ArcGIS Pro Export to PDF extraneous data and bloating filesize

[RichardHeathCoffey]

Since moving to ArcGIS Pro, I've encountered issues when exporting to PDF with files being particularly large and hard to work with. With investigation through opening these large PDFs in Adobe Illustrator, I have found that there is a lot of vector data that is being exported that isn't visible in the data frame. This comes in at least three different forms:

Data outside the dataframe being included in the export. Exporting from ArcMap (*.mxd) the data is clipped to a short buffered distance outside the dataframe, but from ArcGIS Pro it doesn't work the same way and some data can be exported that is quite far from the dataframe and is only obvious if you open the PDF in other software.

Data that is duplicated, polygons exporting as both a line, and a polygon where it could be a single shape with a fill and outline, rather than 2 shapes.

Data that is 0% transparent (invisible) yet all the vector information is in the file. This can be related to the point above where to have a polygon or line only displaying in you map, but it exports with outline symbology, PLUS a invisible fill for the polygon. 

Theses problems are compounded greatly when using detailed polygon data across large areas, and further compounded for every dataframe you may have on any one map. 

Screengrab1 is from PDF exported from ArcGIS Pro 2.9.3 and opened in Adobe Illustrator, then having the 'clipping masks' turned off. It shows data far off the page being included in the PDF export, and also a selected polygon (orange outline) only symbolised with a line style in ArcGIS Pro, but also coming in as a filled polygon with 0% transparency (invisible) doubling the vector information in the file for no benefit:

Screengrab2 shows a huge amount of vector data (blue) much bigger than the visible portion clipped to the dataframe on an A3 landscape page:

Is there a solution?

Or can it be fixed for the next version of ArcGIS Pro?

Software: ArcGIS Pro 2.9.3

[DanPatterson]

Are you using this?

Export to PDF—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

Depending on what you are exporting, there are properties that can be set with the properties and security tab to limit what extent and data are exported

Certain options are only available when exporting a map or layout. When exporting a map, you can set the size of the map export. When exporting a layout, you can clip to graphics extent.

[JeremyWright]

Hi all,

I have good news on this front!

We addressed the issue with items outside of the data frame being included in the export (though hidden by a clipping mask) in upcoming ArcGIS Pro 3.0, and have some small enhancements to this already in the plan for the next release.

We will take a look at the other reported issues and attempt to address them in a future release.

I have a small request:

In the future, these types of issues would be best reported as a BUG directly to Esri support at https://support.esri.com/en/report-bug.  

Even if it is a duplicate report, receiving the report increments the counter on the issue so we know firsthand how many users are impacted or impeded by a given issue. 

This helps greatly with prioritization of work as we plan each release.