John,
I have been experiencing similar issues but mine have been going on since before the New Year.
I called ESRI Tech Support and they claim my CPU speed is a slightly below spec so I am at a stand-still with regards to technical support.
I am working on upping my CPU, but it should be noted that Tech Support IS able to replicate the issues I am experiencing. However instead of 10-15 minutes to open a project they are reporting that their load times are about 7 minutes.
I find 7 minutes to open a project unacceptable.
I went a step further and bought a personal-use license at home where I have a computer well above specs. I packaged the project and opened it at home and find that load times are about 6 minutes and 30 seconds.
I still find this unacceptable time to open a project especially since one of the marketing points ESRI made about Pro is that Projects can get as large as necessary.
My experience with Pro is that large projects cause performance issues
Here is what I have observed:
Projects with few elements in them, (Elements, in this case being Maps, Layouts, Database connections and Toolboxes), seem to open quickly and navigation within the project including opening maps and Layouts perform to my satisfaction. (Typically under 1 minute to open the project and anywhere from 30 seconds to 3 minutes to open a map or a layout depending on the complexity. I do have some very graphics-intensive layouts and maps so 3 minutes is acceptable for these complex layouts and maps).
Projects with many elements in them, (About 10-12+ elements), open slowly and the performance is unsatisfactory. My biggest projects with about 80-90 elements in them take 10-15 minutes to open. That time is longer when any map or layout is left open in the project.
Projects with fewer elements open faster, projects with more elements open more slowly. Saving and closing times are also longer for bigger projects.
Second: In any project, large/complex or small/simple, I experience the Windows Spinning Wheel. This happens immediately after opening the project when I attempt to click on a map or a layout. The spinning wheel lasts 2-3 minutes during which time, no elements can be selected or interfaced with in any way. (It is the Windows 10 version of “grayed-out” selections). After the elements “un-gray” and the spinning wheel disappears, performance is as you would expect. I have the same behavior on my machine at home. Tech Support did not address this specific issue because my CPU speed is slightly below spec. (But again, I can replicate this at home with a machine that is above spec).
My interpretation is that there is something going on with the software and that these issues are rooted there. I admit that hardware plays a role, and seems to make the performance worse, but it is not the root cause of these issues.
In the mean-time I need to complete my work in a timely manner so I have made the decision to completely alter the way I use ArcGIS Pro. I now treat most projects like ArcMap .mxd’s. That is I typically have 10 or less elements in each project. I manage projects similar to how I used to manage .mxd’s because in my experience large project size slows down my work too much. This is unfortunate because I enjoy the project interface and being able to organize and manage my data within “project containers” but when I can’t get the system to work in an acceptable manner, it became necessary to alter how I use the software.
Incidentally this has lead to a pleasant realization: Since ESRI can’t figure out how to get modified and created date attributes to populate in the catalog view or catalog pane with respect to Maps and layouts, treating projects more like .mxd’s makes data management easier since windows DOES show modified dates for the directories containing projects. Since my projects are now very simple, standard and clear naming of projects along with windows modified dates has made data management quite a bit easier.
If these issues are addressed in the future I’d still like to use PRO as ESRI had intended but in the mean-time this solution is working for my work-flows.
-Sean
