What is your take on ArcGIS Pro

ChadKopplin · ‎03-09-2018

I have started using ArcGIS Pro for a project looking at Groundwater Vulnerability to Nitrate contamination. I decided that this would be a good project to use to really become acquainted with Pro. I am glad that I am using Pro, I am finding that it is truly much more responsive than using the desktop. Actions that would take upwards of of half hour or more are only taking seconds. I am been able to clip every statewide layer down to the county that I am modeling first. I took me a little bit to get used to the interface, and Esri has been very accommodating to help me get off and running.

There are some quirks with the interface that I would like to see changed or added in time, but all in all I am very impressed. I am wondering what everyone else who is using Pro, what is your opinion of the product? Please give me your true thoughts.

Good job with this products usability.

Chad

JayHodny · ‎03-29-2018

Hi all,

Chad, thanks for starting the discussion. I have been using Pro daily for about 9 months now, as is one of my GIS co-workers. We like it! Very rarely has Pro crashed on us. We keep Pro updated to the latest version as soon as it comes out. Any new map creation I now do is occurring in Pro, and any updates to ongoing projects originally developed in ArcMap, I am moving to and continuing in Pro.

I prefer the black background option. Initially, I fought the legend and scale bar tools (as other users have stated), but I have been successful in understanding how to use them, and my legend and scale bar formatting is back on track now. I find the Web map and feature service publishing, along with associated Portal connectivity, much more intuitive and easier to use than in ArcMap (though my service publishing is limited to AGOL, and not available to Server currently; we don't have ArcGIS for Enterprise or Portal).

I have deployed several of Esri's Local Government Solutions within Pro. The solution deployment tool is great. I generally add the solution's feature service layers to the Pro project, and add/load/update/delete features in Pro, and treat the Pro project as the source of truth. I find the attribute field and domain functions in the solution deployment tool much easier to use than in ArcMap. We are impatiently waiting on the utility network functionality, but have heard it is available through ArcGIS for Enterprise. We are planning a jump to Enterprise this year.

I do however find ArcMap more convenient for creating a quick map of features of interest to answer an urgent question. Pro requires setting up a project. To get around this, I created a Pro project called Test, and can pull/remove feature layers as/when needed. The workflow is still not quite as quick as in ArcMap, but close enough for me.

My two cents.

Regards,

Jay

CathyWilson2 · ‎03-29-2018

I call my quick map project "_have a quick look." The underscore makes it float to the top of my folders.

JayHodny · ‎03-29-2018

That's awesome! Renaming now!

ChadKopplin · ‎03-30-2018

Thank you Jay for adding the information about the publishing of map services, I will be moving in that direction later this Spring into the Summer. Were there any specific issues that you ran into while setting up the services? Thank you once again.

JayHodny · ‎04-03-2018

Hi Chad, Can you be a little more specific in your question on setting up services? My only issue that I recall, was at first I was publishing services from Pro that were already published as part of the solution (a lack of experience on my part). The online help indicated adding the feature layer to the map in Pro, which I took to be a layer not a service. Once Esri cleared that up with me, and I understood I could drop the service in the Pro project, I was off and running. It also helped me understand the pivotal role Pro plays in publishing and connecting services from AGOL, Enterprise, etc.

Lake_Worth_BeachAdmin · ‎03-30-2018

I find that PRO is more sluggish and buggy than ArcMap personally.... maybe just my machine set up

ChadKopplin · ‎03-30-2018

Interesting, if you don't mind sharing what is your computer set up? I have seen the opposite with my computer, it would be good to know, so that anyone else who maybe thinking about jumping to Pro, may need to do a computer upgrade. Here are my computer's credentials:

Windows 7 Professional

Intel Core i7-6700

CPU@ 3.4GHz

16 GB RAM (15.9 GB usable)

64 bit- Operating System

238 GB HD (I believe this is limited because we have moved to Solid State Drives, and this is the give/take area I wish I had at least a 500 GB HD)

I do have 2 external drives to place all of my projects on when working on the computer locally. Thank you.

Chad

JohnBrockwell · ‎04-03-2018

My organization bought some nice workstations for our data scientists, mostly to run R and Stata. The GIS Unit got lumped in with the purchase and the machines are nice but they aren't optimal for ArcGIS Pro. I have a 3.0 CPU with 24 cores that ArcGIS Pro can't distribute processes across. I also have 128GB RAM and can't get the ram to be utilized either. If your getting a computer for ArcGIS Pro I would recommend a single core Intel chip with as much GHz as possible.

The machine also has a sick AMD FirePro W5100 graphics card.

With all this, I can still create space time cubes for NYC that Pro can't handle. All this hardware is great but Pro can't distribute the processes evenly. I've mentioned it in more detail here: ArcGIS Pro Please use my RAM and CPU.

KoryKramer · ‎04-03-2018

Hi John,

From that other post that you referenced, it looks like there is already a lot of relevant information about parallel processing factors. Currently, the create space time cube tools do not support the Parallel Processing Factor (Environment setting)—Geoprocessing | ArcGIS Desktop You could submit that to technical support as an enhancement request, and/or log that on https://community.esri.com/community/arcgis-ideas?sr=search&searchId=c17b8cd7-899d-4176-b25b-57ca11c...‌

I think the story is a bit blurry here because you're talking about processing and then about your graphics card and then saying that you can still create space time cubes that Pro can't handle. Are there issues in the geoprocessing creation of the space time cubes, or are you saying that once they are created, there are issues displaying them (in 3D I assume?)? Could you provide some more details of the behavior?

If you're running into performance issues, please log a case with technical support to troubleshoot that specifically, but I'm curious about the questions asked above.

Thank you.

JohnBrockwell · ‎04-04-2018

Hi Kory,

(SOLVED: 3rd Party Add-In was causing the crashing, Thanks Kory Kramer for investigating this issue for me).

I do submit my crash reports. The crash report popup is very stable and reliable (sarc).

Space Time Cube:

I'm dealing with 5 geographic areas, 1 million records (+/-), and 2 hour time segments (12 segments). I can get the cubes created with some effort and thought. I can't display the data citywide. I have to display by borough. I need to submit a ticket. I'm crashing 5 - 10 times a day. I can't blame ESRI completely. My network is not solid and the OS image could be an issue as well.

Workstation design:

However, ArcGIS Pro doesn't distribute processing load on multi-core CPU's. If you are buying a box for GIS a really fantastic single core chip will work better than all these multi core chips.

Take Care,

JB