Optimizing Large Grid Shape File Speeds

[MichaelCarbary]

Hey all,

I'm new to the ESRI platform, coming from using MapInfo for a few years. So far it's been taking some effort learning but I see the program has a lot of potential. I'm currently using ArcMap 10.2.2.3552

I've been dealing with some shape files that are essentially large grids about 60x60 miles wide with a 30 meter grid size/spacing created in another program. There isn't much data associated with each grid point, just a few fields that contain names and some decimal values. These shape files vary in size from 400-800Mb. I've found that the performance of displaying these grids is horrible, typically taking up to a few minutes to display, even longer after applying any type of categorical symbology. Once it's displayed making any wrong clicks or movements will cause it to redraw making the situation worse.

I'm not sure if this is a hardware performance issue or something I am doing wrong. Here's the specs for my PC

Windows 7 Enterprise (64-bit)

Intel I5-4670 @ 3.4 GHz

Integrated Intel HD4600 Video Card

8GB Memory

Seagate Barracuda ST500DM002 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache hard drive

The only things I could think are weak about my hardware are the video card and maybe the hard drive (since the grid files require thousands of reads?)

I've been adding the data by File->Add Data->Add Data in which I direct to a local folder on the root of my C: drive. I have been reading adding files to a geodatabase might improve performance but would that be applicable here? Also, making the layer a basemap doesn't seem to improve speed either, something I read elsewhere online. Does anyone have any recommendations?

[JakeSkinner · Accepted solution]

Hi Michael,

Check to make sure you shapefile has a spatial index.  Also, I would recommend storing your data in a File Geodatabase.  Here are some good reasons why you should.

[MichaelCarbary]

Thanks Jake, I was actually looking at that same document prior to posting haha

I added spatial indices to all of my shape files and added them to a file geodatabase and then compressed them (what a huge savings in space). I noticed that the initial load speed with just the shape files is actually a bit faster but once I start loading multiple items into a drawing and adding symbologies the difference in speed with the geodatabase really showed. Are there any other improvements you may recommend? Is my hardware holding me back in any aspects?

Also, is there a way to "lock" a layer so that it won't redraw when I shift the map extents or focus? This feature alone would save me hours of wait time

[JakeSkinner]

Your hardware is good.  Adding the layer to a Basemap Layer should help with performance.  Also, I would recommend adding some scale dependencies to the layer.  Take a look at the following link under the section 'Setting up your data':

ArcGIS Help (10.2, 10.2.1, and 10.2.2)

[MichaelCarbary]

Thanks Jake, moving those layers to a basemap once I set up the symbology really helped with panning and zoom speed and it redraws a lot less!

I'm playing around with the build feature cache command and it keeps crashing ArcMap. I have quite a few large grid files loaded but not visible on my data frame. I noticed the program allocates about 3.4Gb of memory before crashing. I'm on Windows 7 64-bit with 8GB of memory. Do you think this may be due to the large amount of data I have loaded onto the current session?