ArcGIS Pro Project Speed

[shildebrand]

Can someone provide insight into why ArcGIS Pro performance decreases over time?  For example, a common workflow includes opening a brand new ArcGIS Pro document with no template, loading in our Utility Network map packages and start editing.  The performance at this time is lightning fast and geoprocessing tools open and run very quickly.  But as the course of the day goes on, the speed decreases somewhat and after a day or two, the document is no longer usable.  The workaround for this is to just open a new document and repeat the process.  But for someone like myself, I like to save reference layers and other data within the document, so having to recreate these every few days is not productive.  I know I can't be the only one that has this issue, so any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

[gis_KIWI4]

@shildebrand - I have not personally encountered this but you could possibly find the culprit by process of elimination. 

You mentioned geoprocessing tools slow down and the experience gets progressively worse. A good place to start would be checking Temp Folder and Cache has enough free space for ArcGIS Pro to operate smoothly. 

https://support.esri.com/en-us/knowledge-base/how-to-delete-arcgis-pro-temporary-files-000026912#:~:....

I don't have a lot of details around what your setup is and there could be contributing factors throughout the chain.
   1)ArcGIS Pro Version
   2) is it running locally or on a VM
   3)Computer specs
   4)Local gdb or ArcGIS Enterprise


I am assuming you are using ArcGIS Pro locally and your UN is running on ArcGIS Enterprise. 
In this setup ArcGIS Pro doesn't really do the heavy lifting, the processing is mostly done by the server/service. So another thing to check is are your servers running at capacity most time? 

But from what you have described it doesn't look like that's the issue because it gets progressively worse and doesn't seem to be time or load related. 

[shildebrand]

Thank you for your suggestions!  It appears that clearing the cache has improved performance somewhat but it will take a few days to really know for sure.  We are running version 3.0.3, running locally.   Yes the UN is in an enterprise database.

[MobiusSnake]

I've noticed this to some degree, and found clearing out GP history helps somewhat.

[shildebrand]

thank you, this has improved performance a bit

[ToddW_stl]

I know you mentioned you don't use a template, but would creating a project template and tasks in ArcGIS Pro speed up your process (or at least make it less annoying) to get started if/when you need to close it?

[shildebrand]

Thanks Todd, any thoughts as to how to create a task that would add a specific set of layers to a map?  This would be after loading in a predefined map package with UN datasets.  I'm guessing, the best way would be to just republish map packages with the layers already in them.

[ToddW_stl]

I'm sorry, I'm not very familiar with tasks in ArcGIS Pro (yet), but there is a tutorial provided in the documentation (although I notice the version drop-down only goes back to 3.2). 

I would suggest updating ArcGIS Pro (or talk to your administrator) as 3.0.3 enters the retired phase in July 2025 (see chart).

[rlyding]

@shildebrand I have run into this with Pro in general and working with Utility Network. After a lot of testing of different things here are a few things to try that have helped me listed below. Performance can vary between versions of ArcGIS Pro (Versions older than 3.0 are much slower). The UN is using service connections for editing so network performance plays a larger part and there is much more data cached in the project, you need a fast and stable connection. The UN workflow is somewhat unique as it has a a lot of processing going on and the longer a project is open the slower it will get as the cache builds. I normally tell users to at least once a day (lunch/break) save and close your ArcGIS Pro project and re-open it and also reconcile your UN editing version. We have "template" ArcGIS Pro projects setup with all the layers needed for UN editing and users create a copy of the project and paste them locally on their machines and point to their version when editing. I update these "template" Pro projects as needed and users then copy down the updated project file. These projects will run for months without any major issues and if they do have problems the users re-copy the "template" Pro project. Not sure on your PC specs, but ArcGIS Pro requires good specs to run at full potential need a good GPU, CPU, SSD hard drive and minimum 32GB ram. We recently upgraded to high end Dell Precision 5860 Tower machines and that helped a lot with performance. Your server machines used to store/host the UN also need to be good/stable as the UN does allocate a good amount of server resources to run. Below are a few things I do in Pro. If you were to do 1 setting I highly recommend the Clear Cache on close setting. 95% of the time when Pro starts acting up saving the project then closing and re-opening is the best option.

• Limit the amount of Layouts and Maps in your projects to only what you need. I have seen when running GP tools they will often try to load or cache layers not even in use even layers in other maps. Only have 1 Pro Project open at a time.
• I suggest turning on edit mode toggle. This prevents Pro from always being in a edit session (See settings images below)
• If working in a version Validate Network Topology and Save edits often to prevent a large cache of edits.
• Limit layers in your map that point to network shared drives or cloud locations. I have noticed a performance decrease with these. (this will depend on your organizations network performance)
• Disable GP tool metadata if you don't need it.
• Turn on clear cache option on project close. When project is closed clears the cache.
• Disable Indexing in Pro settings if you don't need it.
• Disable Project Recovery in settings if not needed.
• Turn on Feature Cache manager in settings. This allows you to Empty and Reload the layer cache of all layers in the map it adds a set of buttons to ribbon along the top. (This can sometimes help however closing/re-opening project works best in most cases)
• With GP tools the more layers you have in your map the longer they will take to run even if they aren't using all the layers in that map. If you need to run large processes with a lot of data I suggest creating a empty project or run as standalone python scripts.

Enable Edit Mode toggle

Disable GP Tool Metadata

Disable Project Recovery

Enable Clear Feature Cache on Exit setting. I also normally use DirectX 12 and set rendering quality to half.

Disable Indexing

Enable Feature Cache management tools

I hope this helps.

[shildebrand]

Thank you very much for this excellent insight!  Enabling the clear cache option has seemed to improve performance.  But the other suggestions may help us as well.  I'm thinking ESRI should put together a webinar or presentation at a future conference on this topic.  I think it is something that all ESRI users would appreciate.