Community

Practical Limits on Number of Maps in ArcGIS Pro Project

1601
2
08-02-2022 08:52 AM
JoshuaBixby
by MVP Esteemed Contributor
MVP Esteemed Contributor
‎08-02-2022 08:52 AM

Although Esri doesn't appear to state there are any limits to how many maps can be included in an ArcGIS Pro project, there are always practical limits to such functionality in any software application.  So, I wanted to start a post to have folks discuss what they have found for the practical limits of maps within ArcGIS Pro projects.

For example, I recently had a project where importing MXDs for map service republication from Pro resulted in 150+ maps.  Most of the maps are fairly simple in terms of number of layers and symbology.  The APRX file is 7MB, which I consider fairly small and manageable.

There are some downsides I have run into with this number of maps.  One is it does take noticeably longer than usual to open, but not having all of the maps open in the project can make the time-to-open manageable.  There are also certain ArcPy functions that seem to take longer (like updateConnectionProperties) because they want to touch every map.

I am interested in hearing other people's thoughts.  I know there is a similar discussion to be had for layouts, but please keep your shared experiences limited to maps.

 

Thanks.

Tags (2)
2 Replies
AmySteiger
by
Occasional Contributor
‎08-31-2022 04:09 PM

yes, this would be useful to know as well - some of our larger projects might have 250+ MXDs

ZachBodenner
by MVP Regular Contributor
MVP Regular Contributor
‎05-19-2023 07:02 AM

Yesterday I started a post that kind of touched on this. I have recently experienced trouble running Table to Excel in documents with large numbers of maps. As an example, I have one (Project A) with 57 maps. The Table to Excel tool just spins and spins. I made a blank aprx and steadily added maps from the original project and ran the tool, and when I hit map 16, the tool no longer worked. Then I opened a different project (47 maps) and tried to run the tool, and it completed successfully. Next step was to combine the two projects - I started a second blank aprx, added all of the maps from the 47 map project (Project B), then steadily added maps from Project A. The tool succeeded with all of the maps from Project B plus 10 from project A. Then I added 5 more from Project A, and the tool didn't work.

It looks to me like the maps are having some effect, but the upper level is inconsistent.