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?