Reproject Data without losing Archive History

[chill_gis_dude]

Does anyone know of a way to reproject feature classes that have archiving enabled on them and retain that archive history? If I use the project tool to reproject a feature class, it creates a new output and the archive history is gone. I'd like to either reproject a feature class without exporting it to a new feature class or reproject the layer and export it to a new feature class but still retain it's archive history. 

[DanielFox1]

Hi @chill_gis_dude 

Would the define projection tool be better for you in this instance it will overwrite the coordinate system rather than creating a new output file

Define Projection (Data Management)

[chill_gis_dude]

The define projection tool does not change a feature's geometry. I actually tried this and thought I had found success but after it ran I tried to calculate geometry and the tool skipped every feature due to null geometry. My understanding is that define projection doesn't really do anything, its like changing a dollar symbol to a euro symbol without actually converting the currency. 

[Robert_LeClair]

Correct.  The Define Projection GP tool just writes the projection information to a feature class or shapefile that is missing this information.  It does not reproject it from one coordinate system to another.

[chill_gis_dude]

Thanks for the clarification Robert!

[Robert_LeClair]

I think if you do a one-way geodatabase replication workflow as documented in this old ArcMap Tech Support document, it might work - How To: Create a Replica Where the Secondary Replica Data is in a Different Coordinate Sys (esri.com... and Create Replica with Different Output Coordinate Sy... - Esri Community

Then since both eGDB's are on the same instance as your RDBMS, then copy/paste the FC back to the parent.  I'd have to test this workflow but logically makes sense that it would work as replication does "remember" GDB behaviors such as archiving.

[chill_gis_dude]

Thank you Robert I'll give this a shot, but I wonder if it would preserve editor tracking fields and archive history for layers that edited frequently. Thank you!

[Robert_LeClair]

Certainly @chill_gis_dude !  It "should" - but what you may want to do is go into the Environments tab for the application or the GP tool to see if there, under the Geodatabase Advanced section, to transfer Geodatabase Field Properties.  Check that on before you do the 1-way replica.