I’m starting to suspect that relying on `Shape_Length` (or `Shape__Length` after export) for symbology in ArcGIS Pro can introduce subtle—but real—issues.
Here’s what I’m seeing:
* In FGDB vs enterprise GDB, length values can differ slightly due to parametric curves vs densified geometry
* When exporting (e.g., to shapefile or CAD), `Shape_Length` often becomes `Shape__Length` or gets truncated
* After that, symbology driven by those fields sometimes:
* fails to apply
* behaves inconsistently
* or throws field-related errors when overriding symbology
My assumption is that this is a combination of:
* system-managed field behavior
* field renaming/recreation during export
* and ArcGIS Pro’s sensitivity to field references in renderers
In workflows where symbology is tied to length (fiber segmentation, QA layers, etc.), this can get messy fast.
Curious how others are handling this:
* Do you avoid using `Shape_Length` for symbology altogether?
* Do you copy values into a user-defined field to stabilize things?
* Have you run into symbology breaking after data moves between FGDB / SDE / shapefile?
Feels like one of those edge cases that turns into a real production issue if not handled carefully.
