Exporting PNG from ArcGIS Pro 1.2 very slow

[DanielMatranga]

I am trying to export some PNGs from a layout in ArcGIS Pro. Everything is running very slowly.

When I try to click on the layer that I want to show from the map when viewing my Layout, I click -> then wait 10 minutes. Click another layer > wait another 10 minutes. Export PNG > wait 30-45 minutes.

Why is this taking so long? There are only a few hundred features in my dataset. Hasn't this software been out for a couple years now? Still feels like beta to me.

[DanPatterson_Retired]

is this behaviour with all projects or just that one you are working on?  I haven't experienced this slowness at all. 

You have checked the link "check your computer's ability to run ArcGIS PRO" on this page

ArcGIS Pro 1.2 system requirements—ArcGIS Pro | ArcGIS for Desktop

Do they just meet the minimum or are they exceeded?

[MaximPastchenko]

Daniel, like Dan said, if this only happens on particular layout/data, it would be good communicate your issue to customer support.  If this is the case,you could share you data with layout with me, I may be able to help you by understanding the issue you are having a bit more. 

[MarcoBoeringa]

I am not to surprised, I have had pretty terrible export times for PDF too in ArcGIS Pro. Exports that would take maybe 10-15 minutes in ArcMap, can easily take one or two hours in ArcGIS Pro. I have had a couple of really complex topographic map style layouts even taking up to something like 6-10 hours to export (imported from ArcMap mxd documents by using the option for that in Pro). ArcMap never took even remotely that long for exactly the same layouts .

I really hope future versions of Pro improve on this, because it makes exporting a real pain in ArcGIS Pro, and that is not even considering automated batch exporting via something like Data Driven Pages.

This is all on a true 4-core Core i5 desktop with 16GB RAM.

[MaximPastchenko]

Marco, please contact customer support and share your reproducible case.  I will also be happy to help you out with this.

[MarcoBoeringa]

Maxim (and others here in the thread),

I just managed to install ArcGIS Pro 1.3.

This is really preliminary as a first test, but it seems there is a huge difference:

Test results on the A0 topographic map layout that I made available to Maxim:

- ArcMap 10.4.1: 2 minutes export time for a 3600 dpi output 100% vector PDF

- ArcGIS Pro 1.2: 10 minutes export time for a 3600 dpi output 100% vector PDF, so 5x longer

- ArcGIS Pro 1.3: <2 minutes export time for a 3600 dpi output 100% vector PDF

So, if I get similar results on other PDF exports, it seems Pro 1.3 is now on-par or even slightly faster than ArcMap.

EDIT: a second test of the same layout even seems to indicate an export time of <1 minute in Pro 1.3!

[MaximPastchenko]

Hi Marco, I tested yesterday with your shared layout on 1.3,  but have not tested in 1.2.  You beat me to it :-).  I am glad things have improved for you in 1.3

Here are my findings based on sample layout you shared:

Because in your case, layout has only vector data, raising DPI values in ArcGISPro for vector only export should not affect  time and size, and quality.  This is because in Pro, we do not rely on internal grid to be of higher resolution to have vector feature position better.

My tests exporting the same vector only layout:

at 150 DPI, took about a minute, was about 5 MB

at 3000 DPI, took about a minute, was about 6 MB

at 6000 DPI, took about a minute, was about 6 MB

So for vector only export in ArcGISPro there is not need to make DPI higher, you will already have high quality export and high precision precision for feature positioning.  For export with raster data raising DPI will cetinaly make improvements, but exporting at high DPI values like 3600 will take longer.

Thank you for your feedback

Max

[MarcoBoeringa]

Hi Maxim,

Yes, I am aware of the differences in the display pipeline of ArcMap and Pro. I already explained the reason I have been exporting to such a high dpi resolution (despite 100% vector output): it primarily signficantly improves text halo rendering in the PDF output of ArcMap. Without it, the halos will suffer from poor quality in the ArcMap output.

Like you explained, and as I read already before, ArcGIS Pro does not suffer from the same issue. I nonetheless thought it good to ask you to keep the same high dpi value in both applications, to avoid introducing yet another variable in the mix.

Of course, no-one in his right mind is going to use 3600 dpi for exporting to an A0 layout containing raster data as well. That certainly won't fit in 6MB output file size... The highest I usually export with raster data included, is some 750 dpi at most.

It is good to read by the way, that you get similar "1 minute" benchmarks for Pro 1.3. It seems to confirm a potential or likely edge over ArcMap.

[MarcoBoeringa]

Maxim,

One other last question: did ESRI make changes to the text halo rendering and export output going from Pro 1.2 to 1.3 (or in one of the previous releases)?

Because I now remembered having looked in detail at some of the PDF output from Pro in one of the previous versions (maybe 1.1 or so), and specifically text halos did also render poorly with jagged edges at lower (e.g. 300 dpi) resolutions in PDF output. There was a marked improvement in halo quality when using the higher dpi settings.

Now, with ArcGIS Pro 1.3, I don't see this, the text halos look already smooth at 300 dpi.

[DanielMatranga]

Dan Patterson​ I have an HP Z800 desktop with 2 physical CPUs (6 cores each, 12 cores total), 72 GB RAM, an Nvidia Quadro 6000 video card with 6GB dedicated graphics memory, 500GB SSD hard drive, so the computer I'm using is pretty solid and I don't think system requirements are an issue.

Maxim Pastchenko I'm unable to share the layout with you because of confidentiality reasons but I was using a geodatabase that was about 7GB in size, which I think was slowing it down. Is there a size limit for geodatabases where ArcGIS Pro starts to slow down a lot?