ArcPad Find Tool

[MichelleDragoo]

I am using ArcPad 10 on a Trimble Geo XT.  In the field, when I go to use the Find tool (the binoculars on the Browse toolbar) everything locks up, the find dialog never opens, the screen just hangs up and I have to restart the unit - every time!  I cannot seem to get this tool to work at all for me on anything.  I am not sure what the issue is, but if anyone has any ideas, I would be grateful!

[TimHopper]

Michelle,

My guess is that the issue you're running into is data specific, although I'm not ruling out other possibilities.  I would focus your attack on the feature class for which you're trying to utilize the Find functionality.

1. Does the issue happen on all feature classes or just a single feature class?

2. If you check only this feature class out to axf and consume it in ArcPad does it still lock up?

3. If you create a new feature class with one field, add a few new points in ArcPad and give them some attributes, check out to axf and consume in ArcPad, does the Find functionality work?

If you find that it's just one feature class that's causing the issue, I would try creating a new feature class with identical schema and loading the existing data into it via ArcCatalog.  Does the issue still occur?

[MichelleDragoo]

Thanks for the quick response Tim.  I did some more testing of the problem in the field yesterday, and apparently it has to do with some specific layers that I have been loading into my projects (some base road layers).  I started with a new project, and added layers one at a time checking to see if the find tool would work, and as soon as I loaded the road layer then the problem started.  It is interesting to note that this happened even though I had the layer visibility turned off and unselected the edit and info checkboxes in the layer properties.  It seems that if the layer is simply present in the project it hangs up.  So, not sure I understand why, but now at least I know that the tool does work as long as I remove those layers from the project prior to using the find tool.  Kind of clunky.  I probably need to find out what the problem is with that layer and recreate a new roads layer that will work.  Thanks again!

[TimHopper]

Michelle,

I'm glad you were able to narrow it down.  I've found the the process of elimination is the most powerful tool an ArcPad user can utilize.

If you'd like to upload your roads layer here (if it's not too large) I'd be happy to poke around at it to see what I can find.

[TerriWebster]

I try to use the Find Feature, but it requires that all attribute fields be filled out prior to the find. The older versions of Arcpad never required this. Why the change? What can I do to get around it?
Example: if I want to find Placer St. in my roads layer I now need to fill out not only the streetname, but also street type, and every other field within the roads layer prior to the find activating.

[TimHopper]

This is a known issue in ArcPad 10.

CQ00312733: Find tool in ArcPad should not require entering required fields for layer query pages when attempting to reach the Query page

The workaround is as follows:

1. Open the axf file in ArcPad Studio.
2. Under 'Feature Layers' double-click your feature class to open the layer definition.
3. Under 'FORMS' double-click QUERYFORM.
4. For each and every control, double-click the control (which gets you to the control properties) and uncheck the box next to 'Required'. 
5. Click OK on the Query Form and save the layer definition.
6. Use this axf file as a custom form each time you check out from ArcMap.  This way you won't have to go into ArcPad Studio each time and uncheck the required box.

Feel free to respond if you run into any problems with this workaround.

[TerriWebster]

In this particular project, nothing is being edited, so there is no .axf file - just the .apm. Should I make 1 layer editable so that I have an .axf to work with?

[MathewCoyle]

Ran into this issue today. Solution was to simply delete the FORMS tag in the XML (.apl file) and everything in it. I'm sure there is a tag you can modify if you actually use the forms, but I didn't take the time to track that down.