Offer a standalone ArcCatalog replacement for ArcGIS Pro

[wayfaringrob]

In ye olden days, I enjoyed being able to use ArcCatalog as a GIS-savvy file explorer. I could open it and quickly zip around my files to get a quick glance. I usually keep Catalog open on my computer for these reasons. Sometimes a glance is all I need, and I can close the catalog and be done with it. If I wanted to do something with what I found, I could quickly open up a map document and drag the data that I had already navigated to over to the document.

Now, the process is much more cumbersome - the word "quickly" no longer applies. I still use ArcCatalog for those exploring and previewing and purposes since there is no true Pro equivalent. The catalog view doesn't quite meet my needs - you have to add it as a tab, and it doesn't remember folder connections (or at least the ones it remembers are specific to the project you happen to have open). Further, if you drag it out into its own window, it's useless, as the contents/catalog tree doesn't come with it. It's also impossible to drag into your map's TOC if you drag it out into its own window, as the TOC changes to reflect Catalog View. But I have to use both ArcCatalog and Catalog View, since I cannot drag and drop feature classes or shapefiles from ArcCatalog into an ArcGIS Pro project.

I believe a beefed up Catalog View, offered as a standalone application, would resolve many of these issues.

[DamirCrnila]

For me, stand-alone ArcCatalog is must have! Please, give it back.

In ArcGIS for Desktop I use it on daily basis, like File Explorer. I use it for viewing and batch operations in many projects, while simultaneously working on a specific project in ArcMap.

Is there any shortcut to open templateless Project with only Catalog View open?

[wayfaringrob]

Another point of frustration with the lack of a standalone catalog -- today, I revisited an old project with lots of gunk & data that needed deleting/reorganizing. While I'm opening maps & flipping through them to see what's what, I'm constantly having to switch back and forth to and from the catalog view often losing my spot and costing me several more clicks than a similar workflow in ArcMap/Catalog. As detailed in the post (and suggested in part here), the fact that the panes & ribbons stay open and change with the active/blue view rather than move with them when torn away or switched is part of this problem. The satellite effect of having a floating window separated from its controls, which also change or become irrelevant depending on other views you may have open, is unintuitive and a drag on efficiency and muscle memory. Save for having different folder connections & having to manually chase down data stores that are saved in my project favorites/connections, it is almost more convenient to open up ArcCatalog or a second Pro project so I can see/work with both my project and the catalog at the same time. If the point of having a catalog view in Pro was to eliminate the need for two separate processes, it's not working out. I don't mind having a second process -- in fact, I want one -- but neither a second instance of Pro nor Catalog work as efficiently as they could for everyday data maintenance and organization tasks. An updated ArcCatalog that "speaks" Pro would resolve these problems.

[GB_-_MariahBlackhorse__READ_]

I am making the transition to Arcgis Pro but I use ArcCatalog standalone very frequently.  I really NEED it. I understand that there would be issues, say in previewing a map (since a project may have multiple maps) but there is so much searching and folder creation and manipulation that I do in Catalog.

Some of PRO the speed will come as I figure out workarounds, but right now I am losing a LOT of time trying to accomplish the same things I can with ArcMap today.

One of my pet peeves is how long it takes me to pull up full path names.  I can't be sure of the data unless I see the full path (lots of similarly named things) and I record the full path name for what I'm adding to a map, or any other myriad things I'm doing in a project into my open README doc that I create for tracking with every session.  In Arcmap catalog I can highlight the paths but in PRO I can only hover and view the popup (which I can't grab an image of).  So I have to add the layer and then go to it's properties, view the source and copy it from there to track it.

[Anonymous User]

Still would love this.

[DryCreekEng]

I miss the good ol' days of having ArcCatalog as a stand-alone product for managing datasets. I find it frustrating having to open a project in Pro just to peruse the Catalog. I also find it weird that if I want to use Catalog, I have to essentially create a project for it when I click on the Catalog icon when opening Pro. My suggestion is to have a similar separate app for ProCatalog where I can search for datasets, view the data spatially (not by loading it into a map), run tools, edit Metadata, and have all the same functionality as ArcCatalog. 

[DanPatterson]

A long standing request

You might as well post there to revive the thread and give it an upvote if desired.  

It is still open

Offer a standalone ArcCatalog replacement for ArcG... - Esri Community

[AroldoRocha]

I agree that would be very useful have ArcCatalog again.

[DryCreekEng]

Thanks @DanPatterson - I searched for the topic before I posted because I know Im not the only one with this gripe, but the post you linked to didnt come up. I'll repost there as well to get more visibility.

[DryCreekEng]

I too have this complaint! I recently posted about it here.  ArcPro uses serious computer resources to run, so why have two instances of Pro running with one of them being "ArcCatalog" and take up that much more memory (around 580 MB)? And then the annoyance of starting Pro --> Start without a template --> View tab --> Catalog View --> path to open folders  (and then Save changes to Untitled? -->No when closing) instead of just opening an icon like Catalog. I really miss being able to look at either the map view or table view of each item I am perusing to understand/remember what the layer is representing as I search for old layers or newly downloaded ones. Pro just doesnt cut it. 

[AroldoRocha]

I totalee agree that would be very useful have ArcCatalog standalone again.