Unable to open PAGX in 3.0.2

[ErikKjellman]

I have a a layout file (pagx) that refuses to open in 3.0.2, but it opens fine in 2.9.0. Not sure what version it was made in but something prior to 2.9 I think. I'm thinking it might be a bug of sorts, but since there is no information attached to the error message (only says unable to open file) I do not have that much to go on. Any ideas on how to solve this? 

[TomBole]

Hi Erik, 

I'm not currently aware of any general, or specific issues with opening layout files in Pro 3.0 or 3.0.2.  Without knowing the makeup of the layout file I cannot offer any suggestions to resolve or work around this issue.

The problem you are running into may be specific to your layout file. Can you contact Esri Support? They are better equipped to handle troubleshooting steps and gather bug data. They can be contacted at https://support.esri.com/en/contact-tech-support.

Tom

[ErikKjellman]

I already have a case with ESRI support but they haven't figured it out yet. Was hoping someone would have run into a similar problem and that there were a quick fix to it.

I'll update this with whateever comes out of the support case.

[AnaCGomez]

Hey Erik, did you ever find a solution to this?

[Arne_Gelfert · Accepted solution]

So I have run into all kinds of variations of issues with Layout templates (pagx) after upgrades. it doesn't matter if you're upgrading the client (ArcGIS Pro) or ArcGIS Server. Any geoprocessing services working with the PAGX will suddenly bomb. After trying to code around this in arcpy where all the sudden things we're spitting up errors - layer types start behaving differently or no longer have certain properties, and failing to find useful, comprehensible or accurate documentation for  CIM (Cartographic Information Model) to exploit , I just decided to lie and cheat.

Export your PAGX from Pro, open it up as XML in any IDE and switch the version at the very top from 3.1.x or whatever you're using to 2.7.0 or whatever the last version was that you were successfully using. Then save.

"type" : "CIMLayoutDocument",
"version" : "2.7.0",

Chances are things will miraculously start working, begging the question why this all has to depend on some CIM version. I find it impossible to keep up with ESRI releases these days, and am resigned to the fact they usually break as much as they fix. So, staying on a somewhat stable release for as long as possible has become a means of survival for me. If that sometimes requires desperate measures, so be it.

[ErikKjellman]

I see that I never did update on this. The short answer is that support couldn't help, but came up with a similar solution as Arne_Gelfert provided above.

[Arne_Gelfert]

That's great, @ErikKjellman ! This is all completely crazy if you ask me. You can't  be expected to re-publish everything when it's time to upgrade your Enterprise environment. But in fact, these freak issue with version inconsistency may end up being the sole reason for me to upgrade to Enterprise 11 at some point.

Latest issue I had was that a Layout Template (PAGX) created in Pro 3.1 will not work with arcpy GP services  in Enterprise 10.9.1. Unfortunately, I did not have a copy of the Pro project in an earlier version since it was a more recent effort. Simply fooling server by editing XML no longer worked either. But what did work was creating a PAGX in 3.1, then importing that in an install of Pro 2.7.4 and then exporting it as 2.7 from there. haha. Nuts, right? But it saved me hours! So, again, I ask: what is the purposes of embedding the version in the file?