Precision vs. XY Resolution

[Bud]

ArcMap 10.7.1.:

I've created a new point FC from scratch using Catalog (using all the default settings).

The General tab mentions "Storage: High Precision":

Whereas the Domain, Resolution and Tolerance tab mentions "XY Resolution":

What's the difference between "Precision" and "XY Resolution".

Thanks.

[Anonymous User]

This article  has helped me several times to understand this.

High precision allows you to store coordinates to incredible detail, and as far as I know is the default. In the long ago past, high precision was not available and old datasets had to be migrated to to high precision storage. These days it is just the normal state of affairs - no changes needed.

[DerekLaw]

Hi @Bud,

> What's the difference between "Precision" and "XY Resolution"

Back in 2007, I wrote a detailed Esri technical paper that discussed in detail how spatial domains were stored in feature classes in a geodatabase. Please take a look,

Understanding Coordinate Management in the Geodatabase

It might be a little deeper than you wanted to know, but in case you were interested. 🙂

Hope this helps,

[Anonymous User]

@DerekLawthank you for this post. The information in your paper is extremely helpful - this is the kind of post that makes the community so valuable.

I see that the paper is dated 2007. Could you please comment what, if any, changes have occurred since then?

[VinceAngelo]

No real changes to the geodatabase model infrastructure since then.

Note that "precision" refers to both the vertex equivalence comparison tolerance AND the spatial reference coordinate storage depth (though at this point, *all* spatial references are HIGH precision).

- V

[DerekLaw]

Hi @Anonymous User,

> Could you please comment what, if any, changes have occurred since then?

As @VinceAngelo stated, there hasn't been any major changes to the geodatabase data model since the technical paper was published (otherwise, we would have updated it). 

Hope this helps,