Preamble. Running Arcgis and Business Analyst 10.4 on a MacBook Pro with parallels, Windows10 VM with 8G dedicated, having just upgraded windows from windows7 and at the same time 10.3.1 to 10.4
I first try to use Business Analyst tools for a new study. Strange, all the menu options are greyed out, and when I try to run a tool BA reports that I have no license available. Well, I had one in 10.3.1. ArcGIS Administrator reports that I have a single use permanent license for BA desktop.
I open a chat session describing the problem. After 15mins it becomes clear that nobody from ESRI is going to be at the other end of the chat. Perhaps there was a glitch. I try again, and wait 22 minutes. Still nobody. I have now expended 90+mins with nothing done. I file a written bug report and try to do other work, without using BA.
Next I try to make a union of layer of polygons with one of ESRI BA .bds layers. The software reports that it is trying to find setup.msi in order to perform 64bit background processing. I had already installed this option when I upgraded to 10.4, and the directory used to unpack the software (which presumably contained setup.msi) no longer exists.
I try to cancel the operation, but it won't allow me to. I click cancel, and it goes right back to asking me where setup.msi is located. I am stuck in an infinite loop. The only solution is to kill ArcGIS. I lose all the prep work
I had done prior to attempting the union. That is another 90+ minutes down the drain.
I try to move on to something else. I draw a map of Portland using the basemap layers from BA but at a smaller scale than I usually employ. I find that the Columbia/Willamette rivers do not display. Portland looks as though it is just dry land. After some digging around I find that at a scale of 100-150K the layer which is responsible for drawing rivers is actually pointing at the oceans dataset. Another 90+ mins gone. The basemap has already been incorporated into dozens of frames in several different maps, and so will take me a few more hours to correct, even were I certain about what the correct dataset should be. I try to use GeoNet to report the problem and get a web page which doesn't display correctly (the box where I enter tags is scrolled of the screen, and there is no SUBMIT button visible). After quitting and reentering GeoNet, I am finally able to post a message (See elsewhere).
Eventually, after normal East Coast hours, I get an acknowledgment from ESRI about the BA license bug. Maybe tomorrow it can be fixed. The whole day is done, and I have accomplished nothing. I feel as though I am doing the job that ESRI QA should be doing, and not being paid.
Let me ask fellow users, and ESRI. Is this acceptable? I say no. Without doubt, this company has the worst QA department that I have ever encountered. Bugs which I reported years ago remain unfixed. Every single time I upgrade ArcGIS I run into a a new slew of problems and most of the old ones. The software performs like a dog; every time I save a map I am greeted with a spinning blue circle to upwards of 3 minutes. maps redraw for no reason, while at other times when they should redraw one sees the mysterious "cancelled" announcement. Many tools seem to take an eternity even to present a dialogue window to get the parameters.
This is just not good enough.
Rob Stevens
NSW Corp.
