Hi –
I’ve got a file geodatabase with lines, points and feature-linked annotation. For creating new annotation features I’m using the “Selection | Annotate Selected Features” tool from the ArcMap table of contents. Always for a single selected feature at a time. Sometimes this can be quick, like a second or two, but often it’s slow, taking 30 to 45 seconds to annotate a single feature.
The process brings up a dialog that describes steps:
- Setting up annotation
- Giving features to the label engine
- Labeling features
- Creating the annotation elements
When it’s slow it seems to pause at the step “Giving features to the label engine”. The target annotation class doesn’t really have a complex expression. It is usually getting a value from a single field. I’ve tried with and without a feature cache built – no difference.
I also found a reference in Geo.Net back in 2014 that reported an issue with a corrupted group layer. (https://community.esri.com/message/95014). So I tried creating a new map with only the source feature layer and related anno layer. Still slow.
A thing I *did* do that make be a clue is change the annotation expression from one that used JavaScript to one that uses VBScript. The two expressions produced the same text string. Not sure if this would make a difference.
Any pointers on why this step would take so long and what I can do to improve it would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Ed
