Feature Class Creation Errors(Experienced User, new Issue never seen, Cannot figure out)

[akendal2_UofMD]

Hey all!

Started a new project, brought in some tiffs to georeference to Pakistan and it worked fine. Doing research on the 2022 flooding and looking into glacier locations/size. Couldn't find any quick glacier .shp file data, so I just wanted to create a simple feature class(FC) to generally visualize their locations to overlay the images, with two attributes. I've created countless geodatabases with quite a few FCs before, but for some reason I get thrown the "Invalid Characters" Error. There are no invalid characters of my creation according to proper naming convention, see screenshots attached. One thing of note too, when I click finish the first error window I receive is blank, then I hit finish again and it populates. (I only provided one set of screenshots, but I tried many other combinations, less characters, no underscores, unselecting M and Z coordinates, etc)

This happened with another small side project I was working when I tried changing the default names generated by the geoprocessing tools I was using, export and buffer tools. When I change the name I usually use the project folder icon to make sure my paths are right, but as soon as I click 'OK,' it adds a .shp after the "FeatureClassNAME" in the output FC slot and the tool UI gives the red X icon. I then manually delete .shp in the output FC slot, but it reverts back to the .shp extension. So, I did some troubleshooting for the latter and accepted ALL the defaults and it worked, then I renamed after completion. 

I suspected this was some dependency/cache/ whatever mystery, so I uninstalled Pro and deleted all associated folders to Pro to get a "clean slate," but I am still getting the invalid characters error. I even tried not changing the FC type by accessing the dropdown(default polygon, I want Points), giving the FC a one letter name, selecting WGS 1984, then hitting finish. Alas I still receive the error. Starting to get superstitious this has to do with me using ENVI for a class in my MS program and Arc is getting jealous(Just kidding). Seriously though, what is going on here? Any insight the community may have please help because I really need to use Pro. I am not sure what is happening this year on my PC with Pro because I was having numerous issues with the Deep Learning Libraries too throwing weird errors. Anyways that's for another day.

Thanks,

Adam Kendall (GIS Analyst, MS GIS Student UMD)

PS.: If this is an embarrassingly simple issue an experienced user should know how to fix, be sure to let me down easy.   

[ChristopherCounsell]

I would recommend creating a file geodatabase and then feature classes within it over shapefiles. Shapefiles are a dated format and generally I only use them when required (i.e. exporting to users or applications that require them).

Additional note for those reading, a shapefile is a feature class, so all tools in ArcGIS Pro creating feature classes can output .shp.

If you are exporting a feature class to a folder, ArcGIS Pro recognizes that it is not a geodatabase and affixes the .shp to make the feature class. If you are exporting a feature class to a file geodatabase and include .shp in the feature name, you will get an error.

So what is happening in your scenario? Hard to say but I would take a look at your full file path:

• Are you trying to create a .shp in a geodatabase, or removing the .shp for a folder destination?
• Does your file path have special characters, particularly '.'? These can cause errors, especially for raster.
• Are you working in OneDrive or another cloud destination? Would recommend NOT doing this as the applications are chatty to tables. Work locally or on a network file location then copy to OneDrive once complete.

[akendal2_UofMD]

Hey magisian, thank you for your response.

Short answer to your questions, no. Below is more detail.

1.) I am creating a "New"-> "Feature Class" in the projects default file geodatabase within the project folder I created for this project. This has never been an issue for me before. 

2.) My file path does not have any special characters, besides "_" for word separation, but not at the start and end. This naming convention has never been an issue before. There are rasters in my project folder, but not in my database, yet.

3.) I am not working in OneDrive, instead all my projects are located in external drives connected directly to my computer.

I started another new project to test this out and tried creating another FC in the projects default GDB, still the same error. Without another user sitting down and replicating the issue, first thoughts point to user error, which I understand completely. Just like programming, "put c_r_a_p in, get c_r_a_p out", but I think there is something happening internally with the software on my end for some reason and I cannot pin it down. I've combed the settings for something I could have tripped during another project, but I am coming up with nothing. 

I am aware that .shp is written as a part of the file set for feature classes, I mentioned it because when I troubleshot  the "invalid Characters" error, the default output name did not have the extension and would start to run, but my custom name, with the same file path and everything, Pro automatically added .shp to my custom output name for the new FC and the tool would not run. With that, I am not sure why the default accepted the tool to run, but it doesn't run to completion anyways. Actually, it appears no tools work anymore too, EXTREME wait times, even on a buffer. My advance license, through school, is active and I am signed into my account. This is reaching a fever pitch and I am about to scorch earth everything ESRI, delete all the environments, and start from scratch. Not sure what else could be causing such trouble besides some dependencies among the packages or some cosmic particle bit flipped something and now its ruined.

Let me know what you think, but I think I'm going to go ahead with the nuclear option.

Best,

Adam Kendall

[akendal2_UofMD]

Wait, C.R.A.P gets bleeped? I will reform myself,  "Put excrement in, get excrement out."

[akendal2_UofMD · Accepted solution]

Solution: Delete all traces of ArcGIS Pro, including cloned environments, but one step shy of this linked solution: https://esribelux.com/helpdeskitem/clean-uninstall-of-arcgis-pro/ where I did not delete the registry keys. 

Something was corrupted somewhere. Anyone's guess is as good as mine, who knows! The tools and FC creation are working, hooray!