ArcPro Project Templates-whats the deal?

[JDSF_PeterRowland]

It's my understanding that a project template is different from a project package in that it doesn't store data but stores pathways and connections and toolboxes etc.

However, my .aptx file is 1.8gigs -- which seems large -- and if I try to include any rasters the tool runs for quite a while and inflates the size dramatically. When I open the project template its pointed to our enterprise data as it should... but it seems dubious that there is THAT MUCH data in the template. 

Is my understanding of a project template flawed? I was expecting its size to be comparable to an MXD in desktop.

[curtvprice]

I have successfully done this by copying the project folder using Windows (or zipping it and local extract) to a local folder location. This avoids the packaging process attempting to copy data. But do note that paths on the same letter-drive or share as your project will remain relative paths so you may need to get creative as to exactly where you create  the "template" project.

I am hoping @KoryKramer can get us some better guidance on this, as the help seems to indicate that project templates seem to be the workflow they suggest, but they sure don't seem to work for us!

[Jeremy_Z]

That's a good point, and I've done this for some testing as well. In our example, the SDE is standardized of course, and the Projects and all non SDE data are in the same server (same drive letter, V).

The Save As method works pretty well, other than the additional folder that auto creates when you open it, and since you can "Save As" to a different folder it works much like what we are currently using. Create the project in one area, Save As to the usual directory (V:/Projects in our case), make read only. It works, it just seems like there should be a better method.

I'm still unsure if anything else comes out of this though, if I do it this way, everyone's GP processes that they don't point elsewhere will go to the original project directory I think. That's not a problem, but it could get big over time.  More testing to do.  Thanks Curt.

[KevinHanson1]

Not sure if this is still an issue but when saving a project template in ArcGIS Pro 2.9.2 (with saved to file option toggled on) I noticed that the GIS data sourced to drive letters will be copied to the project template file whereas GIS data sourced to UNC paths (no drive letter) will not be copied and just referenced. 

[Jeremy_Z]

You are going down the same path I did. In some meetings with ESRI on it they saw the issues, and in our workflows how this would be somewhat of a disaster across our network. All of our offices do the same sort of thing, so having this unusable template wasn't acceptable.

Using the Change Sources tool in the Catalog Window in Pro (thanks Kory Kramer for that tip) I was able to rapidly change the locations to UNC style. It still took some time to do but really only needed done once in my case.

In my conversations with ESRI they said they were going to see about allowing named drives to act the same as the UNC connections in a future version. I'm still on 2.9.5 so it is unknown if it has been done yet, but really everything in Pro should see a lettered drive and treat it like it always has in ArcMap, or at least give you a selectable option to include data or reference it, and not copy ANYTHING if it is set to reference.  We have 1200 people with a V drive being the same per office. If they open their own office's template, everything will work if only referenced.

Hopefully this change happens, as the final result we came up with was a template file that is 1.8 MB in size, smaller than its counterpart in ArcMap.

[GeorgeBrown1 · Accepted solution]

I am on AGP 3.1.2 and we needed to update our basemap template to just display our new police boundaries. Added World Street map, a local folder, a server folder, our Enterprise SDE data for a database connection and two layouts. So far, the Create Project Template tool has been running for 2.5 hours and is still Compressing the package.... Did anyone have any updates on this by chance? Thanks.

[EricMahaffey1]

I'm at v3.1.3 and Project Templates are still useless.  From my research it looks like this has been a problem for more than 7 years.  This is absolutely unacceptable.  We support a high tempo operational map production office, and not being able to standardize our starting templates really hinders our ability to provide efficient support.  I put off migrating from ArcGIS Desktop to ArcGIS Pro for years, and when I finally do, we come across major issues such as this.  If ArcGIS Pro didn't force us to create a new project directory every time we want to make a map it wouldn't be such a big deal.  So either keep things simple like they were in ArcMap, or make sure that all the tools function like they're supposed to in ArcGIS Pro.  That way we can at least come up with a workflow that is somewhat close to what a standard enterprise mapping environment should be.  GIS data duplication will consume all of an organization's storage in no time. 

[JDSF_PeterRowland]

My workaround is make a layer file that has all our core datasets in a group symbolized how we like, and then use layout templates that are standardized at different orientations/sizes. 

So open a new project--> Add layerfile--> import layout and we're off. 

Not ideal but relatively pain free. I actually kind of like the new directory with each project. make a good repository for products and scratch/intermediate data sets that fits great in our file structure. I save the templates with no dataframe in them.

[EricMahaffey1]

Thanks for the recommendations.  I'll give that a try.  I'm curious as to why you save the layout templates without a map frame?  I would think having to add the frame, and adjust it to size would be just another step to slowing down the whole process of getting staged for map production.

[JDSF_PeterRowland]

You can do it that way. A lot of the times I pull in the layer file to do something but don't need a pdf export necessarily, so that works best for me. The template kind of sneakily adds whatever map it was referencing to your project, so I just drop a new map frame with whatever map I was working on into the layout. but you could mix it up and do: 

new project-->import layout--> open map--> make edits.

same end result.

One thing I've forgotten about since I originally made this post: The one way I have gotten project templates to work somewhat usefully is having nothing but preconfigured layouts saved in the project and no data, then add the layerfile and then you're good to go. But even in that case, I've found end users like being able to start a project the old fashioned way and add what they need as they go rather than load everything at the start.

[Jeremy_Z · Accepted solution]

I wish I could mark what the solution was for me, since I started this thread, but converting the paths to UNC paths for my lettered drives fixed this for my old office. I'm not there anymore, but this is what we went with when I left.

1. Open desired project in ArcGIS Pro
2. Open the Catalog WINDOW (not pane)
3. Use the Change Sources tool to change each letter drive layer to the UNC path equivalent
 (Note I had to do each of over 160 layers in our base project one at a time, it was the ONLY way it would work. I tried several work arounds and batch methods, none worked)
4. Save project when finished.

5. Create Template.

6. ???

7. Profit!