling level for all of my displays" feature under the display settings.

People in the comments were complaining about small type, fuzzy, and 4k similar to what you're describing...good luck!

[CWalz]

Thank you for the link. I tried deleting the normal.mxt file, but no joy.

I've kinda sorted out the tiny font problem by right-clicking properties on my ArcMap shortcut, clicking the compatibility tab, and then checking the "Disable Scaling on high DPI settings" box.

Now I have discovered an issue where having a Basemap opwn (in both maps so far it was World Imagery) open makes the program crash off when I move ArcMap to my secondary monitor. If I turn the Basemap off before moving, it doesn't crash. WTH?  Hoping Win 8.1, High res laptop and ArcMpa 10.2 start playing nicely together!

[BryanHall]

I am now using 10.2 with a 4K monitor with windows 8.1 and get this issue as well. Windows is supposed to tell the application how large to draw the fonts and icons such that they maintain the same scale across different DPI monitors.

However ArcMap will sometimes come up in a very small font / icon mode, and sometimes will come up looking like many other apps scaled correctly. It also forgets the window size, as it does not seem to want to remember more than about 2/3 of the screen vertically.

I guess ESRI needs to buy some UHD displays for their developers now so they can work on this problem... 🙂

Bryan

[MichaelAugust]

[Fix] Bold, Blurry or Hard to Read Font Problem in Windows 8.1 - AskVG

Since we started this discussion I've gotten a new 8.1 machine, and while not the ultra hi-res situation you guys have, I had noticed some blurry dialogue boxes (Device Manager, etc., scaling issues) - the above link appears to have resolved most of them for me...worth a shot.

[BryanHall]

I have seen that problem on our laptop in the past, but that is not the problem now. It's a scaling issue where ArcMap's icons and font is about half the size of other apps like firefox.

Bryan

[CWalz]

My situation is the same as Bryan. I've fiddled with all of those settings (and done nothing but make my display seem somewhat psychotic). Interesting side note: if I lease ArcMap open, sometimes after the screen saver comes on or I lock my screen, the tabs I have pinned to the right side of my display change font sizes by themselves.  Sometimes. Please, ESRI, I really want my UHD!

[curtvprice]

I guess ESRI needs to buy some UHD displays for their developers now so they can work on this problem... 🙂

Call support! Without use cases with details there is no way they can fix these issues.

[V_StuartFoote]

Unfortunately not much point -- Esri is not going to put any effort into reengineering the legacy GDI support used in 32-bit ArcGIS for Desktop.  Doing so, and recertifying on all platforms, would require too much  development effort and expose Esri to a considerable expense on the support side.

Much more reasonable to reject the shortfall as they have done. They expect users to restrict their ArcGIS for Desktop work as in Esri Technical Article 12643 ​ (replacement for KB42242 and KB45655) and otherwise use ArcGIS Pro for any GIS requiring HiDPI support.

Folks should not have too much heart burn over it,  Esri's ongoing development  is for SAAS services including ArcGIS Pro, which has been built from scratch as a modern 64-bit alternative to legacy ArcGIS for Desktop. While ArcGIS for Desktop, although not quite EOL, is simply not being aggressively enhanced. HiDPI support from this 32-bit "cash cow" is simply not reasonable from Esri's perspective.  I don't see that changing.

Stuart

[curtvprice]

Stuart -- thanks for the new link and insightful analysis.

One of the key features of Pro that I think sometimes gets forgotten in all the excitement about multi-threading, multiple maps, and 3D is that Pro uses a new graphics pipeline designed specifically for GIS by Esri, the same graphics pipeline used by ArcGIS Server 10.1 and later. (ArcMap, contrast, uses Windows 2000 era WPF graphics, which cause limitations many of us have run into: like opaque data frames, rasterized vectors in transparent output, etc.) The new graphics pipeline means faster-drawing, cleaner cartography that can take advantage of modern display hardware. Maybe almost as fast as ArcPlot! 🙂