Add the ability to drag and drop from the desktop ArcCatalog into ArcGIS Pro

[ChadKopplin]

Please consider adding the ability to drag and drop layers from the desktop ArcCatalog into an ArcGIS Pro project.  There are many good features in the desktop ArcCatalog, namely the ability to preview a layer before adding it to your map.  It would be nice if the Catalog in pro could preview or have the ability to drag and drop the layer from the desktop ArcCatalog into your pro project.  Thank you.

[KoryKramer]

Chad, you specifically mention wanting to preview layers in Pro before adding them to a map.  This is already possible in Catalog View.

You can then right-click > Add to [an existing Map] / A new map/scene, OR, you can drag and drop the dataset into a map or scene:

You can also drag and drop data from the Windows file system into ArcGIS Pro (which obviously is useful for things like shapefiles, images, etc. not necessarily file geodatabase!).  So, given the capability listed above, can you specify why you would need to do this from ArcCatalog into Pro?  

Thanks!

[ThomasColson]

Kory Kramer‌ I think his thinking is similar to https://community.esri.com/ideas/14251 . or either of these ideas could be edited to consider both use cases. 

[KoryKramer]

Thanks for referencing that idea on this thread, Tom. I did see that and consider referencing it, but Chad's use case was pretty specific to previewing something in ArcCatalog and then dragging and dropping into Pro.  Since we can preview in the Catalog View, I'm sincerely interested in why the workflow would be to have ArcCatalog open to then bring data into Pro.  We know there are some equivalency issues that need to be addressed for the Pro Catalog View, but looking forward, when the Catalog View can do what ArcCatalog does, plus more, wouldn't the workflow just be to do the data management in Catalog View and drag/drop into a Pro map?  Just fishing for those things that are missing from Pro's Catalog View that aren't already on development's list...

[ThomasColson]

I think, as people wrap their heads around Pro Catalog View, it might be helpful, as a "migration" aid, to be able to drag things from Arc Cat to Pro, for a few versions....

[ChadKopplin]

Kory, this is what I was looking for, I did not know this was available in the catalog in Pro, but Thomas brings up a good point.  Can I preview all layers in an existing map document from ArcGIS desktop in pro?  If not, having the ability to drag and drop layers from my existing map document into a pro map would be great, because once I have created a new project, generally I do not want to open another existing map document into that project.  I know that I do not want to import the project just to drag out the layers I need and delete the rest.  

[NaicongLi]

Hello Chad,

Kory answered your question earlier regarding previewing data items (feature classes, shapefiles, etc.) in the Catalog view.  To answer your question in your last comment regarding previewing layers in a map document (.mxd) before deciding whether to some layers to a map in your ArcGIS Pro project – there are different workflows that you can use. For example, you can take advantage of Pro’s capability of drag-dropping map layers from project A to project B (adding the layers to a map in project B).  So instead of opening your .mxd file in ArcMap, you can import the mxd into a Pro project (project A).  There in the Map view of project A, you evaluate the layers, and if you decide to add some of them from this map to a map in project B, you can select them in the Map view’s Contents pane in project A  and drag-drop them onto an open map in project B.

Thank you very much for your suggestions.  While we won’t be moving forward with this specific idea, customer feedback remains a key driver of ArcGIS Pro software development. Therefore, we encourage you to continue voting and commenting on existing ideas and posting new ideas that will help you do your work better in Pro.

Thanks again!